Big Cartel Omdömen 88

I'd like to say first off: Big Cartel has NO control over people that use their cart system, they are only providing a cart system to users. All you can do is alert BC and hopefully they can remove those sellers.

Anyway, here is my experience:

I've been with BigCartel for 10 years. I am an independent shirt brand owner and printer. I've seen the ups and downs of this business.

When I first joined BC, I didn't really know what I was doing. I didn't even know if anything would sell. And they offered a free site where I could list a few products. So I did. And my business grew. So I upgraded my BC user plan, made my own domain name and all of that.

In the beginning of my time with BC, they seemed really active in making improvements. They added more payment options during checkout for customers. And they actively seemed to want to grow. Seemed to want input on what they could make better for us.

Over time, as my business grew, I partnered with a few retailers. And my Big Cartel site sort of stagnated. I wanted to have more control in order to get more direct sales via my site. I soon discovered that integrations with BC are SUPER limited. And they have no real plans to improve beyond the basics. And the basics are just sort of eye candy things in reality. They don't serve a great purpose. Nor have they evolved with the times.

The biggest kick in the teeth is when they finally set up automations in MailChimp. You could automate customer purchase emails, add a pop up subscribe box to the site. And send Abandoned Cart email reminders! That was THE biggest thing I wanted. So I diligently set it up. HERE we go!

But...MailChimp integration was set up and ready to roll. But no abandoned cart emails where being triggered? Why? Because even though BC touted that feature, they refuse to allow it or activate it. They claim it's due to privacy issues? Huh? I call it due to laziness.

If you go to BC today and look at their MailChimp integration descriptor. You will see that they still list abandoned cart recovery as a feature. They were too lazy to even remove that. Instead they put a couple asterisks at the bottom in case you want to know that they don't allow the feature. Maybe you won't notice?

When I complained about it to customer service, I was told that it sounded like "I was maybe getting too big for BC. And that maybe I should move on.".

So you see, certain features like Abandoned Cart are already set up on your email service providers side. But on BC's side? Nope. They can't be bothered!

You see, BC LOVES to call themselves "Indie". It's just another term for lazy when it comes to them. They're not indie at all. Lazyyyy.

So. Sadly. That is what I am being forced to do. Migrate to a new cart provider that offers all of the services that Big Cartel simply WON'T provide.

Here's the first kicker - once you get up to their top tier plan, it's not that cheap any longer. Especially when you consider their absolute disregard for what the customer desires.

Here's the second kicker - Big Cartel doesn't even offer a way to export your product catalog. Imagine having to manually add 200-300 products to a new provider site. All because Big Cartel is too Indie to be bothered.

Not ALL bad though! Customer service is usually prompt and polite.

If you want to try and see if you can sell a few products, then go for it. Set up a free site and see what happens.

But as soon as you decide that you want more, then run away quickly. Big Cartel has zero plans to help you grow. They're way too Indie (lazy) for that.

First time I bought from big cartel not a problem. Fast forward two years and place an order, I don’t receive my package, I write 3 friendly emails, nothing. I write a nice but pissed email, nothing, waiting on my charge back from the bank. Don’t buy from them, it sucks because I love the merch one band was selling. No customer support 0/10 don’t buy from boarder line scammers.

A lot of these reviews seem to be from people that ordered from scam sites hosted through Big Cartel, which can happen through any host realistically and should not fall under the actual company's page in my opinion, but, I do have a review for the service itself!

I've tried lots of different platforms and always return to Big Cartel for the simple interface, the automatic collection and remitting of sales tax, and their support has been great so far. Themes are simple and easy to customize, especially with CSS and HTML. The only changes I'd like to see would be more payment options (which they are working on) and more app integrations. Other than that, it's a wonderful, inexpensive place to start with an eCommerce business and I can't recommend it enough. :)

I am using Big Cartel to make my small business, it is a great site especially if your new. All of the other reviews that say it’s a scam or they took their money, that’s not big cartel, that’s a site someone made on big cartel to scam people.

Great website bulider platform, you can start with no bigger investment, which is very helpful!
From a seller point or view, amazing customer service as well. Thank you!

My husband attempted to buy Ludos for me. They took my husbands payment. Never sent a confirmation email. Never answered emails, answered messages off of Instagram, and apparently never sent the item! Definitely a scam!

