Introducing Shipping Profiles Beta

The busy bees on Big Cartel's product team have been working away on making improvements to how your shop applies and calculates shipping prices. Our first step was adding the Beta version of Shipping Profiles as an option you can switch on and use if it makes sense for your shop. Beta means this feature is still being expanded and improved, but we want to put it in your hands as soon we can so your shop can step things up right along with us.

Get in the zone

Previously, Big Cartel has given you the ability to set shipping rates by country, with a catchall "Everywhere Else" for shops that ship worldwide and don't want to add each country individually. Now you can get more specific or stay broad, depending on what works for you.

• Create shipping rates by regions of the US, to account for the different costs of shipping to the West Coast vs. the East Coast. Or keep it simple and stick with one shipping rate for the entire United States.

• Set a single price for shipping within the European Union, rather than adding each country individually.

• Keep overlapping shipping profiles to make sure you're covered. Your customers will only be charged the most specific shipping rate that applies to them: if you have a shipping profile for the Midwest, one for the entire United States, and an Everywhere Else shipping profile, a shopper in Illinois will only see the Midwest shipping charge.

• Scale your pricing to cover multiple items by adding in a shipping cost for each additional product.

Local pickup and Carrier Pigeon

If you've ever wanted to offer more shipping methods, today's your lucky day. We know that sometimes you need more than just your standard option, and now we can support a variety of special cases:

• For customers in a hurry, add an expedited shipping option for a higher price.

• Add a temporary free or discounted shipping option without the need for a discount code.

• Create a pickup or local delivery option for nearby customers.

Switch it on

Shipping profiles are a setting stored in the Account page of your store admin, so get in there, toggle them on, and give it a try. If you'd prefer to stick with your current setup, just keep doing your thing: this feature is switched off until you activate it. And if it doesn't work for you, you can always toggle it off. You're the one in control.

For more details about how this feature works and steps for turning it on, our help page has you covered. We're working on further improvements to shipping in Big Cartel, and we'd love to hear from you so we can make shipping even better for you and your customers. And if you need any additional help, our support team is just an in-app message or email away. Now let's go and shape up those shipping options!