Big Cartel vs Shopify (2024 In Depth Comparison)

If you are planning to step down to the e-commerce website and want to create a brand and start to sell, then it is an important topic you should know about the Big Cartel Vs. Shopify.

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It is known that both Shopify and Big Cartel offer to create online retail stores, including all the relevant features, marketing plans, shopping, and billing, and also provide CRM tools. Before analyzing the Shopify and Big Cartel key features and their comparison, check the brief explanation here.

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Shopify: It is one of the best e-commerce builders on the market, which can beat Big Cartel in several aspects. Therefore, according to experts, Shopify can score higher than the Big Cartel. Along with it, Shopify is a powerful e-commerce platform that is suitable for scaling the size of the business. This does not imply that Shopify is the perfect builder for everyone.

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Big Cartel: It is also a popular e-commerce platform that allows businesses to sell online for free. Big Cartel is best suited for selling individual items.

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Fynd Platform: Apart from Shopify and Big cartel platforms, the F

ynd platform (which is famous as an omnichannel e-commerce platform) is suitable for a kick start of your online business or to grow the existing online companies. ‍‍

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Fynd platform takes only 30 seconds to start a business, even without coding. This platform can deal with the significant challenges most entrepreneurs face while starting an online business.  

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Big Cartel And Shopify: History to know and background

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Big Cartel and Shopify are two online store-building tools. These tools help build and grow your online store and are user-friendly. Hence, if one has access to a web browser and the internet, he can develop and manage the store from anywhere and anytime using the platform.

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Big Cartel’s History: Big Cartel was founded in 2005. Since then, the platform has hosted thousands of online stores and created over $2.5 bn in sales for the Big Cartel users. The platform has powered a total of 79000 websites.

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Some business demographics from Big Cartel are artists, small businesses, and musicians. More specifically, the considerable portions of Big Cartel consist such as-.

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• Artists
• Photographs
• Visual artists
• Makers
• Jewelers

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It includes the small businesses selling:

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• Fashion products include shoes, bags, and clothing
• Makeup
• Music merchandise
• Art pieces

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Along with it, there are many other craft-based small-scale businesses with a limited inventory of products. 

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Shopify’s Background: Shopify was established in 2006, and currently, a total of 10000 staff are working with this platform. Till date, Shopify’s sales generate over $543 bn. 

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• Merchandise across 175 countries
• Total number of employees: 10000+
• Apps in the app store: 8000+
• Themes in theme store: 70
• Total sales on Shopify: $543 Billion

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Millions of merchants have been using the platform, as per the internet statistics company that built with. A total of 3.9 million online stores are there, which have been running on Shopify. The users of Shopify have been coming from a wide range of industries and sectors, some of them are-

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• Clothing and fashion
• Health and beauty
• Food and drink
• Electronics
• Furniture
• Art and photography
• Sports and recreation

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On the contrary, the main focus of the Big Cartel is on small businesses. On the other hand, Shopify’s platform targets businesses of all sizes- from micro to large sellers like Tesla, Pepsico, Unilever, Heinz, Red Bull, etc.  

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Hence, it can be inferred that Shopify is a much bigger platform than Big Cartel in terms of uses and generating revenue. The market share of Big Cartel is much less than Shopify. 

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Pros and Cons of Big Cartel and Shopify

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Here in the following section, one can find out a detailed analysis of the pros and cons of Big Cartel and Shopify.

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Big Cartel

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Big Cartel is one of the popular online store builders which is specialized in serving the needs of artistic and creative sellers. Big Cartel was founded in 2005. Big Cartel now empowers a total of 78000+ online stores.
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In 2022, Big Cartel generated approximately $2.5 billion in sales. Moreover, the e-commerce platform has been experiencing a 25% sales growth between the first quarter of 2021 and 2022.

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Shopify

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It is known that Shopify is an outstanding solution for established e-commerce businesses and start-up brands, where the brands will get a wide range of customized themes to meet their brand requirements. Shopify also allows brands to sell physical or digital products.
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Not only beginners, but Shopify also caters to developers and provides full access to CSS, HTML, and Liquid. Considering the growth rate, Shopify has generated approximately $543bn in sales, and merchants from 175 countries have now used Shopify to run their businesses. Along with it, Shopify has been empowering around 3.8 million online stores. Approximately 10000 staff are working for the e-commerce platform all over the world.

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Fynd Platform

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Apart from these two e-commerce websites, one popular and most demanded e-commerce platform- Fynd, has been discussed here.

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As per the statistical report, with the help of the Fynd platform, a business can earn a monthly revenue of $63000, while in one year, the average income will be $127000. After three years, the monthly payment can go up to $352000. This refers to the Fynd platform, which can increase by 175% growth between years one and three. 

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Also, the operating cost to run the business on the Fynd platform is low. This helps to increase the net profitability. To buy a domain name, one needs to spend approximately $20; while hosting an account, the e-commerce business needs to spend roughly $5-6 per month. This is the cheapest e-commerce website compared to other websites.  

