You might add custom code to:

• Create a “subscribe to newsletter” box in your checkout flow that automatically adds customers to your Mailchimp mailing list
• Make your Instagram posts shoppable by connecting your store to Facebook Business
• Add live chat tools like Lucky Orange and LiveChat
• Use Powr.io to add customer reviews to your shop

Being able to add code is not new to Big Cartel, but the process has changed a bit. Previously, store owners on any paid plan could edit their code and add bits of partner code as needed. The functionality they needed was all there, but someone could get lost in a sea of html, and if they decided to switch their shop design to a new theme, those scripts and tags would be removed and would have to be re-added. Your store’s new Integration Code area is easier to use and more secure than ever.

When a trusted partner asks you to add a snippet of code to the header or body of your shop’s code, just paste it into the correct box within the Design area, and we’ll make sure it ends up in the right place. Note: only paid plans have access to code editing tools.

And even better, we’ll keep those snippets safe when you make other changes, like updating to a new design theme, and keep them in place with the latest design. You’re free to change the look of your shop or update to the latest version of a theme for new features, without wiping out that partner code. To learn more and get step-by-step instructions, head to the Big Cartel help article about Integration Code.

And for our long-term store owners: if you’ve already added snippets directly to your store’s code, it’s still in place and working as before. We encourage you to eventually move any partner code snippets to an Integration Code field, so that you can change up your store’s theme without losing any functionality. If you need any help making the change, reach out to our talented support team for a little guidance.

You’re not sure which option to choose

We love that these days there are payment processors that work for everyone regardless of location or special requirements. Competition makes these companies work harder for their customers, but with so many options, your head can start to spin. For this reason, Big Cartel has kept the list short so that shop owners only have to choose between two of the most powerful and trusted names in the game.

In one corner, there’s PayPal: a worldwide payment processor that’s been around since weird dads started selling cool old stuff on eBay. For shoppers that have a PayPal account, it’s quick and secure. For shoppers who don’t have an account, they can pay with a credit card.

In another corner, there’s Stripe: a credit card processor that blends in seamlessly with your shop’s checkout page and easily whisks shoppers to a confirmed order. In addition to their credit card processor, Stripe also offers “buy now, pay later” payment methods like Afterpay and region-specific payment processing.

In a third corner (where are we?), there’s the option to have both payment processors available in your shop. If you’re not sure which option your customers will prefer, why not try them both out?

Your shoppers want to pay later

Stripe offers Afterpay and Clearpay at the flip of a switch. They allow shoppers to pay in installments over time. When you connect Stripe to your Big Cartel shop, Afterpay will automatically be turned on. If you want to change up the options, just log in to your Stripe admin to turn options on or off. It’s worth noting that BNPL often comes with a different transaction fee than you may be used to. For perspective, at the time of publishing Stripe takes 2.9% of the order total + $0.30 for a standard credit card. Afterpay or Clearpay via Stripe have a higher transaction fee: 6% of the order total + $0.30. Big Cartel doesn’t take an additional transaction fee for either payment option.

Or give PayPal a try with its Pay Later feature. Customers will see two directions they can go: PayPal or Pay Later. Tap that second option and they’ll have two choices: PayPal Credit and Pay in 4. Credit gives customers six months with no interest to pay for their purchase. With Pay in 4, you guessed it: their purchase is divided into four installments. Both of these options are subject to approval by PayPal, which happens in just a few moments after making a selection.

You want to offer Apple Pay

Stripe has your back! When you switch on Stripe, Apple Pay is automatically presented as an option to any shoppers who have Apple Pay on their device. As a bonus, Google Pay is also automatically added for your shoppers with this option enabled. If a customer hasn’t set up Apple Pay or Google Pay, they’ll see Stripe’s standard clean and simple credit card info field. Either way, it’s easy peasy.

We’re confident that your Big Cartel shop has the latest and greatest payment options to keep customers cruising toward checkout. But the biggest thing that will sell those potential customers is your one of a kind products. Don’t let choosing a payment processor be the stumbling block that keeps you from moving forward with your shop. Pick an option (or both), check to make sure everything’s working right, and then get back to making amazing things.

Benefits of Afterpay and Clearpay for Online Stores

Adding BNPL to your mix of online store payment options can help your business:

• Boost conversion
• Increase average order value
• Reach more customers

Boost Conversion Rates

If you’re selling furniture, fine art, or another higher price tag item, some shoppers may hesitate to click “add to cart,” due to the price tag. BNPL can help them complete the transaction, since they can split that cost over four payments. In fact, businesses offering Afterpay or Clearpay see an average 22% increase in cart conversion.

Increase average order value

Stores using some BNPL methods report an average 40% increase in average order value. It makes sense: when a shopper knows they can space out their purchase payments, they can add a few extra items to their cart or spring for that higher value, special edition item they’ve been eyeing.

