Bumpa vs Shopify: which one should a Nigerian seller pick?

Shopify was built for a shopper who lands on a website and checks out alone. Bumpa was built to help you run the business behind the sale: the records, the stock, the receipts.

But a Nigerian customer buys after a conversation — proof it's real, a question, "how much last?" — whether that happens on your website or in your DMs. Neither was built for that conversation.

Prices checked on Shopify's Nigerian pricing page and Bumpa's pricing page on 6 October 2026. Dollar figures converted at about ₦1,390, roughly what a dollar card costs you today.

The short answer

Pick Shopify if you sell to customers abroad, run a brand that lives on its website, have someone technical on the team, and can pay a dollar bill every month without it hurting.

Pick Bumpa if you're a small business in Nigeria that wants a basic website, sales records and a POS in naira, at the lowest monthly price, and you're happy doing the selling yourself.

Pick neither yet if your customers ask "how much last?" before they pay, on your website or in your DMs. Read to the end first. (Weighing up more than these two? We compared seven Bumpa alternatives and six Shopify alternatives side by side.)

First, why this is even a question

Shopify is the default for online stores worldwide. Millions of merchants, thousands of themes, an app for everything, and a checkout it says converts better than anyone's. If you've ever watched a YouTube video about starting an online store, it was a Shopify video.

Bumpa is what happens when someone builds for Lagos instead of Los Angeles. Kelvin Umechukwu and Adetunji Opayele launched it in 2021 on a simple idea: a business that sells on Instagram is still a business, and deserves records, receipts, stock counts and a proper shop front.

They priced it in naira and put a POS in it. Tens of thousands of Nigerian merchants learned to run their business properly on it.

One was built for the world, one for the Nigerian shop owner. Neither was built for the Nigerian customer. That's the part that matters most, and we'll get to it. First, the numbers you came for.

What each one costs, in naira

Shopify

Shopify bills in dollars, on your card, every month or year.

Paying for a year upfront brings these down to US$19, US$54 and US$299 a month.

Three things to know if you're in Nigeria:

• Shopify Payments isn't available here, so you connect Paystack or Flutterwave. Shopify adds its own fee on each sale for using a third-party provider: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced.
• It's billed in dollars, so the naira cost moves with the exchange rate, and some naira cards decline foreign subscriptions.
• Some things Nigerian sellers rely on come from apps, like WhatsApp ordering and local delivery companies, and apps are billed separately.

Bumpa

Bumpa bills in naira.

Growth and Scale are sold yearly only, and their pricing page doesn't show the price. Paying yearly takes up to 20% off.

What to check on the cheaper plans:

• Staff accounts start on Pro (3 accounts). Starter has none.
• Barcode scanning at the POS, and the barcode generator, start on Growth — a plan you can't buy quarterly.
• Several features are paid add-ons, marked "Can be purchased": advanced templates, a blog, extra pages, bundles, add-ons, gift cards, upsell at checkout, custom checkout and back-in-stock alerts. Their prices only show inside the app.
• Selling in dollars, pounds or Canadian dollars on your website starts on Growth. Starter and Pro are naira only.
• Messaging is in credits, not naira: SMS and email campaigns spend from a credit balance you top up in packs.

Shopify, for comparison, includes a blog, gift cards, abandoned checkout recovery and unlimited products on Basic. (On Bizthom the blog is included too, and every post can sell your products.)

Where Shopify wins

Credit where it's due. Shopify is better at:

• Design. More themes, more control, and a store that looks like a brand, not a template.
• Depth. Thousands of apps. If a feature exists anywhere in e-commerce, someone has built it for Shopify.
• Selling abroad. If a large share of your customers are in the UK or US, Shopify's markets, translations and international checkout are mature.
• Scale. Huge sale days don't take Shopify down.

If you're a fashion or beauty brand with a real international audience and a designer on the team, Shopify's dollar cost can be worth it.

