Big Cartel vs Optimizely

Big Cartel has been making waves in the eCommerce world, but like any platform, it has its fans and its critics. Users who dig Big Cartel often point to its user-friendliness and affordability as major pluses. It's a great starting point for small businesses and artists who want to get their online stores up and running without breaking the bank or getting bogged down in technical complexities. However, some users find Big Cartel's features a bit too basic, especially compared to more robust platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce. If you're looking for advanced marketing tools, extensive customization options, or top-tier customer support, Big Cartel might leave you wanting more. Ultimately, Big Cartel is a solid choice for those who prioritize simplicity and affordability, but if you need a platform that can scale with your business, you might want to explore other options. "Big Cartel: the perfect platform for your big dreams." Whether you're an artist selling handmade crafts or a musician hawking merch, Big Cartel provides a straightforward way to turn your passion into profit. Just remember, as your business grows, you might need to upgrade to a platform with more bells and whistles.

Optimizely is a powerful tool for managing and optimizing digital shopper experiences. Its content management capabilities are particularly impressive. The platform offers a centralized hub for storing, editing and approving multimedia content, making it easy to maintain consistency across channels.Customers can quickly reach their desired location and find products with built-in search and navigation tools combined with AI-powered recommendations. The integrated customer data platform (CDP) is also a valuable addition, helping organize customer data for efficient support services and personalized suggestions.The platform’s real strength lies in its experimentation capabilities. It offers a robust set of tools for A/B testing, multivariate testing and feature flagging. These tools help you fine-tune your online store to better match your audience’s taste and test variations of designs, features or products to see how effectively they boost customer conversions.However, the platform is far from an all-in-one eCommerce solution. It offers basic backend tools to manage inventory, orders and shipping. For example, you can’t manage multiple inventory locations and set up packaging and kitting workflows.Also, it doesn’t support product bundling, contract-based pricing, purchase orders and complex promotional structures. This makes the platform less suitable for B2B businesses with complex needs.Overall, Optimizely is ideal for large enterprises and D2C businesses with an existing backend setup, looking to manage, personalize and deliver branded shopping experiences across multiple sales channels. However, SMEs and growing companies must consider other options in the market, as Optimizely can be a costly investment and may not cover the full spectrum of eCommerce store management needs.