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In this article
New Zealand's online retail market hit $6.6 billion in 2026. Over 85,000 Kiwi businesses now sell on Shopify alone. If you're launching a product business or moving off a manual process, picking the wrong platform is an expensive mistake you'll spend two years undoing.
This guide compares the four platforms NZ small businesses actually use: Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Squarespace. Real pricing in NZD (most SaaS is USD; assume roughly USD x 1.65 at current mid-2026 rates), actual GST handling, and a clear recommendation for each business type.
The short version
| Platform | Best for | Starting price (NZD/mo) | Transaction fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | Fast launch, non-technical teams | ~$48 (Basic, annual) | 0% with Shopify Payments |
| WooCommerce | WordPress users, custom needs | $0 platform + hosting | 0% |
| BigCommerce | Scaling businesses, complex catalogues | ~$48 (Standard, annual) | 0% on all plans |
| Squarespace | Design-led, simple stores | ~$31 (annual) | 0% from plan 2 onwards |
Shopify
Shopify is the default choice for most NZ small businesses starting out, and for good reason. Over 85,000 Kiwi businesses use it. Setup is measured in hours, not days. The app ecosystem covers almost every gap. And Shopify Payments works in NZ, which means no third-party transaction fees (a 2% surcharge on the Basic plan if you use another gateway).
Pricing (USD, annual billing):
- Basic: 29/mo( 48 NZD): solo operators, up to 3 B2B catalogues, 10 inventory locations
- Grow: 79/mo( 130 NZD): 5 staff accounts, up to 87% off shipping rates
- Advanced: 299/mo( 493 NZD): 15 staff accounts, real-time third-party shipping rates, regional pricing
- Plus: from 2, 300/mo( 3,795 NZD): enterprise, unlimited staff, fully custom checkout
GST is added on top of USD pricing at 15% for NZ subscribers. Budget for it.
What Shopify does well:
Speed. A basic store can be live in a day. Shopify's built-in analytics, email marketing, abandoned cart recovery, and social channel integration (Facebook, Instagram, Google Shopping) are included from the Basic plan. No additional apps needed to start selling.
Shopify Payments is the cleanest payment setup available in NZ. Stripe-backed, accepts all major cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Funds typically clear within two business days.
The checkout is genuinely good. Shopify's own data shows its checkout converts 15% better than the industry average. At any meaningful volume, that gap compounds.
Where Shopify falls short:
App creep. The Basic plan is honest about what it costs, but most real stores add Shopify apps to fill gaps: a review app (~15/mo), asubscriptionapp( 40/mo), an advanced product filtering app (~20/mo), areturnsmanagementapp( 30/mo). A $29/mo plan can quietly become $150/mo once the stack is built out.
Third-party payment fees are a real sting if you want to use anything other than Shopify Payments. On the Basic plan, that's 2% per transaction on top of your gateway's own fees. At any scale, this forces you toward Shopify Payments or up to the Advanced plan.
Who Shopify is right for:
Any NZ small business launching an online store for the first time, particularly if the team is non-technical. Fashion, homewares, gift products, DTC food and beverage, and businesses with an active social media presence all do well here.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is free software that turns a WordPress site into a full ecommerce store. Roughly 22,000 NZ businesses run it. The platform has zero monthly fee, but you pay for hosting, domain, SSL, and any premium plugins you need.
What it actually costs:
| Item | Typical NZ cost/mo |
|---|---|
| Managed WordPress hosting (e.g. Kinsta, WP Engine) | 35–120 |
| Domain | ~$2.50 |
| SSL (usually bundled with hosting) | $0 |
| Premium plugins (shipping, subscriptions, etc.) | 20–80 |
| Total | 57–202 |
Payment processing via WooPayments runs at roughly 2.50–2.90% + $0.30 NZD per transaction, comparable to Shopify Payments. There are no platform-level transaction fees.
What WooCommerce does well:
Complete ownership and flexibility. Nothing is locked to a proprietary platform. Your data is yours. Your checkout logic can be customised to any level of complexity without a plan upgrade. If you already run a WordPress site with heavy content (recipes, tutorials, blog-driven SEO), WooCommerce lets commerce live in the same system.
Long-term, the total cost of ownership can be lower than Shopify for businesses that don't need extensive paid apps, particularly at scale.
Where WooCommerce falls short:
Everything the platform doesn't do, you manage. Hosting performance, security updates, plugin conflicts, backups. These are your problem. A non-technical team that chooses WooCommerce because it's "free" often ends up paying more in developer time than they would have on Shopify.
The setup time is also significant. Getting a WooCommerce store to the same starting point as a Shopify store usually takes 2–4x longer, even with a good theme.
