How To Start an Online Store For Free in 30 Minutes
Your step-by-step guide to going from dreaming to launching your online store for free in half an hour.
- 7 March 2025
- 2 min read
Your step-by-step guide to going from dreaming to launching your online store for free in half an hour.
Starting an online business comes with a lot of unknowns. Will people buy your products? Will your pricing work? Do you even like running an online store? Can you afford it?
It can feel overwhelming to take the leap and start your online store. But it doesn’t have to be.
With Big Cartel’s free plan, you can launch your online shop in just 30 minutes—no upfront cost, no risk, and no technical skills required.
Starting an online store opens up a world of opportunities for small businesses. Whether you're looking to expand beyond local sales, test out a new product idea, or create a convenient way for customers to shop, having an online store can be a great way to make money and build your brand.
Let's look into some of the benefits of starting a free online store.
One of the biggest hurdles for new entrepreneurs is the cost of setting up an online shop. Traditional e-commerce platforms often require initial fees, hosting costs, or design expenses that can add up quickly—all before you’ve even made your first sale.
Brick-and-mortar businesses require an even larger financial investment to get the storefront set up and welcoming, signage, inventory, and more.
When you start a free online store, you don’t have to worry about most of those costs. With a user-friendly e-commerce platform, you can set up and manage your own store without relying on your neighbor’s son or spending endless hours trying to figure it out yourself.
Starting with a free shop allows you to test your ideas before investing thousands of dollars into your business idea.
Before committing to large inventory orders or paid marketing, you can gauge market interest by listing a few products and seeing how they perform. Early sales provide valuable feedback—what customers like, what needs improvement, and whether pricing feels right.
You might discover that certain products gain traction faster than others, helping you refine your offering before investing more time and money in products to sell.
Additionally, starting small allows you to tweak your brand message, product descriptions, and visuals based on real customer engagement. When your shop gains momentum, you’ll have proof of concept, making it easier to scale confidently, knowing your business model is viable.
Having an online store is more than just listing products—it’s about learning the ins and outs of managing orders, pricing, branding, and marketing.
A free store gives you the chance to experiment without pressure, helping you gain hands-on experience. You can easily test different pricing strategies, adjust product descriptions, and see how small tweaks in your branding affect customer engagement.
Marketing is a trial-and-error process, where you explore social media promotions, email marketing, and customer interactions while you understand what drives sales.
As you’re getting started, you’ll also be refining your fulfillment process, figuring out packaging, shipping costs, and delivery times before scaling up.
Starting small doesn’t mean staying small forever. A free online store allows you to grow your business at your own pace without the pressure of upfront costs or long-term commitments.
Instead of diving in with a huge investment, you can gradually build momentum—learning what works, refining your brand, and expanding your product lineup as demand increases.
As your business needs grow, you may require more features, like additional product listings, a custom domain, or advanced analytics.
The beauty of starting with a free store is that you control when and how you scale. There’s no rush and no financial strain—just a natural progression as your business evolves. With Big Cartel, upgrading is seamless, allowing you to scale quickly without disrupting your existing shop.
Big Cartel’s free plan gives you the essentials to sell online while keeping costs low. With the ability to sell up to five products, it’s a great way to showcase a small collection or test a new product line. The customizable storefront allows you to create a shop that reflects your brand without requiring design expertise or coding knowledge.
Order fulfillment is simple with an intuitive dashboard that helps you keep track of sales and process transactions seamlessly. Since the platform is mobile-friendly, you can run your store from anywhere, whether you're at home or on the go.
While the free plan provides everything you need to start selling, it also offers a smooth transition when you’re looking to grow. If you need more product listings, premium apps to help you manage your business, or a custom domain, upgrading to a premium plan is easy, ensuring your growth remains uninterrupted. See what each of Big Cartel’s plans has to offer here.
Ready to take the leap and open your online store? Set aside 30 minutes and go from dreaming to having your own digital storefront. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to set up your free Big Cartel store. If you prefer to watch in a video format, check out our free Live Class: Set up your Big Cartel Shop.
