Getting Started on Adding Products
Name Your Product
Write a Product Description that Sells
Pricing Your Products
Product Image Requirements
Categorize Your Products
Set a Product Status
Variants and Variant Groups
Setting Shipping Rates
Edit U.S. Tax Categories
Copy Existing Products to Create New Products
Bulk Edit Your Products
Pre-order Products
Dropshipping and Fulfillment Services
You can add or update products from the Products section of your Big Cartel account. See the for Web, iOS, and Android specific information on adding and editing your product listings.
Give your product a brief, descriptive name that lets potential buyers know exactly what you are selling. Product names are indexed by search engines like Google, so a clear and descriptive name can help customers find your products.
Quality product descriptions not only inform your customers about the products you sell, but they can also improve how search engines like Google index and rank your products.
A good product description may include information about what the product is made of, what makes it unique, details about sizing, measurements, or other characteristics customers will want to know about.
We have more guidance on writing quality descriptions in our article, Write to Sell.
When determining the price of your products, you want to consider the cost of materials, labor, and expenses so you ensure you are charging enough to make a profit on each sale. You can use a basic equation with those considerations to decide what to charge for each product or product variant you sell.
Materials + Labor + Expenses + Profit = Wholesale
Wholesale total x 2 = Retail
You can check out the article, The Art of Pricing, for more guidance on pricing your products.
Product images should be 10 MB or less in size and in a supported file format (.jpg, .gif, .png). We recommend .png files for optimal image quality. Size your images around 1000 pixels wide to ensure they stay nice and crisp but still load quickly.
If you’re looking for guidance on taking quality product photos, check out our articles, Product Photography Basics and Shoot Product Photography Like a Pro.
Organize your products into Categories to make it easier for customers to shop for specific types of items. For example, if you sell t-shirts, jewelry, and posters, you can create categories like Clothes, Accessories, and Decor for each of those types of items. You can read more about setting up categories in our Managing Product Categories guide.
You can determine whether or not your products are visible and available for sale in your shop by setting the Status field to Active, Coming Soon, Sold Out, or Hidden.
The Active status means the item is visible to customers and available for sale. If you are using Inventory Tracking to set quantities for products, your product must have 1 or more items in-stock for the product to be Active.
The Coming Soon status means the product is visible to customers, but they can’t cart the item or purchase it. This status is great for letting customers see upcoming products so they can get excited about new items coming to your store.
The Sold Out status means your product is visible to customers but is no longer in-stock. If you use the Inventory Tracking feature, you'll be able to add quantities directly to your product listings. When products are purchased, the inventory will automatically adjust, and when a product or variant’s inventory reaches zero, it will display as 'sold out,' preventing further purchases. You can also manually set a product’s Status to Sold Out at any time.
The Hidden status means the item is not visible to customers but does appear in your shop’s admin. If you are working on a big launch for new products, the Hidden status lets you create your product listings before the launch date. Keep in mind that products set to Hidden still count towards your plan’s product limit.
You can offer variants, like size and color, for your products using our Variant and Variant Group features. You can even set different prices for variants within a product once those variants are listed.
You can create a single variant menu using the Variant feature. Or you can create up to three dropdown menus in your store using the Variant Group feature for products that come with several types of variants, like size and color.
Big Cartel offers two separate tools you can choose from to add shipping rates to your product listings:
Product-level Shipping: This is a great tool if your products vary in size and weight and require different shipping rates. Product-level shipping can be added to each individual product listing from your Products page.
Shipping Profiles beta: This is a great tool for creating store-wide shipping rates with customizable shipping methods that apply to all products in your shop. Shipping profiles can be set up on your Account page.
Need help determining your shipping rates? Use our How to set up Shipping guide for more information on calculating shipping rates.
U.S. tax categories are only available for shops with Automatic taxes enabled—that includes shops based in the U.S. or with USD set as the shop currency.
With Automatic taxes, all products are set as uncategorized for taxes by default, which should work for most products. If you have individual products with different tax requirements (like clothing, services, or digital goods), you can assign U.S. tax categories on a product-by-product basis within each product.
Read more about setting the correct tax category in our U.S. Tax Categories guide.
You can copy an existing product to save yourself time creating new listings with similar attributes. Click the action menu found under any product in your Big Cartel admin, and then select the __Copy a product__ tab.
Once you’ve copied the existing product listing, you will need to give the new product a unique name, upload product images, and add or edit any additional details to finish setting up this new product. You can read more about this process and see device-specific steps in our Copy a Product guide.
Our Bulk Edit tool lets you edit the Status, Product-level Shipping rates, or Categories for multiple products at one time. This is a premium feature for shops on paid plans, and is great for streamlining product updates for launches, shipping fee changes, and organizing your shop via product categories.
We don’t have a specific setting for pre-order products, but you can offer products for sale this way by including text in the product's description letting customers know in a very clear way that the item is for sale as a pre-order. You will want to include the date the customer can expect the item to ship. Customers will complete checkout just like they would with any other item, but your description should let them know they will receive their order after that scheduled ship date.
Big Cartel doesn't offer order fulfillment directly, but we have integrations with two companies that will sync with your Big Cartel shop, produce products for you, and fulfill orders as they come in: Printful and Art of Where.
Printful and Art of Where have steps for adding products in their own systems and then syncing those with your Big Cartel shop, so you will want to follow the guides linked above for more information on those processes.
Log in at my.bigcartel.com.
Go to Products.
Click or tap the + icon in the top right corner to add a new product.
Set your product status.
Give your product a name, price, description, and upload images.
Add any product variants, quantities if you are tracking inventory, shipping costs, or sort into categories.
Hit Save.
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