Table of Contents
Big Cartel is a multi-vendor marketplace for the arts, crafts and lifestyle products. Brands like Etsy, Amazon, Hobby Lobby and more have been successfully using Big Cartel’s platform to start an ecommerce business in just minutes.
Big Cartel is a website that allows users to sell their products online. The site has a huge range of features and is one of the most popular ecommerce solutions out there. It’s a great option for new businesses, but some people have had mixed opinions on it. Read more in detail here: bigcartel.com reviews.
Big Cartel is an easy-to-use ecommerce solution for creatives who want to sell their items online without having to spend a lot of money. The all-in-one platform enables you to create a website using themes that highlight your items, as well as take payments without incurring transaction costs right away. Big Cartel provides a free plan and premium levels that start at $9.99 per month.
Pay a visit to Big Cartel.
Big Cartel’s Recommendations
Big Cartel was ranked number two on our list of the top free ecommerce platforms, with a rating of 2.62 out of five stars. It’s the only free self-hosted ecommerce platform we looked at that lets you use your own domain. It received excellent scores because to its easy platform and visually beautiful templates; but, product limits (the free plan only allows for five items) and a lack of inventory monitoring (no SKU management) kept it from receiving a better grade.
Big Cartel is especially recommended for:
- Big Cartel was designed specifically for artists and creatives who want to sell their personalized, handcrafted, or limited edition items. Big Cartel is great for companies with a little inventory, so if you just need to sell a few things at a time, it’s hard to beat. Its elegant layouts were created with the goal of exhibiting visually stunning product photographs.
- Businesses without current intentions to expand: Big Cartel’s free plan is ideal if you have no immediate intentions to scale your company and simply aim to sell a few things each month. With the free plan, you may sell up to five goods.
When Big Cartel Isn’t the Right Fit
- Shopify is what you need if you want a full-fledged ecommerce website that can expand with you. It’s a platform that’s great for startups, but it also offers opportunity for expansion and scalability. You may also use its platform to create a whole website.
- Square Online is the greatest solution if you have a brick-and-mortar business and want to add an online component for pickup or local delivery sales. It provides a comprehensive POS for your brick-and-mortar business and allows you to create a full website or a basic one-page site for free.
- BigCommerce is a better option if you have a high-volume company or a large product catalog. You have complete control over your payment processor, and it may house an infinite number of products—physical, digital, or services—with no additional expenses.
Are you looking for something unique? To select a service or software that’s perfect for you, read our guide to the top ecommerce platforms for small companies.
Overview of the Big Cartel
Pay a visit to Big Cartel.
Pricing by the Big Cartel
Big Cartel provides a free plan as well as two premium plans starting at $9.99 a month. All Big Cartel subscriptions provide the ability to create your own online shop using customized themes, sell both online and in person, utilize a custom domain, monitor shipments, and offer discounts or promotions. Product restrictions, inventory tracking, bulk editing, product option groups, and the ability to add Google analytics are the primary distinctions between the tiers.
The Gold plan on Big Cartel is free and enables you to sell up to five goods with one picture each. Big Cartel is the only free ecommerce website builder we’re aware of that allows you to connect a custom domain, such as www.yourstore.com, in addition to WooCommerce and PrestaShop. If you don’t have your own domain, you may use a Big Cartel subdomain for free, such as yourstore.BigCartel.com.
It also allows you to connect a small but powerful collection of tools, such as Mailchimp, ShipStation, and live chat, onto your website. If you need to sell more goods and incorporate digital things like e-books and films, you’ll want to upgrade to the premium versions.
Except for the quantity of items you may sell, Big Cartel’s premium memberships, Platinum and Diamond, are virtually the same. You may also alter the theme code, provide discount coupons, manage inventory, and create product option groups, in addition to the features stated above.
While Big Cartel’s price seems to be reasonable, the features supplied in each plan are restricted and unscalable. When you upgrade, the amount of things you can sell increases, but you don’t receive any more sophisticated tools to help you run your company.
In example, Shopify’s $29 per month plan allows you to sell an infinite number of items, but Big Cartel’s $19.99 per month plan only allows you to sell 500. With the former, you also have additional marketing possibilities, greater SEO tools, and payment methods. Big Cartel will not provide you with the greatest value for money if you want to expand your online business.
This is an excellent alternative if you want to keep it tiny and maintain it that way. You may start selling online right now with its free plan.
