[molsongolden]

I agree that Shopify can be a good deal vs. building and hosting your own but I was trying to compare the $29 Shopify base plan to a Big Cartel free plan.

Big Cartel is a fairly established player in the "run your own storefront" game. With their most basic plan you can edit your storefront CSS, they don't take a percentage of sales, and you can have 5 products for free.

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That said, I see ShopLocket as competing more with Gumroad than with the "storefront management" companies. If I want to open a storefront then I will open an Etsy/Shopify/Big Cartel store but if I already have a website and I want to now offer a few items for sale then I would use ShopLocket.

I would be glad to pay the current ShopLocket fee after my first sale but would not be willing to pay an upfront setup charge. What if I'm not sure that anyone wants the item I am trying to sell? I'm not a retailer, I'm just a guy who wants to try selling something. ShopLocket would be driving away a large number of amateur sellers if they put up that barrier to entry. With no upfront fee there is the chance of catching the amateur seller who is testing the waters then ends up with a hit, with an upfront fee that person would go use Gumroad.