BigCartel website builder is a modern web builder, suitable for creative people such as artists, designers, musicians, bakers, writers, photographers, and other artists, to set up an online store and run their business. By using several pre-made themes, with additional customization tools, BigCartel enables anyone to create a unique and user-friendly website and sell for free.
There has been a lot of skepticism about the BigCartel platform. In a market where people spend hundreds of dollars for standard eCommerce websites, how justifiable and reliable can BigCartel be, for the fact that it makes its products available for free?
Therefore, to unravel the mystery behind this website-making tool, here’s a proper review of the platform. So, read on to find out if BigCartel is suitable for you and your brand.
A Quick Overview of BigCartel
Founded in 2005, BigCartel is established to assist artists and creative-minded people in selling digital and physical products by creating a small or medium-sized online store to promote their brands. BigCartel prides itself as an easy-to-use tool that lets you build, manage, and run your eCommerce store with its intuitive interface and design.
The user-friendly platform supports beginners and small businesses to get the primary usage of an eCommerce builder. However, to get the most out of this website building tool and activate the additional customization, basic knowledge of coding might be required to tweak the CDS, JavaScript, and HTML features.
Who Can Use BigCartel?
Unlike big site builders like Shopify that powers vast online stores and merchandise, the BigCartel eCommerce site builder was built for small online stores. BigCartelis ideal for small businesses that are just getting started.
Features of BigCartel
The niche of this website builder is basically focused on artists and creatives. Over a million artists and makers have used BigCartel to set up their online shop to sell over $2.5 billion of their work. The platform has limited basic features, as it aims to make things simple for beginners and startups.
Here are some of the features of BigCartel:
- It is entirely built for artists and makers to run creative businesses.
- No fees are charged on sales.
- Google Analytics integration for insight into customer behavior and sales.
- Free customizable themes.
- Provision of four different plans, including the free package.
- Discount codes and coupons for rewarding loyal customers.
- Sell online and in-person.
- Integrate and sell on Facebook.
- Inventory tracking.
- Shipment tracking.
- Order management.
- Ability to upgrade and downgrade between plans at any time.
BigCartel Plans and Pricing
BigCartel offers four unique plans at affordable prices. Users of the platform are placed on monthly payments, and therefore not locked in a contract. As a result, you can cancel your package, upgrade, or downgrade your plan at any time with just a click of a button on the website. The following are the pricing plans available for users:
The Gold Plan (cost $0)
- Sell up to 5 products.
- No credit card is needed.
- One image per product.
- Ability to sell in-person and online.
- Custom bigcartel.com domain name.
- Free customizable themes.
- Limited features.
The Platinum Plan ($9.99/month)
- Sell up to 50 products.
- Five images per product.
- Free customizable themes.
- Theme code editing.
- Sell online and in-person.
- Custom bigcartel.com domain name.
- Google Analytics, inventory tracking, and other premium features.
The Diamond Plan ($19.99/month)
- Sell up to 250 products.
- Five images per product.
- Custom domain name.
- Theme code editing.
- Sales tax autopilot.
- Google Analytics, shipment tracking, and all premium features.
The Titanium Plan ($29.99/month)
- Sell up to 500 products.
- Five images per product.
- Free customizable themes.
- Theme code editing.
- Custom domain name available.
- Google Analytics, inventory tracking, shipment tracking, and all premium features.
Features
Ease of Usage
BigCartel has an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. It provides its menus and dashboard in a simple format for anyone to navigate. BigCartel has a user-friendly onboarding process that gives you helpful prompts, reminders, and suggestions while creating your online store. As a result, it guides you through the task of setting up the online store. The only challenge for most people is in the area of theme code editing.
Templates and Design
The simplicity of the design and themes of BigCartel makes it look great on all devices. All the themes are mobile-friendly and responsive to fit mobile and tablet screens. Unlike the intricate designs of other eCommerce website builders, BigCartel provides a library of free modern and stylish themes that makes the process of creating a website seem effortless and straightforward. You can switch between themes and templates at any time, while your products are automatically formatted to fit the new design.
Sales Tools and Functionalities
Regardless of its size, an excellent online store should be equipped with tools that can aid easy navigation and interaction of users of the online shop and also simplify the process of making sales. This platform is equipped with essential sales tools and features, including the following:
Apps and Third-Party Plugins
BigCartel provides and enables users to make fair use of Apps and third-party plugins that they can integrate with other eCommerce functionality. All the apps and third-party plugins are entirely accessible on any package plans, including the free Gold plan. Some of the apps in the BigCartel App Store are:
BigCartel for iOS
This is a free-to-use app for mobile applications on any iOS-enabled device such as the iPhone.
Google Analytics
This is a free plugin for site analytics, customer behavior, and sales.
Live Chat
This is a paid app for customer support and interaction.
Lucky Orange
This app is also used for site analytics.
Pulley
Pulley is suitable for digital products.
MailChimp
This plugin enables you to set up personalized emails for email marketing and newsletter.
Facebook Store
This app enables you to sell products on Facebook by adding a tab of your store to your Facebook business page.
Zapier
This plugin allows you to have access to several tools, add-ons, and widgets, including customer management and social media promotion.
Shipment and Delivery apps
BigCartel enables its users to integrate Apps like ShipRush, ShipStation, and ShipRobot to manage the shipment of orders.
Prints
You can use either Printful or Art of Where apps for custom printing on your online store.
Payment Gateways
BigCartel provides different payment gateways to aid transactions on your online store. The payment solutions include PayPal, Stripe, and Square.
Sales Technology
BigCartel provides tools that will enable you to create a seamless shopping process. There’s no login or registration required of customers to shop and checkout. Though this might not go down well with some customers who prefer to save their details for other purchases, it implies that anyone can come to your online store, make purchases, and checkout without worrying about their submitted details.
Payment Solutions
The checkout process in BigCartel accepts PayPal and other payment solutions, including Stripe and Square. You can choose any payment processor you prefer or use them all. However, it should be noted that BigCartel is not a Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant. This means that you can’t accept credit card payments through BigCartel but can be done through your preferred payment processor’s checkout.
Social Integration
With the Facebook Store plugin, users of BigCartel CAM add a store to their Facebook business page and sell to customers via social media. Additionally, you can tag the products on Instagram for promotion and sales.
Customer Support and Help
The support team of BigCartel is available Monday through Friday, 9 am to 6 pm EST, to provide email support to users of the platform. Besides, the BigCartel knowledge base, which offers help on topical issues related to website setup, is well outlined and easy to navigate. The topics covered cut across setting up your website, customization, product addition, and management of the online shop. You can also refer to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section to learn more about the platform and guides on how to get started.
BigCartel Pros
- It has a simple and easy-to-use interface.
- It provides affordable packages.
- It offers a unique plan to sell merchandise online for free.
- It’s a suitable alternative to expansive big website builders like Shopify and WooCommerce.
- It has good site performance and a mobile-responsive interface.
- It has a unique niche – built for artists and creative people selling individual pieces.
BigCartel Cons
- It has limited and too basic templates.
- It offers low customization and theme designs.
- Not suitable for large stores or businesses.
- It lacks website search functionality.
- It has limited payment options.
- It lacks many eCommerce features.
Conclusion
BigCartel is the only website builder that lets its users sell for free. Tye platform does not charge any additional fee on sales, as it is entirely built for artists and creatives who are looking to growing their business rather than expanding it.
BigCartel might be smaller than its competition, but it offers quality service that other big website builders wouldn’t provide for free. There’s so much value embedded in this simple and affordable eCommerce website builder.