Sell instantly. Ship nothing. Digital Products are now available in the new admin experience, giving creators a simple way to offer downloadable files directly through Big Cartel.
Note: This feature is available in the new admin experience. Still using the legacy admin? Click the orange banner at the top of your admin to switch.
What’s New:
Digital Product type - Create products specifically for downloadable files.
Automatic delivery - Buyers receive instant access by email and on their receipt page.
Multiple file support - Upload several files to one product, ideal for bundles and multi-part content.
Included storage - Generous storage for Platinum and Diamond plans with no buyer download limits.
Why This Matters
Expand your catalog with files like art, guides, templates, music, and more.
Skip the shipping with fully automated delivery.
Earn passively with products that never run out of stock.
Perfect for creators who want to sell digital content directly to their audience.
How It Works
Create a product in the new admin and choose Digital Product. Upload your files, set a price, and publish. We handle all delivery and hosting behind the scenes so you can focus on creating.
Pro tip: Combine multiple files to a zip file to offer bonus packs, resources, or add-on materials for your customers.
Digital Products are available now for Platinum and Diamond sellers at no extra cost.
On Gold? Upgrade to unlock Digital Products and start selling downloadable items today.
We've rolled out another large set of template changes and improvements across all Big Cartel templates. Every template—Cosmos, Ranger, Netizen, and beyond—now gives you more control over how your shop looks, works, and connects with buyers.
Design Details That Help You Sell
Homepage Heroes That Convert
Your homepage visuals just got smarter. Make every hero image and slideshow clickable to guide visitors exactly where you want them — featured products, new categories, or even link outside your Big Cartel shop to an external project. Just use simple relative paths (like /products) or full URLs to create instant pathways to purchase and exploration. Plus, choose between slide or fade effects for your slideshows to match your brand's vibe — because sometimes a subtle fade says more than a dramatic slide.
What's new:
Add links to hero images and slideshow slides (to shop pages or any URL)
Choose slideshow transitions: slide or fade
Product Grids That Sell Better
Your product grid is where browsing turns into buying, and now you have complete control over what shoppers see first. When you're selling products with multiple price points, you can choose exactly how those prices appear — show the full range to highlight value (”$10.00 - $20.00”), lead with your entry point to reduce sticker shock (”$10.00”), or showcase your premium variant pricing (”$20.00”).
You can also polish the look of your shop with whole-dollar price rounding, turning “$100.00” or “$99.99” into a clean, editorial “$100.” And to signal variety right away, turn on variant counts so shoppers know how many options each product offers—whether that’s “3 styles” or “7 colors,” with labels you can fully customize in our recently added “Text and Translations” feature.
Together, these details transform your product grid from a simple catalog into a strategic selling tool that guides shoppers exactly where you want them to go.
What’s new:
Flexible multi-variant price display: range, lowest, or highest
Whole-dollar price rounding for a cleaner look
Display variant counts
See below how the same product feels different with combinations of the new settings — subtle shifts that shape how shoppers perceive your prices and your brand. In this example, this postcard has multiple variants with pricing ranging from $2.00 to $15.00. You have options to control whether you show a price range, the lowest/highest price, and whether the prices are rounded or not.
Additionally, we now give you options to show whether your products have multiple variants/options which can encourage your shoppers to click-through to explore more:
Navigation Your Way
Take full control of your shop’s navigation: decide what appears in your header, footer, or nowhere at all. Perfect for keeping secondary pages—like newsletter sign-ups or care instructions—accessible without clutter. You can also match navigation text styling to your brand’s voice with quick casing options.
What's new:
Choose which page types appear in header vs. footer (all pages, custom pages only, contact, or none)
Control how many custom pages to display when shown
Style your nav text with casing options: UPPERCASE, lowercase, or default
Connect With Buyers Your Way
Your community is spread across the internet and we’ve added some small but important things that can help you make your Big Cartel shop a bigger part of where your audiences live.
Expanded social network support
Reach your audience wherever they are. We’ve added Reddit, Signal, Telegram, and Discord to your social link options, automatically placed in your shop’s footer.
Communication on your terms
Not every seller wants to juggle a contact form sending emails to your inbox. If you're already managing conversations through Instagram DMs, email, or some other app, you can now turn off your shop's contact form entirely and replace it with a custom message pointing buyers to how you want to connect. Want to remove the contact page completely? Just turn off the contact form and use the new navigation controls to remove it from your header and footer — your shop, your rules.
You can optionally take it further by using custom HTML in your contact page announcement setting to embed images, styled text, or anything else that makes your contact page uniquely yours — from a simple redirect message to a full visual experience.
What’s new:
Turn off the shop’s default contact form
Add custom text, links, or HTML to your contact page announcement
Remove the contact page entirely from navigation
Quick reminder: If you haven't tried Chatway yet, it's still one of the easiest ways to stay connected with shoppers — managing conversations from your website, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger all in one app on your phone. It’s an app integration with a generous free plan for all Big Cartel shops on a paid plan.
Ready to customize?
Head to Shop Designer and update to the latest template version. All these features are waiting for you.
Add a personal touch to your shop with our new Featured Text setting! Now you can easily add custom messages, announcements, or promotional text right on your homepage — perfect for welcoming visitors, highlighting sales, or sharing important updates.
