Big Cartel
Gold Level
is the lowest level and is the only one that's free. With this
level you can have up to 5 products in your store. If you have a
Big Cartel store to sell your band's CDs, then this might be all you
need; you may not even have 5 CDs out yet. You can have one image
per product. All stores have unlimited amounts of custom
categories, FAQs and artists (if you're a record label). You also
get, no matter what level: custom currency, a custom header,
custom colors, navigation by category or artist (record labels), and
you also get statistics on product views/sales. So, although
small, a free store from Big Cartel really is still a good deal.
If you upgrade to Platinum Level, for $9.99 a month, you can get a store with more features. At this level, you can have 25 products instead of just 5 and you can have 3 images per product. That gives you a lot more inventory and the additional pictures can be handy if you need to show different views of your items. You can also customize your store's look by using CSS with the two paid levels (Platinum & Diamond). This will help you stand out a little more; your shop won't look so basic. If you don't know how to use CSS, there are plenty of sites out there that can teach you how to code using CSS. There's also extra navigation for your customers, they can navigate by: top selling, recently viewed and you also get an RSS feed. Plus you can now see how many people have visited your storefront.
The highest level you can upgrade to is Diamond Level, for $19.99 a month. At this level, you can have 4 times as many products as Platinum (100 products) and you can have 5 images per product. There's a product search with this level, which is very handy in my mind. That helps your customers out a lot when they're browsing. And lastly, there are a couple extras for admin statistics: top referrers and top search terms.
So you can see that there's a few options to choose from when creating a Big Cartel store. It all depends on how big of a store you want and how much you want to spend, if anything at all. If sales are down, or if you just want a smaller inventory, you can always change your plan, upgrade or downgrade, to suit your needs at any time.
If you upgrade to Platinum Level, for $9.99 a month, you can get a store with more features. At this level, you can have 25 products instead of just 5 and you can have 3 images per product. That gives you a lot more inventory and the additional pictures can be handy if you need to show different views of your items. You can also customize your store's look by using CSS with the two paid levels (Platinum & Diamond). This will help you stand out a little more; your shop won't look so basic. If you don't know how to use CSS, there are plenty of sites out there that can teach you how to code using CSS. There's also extra navigation for your customers, they can navigate by: top selling, recently viewed and you also get an RSS feed. Plus you can now see how many people have visited your storefront.
The highest level you can upgrade to is Diamond Level, for $19.99 a month. At this level, you can have 4 times as many products as Platinum (100 products) and you can have 5 images per product. There's a product search with this level, which is very handy in my mind. That helps your customers out a lot when they're browsing. And lastly, there are a couple extras for admin statistics: top referrers and top search terms.
So you can see that there's a few options to choose from when creating a Big Cartel store. It all depends on how big of a store you want and how much you want to spend, if anything at all. If sales are down, or if you just want a smaller inventory, you can always change your plan, upgrade or downgrade, to suit your needs at any time.
Not
from the United States? With Big Cartel you can accept all kinds
of different currencies, like: U.S. Dollar (USD), Canadian Dollar
(CAD), Australian Dollar (AUD), Pound Sterling (GBP), Euro (EUR) and
even Yen (JPY). You also get your own subdomain, which will look
something like http://yourstore.bigcartel.com. This helps give
you a more official URL to provide to your customers. This really
is a quick and easy option for you to get your own store online.
They actually have on record someone making a sale within 20
minutes of signing up! That's pretty incredible. On the
inverse side of things, if you want to cancel your account, you can at
any time. You're not held to a contract, you're billed monthly,
so your store will be no more once your month is up and you won't be
charged again.
Cat & Bang
Cat
& Bang is a jewelry and accessory shop run out of the UK by a
friend of mine. At the moment, she's using Big Cartel at the
Platinum Level. This will help you get an idea of the
possibilities there are with Big Cartel. Now don't let the fact
that all the prices are in pounds set you off, remember payments are
made using PayPal,
so currency can be converted easily. Browse the store and get an idea
of what you can do with Big Cartel and definitely check out what Cat
& Bang has to offer. There are some really unique items for
sale. Also, if you have a Myspace account, you can check out Cat & Bang's Myspace Profile.
This site is great compared to other "free storefront" hosts; they
don't charge a commission on your sales. Their income comes from
upgraded shops, but, of course, there's a free option. You can
have your store up and running in no time and all your sales go to your
PayPal
account. And, like I mentioned before, you can make your own
personal FAQs page to help your customers with specific questions they
may have for your store. As is mentioned on their main page,
Big Cartel is perfect for:
- Bands & Record Labels
- Clothing Companies
- Crafters & Artists