---
title: "Shopify Switzerland: set up your store"
description: "Open a Shopify store from Switzerland: plan prices in CHF, TWINT and card fees, MWST registration, Swiss Post shipping and what the EU border costs you."
date: 2026-08-06
lastUpdated: 2026-08-06
author: "Lukas Brunner"
url: https://swissecomguides.com/shopify-switzerland-setup-guide/
site: "Swiss Ecom Guides (swissecomguides.com)"
language: en
---
# Shopify Switzerland: set up your store
> **The short version:** Shopify sells to Switzerland in Swiss francs. On Shopify's Swiss pricing page, checked on 6 August 2026, Basic is CHF 29 a month on monthly billing and CHF 21 a month billed annually. Grow is CHF 79 or CHF 59, and Advanced is CHF 359 or CHF 269. Shopify Payments is available in Switzerland. The Swiss page prices a standard online card sale on Basic at 2.95% plus CHF 0.30. It lists TWINT at 1.75% plus CHF 0.30, though whether you can switch TWINT on, and how, this guide could not confirm. MWST registration becomes compulsory at CHF 100,000 of worldwide annual turnover from non-exempt supplies, according to the Federal Tax Administration. Switzerland sits outside the EU, so every EU-bound parcel is an export and needs an import declaration, whatever it is worth.
Most people searching for this guide are not asking what Shopify is. They are asking whether it works *here*. In francs, with TWINT at the checkout, with a tax office that is not in Brussels, and with a customs border a few kilometres away.
That is a fair question. The German and French Shopify guides a Swiss reader lands on first were written for sellers inside the EU single market. Their advice on VAT, on returns and on shipping is not merely incomplete here. On several points it is simply wrong.
Below is the whole setup, from the decisions you take before opening the admin to the checklist you run before launch. Every platform figure comes from Shopify's own pages with the date it was checked, and every tax and consumer-law point from the authority that publishes it. Where a number could not be confirmed officially, this guide says so instead of filling the gap.
This is an independent educational site. It is not operated by, affiliated with, or endorsed by Shopify Inc.
Disclosure: the Shopify links in this guide are affiliate links. Sign up through one and this site receives a commission; the price you pay does not change.
## Table of contents
- [Decide four things before you open the admin](#before-you-open-the-admin)
- [MWST: when registration becomes your problem](#mwst)
- [Create the account and the store](#create-your-store)
- [Which plan, and what it costs in francs](#plans-and-prices)
- [The payment stack is where a Swiss store is won](#payment-stack)
- [Theme, products and checkout](#theme-products-checkout)
- [Will a Swiss business buyer accept your invoice?](#invoices)
- [Returns, and the pages that carry them](#returns-and-legal-pages)
- [The border: what happens when a parcel leaves Switzerland](#the-border)
- [Set up shipping with Swiss Post](#shipping)
- [Work through this before you launch](#pre-launch-checklist)
- [What the first year actually costs](#first-year-cost)
- [Frequently asked questions](#faq)
- [Sources](#sources)
## Decide four things before you open the admin
Opening a Shopify account takes minutes. Undoing a decision you took badly in those minutes takes months. Four are worth settling first.
**Who is selling.** A sole proprietorship and a company are different legal persons, and the payment provider verifies whichever you name. Settle it before you enter a bank account.
**Where your customers are.** A shop selling only inside Switzerland is a domestic operation. The moment a parcel crosses into the EU it is an export, with the paperwork described further down.
**Which language, or how many.** Switzerland has four national languages, and a German-only shop in Lausanne loses customers. Two or three storefront languages is a real project, not a switch.
**What you will actually charge.** A converted euro price is a euro price wearing a Swiss label. Decide whether your published price includes MWST, and keep that rule consistent across the catalogue.
None of these needs a Shopify account. All four change what you type into one.
## MWST: when registration becomes your problem
This is general orientation, not tax or legal advice. Check the Federal Tax Administration or your own adviser before you act on it.
Switzerland's value added tax is MWST in German and TVA in French. The Federal Tax Administration (ESTV/AFC) publishes the rates: the normal rate is **8.1%**, the reduced rate **2.6%** for goods such as foodstuffs, medications, books and newspapers, and a special rate of **3.8%** for accommodation. Those were the rates on its rates page on 6 August 2026.