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Which is The Easiest Ecommerce Platform To Use- Big Cartel or Shopify?

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From putting the trash out to battling your way during rush hour, one suffers from infuriating tasks. It, in turn, affects your e-commerce experience. Hence, it is vital to experience the ease of use and must test it down thoroughly.
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According to the experts, the Big Cartel can beat Shopify regarding ease of use testing. For instance, Big Cartel and Shopify scores are 3.7 and 3.5 out of 5, respectively, in terms of ease of use.
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Though the interface of Shopify seems clear and straightforward, the uses of both the front end and back ends of Shopify can be complex. It is also relatively easy to do. However, it is comparatively more laborious and time-consuming than Big Cartel.
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This is the reason why the dashboard functioning of Shopify is slightly more complex. Therefore, Shopify demands more powerful e-commerce abilities compared to Big Cartel. Along with it, building an e-commerce website like Big Cartel is also more accessible with helpful prompts.

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Which Has The Best Sales Features?

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If one compares Shopify and Big Cartel in terms of best sales features, then Shopify will get a higher score. Shopify offers a more robust and scalable builder than Big Cartel.

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As per the research, the score of Big Cartel is 2.3 out of 5, whereas the score of Shopify is 4.5 out of 5 in terms of sales features. This refers to Shopify providing more for your business, and you get efficient time to run your business. 

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Shopify comes in the second position overall on the scoreboard. It not only allows the users to accept online payments but also gives 100 payment gateways, from which the customers can choose the suitable one. In addition, Shopify also has an impressive app store for shoppers, which means that one can add whatever they want, whenever they want to the e-commerce website.

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To hold the top position in terms of best sales features, Shopify offers the following features to clients:

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• Fully customizable website, online store, and blog
• Accept the credit cards immediately, along with the Shopify payments
• Offers unlimited bandwidth, product inventory, and customer data
• Help with 24/7 award-winning customer support
• Save time and money for the customers with the help of Shopify shipping and discounted rates
• Allows to sell on new sales channels like Amazon and Instagram

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Whereas Big Cartel is way left behind Shopify at this point. More specifically, the features of Big Cartel are more relevant for small businesses selling individual products. Go through the primary offerings by the Big Cartel and Shopify in terms of sales features here in the following table:

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Comparing the basic features offered by Big Cartel and Shopify, Fynd Platform also provides some fantastic features to its clients for better business exposure-

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• Ease of access helps to create a link between the sellers and the customers

• Security and data management

• Custom staff management

• Domain integration

• Automated marketing SMS/ Emailers

• Delivery partner integration so that you can deliver the products to your customers within the time

• 24 hours support

• Real-time price integration

• SEO friendly attributes

• Unlimited products

• One month free trial

• Hand-picked collection

• e-commerce coupon creation

• Retarget the marketing tools

• Availability of multiple payment modes

• Mobile-friendly, user-friendly, and responsive themes

• No hidden charge

• Cost-effective service

• Monitor the business performance using the analytic tools

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List of Payment Options

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This is one of the major functionalities of sales features. Shopify offers approximately 100 payment gateways to select from, from PayPal, Stripe, Amazon, Apple Pay, and many more.
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Apart from these, Shopify has its payment gateway, which is Shopify payment. It is the only payment option where the additional transaction fees will not be applied on top of the usual credit card fees.
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On the contrary, Big Cartel has only a small number of payment gateways. The shoppers can select only from PayPal or Stripe. Though these are the most popular payment options, Big Cartel offers limited processes compared to Shopify.
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Unlike Shopify, the upside of Big Cartel payment gateways has no transaction fee. The payment gateway itself will charge only the usual credit card processing fee. On the other hand, Shopify is entirely PCI compliant, which means that one does not need to worry about security in online payment. All the details related to the cardholder's information will be secured and protected.

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Product Uploads

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Big Cartel is suitable for small-sized businesses that specialize in selling individual pieces. The sellers can sell up to five products on the free plan, while Shopify allows them to deal with 500 products for $29.99.
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Big Cartel does not allow the uploading of images of bulk products. This is the other reason for restricting the expansion of large or growing businesses with the help of the Big Cartel.
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On the contrary, Shopify has an impressive inventory. One can add single products or in bulk. There is no limitation to uploading the products. This makes Shopify more scalable than Big Cartel.

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Abandoned Cart Recovery

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The abandoned cart recovery can save money for the clients. When a customer provides his details, then abandons products in the shopping cart at the checkout, Shopify’s sales features send automatic mail to the customer to increase the re-engagement.  
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Abandoned cart emails can increase sales by approximately 20%. Shopify has an in-built feature so sellers can quickly contact customers and get back the lost deals. On the contrary, Big Cartel does not have the option like abandoned cart recovery, which could be a significant missing to the builder.

