Big Cartel Review – Is it easy to set up and worth the price? There are usually many options if you are in the e-commerce market place. From Shopify to Woocommerce, Etsy, and Volusion, there many who can woo you to make your e-commerce website with their help. They are usually the full-stack options for building e-commerce websites at nearly the same price. They have many templates and widgets to attract you to use their features irrespective of the size of your business. These platforms are for the business of all sizes.
Talking of these platforms, Big Cartel is different. Big Cartel’s website provides its service to the creative class of the people by giving them more control than Etsy while being less complicated than Shopify. This company was launched in 2005 and, due to its progressive capacity, has consistently been a dependable player in this market. If you mark the Big Cartel website, you can see that this company describes itself as the home of the “makers, designers, musicians, curators, photographers, builders, and risk-takers.”
Are you one of the “makers, designers, musicians, curators, photographers, builders, and risk-takers?” If yes is the answer, then let us dive in to know more about Big Cartel. This research can help you to understand why the Big Cartel website is a tailor-made option for you. This analysis will help you to choose Big Cartel over other competitors like Shopify, Woocommerce, Etsy, and Volusion.risk takers?” If yes is the answer then let us dive in to know more about Big Cartel. This research can help you to understand why Big Cartel’s website is a tailor-made option for you. Our Big Cartel Review analysis will help you to choose Big Cartel over other competitors like Shopify, Woocommerce, Etsy, and Volusion.
What is Big Cartel?
Big Cartel is an e-commerce platform that depends on cloud hosting. It means you can quickly develop your website and e-commerce store from anywhere. With the simplicity and easy to use interface, this can be the platform for your e-commerce website.
You can sell anything, from jewelry to creative arts, from small machine parts to big machines. The original space of Big Cartel is available for everyone. Using this cloud-hosted e-commerce platform can lead your online business life to a huge success. Big Cartel login interface is also simple and easy, making the experience simple for amateur e-commerce platform users and looking at every aspect Big Cartel middles between the simplicity of Etsy and the technology of Shopify and Woocommerce.
4 Steps to Open a Big Cartel Store:
The main client list of Big Cartel includes-
- Hobbyist
- Small art and craft companies
- Single Person Operation Business
The main reason for these types of people preferring Big Cartel is basically because of their simple to access system in its platform. So, keeping these things in mind, let us look at the 4 steps to open a Big Cartel Store, and bring your business store online with the help of our Big Cartel Review.
Step 1: Create an Account
Creating an account is pretty easy in Big Cartel in 2021. You just need to click on the sign-up button in the upper right corner of the website and you are ready with your Big Cartel account. With this simple step, your Big Cartel sign up process is done without any hurdles. Big Cartel also provides you with a limited free plan which can make your life easy at the starting phase of your online business. You will be prompted to fill in the following things –
- Password
- Store Name
- Store URL
Hola! So, your Big Cartel sign up process is done and dusted easily.
Step 2: Add Products
After your sign up is done you do your Big Cartel login and get redirected to your setup wizard. Regardless of the features and plans, you choose you will have access to the following features-
- Add Products
- Customize your store
- Set up checkout
So, coming to adding the products, you just need to click on the Products tab and then the “+” icon. Then with each product, you should look to add the following information for a better online business journey –
- Product Name
- Price( Sales Tax is added automatically as per your area of business.)
- Description
- Category
- Status( Informing the consumer if your product is in stock, sold out, or is coming soon.)
- Variant( Confirming the size and color of the product)
Then you should add a product image for the visibility of the product. For product images, Big Cartel suggests the following three things-
- Natural Light
- Sharp Focus
- Blank backdrop
You can always refer to the product photography guide to know how to get the best product photo. If you have the free plan then you are allowed to just have one product photo which can give you a certain disadvantage against your competitors.
Step 3: Customize Your Website
Customizing your website with a simple and elegant approach of Big Cartel makes the online store game easy and simplistic for an amateur, saving a lot of probable headaches. You have as much as 16 theme options made available by Big Cartel. These themes have a huge advantage for you over your competitors because they are both pc and mobile-friendly. These themes also come with theme editor, making your work regarding HTML and CSS pretty straightforward and simple.
With the help of the theme editor of these themes, you can make the logo, header, and background with ease. You can also add Instagram Gallery, Custom Page, and even newsletter subscription icon. Among other functions, you can change colors and fonts from the options given by Big Cartel.
If you want more themes, then WeTheme and ThemeFiend are the best third party options for Big Cartel themes. Big Cartel website also provides you with vendors to design custom themes for your website.
Step 4: Setup Checkout
Big Cartel gives you two options for a payout that is Stripe and Paypal. These two are highly reputed payment options all over the world. Big Cartel also does not charge extra fees for using these two payment methods.
These two payment options do not need any introduction. Stripe’s processing fees start from 2.7 percent, and Paypal’s starts at 2.9 percent + 30 US dollars.