Reach More Customers

Afterpay’s network includes 19 million global customers, 73% of which are Gen Z or millennials. BNPL appeals to customers who may not have a credit card or the ability to pay for large purchases in a single payment. It turns a product that was aspirational into one that is attainable.

Payment Plan Considerations for Ecommerce Stores

It’s worth noting that BNPL often comes with a different transaction fee than you may be used to. For perspective, at the time of publishing, Stripe takes 2.9% of the order total + $0.30 for a standard credit card. Afterpay or Clearpay via Stripe have a higher transaction fee: 6% of the order total + $0.30. Big Cartel doesn’t take an additional transaction fee for either payment option. You can confirm the exact fee for any BNPL options you’re considering on Stripe’s website and turn off any options that you don’t want to offer in your Stripe admin. The good news is that even when your customer uses Afterpay, you get paid in full upfront, so there’s no waiting for the funds to trickle in. And because Afterpay handles collecting payments, they assume liability if a customer files a fraud-related dispute, or if they have any other trouble collecting funds. Once you’ve added Stripe as a payment processor, Afterpay is automatically turned on in your shop. For more details about how this payment method works, or for steps on switching it off or turning on additional BNPL options, head to Big Cartel’s help site.

Here’s how Big Cartel has optimized your checkout experience:

• Expanded payment methods, including popular “buy now, pay later” options
• Fewer clicks to get from cart to completed checkout
• Custom domains throughout checkout
• Autofill customer payment info when possible
• Discount field earlier in checkout
• View order summary and total earlier in checkout

Expanded payment methods

Combine your Big Cartel shop with Stripe as a payment processor for their minimal checkout experience, which looks right at home on your site. And now Stripe includes the option to offer more than just credit card processing for your customers. Your store can offer a “buy now, pay later” (or BNPL) option like Afterpay. More than 70% of businesses using BNPL report higher conversions, bigger average order value, and more customer acquisitions. Stores using Stripe will automatically have Afterpay/Clearpay switched on (if located in Australia, Canada, France, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom, or the United States), or you can change up the options from your Stripe admin.

For customers who’ve been wishing for the card processor that is most familiar in their particular country, we’ve added more local payment options as well. The following options are available when you connect a Big Cartel store to Stripe:

• Alipay
• Bancontact (Belgium)
• EPS (Austria)
• FPX (Malaysia)
• Giropay (Germany)
• Grabpay (Singapore, Malaysia)
• iDEAL (Netherlands)
• Meses sin intereses (Mexico)
• Przelewy24 (Poland)
• WeChat pay (All)

And the good news keeps on coming: Apple Pay and Google Pay are now automatically switched on when you connect a Big Cartel store to Stripe, and Microsoft Pay is also available with a few quick clicks in your Stripe admin.

Fewer clicks to get from cart to completed checkout

We won’t get too deep in the weeds on this, but market research shows that a shopper is more likely to complete their purchase if there are fewer clicks from “Add to cart” to “Your order is complete.” So we’ve taken a fresh look at our checkout flow and streamlined the whole process.

Custom domains throughout checkout

With our old checkout, your customer would start in your store, then switch to a checkout.bigcartel.com URL. Not a big deal, but it was a small detail that stood in the way of some functionality like getting your products added to Google Shopping, or following a shopper via Meta Pixel all the way from social post to order completion.

Now your custom domain will persist as the URL from your storefront all the way through order confirmation. It opens the door for better integrations, and it’s a more cohesive experience for your brand.

Autofill customer payment info

When you use Stripe as your payment processor, their technology assists shoppers as they complete purchases and autofills payment details as possible. The result is a quicker checkout that reduces roadblocks for your customer as they place their order.

Discount field, order summary, and total shown earlier in checkout

Shoppers like to know exactly what they’ll be spending in your shop as soon as possible. So we’ve moved up the order summary, discount field, and order total near the top of the checkout page. Your customers don’t have to scroll or wait and wonder if they’re comfortable with the final price. Instead, they know the details upfront and can confidently move forward with the purchase.

How do you get all of these new checkout features?

We’re rolling out the new checkout to Big Cartel stores starting now. There’s nothing you need to do on your side, except make sure that your store is connected to Stripe if you’d like to access Afterpay or other specific payment options.

Solstices and equinoxes mark a seasonal shift, a change in what’s happening around us. Winter solstice, while it marks the beginning of winter, is also a call for celebration, welcoming the light back.

These seasonal markers are a reminder of the cycles of nature—the shifts, transitions, and evolutions that are constantly ongoing. As we set aside time for our business reflections, our creative practice deserves some reflection as well, and this midwinter season is a call to do just that.

For those of us who are artists and creators, we are coming to the end of a season of output. Some of the constraints that have defined the last few months—holiday sales and markets, shipping deadlines, ongoing promotions—eventually begin to loosen. The frantic cycle of the holiday business season comes to a stop.