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Product Types

Both Big Cartel and Shopify allow shoppers to split the products into several store categories, though the exact names and functions are different.
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For instance, using the "product types" features, the Shopify store owners split the wares into the subcategories like shirts, pants, and socks. They allowed the potential buyers to quickly find the type of product they were searching for, using a few clicks.
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In addition, Shopify also includes product tags to create differentiation among the products. Shopify also offers its clients the "product vendor" feature. This feature will not be visible to the store owners but also help them to keep track of their wholesalers or manufacturers.
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On the other hand, the product category feature of Big Cartel is sort of similar to Shopify product types. If the Big Cartel store owner adds an active product to any category, the category link will materialize on the store's product page. Along with it, Big Cartel also offers product tags.
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Since Shopify sorts by the types, tags, and vendors, it has more flexibility. Nonetheless, the small store owners should be happier with the product navigation of Big Cartel. ‍

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Shipping Options

If one considers shipping features, then Shopify will blow Big Cartel away. With the help of the Shopify shipping suite, one can easily manage the bulk print labels and includes discounts on rates when shipping is done through USPS, UPS, or DHL express. If the clients pay for the Advanced plan, then Shopify will consist of the automatic carrier-calculated shipping charges.

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Social Media Integration  

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Shopify allows its clients to experience a range of 483 different app integrations for several social media platforms, such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
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Hence, the sellers of Shopify can connect to their customers through any of the social media platforms or the website. On the contrary, Big Cartel’s app integrations are a bit limited. One can build a setup for Big Cartel integrated Facebook store and Instagram shopping posts.

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Domain Names and Web Hosting

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Both of these e-commerce websites take care of web hosting components required for building a website. If you get a domain name with “Bigcartel.com” or “myshopify.com” in your URL of the brand, then you will get additional purchasing power or integration.
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In the case of the Big Cartel, One must purchase the domain name through a third-party platform such as GoDaddy and then need to connect it to the Big Cartel account. At the same time, Shopify leads the clients to buy its platform or should relate to the one purchased from the other providers.

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SEO Tools

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To increase the traffic of e-commerce websites, SEO tools significantly contribute to the business. Since the themes and design of Big Cartel have straightforward navigation with a valid markup and proper headers, the operators of the SEO tools do not need to control much. Instead, the design and themes of Big cartel are more flexible in terms of editing the URLs, creating the proper redirects, or publishing the blog content.
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Whereas Shopify has integrated designs, which help the sellers/ clients boost the website's SEO. Only the sellers should have the potential to create blogs, which can drive massive website traffic and total sales.

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Contracts

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Big Cartel offers clients month-to-month plans; if you want, you can cancel them anytime. On the other hand, Shopify provides both the month to monthly and annual contracts. Hence, one can save up to 20% if one selects a one or two-year plan.
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In the case of business with Shopify, one can shut down the Shopify store as per their requirements and deactivate the same. Along with it, the client should cancel the subscription plan. Nonetheless, it does not issue any refunds. One can also select the “Pause and build” plan.

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Dropshipping

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Since the Big Cartel is an artist minded platform, therefore, it allows to dropship the merchandise through the Printful and Art of Where. On the other hand, the dropshipping options of Big Cartel (both automation and capabilities) are extensively limited. On the contrary, Shopify is well known for dropshipper friendly, where the clients will get hundreds of applications in the apps store. 

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On the other hand, Fynd platform dropshipping also allows to ship the products along with the secured payment gateway and marketing just in a single agreement. With the help of it, the sellers of Fynd can expect a growth of 20% in their online business. 

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PCI Compliance

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PCI Compliance refers to the list of security standards, so that the web stores data of the customers can be kept safe from harm. Big Cartel does not offer PCI compliance, in turn asking the clients to keep their trust on the external payment processors, for eg- PayPal and Stripe. Whereas Shopify guarantees PCI Compliance, no matter which processor the candidates did choose.   

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Collection of Sales Tax

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Both Shopify and Big Cartel calculate the sales tax automatically and then send the same to the concerned governing body. Nonetheless, if one takes any in-person sales through the Big cartel app, then the sales tax will not be collected that time. Sales tax is collected for the Shopify point of sale (POS) and the tap reader purchases. 

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SSL Security

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Both Shopify and Big Cartel provide SSL security if the customers will make payments through the store. So that the customers can check out safely. 

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Which has the Better Design?

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In between Shopify and Big Cartel, Shopify wins for its dazzling design functionality. As per the research, Shopify gets 3.9 out of 5 in terms of design functionality; whereas Big Cartel will get 2.2 out of 5.

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Shopify offers a large base of themes and greater features, and it is easier for further customization. Whereas to add and edit images, Big Cartel needs coding. From this point, Shopify offers more creative freedom to the customers. 

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Shopify offers its customers a total of 9 free themes and around 80 paid themes, which are ranging from $200 to $350. In addition, the best point it, Shopify’s themes are completely mobile optimized.

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This means that the online stores of the sellers will look great on any screen. The business owners will have the access to editing both the mobile version and desktop version as per the requirement. Hence, the business owners have complete control over the management of site looks, no matter which mode they have activated or the customers are viewed in.

