# Bigcartel.com???



## Rebelesque (Jun 14, 2006)

Does anyone use it? I was thinking of building a website and instead of having a shopping cart set up (I dont know how to do), I thought I could have a link that says "shop" that would take people to my bigcartel site. 

Any thoughts...???


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

Rebelesque said:


> Does anyone use it? I was thinking of building a website and instead of having a shopping cart set up (I dont know how to do), I thought I could have a link that says "shop" that would take people to my bigcartel site.
> 
> Any thoughts...???


Big cartel is basically a website and shopping cart in one.. so instead of creating a website and linking to your Big Cartel site, you could just do it all in one place.

Another similar service to Big Cartel is Shopify.. you might check it out to compare. Shopify.com


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

I think I saw someone's site here that was run on bigcartel. It seems like a pretty nice service if that's what you're looking for.


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## zagadka (Jul 6, 2006)

i wish we had gone with big cartel, i've heard great things about them. we have valueweb. the name itself should have scared us away. soooo many glitches in the system. sooooooo many.


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

zagadka said:


> i wish we had gone with big cartel, i've heard great things about them. we have valueweb. the name itself should have scared us away. soooo many glitches in the system. sooooooo many.


Why don't you switch?


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## 3leches (Jul 23, 2006)

Yeah, I've been thinking about going with BigCartel. I have heard real nice things about them, and the interface looks fairly simple.

Though Im not sure if the only payment method they accept is Paypal.


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## vincebd (Jan 18, 2007)

i use go daddy quick shopping cart, but it doesn't seem that great. although I'm trying to start a company not just a shirt site. how much is bigcartel cost per month? the quickshopping cart from godaddy is 5 bux a month


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## Rebelesque (Jun 14, 2006)

I dont remember how much, but I do remember it was pretty cheap, and i didnt see wether or not they took any percentage from your sales. 

But what i wanted to do was have a website made and on the "shop" link, i wanted it to take my shoppers to big cartel's site. I thought that may be cool. That way I have a professional custom site, with the ease of big cartel's shopping. Does that make sense to you guys? If so, what do you think? 

Thanks!


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

Rebelesque said:


> But what i wanted to do was have a website made and on the "shop" link, i wanted it to take my shoppers to big cartel's site. I thought that may be cool. That way I have a professional custom site, with the ease of big cartel's shopping. Does that make sense to you guys? If so, what do you think?


I don't think this is a good idea. You want to keep your customers on the same site if possible - sending them to a new site can be very confusing.

If you are having a professional custom site made for you, you should just have your web designer add a shopping cart to it (like osCommerce or CubeCart). That way you can have a snazzy site and keep your customers on the same page when they make their purchase.


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## zagadka (Jul 6, 2006)

yeah, our site redirects to another page (another reason why valueweb is a crumbucket), and i think it costs us a lot of sales...

the thing with bigcartel is i think they only accept paypal, and your domain name will be something like, for example, effineffigy.bigcartel.com...which isn't very appealing. to me anyhoot.


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## reyna24 (Mar 15, 2007)

You can also Mask your Domain...its pretty easy to do. The only drawback i think its the secure site might not show up. I am still testing...


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## kwg2200 (Apr 23, 2007)

zagadka said:


> yeah, our site redirects to another page (another reason why valueweb is a crumbucket), and i think it costs us a lot of sales...
> 
> the thing with bigcartel is i think they only accept paypal, and your domain name will be something like, for example, effineffigy.bigcartel.com...which isn't very appealing. to me anyhoot.


Yes, bigcartel uses paypal as the checkout system, but customers do not have to have a paypal account - they can just use a credit card. For $10 a month you can use your own domain name along with some other feature upgrades. $20 a month will get you even more upgrades, but I only have the $10 account so I don't know too much about that.


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## oddhuman (Jul 27, 2006)

I have a big cartel and shopify test site. Both are pretty good. I like shopify because of the ability to add custom pages. But I like the monthly subscription big cartel offers unlike shopify who take a percentage from every transaction.


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## swissarmour (Apr 29, 2007)

what percentage does shopify take? is it plus paypal or do they process for free? keep in mind paypal is 3% so it comes to the same thing as big cartel then... sites are very nice on shopify tho


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## NeoNiko (May 12, 2007)

I have seen bigcartel before and isn't bad if your just starting out and want something super easy, and free and youdon't wanna do any work except get money. Never seen shopify, but they don't list prices either. Cafepress is another option, but I think they're too pricey.


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## zagadka (Jul 6, 2006)

As an update, we did switch to Big Cartel about 5 months ago and couldn't be happier.

Its simple, straight-forward, and easy. Plus, if you sign up for the Platinum package, you get (I think) Google Analytics that tracks searches and results for your merch/ webstore.

They have a new thang where you can do promo codes, which is nice if you want to send a sale "coupon" to your email list.

thumbs up!


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## TimeWithoutTheE (Mar 31, 2007)

i would recommend bigcartel to anyone that wanted an online store setup.
its 10 bucks a month and you get alota stuff for the price.
I have to disagree with posters earlier when they think it has problems losing customers. I think alot of buyers feel more comfortable buying from a website that has other online stores and a secured checkout. Not to mention you get other shoppers from other stores as well.


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## nimo05 (Oct 16, 2007)

Just signed up with bigcartel....couldnt have been easier!! dont have any shirts up yet...but sooon will!!
I just wish paypal wouldnt take sooo much......
signed up for the free one BTW....you can put of to 5 products for free!


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## karlking85 (Sep 26, 2007)

What kind of bandwidth does Bigcartel offer?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

karlking85 said:


> What kind of bandwidth does Bigcartel offer?


In today's webhosting market, bandwidth is the least of your worries. Most any webhost will give you way more bandwidth than you'll ever need.


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## karlking85 (Sep 26, 2007)

I must admit, bandwidth is still one of those things I know just a little about. I have no idea how much a typical ecommerce site can eat through in a day, or month. And I know it can spike considerably during certains seasons and upmarkets, as well.


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## JamieP (Oct 18, 2007)

nimo05 said:


> I just wish paypal wouldnt take sooo much......


How much would paypal take on a $20.00 order for example?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

karlking85 said:


> I must admit, bandwidth is still one of those things I know just a little about. I have no idea how much a typical ecommerce site can eat through in a day, or month. And I know it can spike considerably during certains seasons and upmarkets, as well.


My main point is that bandwidth isn't something you really need to consider for an ecommerce site (when comparing hosting packages). 

Unless you are doing some heavy video/file/image sharing, bandwidth isn't even an issue. Every major host that you compare will give you way more than enough (you don't even need to know how much you need )


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

JamieP said:


> How much would paypal take on a $20.00 order for example?


Here's a link to PayPal's fees

On a $20 transaction, they would take probably about .90 cents. 

Remember though that any sale you get through PayPal (or any other credit card processor) is a sale you wouldn't have had if you didn't accept that method of payment.

If you don't accept PayPal and that's the way the customer wants to pay, you may have just lost a sale.

Same with Visa/MC/Amex,etc


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## karlking85 (Sep 26, 2007)

Rodney said:


> My main point is that bandwidth isn't something you really need to consider for an ecommerce site (when comparing hosting packages).
> 
> Unless you are doing some heavy video/file/image sharing, bandwidth isn't even an issue. Every major host that you compare will give you way more than enough (you don't even need to know how much you need )


That's the best news I've heard all day!  It's a good thing too, because I really DON'T know how much bandwidth I need. lol


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