Where Bumpa wins

Bumpa is better at:

• Naira everything. No dollar card, no exchange rate, no surprise when the naira moves.
• Offline selling. Every plan has a POS app on web, phone and tablet, on the same stock as your website. Shopify's full shop POS costs extra, and its card readers need Shopify Payments, which Nigeria doesn't have.
• Running the business, not just the website. Expenses, invoices and receipts, records of sales you made outside the website, stock value — it's built for the owner who wants to know where the money went.
• Local payments out of the box. Bank transfer, cards and Bumpa's own terminal, without a plugin.
• Price. By a mile.

We've put Bumpa side by side with Bizthom, feature by feature, in an honest comparison.

Where both of them stop

Here's the part neither pricing page talks about.

In Nigeria, a sale rarely starts on a product page. It starts with a DM. "How much?" "Do you have it in black?" "Can you do 15?" "I'll get back to you."

The customer wants to talk to someone before they trust you with their money, and most sales are closed in that conversation — on WhatsApp, Instagram or Facebook. (We wrote about why in how to sell on Instagram in Nigeria.)

Shopify's chat lives on your website. Shopify Inbox is free, and its AI can answer shoppers who message you on your store. But your WhatsApp and Instagram DMs aren't in it; for those you add third-party apps, or you sell in your phone's WhatsApp and type the order into Shopify yourself.

On Bumpa, the chat happens somewhere else. You sell in WhatsApp and Instagram on your phone, then come back to Bumpa and record the sale by hand. It's very good at the receipt, the stock count and the customer record.

But in the conversation itself you're alone: you answer every "how much?", you decide who's serious and who's wasting your evening, and you have to remember the customer who said "I'll get back to you" three days ago.

And the websites themselves are built like shop fronts anywhere in the world: a picture, a price, a Pay button. That works for a shopper who already trusts you.

A Nigerian shopper who has been burnt before doesn't, yet. She wants proof it's real, wants to know she isn't the only one buying, wants to ask "last price?", and sometimes wants to pay in two parts. A shop front that can't do any of that loses her, however nice it looks.

That's the gap. Both give you a store, a checkout, a POS and a place to record the sale. Neither was built around how a Nigerian customer decides to buy — on the website or in the chat.

So the real question isn't "Bumpa or Shopify". It's: what do you need the software to do?

• Give you a polished store and room to sell abroad → Shopify.
• Help you run the business: records, stock, receipts, online and offline → Bumpa.
• Turn visitors and chats into paying customers, and bring them back to buy again → that's a different kind of tool.

The third option: Bizthom

That's what we built Bizthom to do. It's a commerce platform designed around the way Nigerians buy: a website that converts, an inbox that sells, an AI sales agent, automations, campaigns and a POS, working together to turn a conversation into a sale, and a first sale into a second.

A website that sells like your best salesperson

It's built on what makes a Nigerian customer trust a stranger and pay:

• Proof she can believe. The praise already in your WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook chats — the voice note, the photo of the dress on, the "I love it 😍" — becomes a review on the product page, picture or voice note attached. You approve what goes up.
• Video, not just photos. The fabric moving, the shoe on a foot.
• The feeling that others are buying. Who just bought, how few are left, and a bag timer that holds the item for her.
• Room to haggle. She can ask for a better price on the product page, and Ejiro negotiates within the lowest price you set.
• Ways to pay that fit her pocket. Part payments, pay on delivery, and a bank transfer that confirms itself the moment the money lands.
• Reasons to come back. Spin to Win, Welcome Back, and Share With Friend.

All of these are switches in your dashboard, not apps to find, pay for and set up.

DMs where you sell, not just reply

WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and your website chat land in one inbox.

• Every chat is marked by how likely the person is to buy, so you know who to answer first.
• When she says yes, you create the order in one click. She's already saved as a contact with her name and number, and the products, delivery address and delivery option are filled in from the chat, and the payment link goes back to her in the same chat. Nothing typed twice.
• Chats that went quiet after you replied are flagged before they go cold.