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Apart from the customization access, Shopify’s themes look professional and modern. Hence, one can personalize the theme as per their demand and requirement. On the contrary, Big Cartel’s themes are comparatively less sophisticated than Shopify's design. 

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Though Big Cartel offers 18 themes to choose from for its clients, Big Cartel’s themes cannot be edited for mobile versions. Though the Big Cartel’s themes are completely mobile optimized, nevertheless, one cannot get the control to work on the mobile layout. 

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Big Cartel has a lower range of choice compared to Shopify or other competitors. It only supports a small group of industries, however, focuses mostly on the photographers and artists. One can preview his theme before selecting it. So that one can understand whether it is the right style for business or not. 

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Apart from that, one of the major drawbacks of Big Cartel’s design is the lack of enough features included in the themes. For instance, Big Cartel does not offer product image zoom, customer logins or product videos. These features can make the customer experience better and also encourage repeat purchases. 

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It is difficult to personalize the Big Cartel theme. If one wants to edit and add own image, then he should use code. Editing images is the basic way of making the chosen theme that will be unique to the own brand. Hence, if you are not confident to do coding, then you will be unable to change your storefront. 

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On the other hand, Fynd platform also allows you to apply some eye-catching and lucrative themes for your website. The sellers, who have business accounts at Fynd, can set their own preferable themes. It will not take much time to set the business theme and the sellers have the access to set it on their own. 

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Similarly, once the theme will be set, the sellers can also change the existing theme if they want. The sellers will have the access to upgrading or customizing the theme to attract the customers more.

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Through the themes available at the Fynd platform, the sellers can add SEO information to every system page, such as collections, brands, categories and many more.  

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Top Tips: To attract the customer’s attention, the sellers are suggested to write only 50-60 characters titles and 155-160 characters descriptions containing the most relevant keywords in the beginning. 

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Want to Start Selling Online with Fynd Platform?

Fynd Platform is our top-rated ecommerce website builder, and for good reason with 30 days free trial!

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Which has More Apps and Integrations?

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Shopify offers a large number of quality apps, which helps the service to stand over Big Cartel in this category. One is looking for the best apps, so that he can build a successful business. Shopify offers multiple apps services from social media to email marketing to CRM management. 

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Shopify offers approximately 6000 apps in its app store. Among them, half of the apps are free and the rest of the apps are ranging from $2.99 to $299 per month. Many of the paid apps offer free trial periods as well.

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The Shopify app category comprises the topics like Marketing, Finances and Store Design. Hence, Shopify’s app store is rated as five star scale according to the customers. 

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Whereas Big Cartel is integrated with only 1500 apps, which automates multiple ecommerce related chores, through the third party app vendor Zapier. Big Cartel’s app store includes Marketing and Promotion apps, Store management apps with a small number of handful (approximately six to eight), available in each category. Big Cartel also offers payment processors integrations, which comprises Stripe, PayPal, Venmo along with the wide range of domain providers.

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Which has the Better Customer Support?

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In terms of provisioning customer support, Shopify wins over Big Cartel. Though Big Cartel provides a decent customer care service, however, the support options are very limited. Whereas Shopify offers 24/7 customer care service with the best choices through live chat, phone support, video tutorials etc as per the requirement. 

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Big Cartel has the worst builder for customer support with the score of 1.1 out of 5 in testing. The only help channel is through email and the service is available from Monday to Friday, between 9 am to 6 pm EST. 

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Kindly note, if one does not need any direct help, then he can take help from the Big Cartel’s Help Centre. This is comparatively easy to navigate, then one can find relevant help.  Shopify’s score is 3.8 out of 5 in terms of best ecommerce builders. Check out the several help options here in the following section:

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• 24/7 phone support

• Social media support

• 24/7 live chat

• Email

• Video tutorials

• Forum

• Advanced specialist support

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Hence, it is clearly visible that Shopify’s help centre offers several categories for browsing. One can search for answers using the search feature. 

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Which is Better Value for Money? 

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Shopify scores 3 out of 5 in terms of value of money and offers a wider range of features for the monthly subscription price. In addition, Shopify’s plans are better for scalability.

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On the other hand, Big Cartel’s plans are way limited and offer the plans with the unavoidable fees. It is now allowing for further growth. Big Cartel scores only 2.4 out of 5 in this category. 

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Big Cartel has three plans, including the free version and two paid options. The paid plans are ranging from $9.99 to $19.99 per month, with a 500 product limit. Shopify has three paid plans, which range from $29 to $299 per month. All Shopify plans are available for unlimited products and with a 14 day free trial. 

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Nonetheless, the pricing plans of Big Cartel are not very scalable. One can only upgrade the number of products instead of unlocking the more advanced features for supporting the business. 

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On the contrary, Shopify has more expensive prices and with powerful features. The cheapest Shopify basic plan starts at $29 per month. Under this plan, some including features are:

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• Unlimited products

• Abandoned cart recovery

• Discount codes

• Multichannel integration

• 24/7 support

• Two staff accounts

• Shopify POS app

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This plan is designed for setting up a store, which includes the above mentioned features. If required, one can upgrade the scale up of the business.  As per the users, Shopify offers the better value for money (compared to Big Cartel) in turn of $79 per month, which is ideal for business growth. Nevertheless, it also unlocks additional features, such as professional reports and host am add-ons to expand the Point of Sale (POS) system. 

