Big Cartel – Everything You Need To Know
Are you an artist? Do you create stuff that people would love to buy? Looking to start a store on a low budget?
In that case, you maybe looking around for a platform to get started on. One where you can easily feature your products or services. And one that’s not to difficult to use. In most cases, people think setting up a store to be daunting process. It’s the step that stops most people from moving forward.
These days you do not have to be a coding expert or an eCommerce strategist to start your online store. Instead, you can rely on some very powerful platforms that do all the work. Today we are introducing Big Cartel.
There is no scarcity for eCommerce website builders out there. Some of these platforms offer such a massive level of customisation that you can go all the way up to make a unique statement with the design.
Here is the thing, though: most artists and content creators do not need all these fancy features. They need to make a simple space to purchase their products and services with ease.
Of course, artists struggling to make a living would not like to spend hundreds of dollars a month either. In these aspects, the Big Cartel app makes all the difference. If you just want to try out your idea, Big Cartel has free plan you can use, with up to 5 products. Perfect to test your idea at a low cost.
Dropshirt has an Integration for Big Cartel. A place to connect the products in your Big Cartel store to our print-on-demand service. When a customer orders connected products from your store. We offer an easy ‘click to order’ fulfilment button. Create an account here.
In this comprehensive guide, we have talked about everything you need to know about Big Cartel. We have also explored different aspects of Big Cartel such as ease of use, pricing, themes, add-ons, etc.
What Is Big Cartel?
Big Cartel – We believe in the artist
Big Cartel is an eCommerce website builder service optimised for artists around the world.
Unlike the generic eCommerce website builders, all aspects of Big Cartel are simplified so that an artist can create their online store in a few minutes.
Over the past couple of years, Big Cartel has become the favourite pick of many artists in the United States and elsewhere. The company has managed to introduce innovative add-ons and new features to the website builder package as well.
The performance of Big Cartel was so excellent that it made it to Forbes’ list of the best small companies in the United States. In other words, Big Cartel is one of the platforms that artists would recommend if you ask them the best way to create and maintain an online store.
As you can guess, Big Cartel is different from its generic counterparts. We often think Big Cartel is too simplified, but that is up to the end-user to decide.
Whether you want to completely customise the website or choose a simple theme and get going is the artists’ discretion. We found it remarkable that Big Cartel gives respect to this agency.
Now that you know a bit about the platform and the company behind it, shall we explore the various aspects of this website builder?
Pros
- Easy to set up and maintain an online store
- Customisable code allows ample flexibility
- It offers an entirely free plan where you can sell products
- Built-in support for payment options like Stripe and PayPal
- Built-in encryption and privacy protection
- Inventory tracking options to keep track of orders
- Versatile add-ons to enable efficient online sales/service
- Cost-effective pricing plans
Cons
- The pre-made templates are too basic for some people
- Customisation requires solid coding knowledge
- Does not offer 24*7 customer support
- Transaction service fees could be expensive
Ease of Use
Big Cartel makes it incredibly easy to create and maintain an online store.
Because it has been made and optimised for artists, you will find it easy to sell your artwork with minimal hassle. The process does not take more than a few seconds, either.
You can register your website, add the products you want to sell, and wait for someone to make the order. Once you receive an order, you can manage shipping and other aspects via meaningful integrations.
The Big Cartel app appeals to both types of artists: those who want to customise the website and those who need minimal design. Despite the simple design and the website-building process, the Big Cartel app allows customers to customise the code.
It means you can introduce brand-new elements and custom code snippets to your online store with minimal effort. The problem is the lack of a middle ground. If you want to customise how your Big Cartel website looks, you should be a coding guru. Or, you will have to hire a coder.
This situation may put customers in trouble if you think about it. It is also one reason why artists tend to leave Big Cartel for something more standard when receiving too many orders.
There will be a time when you do not want your online store to look like other artists’ stores, correct? You can use the Big Cartel with no issues whatsoever until that point. Overall, we think the user-friendliness of the Big Cartel app is impressive, but it can always consider moving from extremes.
Themes
The primary reason artists choose Big Cartel over other eCommerce website builders is the hassle-free task of setting up a website. And you cannot do that without the right set of eCommerce themes. Big Cartel gets almost everything alright in this aspect.
You get a decent collection of eCommerce themes with the free and premium plans of Big Cartel. As you can see in the ‘Examples’ page of the main app, these themes work for different artists. Some of these themes focus on the product and its visibility, while others leave enough whitespace.
All the technicalities aside, it will be easy for an upcoming artist to choose a suitable theme from the collection. You can find Big Cartel themes that work well for clothing stores, digital goods, custom t-shirts, custom hats, sunglasses, branded merchandise, and even customized gadgets.