An AI sales agent for when you can't reply

Ejiro answers in your WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and website chats. It recommends products, negotiates within your lowest price, and follows up with the customer who said "I'll get back to you", in their own chat, about what they actually asked for. You can take over at any point.

Automations that bring them back

The first sale is the expensive one. The second should be almost free. Bizthom comes with the important automations already made:

• Abandoned bag: WhatsApp, then SMS, then email, stopping the moment they pay.
• Order and delivery updates.
• Back in stock and price drop, sent only to the people who asked about that product.
• Birthdays, and win-back for customers who've gone quiet.

Want your own? Lay it out step by step, or just describe it — "when someone spends ₦50,000 or more, add them to VIP and thank them" — and Ask Bizthom AI builds it as a draft for you to check. Every automation shows who went through it and what it sold.

On Shopify, automations send email and SMS, and WhatsApp needs an app. On Bumpa, customer automations start on Pro.

Campaigns, with AI doing the writing

Send WhatsApp, SMS and email campaigns to the right people, not everyone: top spenders, people who haven't bought in a while, anyone who left a bag.

• Bizthom AI writes the message.
• Ask Bizthom AI sets up the promo behind it: tell it "20% off all shoes this weekend" and it fills in the discount for you to save.
• Emails go out in your logo, colours and fonts.
• You see who clicked and who ordered, so you repeat what sells.

And the rest of the shop

• One stock count. The POS scans barcodes and sells from the same stock as your website and DMs.
• Ads that report the sale. Purchases go to Meta and TikTok from our servers too, so iPhone privacy settings and ad blockers don't hide them. See everything Bizthom connects to.
• Moving is done for you. Products, collections, customers and order history, from Shopify or Bumpa. Most stores are trading the same day. See how moving works.

Plans and what's in each are on the pricing page.

So, which one?

Stay on (or choose) Shopify if:

• Most of your customers are outside Nigeria.
• Your website is your shop, and very little selling happens in DMs.
• You have the budget for a dollar subscription, the 2% fee and the apps — and someone to run them.

Stay on (or choose) Bumpa if:

• The lowest monthly price decides it.
• You mainly need a basic website, sales records and a POS.
• You're happy closing every DM sale yourself.

Look at Bizthom if:

• People visit your website, look around and leave without paying.
• Your customers want to ask, haggle or see proof before they buy, on the website or in your DMs.
• You're losing customers who asked a price and went quiet.
• You want them to buy a second and third time without you messaging each one.
• You run ads and want to know which ones actually sell.
• You want software that helps you make the sale, not just record it.

FAQ

Is Shopify available in Nigeria?
Yes, you can open a Shopify store from Nigeria and sell in naira. What you can't use is Shopify Payments, so you connect Paystack or Flutterwave and pay Shopify an extra 0.6% to 2% on every sale for it.

How much is Shopify per month in Nigeria?
Basic is US$27 a month, or US$19 a month paid yearly — about ₦37,500 or ₦26,400 a month at today's rate. Add Shopify's 2% fee on sales through Paystack, and any apps.

Is Bumpa cheaper than Shopify?
Much cheaper. Bumpa Starter is ₦15,000 a quarter. A year of Bumpa Starter costs less than two months of Shopify Basic. Some features on Bumpa are paid add-ons, so check what you'd actually use.

Can I move from Shopify or Bumpa to Bizthom?
Yes. Products, collections, customers and order history, and we can do it for you. Ask us to move your store.

Can Shopify or Bumpa sell for me in WhatsApp or Instagram?
Not on their own. Shopify's AI answers only in your website chat, and on Bumpa you record the sale by hand after you've made it. Bizthom's Ejiro replies, negotiates and follows up in WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and your website chat.

The fastest way to decide is to try it with your own products. Start free on Bizthom, connect your WhatsApp or Instagram, and watch what happens with a real customer.