In the natural world, this season of midwinter represents a cycle of dormancy, a way for flora and fauna to survive harsh conditions. In the winter, nature doesn’t die off—it takes a rest to ensure survival. With shorter, darker days, we as humans feel tired, and it’s a cue for the natural world as well; the amount of darkness regulates growth hormones in plants, and shorter days help to tell trees that it’s time to stop growing, time to rest.

As Paul Theroux wrote in his essay The Wicked Coast, “Winter is a season of recovery and preparation.” Winter can be a generative space, one in which we pause in order to restore our creative practice. We can apply the lessons from the natural world to better inform our own creativity. It may not take the form of concrete seasons, but creativity is also cyclical. We have our highs and lows, and the rest of the time we are navigating somewhere between the two.

Coming to the end of this season of business output, midwinter asks our creative selves to turn inwards. To shift our focus to the inputs that fuel our creative process. The things that inspire us, the things that ground us, the things that restore us. Winter, after all, is a time for slowing down, a time to take a pause, a time to rest, and a time to reflect.

What regenerates when we give our creative work a break?

I think back to an episode of Elizabeth Gilbert’s podcast series Magic Lessons many years ago, in which she told a writer struggling to make progress on her second book that she should spend an entire month not writing. Basically doing anything besides the creative output work that she was focusing on doing. The result? After two and a half weeks of actively not writing, she finds that’s all that she wants to do.

This is not to say that we have to stop our creative work entirely. But what if we gave it some breathing room? A place of rest and a place of pause can allow us to renew the joy and spark in our creative practice.

We can use this cycle of winter to recommit to our creative process, not to drive a business output but to reinforce and restore a personal practice. Because even if creativity is the core driver of our business, I think it’s essential that we are able to separate our creative process from our work. After all, creativity is a part of who we are, not just what we do. We have to find a space for our creativity that isn’t output driven. We have to take the time to invest in our process. We have to feed creativity for creativity’s sake.

Over the last few years, I have often struggled with January. Coming off the hecticness of the end of the year makes the beginning of the new one feel slow. There’s usually not a lot of work on the horizon and it’s easy for the doldrums to set in.

I’ve found that the best way to counteract that is understanding the cyclical nature of my own work and creative process. Winter is not a time when I have a lot of creative output, but it’s a time of reading, experimenting, going on walks—all things that are inherently tied to the health of my overall creative process. Secondly, the midwinter time goes much better for me when I treat it as a time of regeneration. I don’t ask much of it; I allow it to be a time for ideas to marinate.

Creative dormancy doesn’t have to mean doing nothing. But it does mean taking a look at our creative process and identifying what it needs to be more resilient. Everything in our everyday lives can be fuel for our creative process, and winter is a time to recommit to that practice of creativity not as a job or as a method of output, but creativity as a way of living, as a way of being. It is an excellent time to ask the question, “who are you without the doing?”

To mark the winter solstice and the transition into winter, here are a few questions to guide your creative reflections:

• How does creativity manifest in your everyday actions?
• What does creative regeneration look like for you?
• What do you want to let go of? What does that create more room for?
• What aspect of creativity feels core to who you are as a person? How much time is that getting in your everyday life?

For many years I would attend a winter solstice party. There was an enormous bonfire, and we would each take a bough of cedar or Douglas fir to place on the fire. As we did, we verbalized what we were letting go of for the year and what we were welcoming in. It was a tangible way to put words to the darkness and the lightness, to honor both, and to be intentional about what we took with us moving forward.

Do the same for your creative practice. Let go of what you don’t need, and embrace what you want moving forward. Take time to pause–give your creative process the breathing room it needs.

As we transition into winter, remember this: creativity is cyclical. The best that we can do is to allow it to be just that.

For more inspiration, check out the Creative Fuel podcast. Its latest mini-episode on Winter Solstice Meditation is the perfect companion to this essay.

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After the final orders are packed and shipped, give yourself a pat on the back for surviving the busy holiday shopping season, and get ready to treat yourself to some time to relax. But before you wind down, you’ll need to get your Big Cartel shop ready for a break as well. Here’s how.

The easiest way

Several Big Cartel themes come equipped with editable welcome text—Foundry, Good Vibes, Hopscotch, Neat, Netizen, Nova, Ranger, Snacks, Sunscreen, or Trace all make it easy to put a message front and center on your Home page. Luna, Neat, Netizen, Parade, Ranger, Roadie, and Sunscreen have a special spot for announcement text, too, which will place a banner across the top of every page.

You can adjust welcome messages and announcement text in the Design area of your admin. Add a note that you won’t be shipping new orders until a certain date, hit Publish, and you’re done. Everything else stays the same: Shoppers can still browse around and place orders, but you can take time away. Just make sure your message is loud and clear—you don’t want any confused shoppers if their order doesn’t ship immediately.