The registration threshold decides whether any of this is your problem. The ESTV sets it at **CHF 100,000** of worldwide annual turnover from non-exempt supplies. Below that figure a business is exempt, though it may register voluntarily. Non-profit, sporting and cultural associations and charitable institutions have a higher threshold of CHF 250,000.
Timing matters more than first-time sellers expect. The ESTV states that mandatory liability begins with the commencement of the activity, where the circumstances then suggest the threshold will be reached within twelve months. For an existing exempt domestic business, liability begins after the end of the financial year in which the threshold was passed.
A second rule catches people running the traffic the other way. Under the Swiss mail-order rule, a company earning at least CHF 100,000 a year from small consignments dispatched into Switzerland from abroad has those supplies treated as domestic. It becomes taxable in Switzerland and must enter the VAT register. A foreign mail-order company also needs a tax representative resident in Switzerland.
None of this is a decision you take from a guide. Put your projected turnover in front of the ESTV's own pages, or an adviser, before your first big month.
## Create the account and the store
The signup itself is short. On its Swiss pricing page, checked on 6 August 2026, Shopify advertises a three-day free trial followed by **CHF 1 a month for three months**. Promotions end, so read the page on the day you sign up.
Start at [shopify.com](https://www.shopify.com/ch?ref=PLACEHOLDER_REF) and create the account with the email address you intend to keep. It receives the billing notices, the password resets and the payment-provider correspondence.
Once you are inside the admin, the order that saves the most rework is this one.
1. **Settings → Store details.** Set the store name, the Swiss store address, the currency to CHF and the time zone. Currency is the setting people regret changing later.
2. **Settings → Plan.** Stay on the trial while you build, and choose the plan close to launch.
3. **Settings → Payments.** Set up the payment provider before the catalogue, because verification takes time you cannot compress.
4. **Products → Add product.** Add one real product with its real weight and dimensions. A placeholder weight produces a placeholder shipping rate.
5. **Settings → Shipping and delivery.** Create the zones for Switzerland and, separately, for the EU countries you ship to.
6. **Online Store → Themes.** Pick the theme late. It feels like progress and changes least about whether you can trade.
7. **Settings → Taxes and duties.** Set this after you have decided your MWST position.
Verification of the business and the bank account is the step that stalls launches. Shopify's Help Centre notes that each supported country has its own page covering verification requirements, accepted payment methods and payout details. Read the Swiss one before you promise a launch date.
## Which plan, and what it costs in francs
Prices for Switzerland are published in Swiss francs on Shopify's own pricing page. Checked on 6 August 2026, the three plans a new shop chooses between are these.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing, per month |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | CHF 29 a month | CHF 21 a month |
| Grow | CHF 79 a month | CHF 59 a month |
| Advanced | CHF 359 a month | CHF 269 a month |
Shopify plan prices for Switzerland, from Shopify's Swiss pricing page (shopify.com/ch/pricing), retrieved 6 August 2026. Annual billing is charged as a full year upfront.
The annual column is not a monthly option. Shopify's Help Centre states that an annual billing cycle charges the full year upfront and presents a lower effective monthly rate. So CHF 21 a month for Basic means roughly CHF 252 leaving your account at once, against CHF 348 across a year of monthly billing. That arithmetic is ours, from Shopify's published figures.
One currency detail is worth checking on the day you pay. The Swiss page publishes francs, while Shopify's Help Centre billing overview names euros, British pounds, US dollars and Indian rupees as the subscription billing currencies. Confirm in the admin which currency your card is charged in, and add what your bank takes if it is not francs.
The Plus plan is quoted on the Swiss page in euros rather than francs, from EUR 2,100 a month. No CHF price for Plus is published.
The same comparison table sets out what separates the plans. Basic includes no additional staff accounts, Grow five and Advanced fifteen. All three allow up to ten inventory locations, and checkout customisation is limited on all three. Third-party carrier-calculated shipping is not available on Basic, while Advanced includes real-time carrier rate calculations. Watch that line if you want live Swiss Post rates at the checkout rather than flat ones.
