Shipping from a location outside the U.S.? Head here for more info on your shipping options.
Getting started on shipping
Big Cartel offers multiple tools you can choose from to add shipping rates to your product listings. Your subscription plan and location will determine which tool you use:
Automatic shipping rates: This is a premium feature available to sellers on the Platinum and Diamond plans. This is an automated system that calculates shipping costs in real-time during checkout based on an item's weight and package dimensions. With this feature, you no longer need to manually estimate shipping fees or use external tools. This feature integrates with USPS to ensure accurate rates for both domestic and international shipments, making shipping management easy and precise.
Shipping profiles: For U.S. sellers on the free Gold plan or for paid sellers that would prefer to set shipping rates manually, shipping profiles is the feature to go with. 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.
Sellers going with Automatic shipping rates, can head here for guidance on getting that set up. Gold sellers or sellers needing to go with manual shipping can continue below.
Sellers utilizing third-party services like Printful for order fulfillment can use shipping profiles to manually set shipping rates based on the rates provided by the service.
Determine your shipping rates
If you're on the free Gold plan or prefer to set shipping rates manually, you'll need to calculate rates based on your product's size, weight, destination, and carrier.
Sellers that ship from the U.S. or Canada on a paid plan printing labels directly from the Big Cartel admin will want to pull their shipping rates from Shippo.
All other sellers can pull rates through any shipping carrier you plan to use, like USPS, FEDEX, Parcel2Go. You can also check out our 3rd party shipping integrations, which are available on either of our paid plans - any of our shipping integrations can also be used to find shipping rates and carriers.
💡Make sure your Big Cartel shipping rates match your shipping carrier’s rates so you don't end up paying more than the customer paid you for shipping.
Add store-wide shipping rates with Shipping Profiles
Use Shipping Profiles to set store-wide shipping rates and methods that can be applied to entire regions or zones. These settings are added from your Big Cartel Account page.
If you're using Shipping Profiles but you have a few items that must ship separately, you can use Product Shipping Profiles alongside your default Shipping Profile rates.
Add flat-rate shipping
To charge flat-rate shipping, set the Each additional rates to $0.00. Customers will only be charged the First item rate and nothing more.
Offer free shipping
To offer free shipping using the Shipping Profiles, set both the First item and Each additional rates to $0.00 for each area you’re offering free shipping to.
💡 To offer free shipping to only specific customers, or as part of a sale, you can create a discount code for customers to enter on the checkout page. We have more information in our Add a Discount Code guide. Or you can change your shipping settings at any time to temporarily offer free shipping to certain areas.
Curious if free shipping is right for your business? Check out our discussion of the pros and cons of free shipping to help you decide.
Add a pickup or delivery option
Setting up options for customers to pick up their order or to have it delivered varies based on the shipping settings you’re using.
Using Shipping Profiles settings, you can add custom shipping methods specifically for “Pickup” and/or “Delivery”. Customers will see the description you add to each shipping method, so that’s a great place to include areas you deliver to, where to pick up orders, or indicate if customers will need to contact you for a pickup address.
⚠️ If you’re only offering pickup options, customers will still need to enter their shipping address at checkout to determine the correct sales tax for their location.
Add shipment tracking information
If you are on a paid plan, you can use our built-in order notification emails to send tracking information when you mark an order as "Shipped" in your Big Cartel admin.
We have more details about sending and updating shipping notifications, including images of that process, in our Send shipment tracking info guide.
Buy and print shipping labels
You will buy and print shipping labels using the shipping fees customers pay as part of their order totals.
U.S. sellers on paid plans can purchase and print labels directly from the Big Cartel admin using our Shippo integration.
Big Cartel offers shipping integrations, that are available on the paid plans, that will import your completed order data into their system so you can get shipping rates, buy postage, print shipping labels, and more. Check out our top shipping integrations in the links below.
Once you've generated your shipping label, you can add tracking info when you mark orders as shipped on Big Cartel, regardless of which shipping service you’re using.
Dropshipping and integrations
Big Cartel has direct integrations with two companies that will sync up with your Big Cartel shop and fulfill orders as they come in: Printful and Art of Where.
Although you can set your own product prices and shipping rates for your store, make sure you're charging enough for your products and for shipping fees. You can view Printful's payment guide and shipping rates on their help site.
💡If you plan to fulfill your orders through a company that doesn't have a direct integration with Big Cartel, you can still use them, you'll just need to manually send them your order details, as orders come in, and they should be able to fulfill them.
Sell digital products
If you sell only digital products, customers must still enter their shipping address at checkout to calculate the correct sales tax. Some states exempt digital products from tax, while others do not. See our US Tax Categories guide for more information.