I am sure the website is great for creators, artists and so on. The only problem is that buyers have no rights at all and sellers can do whatever they want on their website (Big Cartel will only tell to sort it out with them directly). Well great, I‘m waiting since 1.5 years now for my order and I am pretty sure they already blocked me and just keep the money. Also no replies from the page since 7 month. And looking at some other reviews this seems to happen regularly. It is sad that BigCartel does not protect buyers and what their users do. As a buyer i have never felt so let down anywhere.

Look everyone To make a website/online store big cartel is simply at its finest and yes it’s small but it’s great to start out. the REVIEWS are based on the SELLERS themselves not the website!

Never had a problem with Big Cartel themselves. They process my payment info quickly, and make it easy to communicate with sellers.

I ordered a Ludo back in May. Seller claimed they had surgery so there would be a delay in shipping. That's fine, life happens. Months go by, messages are ignored, my money is gone. PayPal wasn't an option when I paid and it turns out these debit/credit cards are just as much of a scam because they don't offer any of the protection they advertise.

Never had a problem, also don't understand the scam thing as payments are through PayPal or stripe with there buyer protection.

0/10.
Daughter wanted to spend her pocket money.
2-4 day estimated delivery.
They don’t answer messages, like “where is my order?” They block you.
Scumbags.
Having to get credit card company to try and recover money.

I started a small business December 2020. I shopped around before settling on the big cartel because they offered 5 products for free. I has no previous website building experience but I didn’t need any to build a website with the big cartel. I customized my website to my liking and everyone loved it. Customer services has been A1. Anytime I have emailed them with a concern or needed assistance they have been on it. Recently the rep help me for over an hour with my domain issue because google changed things on their end. I recently upgraded to a paid plan for 50 products and I love it. My favorite part of the big cartel is the mobile app. I can create order with a couple clicks of my phone, add products, post to Facebook, take cash payments, look at shipments, and more from my mobile device. And they recently upgraded it. And the price is so low.

Unless you want to give free money without anything in return then don't buy from any store selling through big cartel. They house an immens amount of scammers and the reason why there are so many scammers on it became clear after i got scammed; i ordered a t-shirt from fully licenced tees and only got a confirmation mail. The following month i haven't heard anything from it. I emailed them and no response, i emailed big cartel and no response. Only after spamming big cartel with about 10 emails telling them they need to respond they responded with a mail that basically said: we are not responsible, we are not refunding you and you need to contact your PayPal/creditcard company to see if you can get a refund. They do NOTHING to protect buyers from scammers, and that's why it's completely invested with them. Don't buy from them, not even when you think you found a 'trustworthy' seller. You have absolutely no refund to fall back on if anything goes wrong.

Folks,

You’re not going to believe this one! As you know, some of our popular items are produced and shipped from the USA, including the Mini Vest Koozies, which are made by my business partner (a retired copper from Cleveland.)

Last December, we decided to sell them in US dollars since they are coming from the US. This also allowed you to save paying the GST/HST on these items. Although they are still subject to the tax when they enter Canada, smaller packages are normally cleared without being taxed. Since we only had a few items like this, we opened a separate “online store” using a platform called Big Cartel ( I know, what a stupid name 🤦‍♂️) whereby you could have up to 5 items in the store without paying a monthly subscription. However, we wanted to add more products to the store so we inquired about changing to a paid subscription but instead of answering our email, they went ahead and CLOSED the store without any prior notice for supposedly violating their Merchant Agreement as they do not allow the sale of "Products or content glorifying guns, gun culture, violence, illegal activity, self-harm, or policing."

Say what? You’re putting policing in the same basket as violence, illegal activity and self harm? The exact things the police try to deter to help keep people safe!

I was completely baffled and tried to appeal their decision and make them reconsider their decision. I mean, we’re selling Koozies with various department’s crests on them, not ammo, not guns, nothing glorifying violence.... Koozies.

They didn’t even have the decency to respond to my email...crickets...until today.