Shopify plans, pricing and features change; always verify the current details on shopify.com before deciding.
**Start on Basic and move up when the shop earns it:** [Get started](https://www.shopify.com/ch?ref=PLACEHOLDER_REF) — Basic is CHF 29 a month on monthly billing, so you can open, test the checkout and reach your first orders without committing a year of budget. *(affiliate link)*
## The payment stack is where a Swiss store is won
Everywhere else an international guide will do. Here it will not. A Swiss shopper reaches for TWINT, and a Swiss business selling over a counter already has an acquirer contract.
Start with the fact that shapes everything else: **Shopify Payments is available in Switzerland.** Shopify's Help Centre lists Switzerland among the supported countries, so you can process cards through Shopify's own provider rather than bolting on a gateway.
The Swiss pricing page, checked on 6 August 2026, prices standard online card sales per plan. Basic pays 2.95% plus CHF 0.30, Grow 2.75% plus CHF 0.30 and Advanced 2.55% plus CHF 0.30. American Express and international cards cost more on Basic, at 3.15% plus CHF 0.30. And **TWINT is priced separately at 1.75% plus CHF 0.30 on Basic** — the cheapest line in the Swiss table.
Shopify Payments rates for Switzerland on the Basic plan, from Shopify's Swiss pricing page (shopify.com/ch/pricing), retrieved 6 August 2026. Bars show the percentage component only.
**What this guide will not claim.** TWINT appears on Shopify's own local payment methods page as a Swiss method, and it is priced on the Swiss pricing page. What is not confirmed here is the activation path: which merchants qualify, what your provider requires, and what appears in your Payments settings on the day. Shopify's documentation states that card payments are activated automatically while local payment methods need separate activation. Read Shopify's Swiss payment-methods page and your provider's terms before you advertise TWINT on a product page.
TWINT itself is the Swiss domestic mobile payment app, owned by Swiss banks and financial-infrastructure companies, and used in shops, online and between individuals.
**If you already accept cards over a counter**, you have an acquirer, and Worldline is one name a Swiss merchant may already hold a contract with. This guide could not verify Worldline's Swiss role or its offer for a Shopify store from a primary source, so it describes neither. Check worldline.com/en-ch and your own contract.
The cost of going that route is published, though. Using a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments adds a surcharge. On every locale page checked it is **2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus**. No third-party transaction fee applies to orders processed through Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, Shop Pay Installments or PayPal Express. None applies to manual methods either, such as cash, cash on delivery and bank transfers.
Put that surcharge next to any quote from an existing provider. On Basic it sits on top of whatever that provider charges you.
## Theme, products and checkout
Build the catalogue before the design. A theme laid over three products tells you nothing about how it holds forty.
For each product, fill the fields the rest of the store depends on: title, description, price, weight and inventory location. Weight drives shipping rates, and a product saved without one quietly breaks a rate calculation later.
The useful test of a theme is not how it looks on your laptop. It is whether a shopper on a phone, reading in their second language, can find the price, the delivery cost and the return terms without scrolling three times.
Checkout customisation is limited on Basic, Grow and Advanced according to Shopify's comparison table, with full customisation reserved for Plus. So you configure the checkout rather than redesign it. Spend the effort on what appears there: delivery timings, the payment methods you support, and a price that holds at the last step.
Place a real test order before launch, with a real card, and refund it. It is the only way to see the confirmation email, the order record and the payout entry.
## Will a Swiss business buyer accept your invoice?
Selling to Swiss companies changes what your shop has to produce. A business buyer needs a document their accounts department can book, and Shopify's automatic order confirmation is not that document.
Two things have to be visible once you are registered for MWST: the tax rate you applied, and your MWST number. This guide could not verify the full list of particulars a compliant Swiss invoice must carry, so it names none. Take that list from the ESTV, then check that your invoicing tool in Shopify can print all of it.
This is general orientation, not tax or legal advice. Check the Federal Tax Administration or your own adviser before you act on it.
