Big Cartel is a very popular option among creative artists, designers, and musicians.
It lets you set up your own website with several pre-built themes and provides just the right number of tools to get a small store running smoothly.
Big Cartel was found in 2005 by Matt Wigham as a developer-friendly e-commerce platform targeted towards artists and makers looking to sell their merchandise online.
Since then, it has expanded to serve over 75,000 websites across the globe.
Big Cartel is pretty reasonably priced and on top of that, they also offer a free package which as expected has some limitations in terms of features.
Pricing ranges from $9.99/month to $29.00/month.
In this review, we’ll be looking at Big Cartel pricing, features, and pros and cons, and how easy is the platform to use in general.
Let’s jump right in!
Summary
| Website Builder | Big Cartel |
| Established in | 2005 |
| Best For | beginners, startups, small e-commerce stores |
| Pricing | Starts From $9.99/month |
| Promo Code | “BACK2SCHOOL” to get 35% storewide off |
| Website | Click Here |
What is a Big Cartel?
Big Cartel is a cloud-based e-commerce platform that enables you to create and manage your store from any device with internet connectivity.
It is an artist-focused tool that comes with basic toolsets and store handling capabilities to run a store.
Big Cartel is equipped with real-time stats, SEO, order management, and plenty of promotional tools.
For those with additional customization needs, the platform gives you access to the source code and tweaks the HTML, JavaScript directly.
Big Cartel provides a simple and cost-effect way to start selling your products online.
Cartel pricing starts from $9.99/month and goes up to the biggest package which goes up to $29.99/month.
Big Cartel Pricing
There are three paid plans to choose from. The only difference between all the plans is the number of products you can list, not much in terms of features or tools.
Gold Plan
This is Big Cartel’s free plan which allows you to sell five products online or in-person and comes with pre-made themes, Big Cartel domain name, real-time dashboard, shipment tracking, automatic tax calculations.
Platinum Plan
Starting from $9.99/month Platinum plan includes everything from the gold plan plus an ability to sell up to 50 products, connect your domain, and access design code customization, Google Analytics, bulk editing, and inventory tracking tools.
Diamond Plan
Big Cartel’s Diamond plan costs $19.99/month and builds on the previous two plans.
In addition to all the features you’ll get in the Gold and Platinum plan, it allows you to sell up to 250 products with five images per product.
Titanium Plan
Top of the hill is Big Carter’s Titanium plan starting from $29.99/month.
It piles on everything in the platinum plan and lets you sell up to 500 products with five images per product.
Promo Code
Use the promo code “BACK2SCHOOL” to get 35% Off Storewide at Big Cartel.
Features of Big Cartel
Big Cartel offers a fairly simple set of features to run a simple eCommerce store with basic needs. Let’s take a look.
Easy to Use
Big Cartel is incredibly easy to use and has a very simple setup process. Adding products and customizing your site is as easy as pie with Big Cartel.
Pre-made Themes
Big Cartel offers a pretty small collection of themes. There are about 19 themes that are completely free to use.
Mobile App
Big Cartel offers an iOS and Android app for the users to manage their store on the go.
SEO Functionality
All websites built with Big Cartel are SEO optimized.
It also provides SEO features like plain-text URLs, automatic sitemap generation to improve your site’s ranking and draw more traffic.
Order Management
Big Carter has order management tools to help users track orders, send confirmation emails to customers, print shipping labels, and bulk export order history through a CVS file.
Inventory Tracking
With Big Carter, you can keep track of your inventory, and list the items as “Sold out” or “Coming soon” available in the paid plans.
Google Analytics Stats
Big Carter comes with Google Analytics integration, to help you understand user behavior and optimize your website performance according.
Big Cartel Pros and Cons
Pros
- Intuitive user interface
- Full code customization
- Reasonable monthly cost
- Lets you sell for free
- Best for start-ups
- Offer free plan
Cons
- Limited integrations
- Lack of built-in features
- Poor design options
- Not scalable
- Lack of chat and phone support
What makes Big Cartel better than others?
The best thing about Big Cartel is that it doesn’t take a cut from your sales as many other e-commerce platforms would.
This makes it a great solution for small enterprisers or people who sell online as a side job or hobby.
Customer Service
Big Cartel offers customer support primarily through its Help Center and Email.
There is no phone or live chat support and even email support is available from 8 AM to 6 PM EST (Monday to Friday).
Other support offerings include videos, blogs, and social media.
It would be great if they had a 24/7 live chat option but their email support is quite impressive and we received a reply with two hours of emailing them.
Verdict
If you’re just getting started in the e-commerce market and need an easy way to build an online store, Big Cartel may be the right option for you.
Those who want flexibility and a lot of control over the site should look somewhere else.
It is the only e-commerce platform that allows you to set up a store and sell online for free.
However, it is very niche-specific, create with artists in mind, which makes it not suitable for businesses looking for scalability.
The great thing about its pricing is that it caters to different business needs.
The main attraction is the free plan, great for small artists who want to sell their products without making a big financial commitment.
The features vary a little between paid plans and keeping the product limitations aside, it gives you a lot of value for your money, making it a great option for new e-commerce businesses.
In a nutshell, it is not everyone’s cup of tea as it doesn’t offer the bells and whistles of some of the biggest e-commerce platforms.
You’ll likely find other platforms a lot better in terms of functionality and control they offer.
You can also read : Jaaxy Pricing – A safe platform for beginners
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Big Cartel have any hidden costs?
No, Big Cartel doesn’t have any hidden cost. However, keep in mind that you’ll be using third-party apps that will increase the monthly cost of your website.
What type of products can I sell on Big Cartel?
Big Cartel allows you to sell physical products by default. But you can also sell digital products by downloading third-party apps like Pulley which costs $6/month
Amit Gupta is the founder of Website-Builder.Guide.
Amit has spent over half a decade learning about website design and using multiple website builders. He has previously worked on designing websites for multiple clients and loves helping people with their website needs.