Services like Big Cartel have parted the once-feared ocean of eCommerce. One can make a website for anything for anyone through the power of website builders.

Web Builders are not only the tools to create a website. But a complete eCommerce service package. They take care of many aspects of your business.

The best part is that you get to decide what parts need automation and what needs your attention. Such is the case with Big Cartel.

Big Cartel is an eCommerce website builder with a straightforward approach. It aids its user to create the best online store experience. With eCommerce at its core, Big Cartel makes effective use of minimalism.

Big Cartel’s basic process to get up & running is as follows—

1. You create an account
2. Upload your products
3. Customize your online store
4. Launch your website

The most remarkable aspect of their home website is how responsive it is. And they took this same approach all the way into their design principles.

So on the surface, Big Cartel is easy to use, easy to customize, and has a modern design. Apart from all the typical makings of a web builder, here’s what you need to know—-

• But how does a responsive design approach lend to a better sales approach?
• Is Big Cartel as good as the reviews say it is? Will it be suitable for you?
• How does Big Cartel enjoy not being another CMS in the market?

Let this review be your initial and in-depth look into Big Cartel. With this article, you will be equipped with all the necessary information. With this article, you can start making your own website with Big Cartel.

Pros

• A free plan (and no credit card required)
• No sales fees (Yes, Big Cartel does not charge any sales fees!)
• Beginner-friendly design tools with access to code
• A short but extremely affordable set of plans
• No learning curve to start designing your store
• Great performance
• Good customer support

Cons

• No code customization in the free plan
• Plan variation is limited with no technical depth
• No mention of security features
• Five images per product

Pros of Big Cartel

If there’s one thing that can’t be taken away from Big Cartel—you can start using it for no cost or any credit card details. You can upload up to 5 products, with no commission, no after-sales fees, no nothing. Great for sellers with singular products.

Big Cartel Features:

Simplicity is one way to start describing Big Cartel for something as complex as web design.

You can have the biggest, best feature set in your web builder but if it can’t achieve what you want then what’s the point? Big Cartel relies on a handful of tools to craft the right UI for your product.

The Themes section has a short but fancy selection of themes for such a niche website builder. The ability to switch between customizable theme layouts is something to recommend.

The themes are professionally-made with attention to the most modern design trends. Like along the likes of Etsy, Squarespace, Wix, GoDaddy, etc.

You can learn about a particular theme by clicking on ‘Tips & examples’.

Then there’s the Settings section that lets you edit your selected theme like adding a header logo, a home page welcome image, editing colors, changing fonts, products to display per row, and social media URLs.

As mentioned in Cons before, you can only add up to 5 images, more specifically, only 1 with the free plan. But if you think about it, you can do a lot with just 5.

Sure, more space for images cannot be bad, but even if you look into sites like Amazon.com. They allow for only up to 7 product images at a time. So, 5 for your business isn’t too bad considering you aren’t going the perfectionist route.

Going to the dashboard, it has this neat graph presentation for your online store. You can track visitors, orders, conversion, and revenue over weeks, months, and years.

As said before, Big Cartel is big on a minimalistic aesthetic so you’re not crowded with too much info. You get all the real-time stats in one spot and then you get to work. Simple as that.

Did I mention a custom domain? Yep, you get your own domain URL to own and share with anyone. Also, you can edit your shop URL at any time and create other custom domains too.

Using the service this far, one thing made clear is that you can automate a lot of options with Big Cartel.

One such feature is Sales Tax Autopilot. The ‘Taxes’ option can be set to automatic. This would calculate the appropriate tax with the given region right at checkout. This could save you a lot of hassle when dealing with worldwide shipping.

Or if you go with the ‘Manual’ option, you can pre-define a tax rate per country of your choice. While this could be more work, you can get to control taxes on products or shipping or a combined tax.

Ease of Use

Most website builders do not require a single line of code. Hence, ease of use is the yardstick to live by when deciding to choose.

Big Cartel operates on simple principles. It’s not as DIY as services like Webflow or WordPress.

The advantage of being a simple kind of website builder is familiarity. In UX design, familiarity plays an important role. If your users have used other websites like yours, they are inclined to get around your website the same way.

Hence, making the theme system more useful than a cliche. Ingenuity is great too but not at the cost of usability.

Themes allow you to be more creative. The freedom to pick a random theme, customize it, go through different pages, and test on different screen layouts feels nice.

Not to mention, all the themes automatically adjust your content and products effortlessly.

The font selection is hand-picked and short. You can add banner logos, and background images, change the product list layout, welcome text, color hierarchies, and just about anything that one could wish to do with code.