Decide before launch whether business customers are a real segment. If they are, invoicing is a launch requirement, not something to fix after the first complaint.
## Returns, and the pages that carry them
Here is where imported advice does the most damage. **Switzerland has no general statutory right of withdrawal for online purchases.** That is the position stated by the Swiss Confederation's own consumer-affairs FAQ at konsum.admin.ch, checked on 6 August 2026.
A right of withdrawal does exist under Articles 40a and following of the Swiss Code of Obligations, but only for door-to-door and comparable sales. The FAQ describes those as offers made at the customer's workplace, in and around their home, on public transport or in public places. It also covers commitments made by telephone. Three conditions apply: a minimum purchase amount of **CHF 100**, a withdrawal period of **fourteen days**, and written notice. The fourteen days begin when the buyer requested or agreed to the contract.
Those figures belong to door-to-door and telephone sales. They are not a Swiss statutory cooling-off period for web orders, and quoting them that way is the mistake to avoid.
The FAQ does confirm that a seller may grant an additional withdrawal right in its general terms and conditions. So a Swiss return window is contractual: something your shop offers in writing, and is then held to. That makes your terms a more load-bearing page here than in an EU shop, where the fourteen days arrive by statute. Write the return window, the deadline, who pays return postage and how the refund is made — then follow it exactly.
Which legal pages a Swiss shop must publish is a separate question. This guide could not verify a statutory list from an official source, and does not offer one. Ask the relevant federal authority or your own adviser, and treat any list you find on a blog as unverified.
## The border: what happens when a parcel leaves Switzerland
Switzerland is in neither the EU nor its customs union. An order shipped from Zürich to München is an export, and the rules are not the ones in a German Shopify guide.
**On the Swiss side.** The Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (FOCBS/BAZG) states it plainly: every consignment leaving Switzerland for abroad is declared to customs. For parcels sent by post, the sender completes the customs contents declaration **CN 23** and encloses a copy of the invoice or other proof of value. The carrier builds that declaration from your data, so its accuracy is your responsibility. For businesses filing their own export declarations, BAZG published an "Ausfuhrzollanmeldung e-dec web" service page, checked on 6 August 2026. BAZG has been moving goods-traffic declarations onto its newer Passar platform, and this guide did not verify which system applies to your case today. Check on bazg.admin.ch before you build a process around either.
**On the EU side**, three rules from the European Commission decide what your customer pays.
- The VAT exemption for imported goods below **EUR 22 was abolished on 1 July 2021**. Every commercial consignment entering the EU is subject to import VAT, whatever it is worth.
- An import declaration is required for all goods entering the EU, regardless of value.
- Consignments with an intrinsic value **not exceeding EUR 150** fall under a simplified customs declaration. The **Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS)** is the portal for distance sales of imported goods up to that value, and Switzerland counts as a third country here.
Your customer feels the effect. If you do not handle import VAT at the checkout, someone collects it at the door, usually with a handling fee attached. A parcel your buyer then refuses comes back to you. Decide which model you run before the first EU order.
One caution on durability. The Commission announced a new approach to VAT for e-commerce imports in a news item dated 15 May 2025. Its status and entry into force were not verified here, so do not assume the EUR 150 regime stays as it is.
This is general orientation, not tax or legal advice. Check the Federal Tax Administration or your own adviser before you act on it.
## Set up shipping with Swiss Post
Most Swiss shops start with Swiss Post (Die Post / La Poste). The setup work is the same whichever carrier you choose.
**This guide quotes no Swiss Post price.** Its rates were not verified from the official tariff in this pass, and a shipping rate copied from a blog is worse than no rate at all. Swiss Post publishes its business rates in "Services and prices for business customers", the version valid from January 2026. Take your figures from there.
In Shopify, the work happens in **Settings → Shipping and delivery**. Three things are worth getting right the first time.
**Separate your zones.** Create a zone for Switzerland and a distinct zone for the EU countries you ship to. A single rate covering Genève and München is the classic mistake: those parcels cost differently and carry different paperwork.
**Choose flat or calculated deliberately.** Flat rates are predictable, and you carry the difference on a heavy parcel. Live carrier rates need the plan that supports them, and Shopify's Help Centre puts third-party carrier-calculated shipping outside Basic.