Using the slideshow or welcome image options in our themes is another option to place a quick message on your Home page. All Big Cartel themes except Parade, Setlist, and Sidecar offer a slideshow or welcome image—or both! Make those adjustments in the Design area of your admin.

Using Maintenance mode

For the cold turkeys among us, you can completely turn off your shop using Maintenance Mode. With Maintenance Mode toggled on, no one can view your products or place orders. This is especially great if you want to make a big deal about your relaunch by adding new products or designs after the new year (but no pressure—this is your time to relax!)

To turn this on, switch the toggle next to Maintenance Mode in your admin’s Account page. Toggle Maintenance Mode off when you’re ready to start accepting orders again.

Advanced tricks

Maintenance Mode is designed with a standard message to let any visitors know you’re working on your shop, but you can customize that message, as well. By updating this message, you can let shoppers know when you’ll be back, what to look forward to in the new year, and even include links to your social media profiles (or a newsletter) so they can get updates directly from you.

A few of our themes let you change the Maintenance Mode message in the Design > Settings area—Good Vibes, Luna, Lunch Break, Neat, Roadie, and Trace. Shops using other themes can still edit their Maintenance Mode message, but it means digging into the Design > Code area (and requires a paid Platinum or Diamond plan). To do that, make your way to Design, then Code, and Maintenance, and edit away. Just be sure to preview your edits and hit Publish when you’re done.

While you’re there, if you’re comfortable with HTML and CSS, you can alternatively make changes throughout your whole shop, like including a custom note or image instead of turning on Maintenance Mode. Perfect if you still want to accept orders, but want to control exactly how your “be right back” message displays. Find more details in our Edit your theme code help page.

Now go on and take a little break. You’ve earned it.

Taking time to reflect allows us to have a better idea of how the year went and what we might want to do in the future. Reflections don’t require us to make a plan for what’s next, they simply ask us to consider how things have worked up to this point.

How can we best reflect on the year behind us? There’s no one way to do business reflections, but it’s helpful to start from a place of curiosity. Reflecting is less about coming up with concrete takeaways and more about asking yourself questions that encourage you to see the overall picture. These reflections can also help in creating a roadmap to guide your business with intention while still making room for flexibility.

Schedule some time between now and the end of the year for reflection. Prioritizing reflection means that you are taking the time to construct a framework so that you can better focus on your 2023 strategy when the time comes. If you can, block out a morning or afternoon on your calendar. Get out pen, paper, and even art supplies, if you want. Cultivate a space and setting where you are excited about taking a look back and learning along the way.

Ready? Here are a few questions and prompts to kickstart your own reflections.

What Are Your Successes?

Make a list of all the months in the past year and identify one success for each of them. Remember, success comes in many forms and does not necessarily have to be financial.

• What are the things that you did with your business that you enjoyed?
• What are the things that fueled your inspiration?
• What are the projects that you loved working on?

Take a step back and look at this list of successes with a bit of a more global perspective.

• Is there anything that ties these successes together?
• Is there repetition in the kinds of things that made you feel successful?

You can now use this list to identify common themes about what things you are doing with your work that you want to do more of in the next year.

What Did You Learn?

Learning is essential to our creative process. It’s also essential for moving our businesses forward. As we build out our businesses we see what works and what doesn’t. We move through challenges. We find solutions. What are five things that you learned this year?

Identifying what you learned may also help you articulate some of the strategies that you may want to apply in the year to come.

If You Could Change One Thing What Would it Be?

Now that we have worked through the successes and our learning moments, let’s shift the focus to what we might want to change. If you could change one thing about how you do your business, what would it be and why? The why is the important part here because the driving motivation behind what you would want to change might tell you more about yourself and your business and provide deeper insight.

What’s On Your Not-To-Do List?

When we’re reflecting, we’re often thinking about the things that worked well. We’re focused on the positive. But take some time to think about what didn’t serve you this past year, as well.

• Was there work that you didn’t enjoy doing and also didn’t support you financially?
• Were there toxic work relationships?
• Were your own expectations too high?

Checklists are fun for getting work done, but I also love the opposite: the Not-To-Do list. It’s exactly what it sounds like—all the things we are not going to do. After going through the last year, what would you put on a Not-To-Do list?

Who Is Part of Your Creative Team?

We’ve now worked through some of the individual-focused questions. Next let’s take our attention and extend it outward. Even when we work for ourselves, we don’t create in a vacuum. We all need support systems, collaborators, and yes, even executive boards.

• Who did you like working with this year?
• Who offered you support?
• Are there areas where you want more support next year?

This is a great time to start thinking about who you might want to collaborate or work with in the new year. It’s also a great time to reach out to those people and thank them—we’re all better because of creative collaboration, and it’s worth expressing that gratitude so that you continue to cultivate a relationship that you can move forward with.

Very few of us are in the space where we can say yes to 2023 projects right now, but if you begin reflecting on what those might look like now, you can prioritize committing to those collaborations and partnerships in the new year.