The customisability of Big Cartel themes is a different matter, though. You can make minimal changes to the templates, of course. However, you cannot use those features to make your website look unique.
The design will almost always resemble the many other Big Cartel-powered eCommerce websites on the internet. If you want to edit your website beyond these limits, you need in-depth coding knowledge and expertise. If you do not have this knowledge, editing the theme/website can go wrong.
If we can keep aside the aspect of customisability, the themes you get from Big Cartel are pretty sweet. As a primary website builder, you would not have trouble changing the text and images. The native building app is also great in terms of usability. Nevertheless, you may need a day or two to get used to the app.
Add-Ons
You can integrate your Big Cartel-based online store with a wide variety of add-ons. The list is so diverse that Big Cartel has split them into five categories: Marketing, Shipping & Fulfilment, Store Management, Native Big Cartel apps, Payment Processors, and Domain Providers.
For instance, if you go to the native Big Cartel apps category, you can find entries like Big Cartel for iOS, Big Cartel for Android, Google Analytics, Google Domains, Pulley, and Zapier. On the other hand, you can rely on apps like Instagram, MailChimp, and LiveChat for marketing. You can also use many payment processing apps like Venmo, PayPal Credit, Apple Pay, and Square.
The Big Cartel app allows you to insert these add-ons into your online store with minimal effort. We find it just amazing that you can integrate Apple Pay and Venmo payment into your store in seconds. There are some options to customise how these buttons look as well. In the same way, you can convert your customer email list to a marketing campaign. It will be easy for you to regularly keep in touch with the customers.
Indeed, Big Cartel does not have the most extensive list of apps and integrations. However, the apps available in the list are so great and effective. They are enough to build, manage, and market your web store with ease. We also love that you can expect high-quality support from the team while dealing with add-ons available on the platform.
Hardware/Software Requirements
It is where the Big Cartel app gets all the praise. Let us talk about the availability of apps first. The primary way to manage your Big Cartel-based websites is the native web app itself.
However, in addition to this fully-fledged interface, you can use the native Big Cartel app for Android and iOS.
The best part? All three options do not need high-end hardware requirements.
You can use the Big Cartel web app from almost every web browser out there. It would help if you had a stable internet connection, of course, but it applies to all services in this industry.
The second-best option is to open the Big Cartel on your Android or iOS smartphone. It will be a great idea to optimise the website for viewing from mobile devices. Even though the themes are responsive, it makes sense to get a hands-on look.
On the bright side, if you want to make quick changes to the website when you are on the go, you can do that too. Altogether, you can run the Big Cartel app on almost all laptops and smartphones out there.
Pricing
We already mentioned that Big Cartel allows you to create an online store free of cost. However, you must look at the pricing plan to understand if the package contains all the features you need.
- Free Plan: This plan costs nothing per month, and you can sell up to five products for free. You get all the basic features, such as connecting custom domains, real-time data tracking, shipment tracking, and the ability to run discounts.
- Platinum Plan: In this plan, you can sell up to 50 different products. If you are ready to spend $9.99 per month, you can get custom theming and editing options. In addition to all the features we have found in the free plan, you get inventory tracking options.
- Diamond Plan: If you want to sell up to 250 products, you can get this plan by paying $19.99/month. There are no additional features in the package apart from the fact that you can add and sell a vast inventory of products.
- Titanium Plan: This plan allows you to sell up to 500 different products with ease. You will have to pay $29.99 per month for that, though. You are essentially paying extra to sell a better line of products.
Here is what we think about the pricing plans. We would have loved to see if Big Cartel included additional features in the paid plans. Now, it feels we have to pay a whopping amount for selling more products.
The big problem is that you may have to move from this platform if you overhaul your inventory and offer thousands of products or services. Despite all these, it is excellent to start a fully functional commerce store by paying nothing — even if it has only 5 products.
Customer Service
The customer service options from the Big Cartel app are not that impressive, to be honest. You can get in touch with the team only via email. Even that is available for a limited period of 9 AM to 6 PM EST Monday to Friday.
So, if you come across some trouble during the weekend, you will have to wait until Monday to sort it out. We would have loved to see some live-chat-based support options in the platform, considering that the platform charges a considerable amount of money for premium plans.
We believe the Knowledge Base from Big Cartel does an impressive job on the flip side. It explains everything you would want to know to keep your website running. Overall, though, customer service is not the strongest side of Big Cartel.
Conclusion
Big Cartel is not the perfect eCommerce website for everyone.
However, if you want to build an intuitive online store for your artistic products, you cannot go wrong with Big Cartel. You can use simple themes and customisation options for a streamlined experience.
On the other hand, powerful add-ons for Apple Pay and PayPal are excellent for providing a super-simple UI for payment. Altogether, if you are willing to pay a little extra for added convenience, Big Cartel would not let you down.
