A lot of people who make things are unknown. Just like everyone else, they need to be known for their art and make a living from it. Matt Wigham, who started Big Cartel in 2005, knew this, which is why he made the platform. It’s an online market, but it’s only for a certain type of buyers and sellers. This site is for artists and people who make things, as well as people who want to buy art.
What is the Big Cartel?
Big Cartel is a place to do business online. With this, you can build your own store and sell the things you make. But it’s not like a regular online store because you can only sell things you made. No, you can’t bring manufactured goods here. Things you can find on Big Cartel are things that were made by hand, like paintings, hand-made decorations, shirts, jewelry, and other things.
On this platform, you can build your own website with your own domain name, add products with pictures, and then charge your customers for what they buy. After someone buys something from you, you have to send it to them. Big Cartel is not a place for big online shops to sell things. It was made with small businesses and individuals in mind.
The main things about Big Cartel
Big Cartel isn’t a very big site, so the features you’ll find here are only the ones you really need to sell your artwork in a good way.
Here are some things that Big Cartel has:
Customs Office
With Big Cartel, you can choose from a number of ready-to-go-online themes. These themes are like templates; all you have to do is add photos, prices, and descriptions of your products.
If you choose a theme, you can change the colors and make other changes with the click of a button. If you want to do more, you need to know how to code so you can change the theme to look and feel the way you want.
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Integration of Apps
You can use this platform to add apps that will help you make more sales. You can also add it to your Facebook Shop to help bring in more customers.
You can add the following apps to your Big Cartel store:
- The Facebook Shop
- Analytics from Google
- MailChimp, ShipStation, ShipRobot, ShipRush, GetScorecard, Zapier.
You need to add an app called Pulley if you sell digital goods. This is the app that lets your customers download the digital products you sell.
Shipping
If you are selling physical goods like paintings, ceramics, or other things, the next step after making your site and adding your products is to set the shipping rates. With Big Cartel, you can set a flat rate for shipping, which customers will see when they check out, or you can set different rates depending on where the package is going.
You can also change the prices of shipping if certain conditions are met. So, if a customer buys three items, you can only make one shipping rate. This makes shipping cheaper, which will make people more likely to buy more things from your store.
Domain name and web host
The monthly price you pay includes both a custom domain and web hosting. You can upload images, and the platform’s servers will store all the information about your website. The extension for the free domain is.bigcartel.com, and you can only get rid of it by buying a real custom domain.
Discounts
If you want to run a sale, you can make discount coupons. You can share the discount code on social media, and customers will use it when they check out. When they type in this code, the discount will be taken off the total price. The discount feature isn’t available on the free Gold Plan, so you have to upgrade to at least the Platinum Plan to make one.
Taking care of inventory
As you upload your products, you must type or enter how many are available into the system. As you sell items, the platform will keep track of how many are left. If the product is already sold out, customers won’t be able to order it.
Pricing by a Big Cartel
There are three price points for Big Cartel. Platinum, Diamond, and Titanium are the names of these plans. You can sign up for an account and start selling your items for less than $10 per month.
- Platinum is the most basic plan, and it costs $9.99 per month. If you sign up for it, you can only add up to 25 products at a time. This plan also comes with themes that can be changed, a website, discounts, editing in bulk, and tracking for shipments.
- For $19.99 a month, you can get everything in the Platinum Plan with the Diamond Plan. The only difference is that you can add up to 100 products instead of just one.
- Titanium: This plan costs $29.99 and has a limit of 300 products. It includes everything from the first two plans.
- On all three plans, you will have access to a dashboard that shows you how your store is doing in real time. If you know how, you can also change the code of the themes. All packages come with Google Analytics, a way to track your inventory, and an app that lets you sell in person or online.
If you want to try it out for free, you can sign up for the free Gold Plan. But this plan has very few features, and you can only upload up to five products at a time.
The only real difference between the three paid plans is the number of products you can upload. Everything you get is the same. If you only have a few things to sell, the Platinum Plan is your best choice. There is no reason to upgrade to Diamond or Titanium unless you are selling shirts or other clothing with up to 300 designs.
Who Should Use Big Cartel?
Big Cartel is not a place for people who just want to sell a few things or dropship. It is a platform for artists, and the themes were made to help artists show their work online in the best way possible. Big Cartel is a great option for people who are just starting out selling their art online because it is free and doesn’t cost anything. An artist can open a fully functional store for less than $10 and then start selling his work.
Pros and Cons of Big Cartel
Like a lot of other platforms, Big Cartel has a lot of good things to offer, but it could also do better in some ways.
Pros:
- Plans you can afford
- Simple to use
- Has a plan called the Gold Plan that is free for life.
- No fees to do business
- Theme codes that can be changed
Cons:
- Has no high-tech features
- No place to buy apps
- No search function to make it easy for customers to look around. Few ways to pay.
There is a long way to go for Big Cartel. It’s not made for big retail stores, and it doesn’t have as many features as the big e-commerce platforms. The thing is, it was made for people who only need a simple website to show off their products, which they can use to advertise to friends and other art lovers, but not really to sell in large quantities like online retailers do.
Payment Options for the Big Cartel
In Big Cartel, there are only four ways to pay. These are PayPal, Square, Apple Pay, and Stripe. These are the different ways a seller can get paid by his customers. Since there is no credit card option, your customers will have to sign up for an account with one of these four online payment processors.
Review of Big Cartel’s Customer Service
No matter what plan you choose, you will get the same level of support. Big Cartel only has email support, and their employees only answer emails between 9 am and 6 pm Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday. Big Cartel doesn’t have phone support or live chat.
Thoughts on the End
Big Cartel is a small company, and sellers can only use a small number of apps. This makes sense, since the platform was made for artists and doesn’t need fancy websites or features like complicated dashboards. Use Big Cartel if you want a simple website where you can post photos of your artwork or if you want to sell your digital creations for a low monthly fee.
Big Cartel also doesn’t have a blog. This means that SEO isn’t a good way to get people to visit your site. You need to use Facebook and MailChimp to market your products. Both of these can be added to your website. Big cartel is a great online place to sell clothes and art.