How Will You Slow Down?

If you’ve taken the time to do some end-of-year reflecting, then give yourself some space to let those reflections marinate. These last months of the year can be hectic with all kinds of constraints, so if you’re able to, give yourself permission to rest and take time off. You need it; your business needs it.

Then you can come back in the new year and get to planning all the creative endeavors, collaborations, and pursuits that you’re excited about. We can’t wait to see what you create in 2023!

Unfortunately, in a world with next-day shipping (psst! that’s not really free), not enough people get to take time away from work to recharge and reflect. Although Big Cartel is considered a small company in an industry where our competitors have thousands of employees, it’s important for us to set a good example every chance we get.

This year, like the last few, we’re going to do just that by giving the entire company time off to end the year.

As an all-remote company, how the Big Cartel team collaborates is of the utmost importance. Working remotely informs everything we do from how we schedule meetings to the time we take away from work.

And when your team lives across several time zones, you might think it’d be easy to ignore the lines of work-life balance. But we don’t. And sometimes the best thing we can do to facilitate better work is to intentionally step away from it.

By giving the entire company time off to end the year, we’re making it clear—it’s important to unwind, enjoy the company of loved ones, and come back re-energized for the start of a new year.

And we invite you to join us in whatever way works for your artistic practice, business, family, and community. Try working in a break (or mini-breaks) into your routine. Don’t stress if you can’t manage a whole week or even a day—grab anywhere from five minutes to two hours (work with what ya’ve got!) this December to:

• Listen to chill music
• Watch your favorite movie
• Have a good conversation with a friend
• Get a massage
• Close your eyes and take five deep breaths
• Take a 20- to 90-minute nap
• Go for a walk
• Read a few pages of your favorite book
• Eat a cookie

You’ve just survived the most breathlessly busy time of the year, after a couple of the most stressful years for the 8 billion people on this planet. It’s a big accomplishment, and you should give yourself the space to appreciate how far you’ve come.

One last housekeeping note: We want everyone in the company to be refreshed by this break, and that includes our Support team. A few folks have generously stepped up to keep an eye on things in case you need urgent help, and we’ll be back in full force in January. In the meantime, support will be limited between December 23 and January 2.

See you in 2023!

The earlier months in the calendar have their promise of new things to come, but this time of year we’re looking to finish, to conclude, to wrap up. The constraints are many. There are the constraints of deadlines, of fulfilling holiday orders, of prepping for holiday markets and sales. There are the constraints of family demands, of social obligations, of expected traditions, and the “I shoulds.” The constraints of dwindling daylight, and the darker moods that can come in a season that can be difficult for many. The constraint of having a lot to do but needing more sleep, of feeling like if only we had a little extra energy we might be better off.

It’s a full time of year, and it doesn’t always feel simple to move through it.

What does our creative practice look like during all of this? Given this season of constraints, I have been ruminating on how constraints and the creative process are linked.

We might see constraints as obstacles, but in fact, they can be essential for igniting creativity. Think about how an absolutely blank page can feel debilitating. What pressure! But a page with two marks, or two lines, or two sentences on it? Now we have something to work with.

Constraints encourage creativity and we can use them to our benefit. For example, Dr. Seuss’ work was created on a challenge of writing using a reduced vocabulary; Green Eggs and Ham had a limitation of only 50 different words. Dr. Patricia Stokes has covered this link between limits and creativity extensively in her book Creativity from Constraints: The Psychology of Breakthrough, and researcher Oguz Acar and his colleagues have mapped out the connection, identifying an inverted U-shaped relationship between constraints and creativity.

When there are no creative constraints, it’s easy for us to opt for the more intuitive solution, or worse, complacency sets in. But too many constraints can also be a hindrance. We have to figure out the sweet spot in the middle where constraints provide us the space to be more innovative, out-of-the-box, and creative.

Even without putting any specific constraints in place, we are likely already working with a few, and some of us have more than others. After all, who among us really has a truly metaphoric blank slate? There are always constraints at play: time, money, capacity.

But for indie artists and businesses, this time of year can feel particularly full of them, and it’s easy to take a “put your head down and get through it” approach. We may feel like we don’t have the space or the time for anything else. Instead we squeeze the bullet points on our to-do lists into every nook and cranny of the day.

When we’re in this space, we may not feel very creative in the usual ways that our creativity manifests. But that doesn’t mean we should abandon our creative practice. In fact, we need our creative process more than ever in this space. What if we took the constraints of the season to adapt our creative practice to serve us in a different way?

Art has been shown to lower cortisol levels and reduce stress, as well as enhance brain function. Even just looking at art can help our brain, and research shows that entering a flow state helps with our focus and cognition. All the more reason to take time to use our creative practice to our benefit.