Features of the Big Cartel
Big Cartel is proud of its user-friendly platform, which may serve as an all-in-one solution for creatives. You can effortlessly put up your items, take payments, and fulfill orders from a single dashboard after you join up. It’s worth mentioning that Big Cartel lacks sophisticated ecommerce services like SEO tools, email marketing, and comprehensive inventory management that you may need.
Designing A Website
Because the platform was established with artists in mind, it’s easy to see how the website designs are styled and current, and unlike many rivals, they’re free of annoying adverts. On the footer, there’s simply a little Big Cartel logo that you may delete with code.
Big Cartel currently features 18 themes, all of which are minimalistically created with an emphasis on aesthetic appeal. Users may update the CSS files for the themes, but you’ll need to subscribe to a premium membership if you want to change the HTML code.
Here are a few samples of Big Cartel’s website templates. (Image courtesy of Big Cartel)
Management of Products
Because Big Cartel’s free plan only allows for five physical items, don’t anticipate to have to fill out a lot of product information. You may post a single picture of a product, provide a description, categorize it, and determine price, shipping, and tax costs. Only a premium subscription gives you the option to offer product variations.
You may update your shop with new goods and set up these data.
When it comes to product names, keep in mind that after Big Cartel has developed a URL for your product, you won’t be able to change it.
Payment Service Providers
Stripe, PayPal, Venmo, Square, and Apple Pay are among the payment options available with Big Cartel. It does not impose any more costs on top of what these providers already charge.
Integrations
The number of extensions available on Big Cartel is restricted. Mailchimp, Instagram, and Zapier are among the most famous connectors, allowing you to grow your integrations with ease.
As you can see, Big Cartel has a very basic and restricted feature set. While this may be a disadvantage for some small business owners, Big Cartel has been very clear about its target audience and has established a steady customer base in the arts and crafts community, with many examples of artpreneurs transitioning from their Etsy stores to open a solo store on Big Cartel.
Ease of Use of the Big Cartel
- Dashboard that is easy to use
- With the design wizard, the onboarding process is simple.
- The onboarding process is pleasant.
- FAQ/Help Center
- Video Tutorials
- Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time, email Customer Support.
Big Cartel has a very user-The onboarding process is pleasant.. When you’re setting up your online store, it gives you helpful prompts, reminders, and suggestions. Being guided through the set up tasks makes it feel beginner-friendly and easy to use.
Setting up a shop with Big Cartel is really simple, much easier than setting up a business with Shopify (which is our top pick for an ecommerce platform when it comes to ease of use). The ease of the setup procedure is, of course, related to the platform’s feature limitations.
Big Cartel does not have a phone number or a live chat option. However, email response times are quick, and the provider’s support staff is active on social media, particularly Twitter.
Alternatives to the Big Cartel
Compare Big Cartel to our best free ecommerce website platforms if you’re not sure whether it’s perfect for you.
What Users Have to Say About the Big Cartel
There aren’t a lot of Big Cartel reviews online. However, the majority of the reviews we reviewed were good, with most customers mentioning how the free plan enables them to set up a basic shop. They also said that the company’s price plans are reasonable. Meanwhile, a common criticism is that it lacks scaling features, such as sophisticated inventory capacities and customisation.
Other reviewers and user review sites gave Big Cartel reviews the following ratings at the time of publication:
- G2 has a rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars based on 21 reviews.
- The platform received a 3.5 out of 5 star rating in Merchant Maverick’s evaluation.
- In its evaluation, Website Builder Expert awarded it a 3.0 out of 5 grade.
I found the following patterns when reading customer reviews:
Conclusion
Big Cartel’s simplicity may be a source of aggravation for developing enterprises and skilled web developers. Big Cartel is all you can dream when it comes to simplicity of use, since it is developed for creatives and not for expanding ecommerce enterprises. Big Cartel is a good alternative if you simply need to sell a few things at a time. Shopify or BigCommerce, on the other hand, are good options if you require a platform that can handle long-term development.
Pay a visit to Big Cartel.
You Might Also Enjoy…
Big Cartel is a website that allows you to create and sell products through their platform. The company offers a wide range of features, including customizable storefronts and the ability to set your own prices. Reference: big cartel complaints.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Tags
- shopify vs big cartel
- big cartel reviews 2021
- big cartel review widget
- big cartel review reddit
- how much does big cartel take per sale