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In a broader sense, Fynd platform is the best ecommerce platform (even better than Shopoy) both for the start up and the existing businesses. For an instance, the sellers can get at Fynd the plenty of benefits, which are listed in the following section-

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• Unlimited products

• Inbuilt payment gateway options

• Inhouse delivery partner

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If you have limited capital to start up your business, then you can avail the 30 days free trial pack and you do not need to provide any credit card details. This feature is completely missing in case of business expansion with Shopify. 

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Moreover, the users will get some easy to use design tools along with the professional themes, which are beneficial for developing a responsive website as mobile apps.

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Apart from the pricing policy and in-built ecommerce website development, the sellers can sell their products throughout the wide range of third party websites that too in a single click, which have remarkable footsteps in the ecommerce business. Some of them are-

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• Amazon

• Flipkart

• Tata Cliq

• Myntra

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This refers to the Fynd platform supports the sellers at every step as per their demand and planning for business growth. 

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Transaction Cost

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Shopify has its three different transaction rates for its three different price plans. Under the basic Shopify plan, each transaction costs 2.9% plus an additional $0.30. The main Shopify plan is 2.6% and $0.30 per transaction.

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Whereas the Advanced Shopify plan charges 2.4% and $0.30 per transaction. Nonetheless, one can avoid the transaction fees completely if one selects Shopify’s own payment gateway, Shopify Payments. 

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Since Big Cartel has its limited features, therefore it cannot handle the transactions. In turn, the clients should use a third party service. Big Cartel partners have just two services for the online orders- Stripe and PayPal. 

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Difference Between Shopify and Big Cartel

In a nutshell, check out the distinction between Shopify and Big Cartel in terms of the large components here in the given table.

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Shopify VS Big Cartel: Main Features and Differences

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Check out the main features of both Shopify and Big Cartel here. 

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User-Friendliness

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Big Cartel: Setting up a store on Big Cartel is pretty easy and straightforward. Once the product images will be uploaded to the website, the sellers only need to determine the prices and should choose a suitable store theme. It is necessary to start selling the stuff using Big Cartel.

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Moreover, the user interface of Big Cartel is very simple and the available layouts give a minimalistic feel to the shoppers. On the other hand, this simple user interface also attracts the beginners and the start up sellers. Nonetheless, if you face any issue, then the Help section of the platform will be coming back to you and you will be explained about everything, every function. 

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Shopify: User friendliness is the principal aspect of Shopify’s business agenda. Though the whole platform seems like a complex multi-featured engine, the structure of the Shopify platform is simple and systematic.

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To set up an ecommerce store using Shopify, then it will take only four steps to follow. At first, the sellers have to add up the items, set the theme for the business platform, create a domain and then specify the tax plus shipping details. One can get a responsive theme editor for his store’s overall outlook before the store goes live.

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Verdict: To effectively start a small business, both Big Cartel and Shopify will be ideal to get connected. Nonetheless, the user interface of Shopify is slightly superior to Big Cartel, which owns the overall responsiveness and more functionalities.

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Web Design

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Big Cartel: Big Cartel does not allow users down when it comes to designing websites. One can get 16 mobile optimized themes and all of them are completely free. Hence, Big Cartel is popular for accommodating the theme customization. 

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Shopify: Shopify might not be as dedicated to great website builders like Squarespace and Wix for designing the sites. However, the customers can select from 71 attractive themes of Shopify.

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All of the themes are designed by the professionals of Shopify. The only problem is, only 11 themes are available for free. As per the researchers, the themes of Shopify are optimized for mobile by default and the platform is tweaked for the mobile version in line.  

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Verdict: The web design process of Big Cartel is inexplicably simple, which provides more free themes to the customers. However, Shopify is way ahead of it, since Shopify provides more customization freedom and a total of 71 different template options. 

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Online Store Management 

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Big Cartel: Big Cartel was built in facilitating the small businesses, which deals with single items. Big Cartel’s free plan supports up to five products, whereas the highest can go to the 300 costliest plan.

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However, in the case of choosing Big Cartel, one should upload or add each item individually. Therefore, the clients want to consider other platforms to deal with the progressively growing enterprise. 

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However, the subsequent selling process of Big Cartel is pretty good. Therefore, one can take advantage of the SEO features of Big Cartel in order to attract the traffic, discounts to boost up the conversion rate.

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The clients can also track the orders to follow up every single purchase with the help of Big Cartel’s business strategy. On the other hand, the Facebook integration of Big Cartel can extend the selling capabilities to the social platform.

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The clients of Big Cartel get the leads, which can be successfully converted to the process through Square, PayPal or Stripe. Moreover, the platform is able to operate the operations with a zero transaction fee policy.

