Tap to Pay and In-Person Checkout

Heads up! You'll need a paid plan to sell in person. Gold sellers, upgrade now to access this feature.

Prepping for a craft fair, pop-up, market, or festival? Take your Big Cartel shop with you through our mobile apps for Android and iOS. Process in-person cash payments with the app, or use Stripe to process card payments—including tap to pay directly on your phone. This feature is available to all sellers, regardless of your plan.

📣 Note: Your in-person checkout settings are separate from your shop's online checkout settings, so be sure to set them up before your event.

Key features

Accept cash and card payments: Take cash payments and credit/debit cards with Stripe, including tap to pay on your phone (if supported).
Add sales tax and discounts: Easily add sales tax and discounts without codes on in-person sales.
Send receipts: Email receipts to customers right from the app.
Manage orders and products: Add or edit products and manage orders on the go.

How to install

Get the Big Cartel app from the App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android).
Open the app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device.
Tap the menu icon, then select In-Person Checkout.
Tap the settings icon (gear) to set up payment methods, add your location, and configure sales tax rates.
To enable a payment method, toggle its option from grey to green. To connect with a card reader, tap the connect button for the reader or Tap to pay. You can only have one connected card reader active at a time per device.

Processing card payments

For card payments, you can process them manually, use tap to pay on your phone (if eligible), or purchase a bluetooth card reader.

If purchasing a card reader, we recommend the M2 contactless payment card reader for most sellers, or if you need to accept PIN codes (e.g., in Canada), you can opt for the BBPOS Wisepad 3. Card readers start at $59 and can be purchased directly through Stripe.

Tap to pay eligibility

In order to use Tap to Pay on your device, you must have a compatible phone and be located in a supported country.

Apple users:

Device: iPhone XS or later models (iPads are not supported at this time)
Countries: US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands

Android Users:

Device: a compatible NFC-equipped Android device running Android 11 or above.
Countries: US, UK, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Beta, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland

Sales tax

You can decide whether to collect sales tax as a separate line item for in-person sales or include it in your prices. To enable or disable automatic sales tax calculation, tap the settings icon (gear) and enter the tax rate as a whole number (e.g., 8 for 8%). If you don’t want to charge sales tax, just leave the tax rate field blank. Please note, Big Cartel does not remit sales tax on your behalf for in-person sales.

Discounts

You can easily offer your customers a discount without needing a code. Just tap the % or $ icon to choose between a percentage or a dollar amount, enter the discount, and you’re all set!

Inventory tracking

If you have inventory tracking enabled in your online store, note that it doesn’t prevent overselling for in-person orders. The app assumes you’re handing each item directly to your customers, so it allows you to sell products even if they’re marked as “Sold out” in your inventory. This way, you can continue selling in-person without interruption, even if your online inventory shows low stock.

Taking an order

To take an in-person order, tap on the products to add them to the cart. Tap multiple times to increase the quantity. For products with variants, a new screen will open to select the variant and quantity. Tap the subtotal at the bottom to view the cart.

In the cart, adjust quantities using the + or − icons. To add a discount, tap "Add Discount." When you're ready to complete the sale, tap "Continue to payment," select the payment method, and finish the checkout process.

Order confirmation

After completing the transaction, you’ll have the option to send your customer a receipt. Since your shop won’t automatically send an order confirmation email for in-person payments, be sure to ask your customer if they’d like an emailed receipt before closing out the transaction.

All in-person payments will automatically appear in the Shipped list in your admin’s Orders section, making it easy to track and manage them.