I also have a side project I’m starting called The Grammar Police because yes, I’m one of those sticklers who get annoyed at poor spelling, punctuation and grammar. I was planning on using their platform (this was before they closed the Thin Blue Line store) as I wanted to start off small with a handful of products to see if there is a market before going to a paid subscription but lo and behold I received another email today from Big Cartel informing me that they have also closed The Grammar Police store (which wasn’t even live yet) due to previous Merchant Agreement violations. What a f*%king joke this company Big Cartel is! Please share this post far and wide to anybody you know that is thinking of opening an online store and advise them that Big Cartel are part of the far left, “woke” movement, are completely anti law enforcement and obviously love the “cancel culture” as they cancelled our store without warning or right to appeal. I really hope they lose a few a customers due to their totally unjust policies.

I think all of these 1 star reviews are reviewing actual websites rather than the Big Cartel company itself. I’ve been using Big Cartel for the past 8 months, as I just started my small business. It’s great for small businesses like me that can’t quite afford the £30 for Shopify. It’s a lot more simplistic and minimal, but that’s kinda good for newbies and smaller businesses as you can get really caught up in over customising your website. I currently use the platinum plan for £9.99, and I can list up to 50 products, with no listing fees. The credit card processor Stripe and Big Cartel both take a percentage but it’s much smaller than fees you’d find on Etsy etc. I can’t complain, just wish there were more apps to customise your website however as time has gone they’ve developed more!

I think the bad reviews on here are for perhaps not so honest website creators who sell under-par goods. However, if you are thinking about trying your own shop, this company have been great so far. Don't bother with Shopify etc who charge a lot. Now I don't know how scalable Big Cartel are but if you are wanting to try something out, try them. I'll be sticking with them for as long as my business can grow with them and they stay competitive.

Do not order anything from faux fur source!! Waited 3 months for my package, it didnt arrive. And u dont get the money refunded either.

Worst site iv ever used in my life. They dont even have a toll free number to call. Joke of a website

Having read through this review page in advance to setting up my site on big cartel, I expected it to be a tragic waste of time. I was pleasantly surprised and horrified at these reviews once I started using it.

The issue is, the people writing the reviews on here do not understand the difference between reviewing a store using big cartel as their platform, and the platform big cartel itself.

Since I have owned multiple successful etsy stores before, I moved to bigcartel because I was fed up of ridiculous fees taking loads of my profits. Using big cartel for my business, I no longer lose around 20% to etsy fees.

I think it would be a lot easier just to write a list at this point.

Pros of big cartel:

-Only 2.9% transaction fee if you use stripe as your payment method (basically its a safe checkout option). No fees paid to bigcartel unless you pay monthly for better features -which is a hell of a lot cheaper than shopify packages.
-cheaper website packages. The first package is free, which is great go start on. And then the next one up, I believe its around £7 a month compared to shopify which starts at around £20 for its basic package. Its more affordable and you don't need to make as many sales to make it worth using!
-You can use either bank payments or paypal or both to get paid/pay for items
-easy to use, no coding involved unless you choose to
-looks good - nice presets. Takes the stress out of having to come up with something on your own.
-stripe has a feature that assesses scam payments and reports back. I haven't had to use it ever or report any scam payments but its good that there's regular assessment

Cons of bigbcartel:
-I would say you have to drive your own customers there, but thats literally why you have your own website anywhere. Really if you're not at a stage where you can attract your own customers you shouldn't have your own site, stick to etsy to create your own traffic if your just starting out :)
-I personally am very picky when it comes to how my site looks, and I feel like it would be nice to have a bit more control of its appearance. The presets are very nice though.
-they don't have an automatic review area, you have to collect that yourself and put it up
-uneducated reviews make it harder to sell on. If people are complaining about its validity just due to one bad seller exploiting them, it ruins the platform for all the trustworthy sites. I feel like it would be a good idea to create trust with customers and have a good relationship with customers in advance to creating your site anywhere but especially on big cartel. Because reviews on here, create doubt. You need that trust in advance so they feel like you won't rip them off essentially.

I personally have never had an issue either when buying off big cartel sites. I think you just need to be aware, and not buy from untrustworthy sites. A good tip is just to pay through PayPal if you ever feel unsafe - you can always open a claim with paypal if worst comes to the worst and they are always in favour of the customer if there's an issue. You will just get your money back. There's always a very small amount of bad sites on any platform -think of how many scams there are ok amazon which is a generally trusted platform. I don't think that makes the entire platform a scam.