Big Cartel vs Shopify are distinct solutions made for online selling. Big Cartel is well-suited for artists, creators, and small businesses that want to sell.
their limited products with ease and don’t require an intricate setup. Small shops will find it simple and intuitive to use. Shopify serves businesses of all types and sizes, equipped with the tools to accommodate growth. It gives you access to numerous premium tools, allows a high degree of personalization, and has a large selection of third-party apps available. However, it charges more than Big Cartel. Big Cartel is what you need for a small, basic online store, while Shopify handles more demanding or larger businesses.
Quick Verdict: Big Cartel vs Shopify
Big Cartel is ideal for individuals or small businesses wanting to offer a curated selection of items without breaking the bank. It has a straightforward design but doesn’t offer many extra features. Shopify is a versatile e-commerce platform that grows with your business and caters equally well to companies at every stage. You benefit from features such as advanced customization, comprehensive inventory management, and diverse integrations, but at a greater expense. Small-scale businesses, individual sellers, or beginners can benefit from using Big Cartel. Shopify is the best choice for businesses ready to invest in advanced functionality and a wide range of features. Impact-Site-
Pros and Cons of Using Big Cartel
Pros
- The free plan allows a small number of items to be listed.
- A Basic Design – Designed with ease of use in mind, making it simple for those unfamiliar with web design.
- Designed with creative professionals in mind.
- No additional costs for processing transactions.
- Setting up your store is quick and easy, with just a few steps required.
- Unique Themes – Allows some degree of visual adjustments for players’ profiles.
- Costs are transparent and easy to manage with no extra bells and whistles.
Cons
- You can only list up to 500 products across all your stores.
- Limited to only fundamental features; no extra capabilities such as abandoned cart recovery.
- Narrow availability of third-party apps and plugins.
- Lacks essential tools for content marketing.
- Does not support quick expansion or businesses running at a massive scale.
Pros and Cons of Shopify
Pros
- Grows with your business from the initial stage to long-term success.
- A wide selection of apps allows you to customize and enhance your online shop.
- Choose from an attractive, mobile-friendly, and customizable template
- 24/7 support is available through chat, phone, or email.
- Offer products through Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, and other platforms.
- Manage large and detailed product inventories easily.
- An integrated search engine optimization and marketing system assists in attracting visitors and increasing sales.
Cons
- Costs accumulate over time since you have recurring subscription charges and may also use paid apps.
- Additional charges may apply when using another payment processor.
- Requires a greater level of understanding than the simple setup of Big Cartel.
Big Cartel Vs Shopify: Feature by Feature Comparison
Content Management and Interface
Big Cartel and Shopify each address the needs of different customer groups with distinctly unique interfaces and content management tools.
Big Cartel is widely recognized for its straightforward layout. Its focus is on people who sell a limited selection of items and prefer an uncomplicated approach. The dashboard is simple to use and includes simple tools for uploading and managing your products. It is straightforward yet limits customizable features. Content management is easy to navigate, but it does not provide features such as blogging, intricate product variations, or built-in SEO support.
Shopify offers a comprehensive and full-featured interface better suited to businesses of all sizes. The powerful content management system enables the handling of maintaining a large number of products with minimal hassle. You can add rich descriptions, organize products into groups, publish new content, and create landing pages. You will find greater versatility in design with Shopify’s drag-and-drop editor and the availability of customizable themes. On the other hand, this means learning how to operate the platform requires additional effort.
Big Cartel stands out because it is simple, while Shopify is perfect for establishing and expanding an online store that requires advanced tools for managing its content and inventory.
Best for Selling Online: Big Cartel vs Shopify
Selecting between Big Cartel and Shopify depends mostly on your business scale, objectives, and preferred technical capabilities.
Big Cartel is most suitable for artists, makers, and micro-businesses that want to offer fewer than 500 items. The platform is straightforward to use, with a straightforward design and a quick setup. You’ll find it ideal for selling tangible goods such as art or merchandise, particularly if your store is new or has fewer than 500 items for sale. Its basic offering and affordable pricing are appealing to those on a budget, though it’s missing advanced marketing tools, cart rescues, and significant design flexibility.
Shopify provides advanced tools and features to help companies expand their online business. It can scale with your business by allowing you to sell an unlimited number of products on various sales channels. Its scalability enables it to handle heavy sales volume and support complex e-commerce features for all future growth needs.
Big Cartel excels in its support for creatives just starting, while Shopify enables ambitious sellers to build a stunning, scalable online store.
Best for Templates and Visuals: Big Cartel vs Shopify
Both Big Cartel and Shopify provide attractive templates and designs, however, Shopify provides far more customization possibilities and a deeper range of options.