**Weigh everything**, packaging included. Rates calculated from placeholder weights fail on the first bulky order.
If you also sell over a counter, casual in-person selling is included in every paid plan. POS Pro costs an additional CHF 69 a month per location, from the plan comparison table on Shopify's Swiss pricing page (shopify.com/ch/pricing), checked on 6 August 2026.
## Work through this before you launch
Run this the week before, not the night before. Several items wait on somebody else replying.
- Store currency set to CHF, and the store address correct in **Settings → Store details**.
- Payment provider verified, bank account confirmed, and a real test order placed and refunded.
- The payment methods on your checkout match what you promise on your product pages.
- Every product carries a real weight and a real inventory location.
- Shipping zones split between Switzerland and the EU, with different rates.
- Your MWST position decided, with the ESTV's own pages read rather than summarised for you.
- Your return window written into your terms and conditions, since Swiss law does not supply one.
- Customs data ready for outbound parcels: descriptions, values and the invoice that travels along.
- Delivery times and shipping costs visible before the checkout, not inside it.
- The plan chosen, and the billing currency confirmed in the admin.
Every figure you noted while working through this ages. Re-check the ones that matter on the day you commit to a plan.
**Open the store and work the checklist inside it:** [Get started](https://www.shopify.com/ch?ref=PLACEHOLDER_REF) — Most of these items can only be ticked from the admin itself, so start the trial and work inside it. *(affiliate link)*
## What the first year actually costs
The plan price is not the bill. This table separates what is published from what nobody publishes, so you know which lines you still have to fill in yourself.
| Line item | Published figure, checked 6 August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Basic plan, monthly billing | CHF 29 a month — CHF 348 over twelve months (our arithmetic) |
| Basic plan, annual billing | CHF 21 a month — CHF 252 charged upfront (our arithmetic) |
| Grow plan | CHF 79 a month, or CHF 59 a month billed annually |
| Advanced plan | CHF 359 a month, or CHF 269 a month billed annually |
| Introductory offer | Three days free, then CHF 1 a month for three months (currently advertised, and promotions end) |
| Card processing, Basic | 2.95% + CHF 0.30 per standard online card sale |
| Amex and international cards, Basic | 3.15% + CHF 0.30 |
| TWINT, Basic | 1.75% + CHF 0.30 |
| Third-party gateway surcharge | 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, on top of your provider's own fee |
| POS Pro, if you sell over a counter | CHF 69 a month per location |
| Theme | No single figure is published; not verified here |
| Apps | No figure is published; depends entirely on what you install |
| Swiss Post shipping | Published in Swiss Post's business price list; no rate quoted here |
| Domain | Not verified here; buy from a registrar and check the renewal price |
Two lines deserve more attention than they get. The processing fee is a percentage of everything you sell, so at any real volume it outgrows the subscription. The third-party gateway surcharge is charged *in addition* to what that gateway charges. That is how an existing acquirer relationship ends up costing more than Shopify Payments, not less.
Shopify plans, pricing and features change; always verify the current details on shopify.com before deciding. Pricing for Switzerland is published at [shopify.com/ch/pricing](https://www.shopify.com/ch/pricing?ref=PLACEHOLDER_REF).
## Frequently asked questions
### Does Shopify work in Switzerland?
Yes. Shopify publishes a Swiss pricing page in francs, and its Help Centre lists Switzerland among the countries where Shopify Payments is supported. So you can take card payments through Shopify's own provider rather than connecting a separate gateway.
### What does Shopify cost in Switzerland?
On Shopify's Swiss pricing page, checked on 6 August 2026, Basic is CHF 29 a month on monthly billing and CHF 21 billed annually. Grow is CHF 79 or CHF 59, and Advanced is CHF 359 or CHF 269. Annual billing charges the full year upfront, and card processing is charged on top. The Plus plan is quoted on that page in euros, not francs.
