Why we say no to Shopify for D2C brands above ₹5L MRR

[ESSAY: TBD by Mukesh]

This essay will examine the inflection point at which Shopify's transaction fees, app subscription costs, and theme limitations begin to cost more than a custom build — and why that threshold sits around ₹5L monthly recurring revenue for Indian D2C brands.

Topics to address:

• The real cost of Shopify at scale: transaction fees (2% on Basic), app subscriptions (₹15K–₹40K/month for a typical stack), theme customisation limits
• The hidden costs: checkout UX you cannot control, SEO limitations, data portability friction
• When Shopify is still the right answer: pre-product-market-fit, sub-₹2L MRR, small catalogues, teams without engineering capacity
• The migration path: what a Shopify-to-custom transition actually looks like (timeline, data migration, payment gateway re-integration)
• Case economics: a real comparison of 12-month total cost of ownership

[ESSAY: TBD by Mukesh]