Data from my own apps shows that 183 Brazilian Basic-plan stores installed my apps, encountered the CarrierService restriction, and abandoned them over the last 8 months.
Why this matters in Brazil
Brazil is a continental country, and shipping costs can vary dramatically depending on the destination CEP. For Brazilian merchants, real-time shipping rates from carriers are not an advanced e-commerce feature — they are a basic requirement for running a store.
Major local e-commerce platforms such as Nuvemshop, Tray, Loja Integrada, Bagy and VTEX offer shipping integrations on their entry-level plans. Merchants can connect to carriers and calculate shipping rates without having to upgrade to a higher-tier plan or switch from monthly to annual billing.
This creates a significant mismatch for merchants moving to Shopify.
A merchant can create a Shopify store on the Basic plan, install a shipping app, and only then discover that the app cannot provide the functionality they actually need because the store’s plan doesn’t support CarrierService.
At that point, the merchant isn’t necessarily thinking:
“I need a more expensive Shopify plan.”
They may simply think:
“Shopify doesn’t work for my business.”
What I’m seeing in my own apps
I’m a Shopify Partner and develop shipping apps specifically for the Brazilian market.
When a merchant installs my app on a Basic plan, the app detects the plan and immediately displays a banner explaining that the app cannot work on their store because CarrierService isn’t available on their current plan.
This makes the situation very clear to the merchant: they install a shipping app expecting to use real-time carrier rates, only to find out that their Shopify plan prevents the app from working.
Over this year:
- More then 200 distinct Brazilian Basic-plan stores installed my apps, encountered the CarrierService restriction, and subsequently uninstalled.
- 72% uninstalled within 24 hours of installation.
- 84% uninstalled within 7 days.
- Around 95% of my app uninstalls come from Basic-plan stores.
- I currently see around 40 Basic-plan stores uninstalling every month, a number that has remained relatively stable over the last 3 months.
These numbers come from only two shipping apps. I can’t quantify the total impact across the Shopify ecosystem, but there are many other shipping apps serving Brazilian merchants that face the same platform restriction.
What I believe should change
I’m not arguing that CarrierService should necessarily be available on every Shopify plan worldwide.
I’m asking Shopify to consider the specific reality of the Brazilian market.
For Brazilian merchants, real-time carrier rates are closer to basic infrastructure than a premium feature.
Allow third-party CarrierService integrations on Basic and Grow monthly plans for stores based in Brazil.
This single change would remove a major adoption barrier for Brazilian merchants and bring Shopify closer to the expectations already set by local e-commerce platforms.
I believe the data from my apps is a strong signal that this restriction is not just preventing merchants from using a shipping app — it may be preventing some merchants from choosing Shopify in the first place.