### Can my customers pay with TWINT?
Probably, but confirm it before you promise it. Shopify's own local payment methods page names TWINT as a Swiss method, and the Swiss pricing page prices it at 1.75% plus CHF 0.30 on the Basic plan. The activation path and the eligibility conditions could not be confirmed here. Shopify states that local payment methods require separate activation, so check its Swiss documentation and your provider first.
### Do I have to register for MWST?
The Federal Tax Administration sets the registration threshold at CHF 100,000 of worldwide annual turnover from non-exempt supplies. Below it a business is exempt, with voluntary registration available. Liability can begin at the start of the activity if the threshold is expected within twelve months. This is general orientation, not tax advice — check the Federal Tax Administration or your own adviser.
### Do my Swiss customers have a fourteen-day right to return an order?
Not by statute. The Swiss Confederation's consumer-affairs FAQ states there is no general right of withdrawal for online purchases. The fourteen-day right in Articles 40a and following of the Code of Obligations applies to door-to-door and comparable sales, with a CHF 100 minimum purchase. A seller may grant a return right in its general terms and conditions, which is how a Swiss shop's return window normally exists.
## Sources
1. Shopify, "Shopify Preise" (Switzerland pricing page). https://www.shopify.com/ch/pricing — retrieved 2026-08-06.
2. Shopify Help Center, "Pricing plans and billing overview". https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/pricing-plans/pricing-overview — retrieved 2026-08-06.
3. Shopify Help Center, "Supported countries for Shopify Payments". https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/supported-countries — retrieved 2026-08-06.
4. Shopify Help Center, "Local payment methods". https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/local-payment-methods — retrieved 2026-08-06.
5. Shopify Help Center, "Shopify Payments" (fees). https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/fees — retrieved 2026-08-06.
6. Shopify Help Center, "Basic plan". https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/pricing-plans/plans-features/basic-shopify-plan — retrieved 2026-08-06.
7. Shopify Help Center, "Advanced plan". https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/pricing-plans/plans-features/shopify-advanced-plan — retrieved 2026-08-06.
8. Shopify, "Shopify POS pricing". https://www.shopify.com/pos/pricing — retrieved 2026-08-06.
9. Federal Tax Administration (ESTV/AFC), "Swiss VAT rates". https://www.estv.admin.ch/estv/en/home/value-added-tax/vat-rates-switzerland.html — retrieved 2026-08-06.
10. Federal Tax Administration (ESTV/AFC), "Tax liability VAT". https://www.estv.admin.ch/en/vat-tax-liability — retrieved 2026-08-06.
11. Federal Tax Administration (ESTV/AFC), "Mail-order trade and platform taxation". https://www.estv.admin.ch/estv/en/home/value-added-tax/vat-tax-liability/mail-order-trade.html — retrieved 2026-08-06.
12. Federal Consumer Affairs Bureau, "Frequently asked questions (FAQ)". https://www.konsum.admin.ch/en/frequently-asked-questions-faq — retrieved 2026-08-06.
13. Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (FOCBS/BAZG), "Versenden von Briefen und Paketen". https://www.bazg.admin.ch/de/versand-briefe-pakete-zoll-bestimmungen — retrieved 2026-08-06.
14. European Commission, "Customs formalities for low value consignments". https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/customs/customs-procedures-import-and-export/customs-operations/customs-formalities-low-value-consignments_en — retrieved 2026-08-06.
15. European Commission, "Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS)". https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/vat-e-commerce/ioss_en — retrieved 2026-08-06.
16. European Commission, "New approach to VAT for e-commerce imports", news item dated 2025-05-15. https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/news/new-approach-vat-e-commerce-imports-simplify-trade-and-compliance-2025-05-15-0_en — retrieved 2026-08-06.
17. Swiss Post, "Services and prices for business customers — Valid from January 2026". https://digital-commerce.post.ch/-/media/post/gk/dokumente/Angebote-und-Preise-fuer-Geschaeftskunden.pdf — retrieved 2026-08-06.
18. Swiss Post, "Domestic parcel labels for business customers". https://www.post.ch/en/sending-parcels/franking/domestic-parcel-labels/business-customers — retrieved 2026-08-06.
19. TWINT AG, media releases index. https://www.twint.ch/en/company/media/ — retrieved 2026-08-06.