how to make a website to sell your
things for free hey guys today i'm going
to be showing you how you can create a
free e-commerce website and start
selling your merchandise so let's get
into it first off today's tutorial is
going to be based on the big cartel
platform and i will make another
tutorial on how to use ecwid as well
because both of these are very great
ecommerce platforms if you want to sell
stuff online and if you don't want to
pay for any of the premium ecommerce
stores such as shopify or some of the
other premium stores that are available
so let's get into how to create your big
cartel
store so first off this is the big
cartel home page and you can see i
already have one store created using big
cartel and these are the kinds of
analytics they provide this is the basic
website i created for my platform and
you can see over here i only have added
one item but for today i'm going to show
you how to create a account from scratch
and how to create your website as well
from scratch so first off you're just
going to click on sign up over here you
can see what you want to subscribe to so
for now we're going to sign up for free
and now over here i'm just going to fill
out some basic details like my email and
password after that you are going to
select your shop name if you've already
decided that so
let's say we are selling accessories so
let's just say we were selling mugs mugs
custom and then you are just going to
click on sign up and just like that you
are halfway there on creating your own
store so once you have created that
you're going to set up your account now
there are two approaches you can take
from here on out you can either set up
your website first or then set up your
account but i would suggest you start
off by setting up your account and then
just focus on your website and design
that so for your account first off
you're going to have a checklist to get
started with you're going to add your
product you're going to set up your
shipping you're going to connect a
payment processor then you're going to
design and launch your shop so if we
were to click on add products over here
you can see if you already have your
business set up elsewhere you can just
click on import products and then you
can import your products from some other
platform but for now we are going to add
some hypothetical products over here now
for your products you can make them
active or you can make them hidden sold
out or coming soon first you're going to
leave a name so let's just say
best
dad mug
and then you're going to write a short
description about it like so
then you can add categories in your
selection for this account i have not
created any categories within this
account so i don't have to add that but
maybe if you're selling apparel and then
you have a category for t-shirts you're
going to have a separate category for
jeans you're going to have a separate
category for blouses and tops so on and
so forth so you're going to add
categories based on that these are just
mugs so i'm not going to add any
categories now i'm going to add a price
like so and then you can even write on
sale or off sale like so after that you
have individual options for each of your
product and then you can add more
variations of the same product so you
could say black or white it's available
in two options then you're just going to
add your shipping and your us tax code
and that's just it you're going to click
on save and then your product is going
to be added to your store now just like
that you can add as many products as you
want
if you are subscribed to a premium
version of break cartel the only
limitation in the free version of big
cartel is that
you can only add up to five products so
it's good to get started but eventually
it would the increase in inventory
you're probably going to have to upgrade
your account as well so that is
something to keep into consideration
once you are setting up your store that
first off you're only gonna start with
five products and if you like using big
cartel you can opt for a different
version now what we're gonna do is we're
gonna start designing our shop so you
can see this is the domain name that
they have provided us with i'm gonna
skip this
i have done this a lot
so you can see over here this is your
shop this is your domain name and right
now obviously we haven't really added
any images or designed it so it just
looks like this if you don't design it
at all but what i am going to do is you
can set up your shop info you can add
your time zone currency or selling in
and then you can start designing your
shop so over here you can see the luna
theme is going to be
the default that is going to be set up
for your shop if you don't select
anything but then you're just going to
click on design over here
and then you're going to start designing
your website so we're going to turn it
off to the launcher store now you can
see over here this is the basic editing
setup of your website so from here
you're going to start editing your
website now if you take a look at themes
over here there are several themes for
you to pick from and i suggest if you're
a beginner you should opt for a theme
instead of
designing your website from scratch i
think it's far easier to set up your
ecommerce store just by picking out a
theme and having a simple display all of
your different items so i really like
this sidecar theme and i'm gonna use it
you can see there is quite a large
variety even for free over here on big
cartel once you do that your i haven't
added any images for my product so i
don't have any images for that but
you can obviously you can add your
images once you have added all of your
products and over here you have your
general settings so
in your general settings you have your
logos if you have a logo you can upload
that and it will appear over here below
that you have a background image so i'm
just going to select a random image that
isn't related or anything to show you
guys how your background images are
going to appear like so
this is just a very random image while
that is uploading you can see you can
change your fonts over here
so there's a lot of fonts you can choose
from if obviously in within your
template you can customize almost
everything so you don't have to worry
about having to stick to an entire
template you can obviously customize it
you can also set up your list layout so
how you want your products to appear
and you can see we have our little
background over here and it's a very
large image so it's looking a bit odd
but just to show you guys you can add
whatever image that's with your website
over here now i'm going to remove this
because i prefer a solid color and i'm
going to keep it black and obviously you
can change up the color of your
background just by clicking this and
then you can select whatever you like
like so so you can change everything
like that let's say you want to change
the color header text so you're just
going to select from over here you're
going to move this bar
i really like pink you guys probably
remember that by now and then i'm going
to select pink like so and now my header
texture is going to be pink below that
i'm going to also change the body text
to a pinker hue
like this and then you can see you have
your general list layouts for your
products as well then you can set up
your sidebar so if you want to keep it a
fixed stationary sidebar on the left you
can do that or you can
also change it if someone rotates their
phone it could rotate with them as well
now after that in your basic settings
you also have your pages so
obviously if you're creating a store
usually you're gonna have a home page at
first and then you're gonna add another
page for your product list or your
general categorization so let's just add
a shop page
and then you're gonna click on done and
within shop you can add a little
description and then add more pages
within that
or you can directly just add your
different pages for different categories
over here so let's just say we have
jeans
or we're making a monster so
best sellers like so you can add a page
for your best sellers your new arrivals
like this and you can add as many pages
as you want once you are done with your
changes you are just going to click on
publish
okay
and now your new pages have been created
now if i were to go
back now you can also view it in tablet
or phone mode if you want as well now
when i'm going to exit my editor and you
can see over here
my website link and you can see the
changes i made to the background i have
my best sellers
i have my new arrivals obviously i
haven't added product it looks a bit
weird right now but generally this is
how you create your free e-commerce
website and start selling your products
online with your own website url and the
url that big cartel provides is very
very decent because it's just your store
name.bigcartel.com and having dot big
cartel usually does not affect me
whatsoever i've seen that the other urls
that are provided by other ecommerce
stores are usually less appealing than
just having bigcartel.com in your name
so that is just something to keep into
consideration you can even add your own
custom domain if you want if you already
have purchased your domain you can add
that over here as well now for your
account you can see this is going to be
your basic dashboard over here you're
going to have all of your analytics your
visitors your orders your conversion so
the amount of people that visit
uh that actually purchase products is
going to be your conversion percentage
and then you're going to have your
revenue after that below that you're
also going to see the product view sold
and revenue so all of your basic
analytics are provided for free by big
cartel after that you have a general
orders tab over here you can view all of
your orders then your products tab where
you can add or remove product then you
also have a discounts bar so if you want
to provide a discount for your customers
you can add a store byte discount over
here
so that was it for today i hope you guys
found this video helpful and i will
catch you guys in the next video