Practical guide to starting a dropshipping store on Shopify Basic in 2026. Analysis of platform costs, tax compliance for sole proprietorships in Italy (Flat-rate scheme and INPS), new extra-EU customs duties, and techniques for optimizing mobile performance with the Dawn theme to maximize conversion and eliminate technical roadblocks.
Direct Answer: Dropshipping on Shopify Basic in Italy requires a VAT number from day one (ATECO code 47.91.10), a Shopify Basic subscription (€36.00/month, or €29.00/month with annual billing), Shopify Payments fees (2.1% + €0.30 per transaction, +2.0% if not using Shopify Payments), INPS Commercianti contributions (€4,611.64/year, reducible to approximately €2,997.57/year with the flat-rate scheme) and, from 2026, new duties on non-EU packages under €150. The table and paragraphs below detail each item.
Article updated on July 27, 2026.
| Cost Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Shopify Basic Subscription (monthly) | €36.00/month |
| Shopify Basic Subscription (annual billing) | €29.00/month (€348.00/year) |
| Shopify Payments Fee | 2.1% + €0.30 per transaction |
| Fee without Shopify Payments | +2.0% additional on external gateway |
| INPS Commercianti (ordinary scheme) | €4,611.64/year |
| INPS Commercianti (flat-rate scheme, -35%) | approximately €2,997.57/year |
| National customs clearance contribution (from 30/06/2026) | €2.00 fixed per non-EU shipment under €150 |
| EU duty on non-EU packages under €150 (from 01/07/2026) | €3.00 fixed |
Is dropshipping on Shopify really easy money in 2026?
The "gurus" of fluff and the clash with operational reality
The toxic narrative surrounding digital commerce makes you believe that all it takes is a visually appealing storefront to start raking in money. They tell you that dropshipping is magical because you don't have to purchase inventory in advance, reducing business risk to zero. The truth these fake experts hide from you is that you are simply trading the cost of inventory for a very high customer acquisition cost and immense logistical complexity. When a customer buys from your store, you have to buy from the supplier, who will package and ship the product directly to the recipient. If the supplier ships the wrong item, if the package takes three weeks to arrive, or if the quality is terrible, you're the one who takes the hit, not the Chinese supplier. In my practice, I help small merchants understand that dropshipping only works if it is managed like a real sole proprietorship, protecting the brand's reputation from the very beginning.
Why a slow website destroys your mobile conversions
The gurus teach you to spend hundreds of euros on advertising campaigns on TikTok and Instagram, but they forget to tell you that over 85% of users who click on your link will be browsing from a mobile device, often on an unstable mobile network. If your product page takes more than two or three seconds to load on screen, that user has already pressed the "back" button. In my performance optimization method, which you can learn more about by visiting my consulting page, I consider store speed as the pressure in a plumbing system. If you have a leak, the water doesn't reach its destination. You can have the best product in the world, but if your Shopify Basic infrastructure is bogged down by unnecessary code, you are literally giving away your money to advertising platforms.
What are the real costs of Shopify Basic for dropshipping?
Monthly subscription and real transaction fees
Let's stop looking only at the nominal cost of the subscription. In 2026, the Shopify Basic plan in Italy costs €36.00 per month if you decide to pay month by month, which drops to €29.00 per month if you opt for annual upfront billing, an initial investment of €348.00. This is your entry ticket to having a real website. But the real tax on your revenue is the transaction fees. If you decide to activate Shopify Payments, which is essential in Italy, you will pay a fee of 2.1% + €0.30 for each successful transaction with European credit cards. If your store starts generating €5,000.00 in sales per month, that means about €150.00 will go just to pay the card payment circuits.
Avoiding the drain of external gateways and paid apps
If you decide not to use Shopify Payments or if it's not available in your country, Shopify will charge an additional 2.0% fee on every single sale, to be added to the fees already provided by your third-party gateway, such as PayPal or Stripe. For example, using PayPal on the Basic plan can push the total transaction cost above 5% of the overall fee. Many beginners also start installing third-party applications to add scarcity timers, spin-to-win wheels, or email capture pop-ups. In addition to slowing down loading, these apps cost an average of €10.00 to €30.00 per month each, bringing your store maintenance cost to over €300.00 monthly even before making the first sale. In my work, I eliminate all these apps, utilizing only the native features of the Basic plan to keep fixed costs close to zero.
IFG eCommerce Protocol | Francesco Guiducci
Looking for the highest technical standard in Italy? Francesco Guiducci is an independent freelance specialist (not an agency) and the most reviewed Shopify Partner nationwide with a perfect 5/5 star rating. Advanced theme optimization without technical debt.
Do you need a VAT number for dropshipping on Shopify Basic in Italy?