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This refers to the payment gateways of Big Cartel’s card processing fees that will be deducted from the transaction amount. Kindly note that the Big Cartel is not coming with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance. In a nutshell, the major management features, which are provided by Big Cartel are listed in the following section:

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• IOS app for management on-the-go

• Full time inventory tracking

• Order tracking

• SEO features

• Facebook Integration

• Google Analytics Support

• Digital product selling

• Automatic order confirmation emails

• Bulk order history export

• Product discount codes

• Mobile POS for the brick and mortar stores

• Customer guest checkout 

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Shopify: The inventory management function of Shopify allows the clients to add or introduce unlimited items. In addition, one can choose to upload or can proceed with the bulk import.

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During this stage, the clients are able to edit the multiple product attributes such as price, description, barcode, title etc. Moreover, the corresponding product page offers you to add custom images along with the other shipping options plus SEO features. 

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Once the sellers start to sell, they can leverage the customer segmentation of Shopify in order to group and target the individual leads as well as for dropshipping integrations, automatic shipping rate calculator, guest check out support, automatic tax calculator, inventory tracking, social media integration, product discounts and many more. 

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On the other hand, Shopify is also giving an outstanding performance in multi channel selling. The clients of Shopify can expand their businesses beyond the website to set up secondary selling points, such as third party websites, Facebook, external online marketplaces like Amazon, offline brick and mortar stores etc. The inventory is connected and coordinated in real time in order to help the sellers to track all the sales prominently.

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In a nutshell, Shopify is a dynamic and powerful online store management platform. Nonetheless, Shopify only affects the sellers with the shocker at the final transaction stage. Though one pays a monthly subscription fee, Shopify deducts the additional transaction fees each time in order to complete the process payment.

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Considering the payment process, only the bright side is, one must select a wide range of payment processors. The sellers can avoid the Shopify payment together as well as can leverage the other globally accessible gateways. Nevertheless, it cannot save you from Shopify's transaction fees since it also makes deductions from the payment processed by the third party payment gateways.

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Collectively, the store management features of Shopify provide the below listed offerings:

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• Unlimited store products

• Product variations

• Multilingual management interface

• Unlimited product categories

• Bulk inventory export and import

• Mobile apps for the management on the go

• Dropshipping apps

• Guest checkout support

• Abandoned cart recovery

• Customer segmentation

• SEO features

• Own domain checkout

• Built in analytics

• Product discounts

• Automatic tax calculator

• Multiple sales channels

• Automatic carrier calculated shipping rates

• 50 check out languages

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Verdict: Big Cartel’s sales features cannot even match the Shopify’s sales program. Shopify offers multiple store management functionalities with the array of payment gateway. In addition, an extensive app store. Hence, one can easily take the advantage of third party apps for progressively expanding the ecommerce functionalities. 

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Pricing

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Big Cartel Pricing: The pricing policy of Big Cartel is simple and clear. The entire product list of Big Cartel can be categorized into 4 tiers. Nonetheless, even the costliest plan will allow uploading only 500 products maximum. Therefore, if you own a bigger scale enterprise, then the inventory allowance of Big Cartel is not sufficient. 

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Only the best part of Big Cartel pricing is that it added one more feature in all plans, which is sales tax autopilot. This element allows us to calculate and remit the sales tax on the purchase made.

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This means, autopilot helps in saving a lot of client’s time when reporting sales and/ or  tax collected on behalf of the state. The above chart shows the pricing policy of Big Cartel. Note: the Big Cartel pricing policy is favorable for the limited budget merchants.

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Shopify Pricing Policy: There is no free pricing plan at Shopify. Nonetheless, the platform offers only a Shopify free trial for 14 days. On the other hand, if you compare with the Big Cartel pricing policy, then it can be stated that one can upload or add unlimited products with Shopify's paid pricing policy, which cannot be possible with the Big Cartel’s pricing policy. 

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Lastly, unlike the Big Cartel’s pricing policy, Shopify's pricing plan charges additional fees for the payments. However, it will be completely understandable if you start to experience all the features.

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Verdict: In terms of pricing policy, Shopify is way more expensive than Big Cartel. Hence, from this point it can be stated that Big Cartel is definitely suitable for the start up businesses or for the small sized businesses.

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However, once your business starts to grow and gain more consumers, then you can think of switching to Shopify to get all the latest features. Also check out the pricing policy of Fynd platform here, which is highly attractive to the customers. 

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Fynd Pricing Policy

Ecommerce pricing strategy is one of the key aspects, through which it can be understood how correctly the platform helps you to improve the sales and profits, especially in the competitive marketplace.

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The pricing strategies of the Fynd platform is dependent on several factors such as types of product sold, demand for the goods, level of competition in the market. Fynd price policy is helpful to sync the change of price and quantities in terms of real time across the marketplace. 

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After developing a business website with the help of Fynd platform, the sellers will get a 30 days free trial pack. Then the sellers do not need to pay any single penny for availing the service. Apart from that, there are three more pricing policies offered by the Fynd platform.