Big Cartel offers a limited yet visually appealing set of pre-designed templates that suit the needs of independent creators and small businesses. Template designs are attractive and straightforward to personalize with no coding required. Customization requires skills in HTML and CSS only for more extensive changes. This streamlined approach is perfect for those looking for basic design that presents well, though companies seeking distinctive or completely branded storefronts would benefit from more extensive options.
Shopify provides superior options for customizing the design and appearance of your store. It provides a diverse selection of visually appealing and industry-specific templates available at no cost or for a fee. Every theme can be adjusted easily using a drag-and-drop interface and includes advanced options to customize its layout. Shopify provides ample opportunities for customization, including using branded fonts, colors, and engaging elements, which is an excellent option if you want your store to have a distinctive, premium look.
Big Cartel shines in its ease of use and minimalist approach, while Shopify gives merchants greater flexibility and more opportunities to create a personalized, evolving, and expandable store design.
App Market: Which has a Big Ecosystem
The app market for Big Cartel is small, providing only a few standard extensions such as Google Analytics, Mailchimp, and Zapier. Its single goal is to provide easy-to-use features without requiring complicated add-ons. This also means that the platform has limited customization options for growing businesses.
Shopify stands out with its enormous app store that offers countless tools for marketing, logistics, inventory management, and customer service. These apps enable vast customization and automation, which is why Shopify is so well-suited for expanding businesses. Big Cartel is designed for entrepreneurs with simple requirements, but Shopify stands out for its wide range of features and assistance for ambitious sellers.
Best for Marketing: Big Cartel vs Shopify
Shopify boasts a wide range and depth of marketing tools, exceeding Big Cartel’s minimal options and helping merchants successfully promote and expand their e-commerce sites.
Big Cartel offers only basic marketing functionalities. Integrations with services like Mailchimp using Zapier, as well as linking Google Analytics, are available. Missing are advanced features such as email campaigns, customer segmentation, and abandoned cart recovery. This design reflects Big Cartel’s commitment to ease of use and suits individuals with low marketing requirements who prefer personal promotion over automated tools.
Shopify is designed to offer extensive marketing capabilities to help sellers drive sales and grow their businesses. It provides convenient, in-house features such as discounts, gift cards, search engine optimization, and automated reminders for shoppers who leave items in their carts. The app store allows users to add email marketing tools, build customer loyalty schemes, enable referral programs, increase sales with upsells, and connect to various social media platforms. Shopify makes it easy to sell across popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Google Shopping, expanding the reach of any business.
Essentially, sellers with straightforward promotion requirements find Big Cartel the better choice, while Shopify suits sellers seeking robust, expandable, and automated marketing to scale their business.
Customer Support: Big Cartel vs Shopify
Shopify provides better and more readily available support than Big Cartel.
Customers can get assistance via email or by accessing helpful resources in the online help center on Big Cartel. Customers may have to wait until the next business day if problems arise on the weekend. Although help is always courteous and geared toward small sellers, there are no features such as live chat or phone support available.
Shopify stands out thanks to its exceptional, round-the-clock support offered through live chat, email, and phone. This is essential for businesses with customers or sales outside regular office hours. Shopify maintains an extensive community forum and supplies extensive resources such as tutorials, documentation, and various ways to solve problems in its help center.
Big Cartel is best for individuals with modest support requirements and straightforward shops, while Shopify offers the immediate help needed by expanding and multifaceted businesses.
Pricing: Big Cartel vs Shopify
The pricing structure of Big Cartel and Shopify varies depending on the needs of their intended users. Big Cartel allows new businesses and entrepreneurs to get online quickly without any cost, making it popular among beginners. Paid plans range from $ 15 to $30 per month, depending on the number of products listed, and no extra charges apply aside from the fees set by Stripe or PayPal.
In contrast, Shopify provides a range of tools and is more flexible, which means its pricing structure is also more expensive. The basic Shopify plan is $29 per month, the Shopify plan costs $79 per month, and the Advanced plan is $299 per month. With Shopify Payments, transaction fees are reduced, but opting for a different payment gateway results in a 2% surcharge. Shopify may come with a higher price tag, but it offers greater functionality, support for expansion, and customization that become increasingly important for thriving businesses.
Final Verdict: Big Cartel vs Shopify
Big Cartel is a simple and affordable service designed specifically for independent creators and small companies with fewer items to sell. It is easy to use, free to sell up to five products, and costs only $10 per month for unlimited inventory, making it ideal for those just starting. Shopify is a powerful, flexible platform designed for businesses that are expanding and require sophisticated tools, personalization options, and numerous app connections. Shopify may be more expensive, but it delivers powerful marketing, analytics, and multi-product features. Select Big Cartel for its ease of use and minimal running cost, and Shopify for its extensive features and ability to expand with your business needs. Your choice of platform should reflect the needs of your business as well as your growth plans and technical requirements.