How might a smaller, intentional creative practice help us to get through this time of year? We may not get endless, uninterrupted hours in the studio, but we can find small pockets, somewhere, anywhere. We can write snippets of sentences and thoughts on scraps of paper. We can put blobs of color in a sketchbook and write on top of them. We can make a meal full of colors that make us happy. We can walk outside and stare up into the clouds. We can light a candle at the end of the day. We can scribble.

In December, my husband and I try to commit to a regular morning practice. We light a candle, make coffee, and then sit down to do a small painting or drawing. It’s not an elaborate practice, but it’s a small pocket of space to be present. Starting the day off with a little infusion of creativity helps set the mood for the rest of the day.

This season asks us to figure out how to maneuver around the constraints. It asks us to rethink what purpose art and creativity serve in our lives. Creative practice isn’t just for the things we make and sell. It is for us. It is for our wellbeing.

Suleika Jaouad shared a quote from Helena Bonham Carter recently in her newsletter, and it speaks to these small ways that we can infuse creativity into our everyday.

I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel. Life is art.

It’s a good reminder that art isn’t a print we sell or a book we write—it is a way of being. We can infuse our day with creativity, and we can do so even in the smallest pockets of time.

In this season of constraints, ask this: what will I do not in spite of the constraints, but with the constraints? Be protective of your creative practice that you cultivate amongst the constraints. It is what will get you through.

Friendly reminder: This article is meant to get you started thinking about some possible scenarios where you may owe taxes, but is not an exhaustive list and should not be considered tax advice. Speak to a tax professional in your area to understand your specific tax obligations.

You’re based in Canada and pay a different tax rate to each province

If you’re shipping orders across Canada, you likely need to pay taxes to each province or territory where your customers reside. With our previous tax tools, you were able to set one rate for the country. The latest improvements allow you to set individual tax rates for each province, helping you to be more accurate and sensitive to each shopper’s situation.

You or your customers are in the European Union

If you’re frequently shipping to customers in the European Union, odds are that you owe VAT. Smaller sellers used to exist in a grey area, but once your sales to a specific EU country exceed 10,000 Euros, you owe VAT to that member state. Setting up tax rates for EU countries now will keep you covered when you cross that threshold.

You and your co-creator live in separate countries

While tax rules are constantly evolving, a good rule of thumb is that you should be paying taxes in the area where your business is based. If you operate your business in two locations, there are some great perks like faster shipping to your customers in each region, and some complications like paying applicable taxes to each local government. Make sure you have the minimum of taxes set to collect in each of the countries where you have a physical presence.

You’re based in the U.S. or Puerto Rico and only shipping within the country

It can make perfect sense for many sellers to keep it simple and limit their sales radius as they get to know the ropes. For stores with their currency set to USD, your sales tax for U.S. & Puerto Rico-bound orders is automatically calculated, collected, and remitted on your behalf. It’s one less thing to worry about, and you can add more shipping destinations (and manual international tax rates), as you grow.

Set your rates

Ready to collect tax? Log in to your store admin on a browser (any device should be fine, but this feature isn’t visible in our Android and iOS apps just yet), then head to the Account page of and scroll down to see the Taxes area. Here you can set up or edit tax rates. And if you encounter any bumps in the road, our Help site will help steer you straight.

How it works

We’re putting the shop owner in the driver’s seat (right where they belong, if you ask us) and in full control of when and how they collect tax:

• Set tax rates for as many countries as you like
• Set specific tax rates for provinces in Canada
• Choose whether tax is calculated for the entire order total (including shipping) or for the product total only (excluding shipping)

Note: Due to some complicated U.S. tax laws, collecting U.S. & Puerto Rican sales tax works a little bit differently. Stores with their currency set to USD have their U.S. & Puerto Rican sales tax automatically calculated, collected, and remitted by Big Cartel. Stores set to any other currency will not collect U.S. sales tax.

Behind the scenes

As always, it’s your store and ultimately your responsibility to make sure that appropriate taxes are paid and you’re following the rules for running a business. This new tool is flexible, which means you can customize your tax practices as they make sense.

• Set the tax rate to any percentage. You know best what you need to collect, and you won’t need to wait for any update from us to adjust if a region’s tax practices change.
• Collect tax for your customers’ countries, and don’t worry about countries outside of your shipping zones. Best practice may be to match your manual taxes with the list of countries you’ve set shipping rates for.
• Pay taxes to the appropriate organizations on your own schedule. We’re helping you collect what you need, but we don’t pay them to each country’s government on your behalf. So remit your taxes in the way that makes sense. You manage your books and pay taxes in your own way. It’s good to be the boss.

Set your rates

Ready to collect tax? Log in to your store admin on a browser (any device should be fine, but this feature isn’t visible in our Android and iOS apps just yet), then head to the Account page of and scroll down to see the Taxes area. Here you can add or edit tax rates. Easy!

If you have any questions or feedback along the way, our help site has you covered.