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• Standard: This plan is popular for those, who have been starting their online business very recently. The cost of the standard pricing policy is $599 per month. There will be 4.5% transaction fees, 1 selling location and no custom domain included in this plan

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• Professional: This plan is popular for the growing business. Cost of the plan is $1499 per month, where 4.5% transaction fees, custom domain and 2 selling locations will be included

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• Premium: For the scaled up business, the premium plan is most suitable. The cost of the plan is $2499 per month, which includes 3.5% transaction fees, custom domain and 5 selling locations. Also Read: Pricing policy of Fynd Platform

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Themes and Flexibility

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Since Shopify and Big Cartel have hosted the ecommerce platforms, therefore, one cannot get access to their source code. Nevertheless, both the sites allow you to edit certain theme features if you are able to code using the HTML, CSS and Liquid.

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Big Cartel’s Theme: Big Cartel offers you a total of 18 free and aesthetic themes. Compared to the other ecommerce platforms, the available number of themes are very less.

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Moreover, those who have a free account in Big Cartel, cannot even modify the themes. Therefore, one should purchase the paid plans if he wants to edit or modify the code segment.

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The free themes of Big Cartel are designed in such a way, that they can serve the purposes like-

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• Using of custom domain

• Sell online and also in person

• Offer the discounts and promotions

• Calculate the sales tax with “Sales tax autopilot”

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However, Big Cartel is always the first choice to the artists, photographers etc, since all the available themes are neatly designed for the art based online stores. Apart from that, the enterprises selling clothes or jewelry are very attractive.

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Only the challenges will be started when one wants to add customisation. Since the design of the eCommerce website is solely depending on the available and chosen theme, therefore, there will be little scope for customisation on Big Cartel. Therefore, it will be challenging if one wants to adjust anything outside the guidelines. 

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However, the clients can switch the themes whenever they like. Consequently, the products will be automatically re-formatted in order to fit with the new design. Another advantage is that the layout will be automatically adjusted on the mobile phones. 

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Shopify Theme: Undoubtedly, the Shopify themes are way more ahead in this game. It provides a total of 73 different attractive and professional templates. To create a unique online store across the business categories, the themes are enough. 

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Unlike the Big Cartel theme, the Shopify themes are extensively diversified. If you know the template language of Shopify, then you can customize them as per your need.

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On the other hand, if you have enough budget, then you can hire someone to do it for you. Though Shopify's themes are automatically set for mobiles, one can tweak the code simultaneously for creating the desired outlook. 

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Only challenge the clients are facing with the Shopify theme is, it only offers 9 for free. Rest of the available Shopify themes are pricing for $100 to $180. However, these are total worth when one will be granted the privilege to customize the themes, they do not need to have any coding experience.  

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Verdict: In terms of themes and flexibility, Shopify is certainly a front runner. With the help of Shopify theme, one can get an aesthetic look for the ecommerce store. 

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Selling Channel

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Selling through multiple channels can bring several benefits to the eCommerce store owners. It can increase the sales to the most desirable level. Hence, expanding the store to several platforms can increase the reach. It will in turn increase the customer segmentation and customer understanding of the brand. As a result, the sales of the brand can be increased.

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Big Cartel: Big Cartel is at the initial stage of starting to sell through third party channels such as Facebook, Instagram and offline stores. Unfortunately, Big Cartel has not included the omnichannel function. 

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Shopify: Shopify is familiar as a multi-channel retail. One can expand the business beyond the site in order to set up the secondary selling points  across Facebook, other third party websites, external online marketplaces, offline brick and mortar stores. The inventory is connected with the real time for helping to track all the sales concurrently.

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If you have a large sized business, then the ecommerce platform allows you to open and run multiple Shopify stores in order to maximize the revenue of the business. Nonetheless, kindly note that this feature is available only for the Shopify Plus users. To avail the offer, one should upgrade the pricing plan.

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Verdict: In the battle of Shopify and Big Cartel. Shopify has clearly leveraged the competitors, when the comparison is made in terms of selling channels. Shopify supports both the omnichannel and multichannel selling to grant the users a great opportunity for boosting up the sales.

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Payment Gateways

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Big Cartel Payment Gateway: Some of the Big Cartel’s payment gateway partners are- Apple Pay, Square, Stripe and Venmo. Though the option range in Big Cartel is tight, nonetheless, the platform can operate the functionalities with a zero transaction fee policy. This means one needs to pay the processing fee of the gateways. 

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Nonetheless, Big Cartel is not offering the Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance. Therefore, one is liable to follow some industry guidelines if he is processing the card payments.

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Shopify Payment: Likewise the other parameters, Shopify is at the superior position over Big Cartel in terms of payment gateways. Shopify offers a total of 100 options to select as payment gateways, such as PayPal. Stripe, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay as well as the in-house Shopify payments. 

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Shopify payment can eliminate the hefty transaction fees each time, when you are going to make the payment. In addition, this will not be included in the monthly subscription program. 

