Big Cartel Shop Startup – An interview with Original Bros

Original Bros, a t-shirt company based out in Rhode Island, joins us to talk some about starting a new business and how Big Cartel has helped them get up and running.

1. What is your business?

OriginalBros.com is a startup t-shirt line geared toward college-aged guys, our shirts are and will continue to be a mix of party worthy novelty and humor as well as some design based work.

2. How long have you been open?

We have been open on Big Cartel for just about 5 months.

3. Why did you choose big cartel over the other online services such as Shopify, Etsy and others?

We chose Big Cartel because of the shopping cart feature but the selling point was inventory tracking so that we do not oversell product. The Big Cartel shop is also pretty inexpensive for a self-funded project.

4. What was the second option if big cartel didn’t work?

If Big Cartel didn’t work out we were looking at integrating Google’s cart into a custom site, using x-cart or having someone build us our site. This would’ve taken a while and cost us too much.

5. What was the most difficult part of setting up a site on Big Cartel?

The most difficult part of setting up on Big Cartel was the learning curve of the code, we are not great at coding but know the basic language structures. It wasn’t till we ran across the css style page for our theme, which was hidden online, that we could really start to tweak our site’s design and make it closer to what we had envisioned in the first place.

6. What advice would you share with someone else trying to start up an online store?

Do your research. Make sure you are ready to commit your time and energy. Create a following or fan base that is not online as well, marketing is very important and getting people to be aware of your site in the first place is the hardest part. Have fun with it because it is fun and addicting.

Go buy some of their shirts.

If you would like your internet business to be featured on our blog please contact us at hello@tonkapark.

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