Marketing our work is an essential part of being an artist. But that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. And it certainly doesn’t mean that we all enjoy doing it. Putting your stuff into the world and asking people to buy it? That can make many of us cringe, turning marketing into a stumbling block, whether it’s because we’re struggling with the right strategy, or because we just feel downright sheepish about talking up our own work.

There can also be a big difference in how we feel about simply sharing our work and sharing our work with the intent of selling it. “I’m very happy putting daily drawings on the internet for people to see. It’s the aspect of monetisation and promoting my products that can feel embarrassing,” says Worry Lines, an illustrator who shares daily illustrations on Instagram, highlighting that struggle that many of us can feel when it comes to marketing. “I personally don’t like the feeling of being sold to, and capitalism in general makes me feel weird in the tummy, so it’s never a super comfortable experience for me, promoting my store.”

Many of us feel a little hesitant or uncomfortable when it comes to marketing, and knowing how much time it can take (without some boundaries, it would be easy to spend all one’s time on marketing… there’s a reason companies have entire departments dedicated to it), sometimes the easiest option just feels like avoiding it entirely. However, particularly in busy times of the year—also known as survival season for a lot of small businesses—marketing is often a non-negotiable. After all, how can people support your work if they don’t know that you want or need them to support your work?

Regardless of what marketing tools we may employ (newsletters, Instagram, videos, etc.), how do we find a balance and do it well? How do we keep from entering into cringe-worthy marketing territory? There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but if you’re working at figuring out your own relationship to marketing, and getting more comfortable with it, here are six things to consider.

Value your work and don’t be afraid to express it

Making yourself more comfortable with marketing starts by identifying what marketing strategies feel true to who you are. “Find a way of promoting yourself that feels authentic and comfortable to you,” says Worry Lines, “and at the same time don’t self-sabotage by being too shy.” Start by valuing your own work. “You deserve to earn money for your hard work, and you need to let people know that they can support you financially if you want them to support you financially, so find a balance,” says Worry Lines.

Identify and understand your emotions related to marketing

“It’s so easy for my brain to get all self-doubt mode, which makes promoting my work harder,” says Holden Mesk, an illustrator, collage artist, and designer. “You just gotta recognize these feelings and know that they’re normal when you’re putting yourself out there. It’s a big deal and you’re doin’ big things!” If we can identify some of those emotions, we can better deal with them and work with them instead of against them. For many, we may feel a little outside of our comfort zone when it comes to marketing, but knowing that and pushing ourselves (even when it’s a little uncomfortable) can be useful. “In my experience, if I’m cringing just a little bit, it’s probably about right,” says Worry Lines.

Stand by what you do

Just like we might focus on doing good with our business, it’s also important to stick to your personal business ideals. “Only sell things that you yourself would want to buy, and that are aligned with your own beliefs,” says Worry Lines. This can help to make marketing a little easier because you know that you entirely stand behind what you’re selling. “For example, I try to make sustainable and ethically-produced products, use recyclable packaging, and have high quality standards for the products I put into the world,” says Worry Lines. “Liking and being proud of what I make takes a lot of the awkwardness out of the process for me.”

Be creative with how you communicate to people who want to support your work

One of the things that I was drawn to when I discovered Worry Lines’ work, is the reminder in every Instagram caption of all the various ways to support their work. This approach felt unique and different to me, and I asked them about it. The choice to use that strategy was because it felt like a less obtrusive way to communicate with followers how to support the work. “It’s not an advertising-first approach, it’s an art-first approach, which feels more authentic to me and how I want to work.” They have managed to figure out a way that both communicates to people what support can look like, but that also stays true to their work. “I think it’s good to have a consistent reminder in the captions that there are products available for people to look at if they are interested.” Worry Lines acknowledges that this may not be traditional “good marketing advice” taught in business school, “but it feels comfortable to me.”

Don’t be afraid to have fun

“I love marketing my work!” says Mesk. “It’s really fun for me to take my creations and then get creative again on how to market them.” Not everyone gets the same thrill out of marketing, but Mesk highlights why it’s important to maintain an element of fun in your marketing work. “I, of course, recognize how daunting of a task it is to put yourself out there and ask other people to buy your stuff,” says Mesk. “This is why I usually try my best to keep it easy and enjoyable for myself when I’m marketing my work… For me, short and simple is the best when it comes to marketing! Keep it easy on yourself, have fun with it, and be weird.”

Take a break and get back to the basics

“It’s really easy to be swept away into obsessing over how to market and promote yourself,” says Mesk. “Yes it’s important, but it’s not everything. If you’re ever feeling overwhelmed, take some time away from thinking about how to promote yourself and just focus on what you love making/creating/doing.”

The list below—featuring a long-running photography zine; an expertly-printed art and botanical review; a classic, photocopied zine; neon Riso printing; a perfect-bound graphic novella; a group zine about the complex relationship disabled creatives have with their beds; and more—only scratches the surface of what Big Cartel artists have produced. We hope you see this as a starting point to discovery and inspiration to add your own publications in to the world.