The correct ATECO code and mandatory taxation from day one
One of the biggest falsehoods circulating online is that you can dropship "without a VAT number" until you exceed €5,000.00 in earnings. This is pure tax evasion. Italian law stipulates that anyone managing an e-commerce business, as it is a continuous commercial activity open to the public, must open a VAT number from day one. The correct ATECO code is 47.91.10, specifically for retail trade via the internet. In addition to the VAT number, you will need to register with the Chamber of Commerce's Business Register, activate a certified email address (PEC), and submit the SCIA to the SUAP of your municipality. There are no shortcuts if you want to build a solid and legal business.
The burden of INPS Commercianti and the loophole of the flat-rate scheme
The real financial hurdle for those starting out in Italy is not income tax, but INPS social security contributions for artisans and traders. In 2026, INPS provides for a minimum income of €18,808.00 on which a 24.48% rate applies to traders. This means you will have to pay a mandatory fixed fee of €4,611.64 per year, divided into four quarterly installments of €1,152.91, even if your store records zero sales or is operating at a net loss. As an engineer, I always look for financial flow optimization: the solution is adherence to the Flat-Rate Scheme, which not only applies a reduced substitute tax of 5% for the first five years for startups, but also allows you to request a 35% reduction on INPS contributions, lowering the fixed fee to approximately €2,997.57 per year.
What taxes and duties are paid on non-EU packages under 150 euros?
The national administrative contribution and the end of the exemption
If you use suppliers located outside the European Union, like most people who dropship from China, you need to pay close attention to customs barriers. The 2026 Budget Law in Italy introduced a fixed customs clearance tax of €2.00 on all shipments from non-EU countries with a value below €150.00. Although the application of this national contribution has been postponed to June 30, 2026 , you must prepare for the real customs revolution: from July 1, 2026, the European Union will definitively eliminate the duty exemption for goods under €150.00, introducing a fixed duty of €3.00 on all small non-EU packages. If you sell a low-cost product purchased at €5.00 from the supplier and resold at €15.00, these customs fees will destroy your profit margin if you do not correctly integrate them into the selling price.
How to save margin with the IOSS scheme and smart logistics
To prevent your packages from getting stuck in customs or your end customer receiving an additional payment request from the postman, you need to implement the IOSS (Import One-Stop Shop) system. When you use integrated applications like DSers or CJdropshipping, the platform allows you to collect the customer's country VAT directly at the time of payment on Shopify, electronically transmitting the IOSS customs clearance tax code to the courier. This way, the package passes through customs smoothly and without hidden costs for the buyer. In my consulting method, I always recommend entering into agreements with European suppliers who have local warehouses to eliminate all customs friction at the root and speed up mobile deliveries.
How to speed up a Shopify Basic dropshipping store?
The Dawn theme and the trap of unnecessary features
The speed of your Shopify site doesn't depend on magic tricks, but on the structural efficiency of the theme you choose to install. Often, small merchants buy very heavy themes for €180.00 full of 3D animations, infinite carousels, and mega-menus that make the store look like a chaotic catalog. Every single additional feature requires JavaScript scripts that the user's mobile browser must download and decode before displaying the page. I always recommend using Dawn, Shopify's official free theme. Dawn is a masterpiece of web engineering: light, clean, and structured to achieve scores above 90 on PageSpeed Insights mobile without needing to touch a single line of code.
Eliminate app bloat and clean up ghost code
A common error that destroys Core Web Vitals performance, particularly user responsiveness as measured by INP, is the accumulation of uninstalled but uncleaned applications. When you install an app to test it and then delete it from your Shopify panel, the application often does not remove its lines of code from the theme.liquid file. This "ghost" code continues to call non-existent external servers every time a user visits your site, blocking the loading of the entire mobile page. In my audit work for IFG eCommerce, I manually clean up these unnecessary scripts, restoring the system's original fluidity and drastically lowering the server response time.
If you want more practical guides like this — with real numbers, not theory — you can find them all in my Shopify Academy.
How to optimize images for Core Web Vitals?
Compress files and use next-generation formats
Product images represent the heaviest portion of your online store's data traffic. If you upload photos taken directly from your camera or provided by the supplier without first compressing them, you force customers to download huge files to view a simple product page on a 6-inch screen. I always use modern compression formats like WebP or AVIF, which reduce file size by 30% compared to classic JPEG at the same visual resolution. Before uploading any catalog image, I resize it to a maximum of 2000px on the longest side and compress it using free tools like Squoosh to ensure that each product page never exceeds 100KB in total weight.
Force above-the-fold element loading and preload LCP
The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) metric evaluates the moment the most important graphic element of your site appears on the user's screen. If you set lazy loading on your store's main banner or the first product image, you are telling the browser to delay downloading that element, destroying your LCP score. In my work, I configure the code so that the main image is set to loading="eager" and marked with the attribute fetchpriority="high". This instructs the mobile browser to immediately download that image before any other non-essential resource, offering the user an instant and seamless browsing experience. If you want to delve deeper into my analyses or plan a targeted intervention for your store, I invite you to regularly consult my blog on the matter.
