To cancel your Big Cartel subscription, log in at app.bigcartel.com, open Account from the side panel, click the Plan & Billing tab, and either select Change plan to drop to the free Gold tier or scroll to the Danger Zone and click Close Shop. Before you click anything, export your orders and finish any open sales. Big Cartel does not refund monthly subscriptions, and the change takes effect at the end of your current billing cycle, so cancel before your renewal date to avoid one more charge.
Export Your Orders Before You Touch Anything
Closing a Big Cartel account is permanent. The platform cannot recover deleted account data after closure, so pull your records out first.
Go to the Orders page in your dashboard, select the orders you want to keep (or choose All Orders), and click Export orders to download a CSV file. That file holds your transaction history, shipping details, and customer information. You may need it for tax filings, refund disputes, or setting up on another platform. The IRS generally expects business records kept for at least three years from the date you file the return reporting that income, longer in some situations, so hanging onto the CSV costs nothing and protects you if an audit ever surfaces.
Resolve Every Pending Order
Ship or refund every open order before you modify the account. The FTC’s Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule requires online sellers to ship within the timeframe they promised or to notify the buyer and offer a full refund if they can’t. Closing the shop doesn’t erase those obligations.
Unresolved orders also invite chargebacks. Stripe charges around $15 per chargeback and PayPal charges $20, and those fees hit your payment account whether your storefront is live or not. Clearing pending transactions first is the cheapest way out.
Downgrade to Gold or Close the Shop
Big Cartel gives you two routes, and picking the wrong one is the most common mistake.
- Downgrade to Gold (free). Your storefront stays live at its existing URL, but you’re capped at five physical product listings and lose custom domains, discount codes, inventory tracking, and theme code editing. Good choice if you want to reserve your shop address, sell seasonally, or might come back later.
- Close your shop. Your storefront disappears from the web permanently. Big Cartel cannot restore a closed account or its data. Pick this only if you’re genuinely done.
If there’s any chance you’ll return, downgrade. It costs nothing and keeps the door open.
What You Will and Won’t Get Refunded
Big Cartel does not issue refunds for monthly subscriptions. Annual plans can be refunded within 14 days of the initial payment; after that, the payment is final. Whether you downgrade or close, the change takes effect at the end of your current billing cycle, so you keep paid features until then.
Check Your Renewal Date and Plan
Open the Plan & Billing page to see your exact renewal date. Cancelling three days before renewal still runs out the full billing cycle, which means no new charge but continued access until the period ends.
The three tiers:
- Gold: Free. Up to 5 physical products.
- Platinum: $15/month (about $12/month billed annually). Up to 50 products.
- Diamond: $30/month (about $24/month billed annually). Up to 500 products.
The Click Path
Once your data is exported and your orders are clear, the actual cancellation takes about two minutes.
To downgrade to the free Gold plan:
- Log in at app.bigcartel.com.
- Select Account from the side panel menu.
- Click the Plan & Billing tab.
- Select Change plan and choose Gold.
To close your shop permanently:
- Log in at app.bigcartel.com.
- Select Account from the side panel menu.
- Click the Plan & Billing tab.
- Scroll to the Danger Zone section and click Close Shop.
If you’d rather not do it yourself, email support@bigcartel.com from the address linked to your account and ask them to schedule the closure.
Big Cartel sends a confirmation email after either action. Save it outside your regular inbox, in a business folder or cloud storage. If a billing error shows up months later, that email is your proof. Your dashboard will also update, though you may need to refresh.
Clean Up What Big Cartel Doesn’t Touch
Custom Domain DNS Records
DNS records pointing to Big Cartel don’t remove themselves when you close or downgrade. Left in place, visitors land on a dead page. Log into your domain registrar and remove or update:
- The CNAME record for the www subdomain pointing to your Big Cartel shop URL.
- Any 301 redirect or forwarding rule sending the non-www version of your domain to the www version through Big Cartel.
- Any subdomain CNAME (for example, shop.example.com) you set up for the store.
Once cleared, you can point the domain somewhere new, put up a landing page, or leave it idle.
Stripe and PayPal
Big Cartel processes payments through Stripe, and closing your shop doesn’t sever the connection. Log into Stripe, go to Settings, then Installed Apps, and remove the Big Cartel integration. If you also used PayPal, check your connected apps there and revoke Big Cartel’s access.
Keep both processor accounts active long enough to handle refund requests or chargebacks that come in after closure. Disputes can surface weeks after a transaction, and you need an active account to respond.
Taxes and Sales Permits
Canceling your subscription ends your storefront but not your tax obligations for the period you operated. Income your store earned during the current tax year still belongs on your return, and the IRS requires a final return for the year you stop doing business. The form depends on your business structure: sole proprietors use Schedule C, partnerships file Form 1065, and corporations file Form 1120 or 1120-S. Partnerships and corporations check the “final return” box at the top of the form and mark any Schedule K-1s as final.
If you collected sales tax in any state, contact that state’s department of revenue to close the permit and file a final sales tax return. Leaving a permit open without filing can trigger late-filing penalties even when you owe nothing. Most states let you close by phone or online, but you have to actively notify them; the permit doesn’t lapse on its own.