Who WooCommerce is right for:
NZ businesses already running WordPress confidently, developers building custom store experiences, and businesses where content and commerce need to live in the same system. Not the right call if you want something live quickly or if your team has no technical background.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce sits in an interesting position: it's priced identically to Shopify on entry-level plans, but includes significantly more built-in features at each tier. The result is a lower total cost of ownership for businesses that would otherwise buy multiple Shopify apps.
Pricing (USD, annual billing):
- Standard: 29/mo( 48 NZD) : up to $50K annual revenue
- Plus: 79/mo( 130 NZD) : up to $180K annual revenue, abandoned cart recovery, customer groups
- Pro: 299/mo( 493 NZD) : up to $400K annual revenue, product filtering, Google Customer Reviews
- Enterprise: custom pricing above $400K/year
Warning
BigCommerce auto-upgrades your plan when your trailing 12-month revenue hits the tier limit. A good year can automatically move you from $29/mo to $79/mo. Budget for it before it happens.
What BigCommerce does well:
0% transaction fees on every plan, with any payment gateway. Unlike Shopify's 2% third-party fee, BigCommerce doesn't punish you for choosing your own payment provider.
Built-in features that Shopify charges extra for: abandoned cart saver (from Plus), unlimited staff accounts (all plans), real-time shipping rates from UPS/USPS/Australia Post (all plans), and faceted product search (Pro). A Deloitte NZ study cited a 28% lower three-year TCO for BigCommerce vs Shopify: roughly NZD $12,450 vs $17,200 over three years for a comparable setup.
Where BigCommerce falls short:
It's harder to get started than Shopify. The interface is less polished. The theme ecosystem is smaller. For a first-time store builder, the initial experience is noticeably more complex.
BigCommerce also has a smaller local ecosystem in NZ. Finding a local agency or developer who knows BigCommerce well is harder than finding Shopify expertise.
Who BigCommerce is right for:
NZ businesses planning to grow to meaningful volume within 12–24 months, particularly those with complex product catalogues, multi-channel requirements, or who want to minimise recurring app spend. If you're already thinking about the 50K–200K revenue band, BigCommerce's built-in features start to look much better value than Shopify's app stack.
Squarespace
Squarespace is a design-first platform that added ecommerce to a website builder, not the other way around. It shows in the product: the templates are beautiful, the setup is intuitive, but serious ecommerce features lag behind the others.
Pricing (NZD/mo, billed annually):
- Plan 1 (~$26 NZD): 2% transaction fee, basic store features
- Plan 2 (~$45 NZD): 0% transaction fee, abandoned cart, discount codes
- Plan 3 (~$70 NZD): sell subscriptions, advanced shipping
- Plan 4 (~$109 NZD): commerce APIs, advanced merchandising
Squarespace Payments is available in limited countries, not including NZ as a native payment option. NZ merchants typically use Stripe or PayPal via third-party integration, which adds setup complexity.
Who Squarespace is right for:
Businesses where the website is the primary product: photographers, designers, service businesses with a small product range, or creative stores where brand presentation is the primary concern. For a serious ecommerce operation, Shopify or BigCommerce will scale better.
GST and Xero compatibility
All four platforms handle NZ GST in some form, but the implementation varies.
Shopify: GST is configurable on product pricing. Shopify's tax reporting exports are clean and importable to Xero. The Shopify-Xero integration (via A2X or direct connector) is well-supported and widely used in NZ.
WooCommerce: GST calculation is handled by plugin (usually WooCommerce Tax or a local alternative). Output is standard; Xero integration via the WooCommerce Xero extension works for most businesses.
BigCommerce: Automatic tax calculation includes GST. Xero integration is available but less mature than Shopify's in the NZ market.
Squarespace: Manual tax configuration required. Less Xero integration tooling available than Shopify or WooCommerce.
The bottom line
You're launching your first online store and speed matters: Shopify Basic at $29/mo USD is the right starting point. Get live, test demand, then optimise. Don't overthink the platform decision before you have customers.
You're already running WordPress and comfortable with it: WooCommerce is worth the setup effort. You'll own the stack, pay only for what you use, and avoid platform lock-in over the long run.
You're planning to grow past $100K NZD in online revenue within two years: Look seriously at BigCommerce. The built-in features at Plus and Pro will save you real money on apps compared to a comparable Shopify setup, and the 0% third-party transaction fee gives you payment gateway flexibility.
You run a service or creative business with a small product range: Squarespace works. Keep it simple.
One thing applies across all four: don't choose based on monthly price alone. Add up hosting, apps, payment fees, and developer time. A $29/mo platform with $120/mo in required apps costs more than a $79/mo platform that includes those features.
Related reading: Xero vs Wave vs MYOB: NZ Accounting Software Compared | Best CRM Software for NZ Small Business 2026 | Inventory Management Software for NZ Small Business