Bed Zine, Issue Two

Kitchens: A zine about the most important room in the home by Lecker

Creatures Speak Out by Mixed Rice Zines

Variable Vessels by Gentle Oriental

Blumenhaus Art and Botanical Review, Issue 3

La Horchata, Issue 9

I’m Bored: Activities for Tedious Times by Pirrip Press

Still Life by Tess Smith-Roberts, published by Can Can Press

Swallows, Part One by Joshua Santospirito, published by San Kessto Publications

Asian Architecture 2 by Ella Zheng, published by Knuckles and Notch

Cycle Shorts, Issue 1

Passenger by Lin Blythe, Field Notes 050 published by Another Place Press

Yet we are often drawn to the myth of the sole creative genius. The isolated, solitary artist, working alone and cranking out masterpieces. This individualistic conception of how creativity functions (incorrectly) assumes that it’s the work of one sole person. No wonder we’re culturally obsessed with identifying creative “geniuses” and putting them on pedestals. In an individualistic culture, this all feeds into the idea that we can go it alone. Who needs the support of other people if you can do it all yourself?

The reality is, of course, very different. There are certainly all kinds of individual elements at play in creativity. Solitude can be generative for creativity, and we need time when we can drown out the rest of the world and focus on our creative work by ourselves. But it’s so easy to focus on the individual pursuit of creativity that we neglect to honor its collective nature. Creativity is not a stroke of genius—it is the sum of many parts and many inputs.

Let’s take an oversimplified breakdown of creative work to visualize what collaboration does for us.

An artist has an idea: idea A. They sit down to work on the idea, and end up with a result. We’ll call that result A. The artist may come back to that work later and develop the idea further, but for now we’ll assume that they’ve created the work and moved on.

Now add a second person to that mix. One comes with idea A, and the other person interacts with that idea. They provide feedback. Idea A has now shifted to idea B. Even with only a little bit of back and forth, an idea, and the end result, shifts and morphs into something different.

I’ve been collaborating with my friend Gale Straub on our podcast, Creative Fuel, and I see this play out in every single episode. Because we’re working together, we both bring different things to the table, and we always end up in an entirely different place than I would have if I had been working on it solo. Even if we need space and time alone to create, or mull over our own ideas, we also need brainstorming, and we need other people. Collaboration is, after all, an important part of innovation. It’s a part of how businesses think not just about how teams are built, but how spaces are constructed, and even digital ones, too.

When it comes to office work, there’s a longstanding idea that simply being in the same space or running into someone can help to spark new ideas, something that businesses are having to rethink as workplaces have entirely shifted because of Covid. But that doesn’t mean that working in person is essential for creativity and collaboration, and a transition to more remote work has seen creativity bubble up in new ways. That could be because for good ideas to come to life, it’s not a question of whether we work solo or collaboratively, it’s a question of how we create space for both.

For those of us who work mostly on our own, collaboration might seem more suited to a workplace or company, one with a variety of people with a variety of expertise. But that doesn’t mean that those of us who work alone shouldn’t put the same concepts into practice (just like we all need an executive board).

How can we incorporate more collaboration into our creative process? Here are five ideas to point you in the right direction.

Understand your own ego

Start by acknowledging that it can be hard for those of us who identify as creatives to collaborate because we are usually very attached to our own ideas. Researchers writing for the Harvard Business Review point out that “Artists want to control how their ideas are generated, shaped, and executed.” But if you’re overly wrapped up in your own identity as a creative, you might miss out on good input that helps you to think outside the box.

Welcome other people in

From there, work on welcoming in other people and other perspectives. Using the word “we” with children can help to nurture collaboration as they develop, and anyone who has run their own business knows that when you say “we” it makes it sound like there are more people involved than just yourself. But I would argue that it also makes you more open to accepting help or seeking out partners for potential new projects. Focusing on the word “we” reminds your brain that you can’t do everything alone. And the more that we welcome people in, the easier collaboration flows.

Create a framework to facilitate collaboration

Collaborating with other people also means learning to ask for help, which benefits from setting up some structures to help facilitate an environment where you and your collaborators feel like they can flourish. That involves identifying ground rules and structures for how you communicate and provide feedback, as well as creating a space in which everyone feels like they are listened to and respected.

Know when you need to work alone

As mentioned previously, this isn’t an either/or situation—we need solo work and we need collaborative work. Figuring out the balance that works for you means knowing your own workflow and creative process. When do you need to work alone? When are you most open to feedback? What situations best facilitate idea generation for you?

Creative collaboration creates community

Collaboration may be a key to innovation, but on a more important level it makes us invested in each other. When we collaborate together, whether it’s on a small project or on a big one, we’re not only invested in ourselves doing well, but we’re invested in the other person. This helps us to build a more robust collective culture, one that identifies the important links between people and celebrates how we all influence and support each other.