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Verdict: Again, Shopify is the winner since it supports a wide range of payment gateways compared to the Big Cartel payment gateways. For instance, Shopify is able to meet the requirements of several merchants.  

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Apps and Extensions

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Big Cartel Apps and Extensions: Big Cartel offers the clients approximately 500 third party apps with the assistance of Zapier, plugin. Without Zapier, one can add in about 25 software tools, including Facebook Store, Instagram, MailChimp, ShipRobot etc.

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With the help of the extensions, one can improve the store in terms of marketing, shipping, store management operations, payment processors etc. The features will be included in add-ins and it will include a small monthly fee.

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Shopify Apps: Shopify App store is one of the major reasons for making it successful. Shopify is coming with more than 3000 app integrations for web-based business functionalities.

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One can enhance the store’s reporting, management, customer support, selling channels, productivity, management and many more by selecting from the list of a wide range of Shopify apps.

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The main problem of Shopify app is its cost structure. More specifically, the sellers will have to pay an extra per month to avail these integrations. As a result, the sellers are advised to calculate these fees in advance to understand the overall cost. Hence, it is clearly understandable that nothing is free or very few are freely available in Shopify. 

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Verdict: Every penny of the clients will be worth it and it will be spent in Shopify. Hence, in terms of apps and extensions, Shopify again wins the customers heart over Big Cartel.

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Customer Support

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Big Cartel: The customer care support of Big Cartel only supports via three channels, such a Help Centre, Email and Social Media. All of them are good in their respective channels and operations. 

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Kindly note, if the clients of Big Cartel will face any problem or issue, then they should check out the knowledge base of Big Cartel. They are provided with multiple and well categorized offering straightforward guidance. 

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One can reach the customer care support team through the Big Cartel email @bigcartel.com. The support team of Big Cartel are not available or accessible 24/7. One can contact them between 9 am to 6 pm EST (Monday to Friday).

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Apart from that, the clients can communicate to the support team of Big Cartel via social media including Twitter (mostly used), Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest. Nonetheless, for getting faster responses, the clients are advised to send emails to the support team. 

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Shopify: Shopify provides one of the best support to the clients as per their necessity. The clients can be connected with the Shopify support team via email, live chat, support centre, social media (Twitter, Facebook), blog and forum.

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Unlike the Big Cartel’s support team, the support team of Shopify is available 24/7. Moreover, if you are a Shopify plus user, then you will get the help from the support agent directly. 

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Verdict: Clearly it can be seen that being a leader in the ecommerce platform, Shopify provides superior customer care support against the Big Cartel support. 

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Benefits Of Using The Fynd Platform

Over these two ecommerce platforms, Fynd is the other best online platform for successfully running the online business. Check out the advantages of using Fynd platform are discussed here in the following section-

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Order Management System (OMS) for Handling Multiple Orders 

The Fynd platform offers the integrated IMS for all the channels. Some of the benefits are:

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• Automation saves time: It prevents the continuous re-entering system information such as delivery information and customer information

• Accurate reporting: From product purchase to order delivery, accurate reporting helps to keep the tracking of the products in real time using an OMS

• Reduce the human error: It helps to reduce the human error and also can increase the order accuracy by reducing the manual works and time consuming tasks

• Supports all channels: It supports all channels like online stores, brick and mortar shops, marketplaces and more

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Valuable Data Insights with Tracking and Analytics

The analytical tool of Fynd platform allows to measure the business performance efficiently. With the help of figures, tables and charts, the order and payments will be displayed.

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The details will be shared with the business owner in PDF and CSV format. For the application analytics, the brand will use application tokens such as MoEngage, Segment, Firebase and GTM. 

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Innovative QR Features

If the customers are reluctant to explore the products, then the shop manager will use the QR code function. So that the customers will be able to browse directly from the mobile device. The retailer will print the QR code and place the same around the store.

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Marketplace Catalogue Generation

The Fynd sellers are eligible to upload the product catalogue on multiple marketplaces apart from Fynd online platform, such as-

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• Facebook

• Google Merchant Centre

• Myntra

• Ajio

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Build a Focused Email Campaign for Target Customers

In order to create a communication campaign for the target group of people, the in-built email marketing campaign of Fynd platform is highly useful. It is also beneficial for generating some leads in the business. 

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In-Built SMS Tool

Fynd platform is helpful for the shoppers to stay updated with the order status through the inbuilt SMS tools. For instance, if the consumer will be cancelled or place any order, then they will get the notification immediately

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Cheapest and Affordable Subscription Model 

Fynd platform is helpful to launch the brand’s website only in 30 minutes and at a minimal subscription plan. In turn the brands can manage the orders, logistics, payments only in one dashboard. 

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24/7 Customer Care Support

The customer care support team is there 24/7 to help the customers as per their requirement. One can contact the support team anytime using email. 

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Own Payment Gateway

Fynd platform has its own payment gateway, which supports several payment options such as credit cards, net banking, debit cards and wallets. With every subscription plan, the customers will get a variety of payment gateways.