Creating your online store starts with a quick and simple sign-up process. Head over to our pricing page and choose the free plan.
Enter your shop name, shop URL, email, and password to create your account.
Once you log into your account, you’ll see a “Getting started checklist” on your Dashboard.
Enter your address, time zone, and currency details to verify your location. Customers can’t see any of this info—it’s used for tax settings and shipping.
If you need to change this information, you can find it under Account.
To make money online, you need to list products for people to purchase. Click Add a Product and upload high-quality images that showcase your products to sell. Add a clear and engaging product title, along with a detailed description of each product to help potential buyers understand what you’re offering.
Product variants can be added if your products come in different sizes, lengths, colors, etc, so you don't need to create a new product for each variant.
If you sell in USD, Big Cartel automatically calculates, collects, and remits U.S. sales tax for orders shipped to or within the U.S. and Puerto Rico. For orders shipping outside of the U.S and Puerto Rico, you can set up manual tax rates.
Whether you’re shipping physical products or offering digital products, you need shipping profiles. Only customers in the area(s) you set shipping profiles for can purchase from your online store.
Choose between two models of shipping:
Product-Level Shipping: Set unique shipping rates for products of different sizes and weights directly from your Products page.
Shipping Profiles Beta: Create store-wide shipping rates with customizable methods that apply to all products in your shop
Take the time to research your shipping options and costs based on size, weight, and destination—you can always adjust your rates later.
Before making any sales, you need to connect to a payment processor. Big Cartel quickly integrates with PayPal and Stripe. If you don’t already have an account with either service, you need to create one before linking it to your online shop. Pro Tip: Connect both payment processors to give your customers the widest variety of payment methods at checkout, depending on their preferences and location. See the complete list of available payment methods here.
Now comes the fun part—customizing your shop. No coding skills or design experience required! Choose from a selection of free e-commerce templates, adjust colors and fonts, and upload your logo to make your online shop truly yours. You can also add extra pages to your website like an FAQ or About section.
Once everything is set up and looking great, it’s time to go live. Hit the Launch button in your Getting Started checklist, and your shop will be visible to customers.
You did it! You’ve officially launched your online store—and in under 30 minutes! Now that’s something worth celebrating. Take a moment to do a happy dance, treat yourself to a coffee (or something stronger), and bask in the glory of your newly launched free online shop.
But what’s next? It’s time to get your first customers and start making money. And the secret sauce to those first sales? Shameless self-promotion!
People can’t buy from you if they don’t know about you. With hundreds of thousands of online shops out there, you need to be shouting from the rooftops about your new business—loud and proud.
Tips to get your first few sales:
Spread the word everywhere by telling your friends, family, coworkers, and even your neighbor’s dog. The more people who know, the better!
Create content to share your story through videos or social media to showcase what makes your products and brand stand out.
Highlight your new business status by stating that you’ve “just launched" to set appropriate expectations for customers.
Engage directly with potential customers one-on-one to build relationships and gather feedback.
Optimize your product listings with high-quality photos and compelling descriptions with strategic keywords to attract buyers and get your shop noticed in the search engines.
Remember, you don’t need marketing experience or a big budget to build a customer base. Megan Ellie of successful knitwear brand whatmegknits started by selling her creations to her followers on Instagram.
With the right promotional efforts, even a free store can generate buzz and sales without throwing money at paid ads and boosted posts. When new sales come in, ask your happy customers to reshare on their social media to help build your social proof.
Whether you’re testing an idea, launching a passion project, or taking your first steps into online selling, a free store gives you the flexibility and freedom to grow on your terms.
With Big Cartel, you can set up your shop in just 30 minutes and start building your brand and generating sales without any upfront costs. When you’re ready to upgrade for more features to grow your store, it's easy.
So why wait? Start your free Big Cartel shop today! Sign up here and get your store online in under 30 minutes.
7 March 2025