Under the Pages section, you can create and add new pages that work right inside the theme without any fuss. Just add your new products to the page and get the sale up & running in an hour.

With the given expanse of themes, the Code section should be a non-issue. But to keep it short, with the free plan you can only access the CSS section of your site. So any advanced customization is welcome there.

However, the Platinum tier would allow you to edit everything. But that is 19.99/month with the ability to add 50 products at a time as opposed to 5 with the Free plan.

Response and Uptime

Before you even think of making your website live, you need to worry about uptime numbers.

Fortunately for Big Cartel, things are definitely on the upside. Now, remember this is a rather modest establishment. Compared to the bigger giants in the business, you’re on a leaner diet.

There are no big clients attached to Big Cartel. What you see is what you get.

The website I tested was rather light. No huge elements were added but with themes, your website is bound to be light.

Regardless, my website with the customer domain hostmap.bigcartel.com sported great numbers. The response times were fast and consistent too. The website is vague on what kind of CDN it is working on but it cannot be too bad.

Thankfully, there’s no limit to your site’s visitor count. You can attain quite a bit of site growth with the free plan alone. If not, you can upgrade any time you like.

Customer Support

There’s a small question icon badge present at all times on Big Cartel. That is your way to reach for help any time you get stuck.

You can either go to their FAQ site to learn more and look for answers OR get help with live chat.

The help chat is an interesting story. Along with automated responses, you also get the reminder that this is indeed not a live chat. The chat representative is away for now.

For one, honesty is appreciated. AI chatbots are nice and all, but the human touch is essential for service. Second, the small establishment factor comes in. They probably do not have enough resources at hand for live chat to be available 24/7.

So I managed to wait for a whole 3 hours and finally got a word back!

This is disappointing especially when you’re in the middle of something. And need a quick response to maybe a query as simple as how to track your inventory.

The help website however is well done. Some thought went into getting it right.

Typically, the FAQ section of a website is left in an unpolished state. Most website builder services rely on direct sources of contact much more. But Big Cartel went for beautiful icons and great presentations.

You can either search for a query or go looking through the listed sections.

The information on the help website is simplified and to the point. They come with appropriate screenshots and links to the pages in context. So you can try out the solutions instantly.

This is a big help while trying to learn about the service the right way.

The last section on the website has links to youtube videos you can watch and follow. This is not only great for beginners but also for some tried & true web veterans trying to learn. So you can either read your way through the help sections or watch videos to find your way around.

Cons of Big Cartel

If there’s one thing I’d like the devs to look into, it could be these suggestion prompts.

Yes, they are helpful but a little obstructive. The one in the picture came with a total of 3 prompts.

Next up, the security feels empty. Although perusing the help website led to SSL security. This is the only primary form of security which was a relief. So for a free plan SSL sounds perfect but for higher tiers, some DDoS protection could be better.

The free plan isn’t too barebones but it is limited in its own way. For example, one image per product does not feel realistic. You can add 5 products but with ONE image the customer cannot be persuaded into a sale.

Even the higher tier plans have caveats that couldn’t be reasoned with given the price. You can look around more and get a better deal.

However, you could benefit from a drop shipper’s point of view. Limited products, less need for features.

Other than that, there is a general lack of technical specifications. This could turn off some eCommerce veterans from getting into Big Cartel. Quick and easy isn’t always the right way.

You have already seen the live chat. Not horrible, but it could be better for sure.

Conclusion

So far, Big Cartel feels like an incomplete service rife with a mixture of issues.

However, nothing is indeed perfect. Even the bigger eCommerce ventures have their caveats.

If put in a different context, Big Cartel could be perfect for people looking for the easiest way to get into eCommerce OR looking for a launchpad service to get to know the basics of eCommerce first and maybe invest into something bigger later on.

Maybe your idea is in a prototype phase. You need funding to get the final product rolling into production. Or the second round of funding to meet the growing demand. Well, you need only one page after all!

There are multiple reasons to look towards a service like Big Cartel. Despite its shortcomings.

Website builders like Big Cartel have the potential to grow. They can turn into something much better given enough time. Especially with a free plan that has no visitor limit, you have nothing to lose.

So do I recommend Big Cartel despite its flaws?

Sure. It is worth a try, gives you a simplified interface, needs a quick website up & running, deals with no commission fees, and could make use of the features at hand. Hey, it’s only my opinion, you might get hooked and upgrade in the future.

Now it’s your turn!

What do you think about the Big Cartel? Does it make up for its negatives with its positives? Have you used Big Cartel for your business? What were your experiences like?

Whatever your thoughts may be, do remember to let me know in the comments below!