By having these two big players of the payment processing market, Big Cartel covers the broadest range of payment options.
With all boxes ticked, you are ready to launch your store with the help of Big Cartel! Let’s finally dive into Big Cartel Review 2021: Features, Setup, and Alternatives.
Big Cartel Review
Big Cartel has features which come in two sets. One set is the standard set of features for which you do not need to pay. The other set is for the paid plan which gives you an added advantage over your competitors. So, let us have a look at the features of Big Cartel.
Free Features of Big Cartel
Big Cartel is not a huge brand that makes you whistle around in happiness, but it helps you with exactly what you need. Let us have a look at the free features provided by Big Cartel.
- Mobile App: The iOS app of Big Cartel is a one-stop solution for easy use.
- Security: The websites of Big Cartel come up with SSL encryption which ensures good protection.
- Search Engine Optimization: The pages of Big Cartel are search engine optimized. Big Cartel also provides you an extensive guide on how to do SEO. This thing gives your prospective customers know about your products, come to your website, and know in-depth about the products they are interested to buy.
- Order Management: Order management becomes simple and easy with the help of Big Cartel. From confirmation emails to tracking the orders, you can do everything easily. You can export everything via a CSV file.
- Customer Support: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST, is the customer support time from Monday to Friday. Big Cartel has one of the top-notch customer support available around in the industry.
Paid Features
With salient features coming in for free, the paid features can be called as the real boosters. So, let us have a look at some of the top-notch paid features:
- Custom Domain:All free stores come as “shop.bigcartel.com” whereas custom domain is like the shop you own it rather than just taking some space in it. Along with this thing, it also gives you a huge advantage when SEO is concerned. Custom domains are always great to have if you think with respect to SEO.
- Inventory Management: You can track your inventory details. You will have data on stocks and products sold. It all becomes simple with Big Cartel.
- Apply Discount:With a paid plan you can provide discount coupons to your customers which they can use during the checkout.
- Analytics:Via the dashboard, the user can track orders easily. You can also insert Google Analytics to it. You can see the conversion rate and other visitor stats which can help you understand your business prospects and possibilities by the given data.
- HTML/CSS Editor:With the paid plan, you can edit the source code of the store.
- Product Images:With the paid plan, you can have up to five images unlike just one with the free plan.
Big Cartel Integration
Big Cartel allows you to integrate with more than 1000 third party software with the help of its paid plugin Zapier. Without Zapier you can still integrate with twelve software tools which are:
- Facebook Store
- MailChimp
- ShipRobot
- ShipStation
- ShipRush
- Pulley
Big Cartel Pricing?
The Big Cartel Pricing plan is pretty simple and clear without any hidden charges. It makes the life of the online store owner pretty easy.
Big Cartel has a free plan, which is known as the gold plan, which allows just five sales per month. Five sales can be useful for a pass time but not for the one who seeks good business.
Then there comes the Platinum Plan, which allows you up to 25 sales every month at just 9.99 US dollars per month. Then with the Diamond Plan, you can sell 100 products in a month at only 19.99 US dollars per month. The highest one is the Titanium Plan, which allows 300 sales every month at just 29.99 US dollars per month.
All the paid plans include all the paid features, the only difference being an increase in the allowance of sales per month as the pricing increases.
Big Cartel Pros
After talking a lot about Big Cartel we need to talk about its benefits which can give an idea regarding why one should go for it. So, let us have a look at Big Cartel’s pros.
- Price: The sale per price ratio is highly reasonable compared to other big players in the market. Giving 25 sales at just 9.99 US dollars is very close to being amazing.
- Easy to use: The USP of Big Cartel is its easy-to-use interface and themes. Even amateur can easily set up a store with the help of Big Cartel without many hurdles.
- User Reviews: Users rate this platform very high because of its easy to use interface. On G2 Crowd it is rated 4.2 out of 5 stars, while on TrustRadius it is rated 9.4 out of 10 stars.
CHECKOUT: WooCommerce vs Shopify in 2021: Who Comes Out On Top?
Big Cartel Cons
Like everything, this platform has its own share of cons.
- Scalability: As you grow you will find these simple things to become a hurdle. Like just 16 themes as options, the lack of many plugins that its competitors provide will become a headache.
- Features: It does not auto-calculate your taxes. For many features, this platform looks bareback.
Big Cartel Alternatives
- Shopify: Shopify is a great alternate for Big Cartel. Its major attraction is that it is free up to 50 sales. You can say it waits till you scale-up.
- Woocommerce: Although technically hard, but you can do unlimited sales here for free. Woocommerce integrates with WordPress to create your online store.
Should I Use Big Cartel for My Small Business?
Big Cartel is good for amateurs, hobbyists, and small businesses because it is easy to use and allows 5 sales per month for free. You can easily build your e-commerce store with the help of Big Cartel which is its biggest advantage. Hope you found our Big Cartel Review helpful 🙂