What you can do with Featured Text:
Add a warm welcome message for your shoppers
Include links to specific categories or products using HTML
Easy positioning above or within your featured items section
Sellers on paid plans have even more control with our custom CSS feature with which you can create more complex styling and content
Ready to try it? Head to your shop designer, go to Settings → Homepage Settings, and look for the new Featured Message setting. This feature is available in all our latest themes for both free and paid shops. If you're using an older theme, simply upgrade to any of our latest themes to access this feature.
Big news! We’ve upgraded Big Cartel shop templates to help you reach global audiences, showcase products clearly, and simplify store management.
Multilingual shop support
Automatically translate your shop into 20 languages, or manually adjust translations to perfectly match your brand. Easily expand your reach and connect with customers worldwide.
Improved currency display
Clearly show prices with currency symbols, currency codes, or no indicator at all—ideal for any international audience.
Enhanced announcement and cart page messaging
Announcement banners and custom cart page text are now available across all themes. Easily format your announcements with HTML support to include links, bold text, and more. Clearly communicate important updates and guide your customers seamlessly through checkout.
Homepage featured videos
Highlight your products, your story, or your creative process directly on your homepage. Now available in our most popular themes including Cosmos, Roadie, Luna, Ranger and Rodie.
Other changes:
Paid-plan users can now easily hide the Big Cartel footer credit—no custom CSS required. Not on a paid plan yet? Upgrade now to access this and other helpful features.
Cosmos and Trace have more customizable header logo sizes
Neat and Lunch Break offers more options and control over the menu navigation
Ready to explore these updates? Make sure you’re using the latest version of your template—head to the Shop designer and dive in!
We just made your shop’s checkout more welcoming for your global customers. Your shop's checkout experience now automatically is translated in 20 languages based on your shopper’s browser settings—no extra work from you!
Why this matters
A localized checkout helps non-English speakers feel right at home, boosting trust and making it easier for them to complete their purchase. That means:
Better shopping experience at the most important step: checkout
Increased conversions for international customers
More trust and clarity with native language support
What’s supported
The checkout now supports 20 languages, including:
Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Traditional & Simplified)
French (and French Canadian), Spanish (and Mexican Spanish)
We're excited to announce our new DSers integration — you can now can source and sell products directly from AliExpress and Temu through automated dropshipping! This integration handles product importing, order fulfillment, and inventory management, making it easier than ever to run a dropshipping business on Big Cartel. Here's what you can do:
Import products directly from AliExpress and Temu with just a few clicks
Automatically fulfill orders with no manual processing
Bulk import and edit products to scale your business faster
Manage variants and pricing with built-in tools
Not yet on a premium plan? DSers integration is exclusive to our Platinum and Diamond plans. Upgrade now to unlock automated dropshipping and start selling without inventory investment!
We've expanded what's possible with your discount codes! Now you can use international characters, emojis, underscores, hyphens, and even create super-short single-character codes. This gives you more creative ways to market special offers to your customers and support customers in your local language.
What this means for you:
More marketing options - Create memorable codes like "SUMMER☀️" or "FLASH⚡" that stand out in emails and social posts
International support - Use characters from any language to better connect with your global audience
Shorter codes - Single-character codes, including emojis, for distinctive and creative promotions
Already using discounts? Head to your discounts area in shop admin to try creating new codes with these expanded options.
Want to start using custom discount codes? This feature is available on our any of our paid plans. Upgrade today to start using discounts and offer special promos to your customers!
We've supercharged the Big Cartel platform with major server improvements that make your shop faster and more reliable than ever before. Our average server response times are now 50-65% faster, and those frustrating slowdowns during busy periods? We've cut them by up to 90%—so your shop stays responsive even during high-traffic moments like product drops or holiday rushes.
What this means for you:
Your shop pages now load up to 10% faster
Checkouts feel noticeably snappier for your buyers
Everything runs more reliably when it matters most
Better performance during busy selling periods
Whether you're handling a sudden rush of customers or just want a smoother everyday experience for your buyers, your Big Cartel shop is now built to perform when it counts—with no action required on your part. This upgrade is live for all Big Cartel shops across all plans!
We've just rolled out updates to all Big Cartel templates with new features that give you more control over your shop, plus a completely redesigned settings interface that makes customizing your shop easier than ever!
What's new across all themes:
Hide coming soon product prices - Perfect for product drops and launches where you want to build anticipation without revealing pricing until release day
Navigation and header improvements (in select themes):
Dropdown navigation options (Cosmos, Foundry, Ranger) - Creating a cleaner header when you have multiple pages
Page display controls (Cosmos, Sunscreen) - Choose which pages appear in your shop navigation
Cosmos theme highlights: Our most popular template received upgrades with new shop header navigation “dropdown” option that now showcases your product categories prominently, helping buyers browse your shop more easily.
If you prefer to keep using the previous “inline” style, it’s still available, and you can also control which links are shown alongside the Products line: custom pages only, contact only or both.
Redesigned Shop Designer interface: Our shop customization tools have been reorganized into logical categories, making it much easier to find and adjust your template settings.
Ready to explore these new features? Simply visit your Shop Designer and ensure you’re on the latest version of your theme. Once you’re updated, you can head to the Template Settings and you’ll see the new goodies waiting for you.
