It’s true, every Bandcamp-powered site now has a shiny new shopping cart. You can add stuff to it, remove stuff from it, and even umm…check out. And yet we’re sincerely excited about it, and think you should be too. Why? Well that requires a story. It’s kind of long, but as you’ll see, that’s kind of the point.
This particular buying experience may sound like an extreme case, but it is, sadly, not at all unusual. In just the past few months of casual music shopping, I’ve ended up on sites that sprung major shipping and handling fees on me only after collecting all my payment info, sites that required me to go through onerous account creation processes, sites that bungled basic currency conversion, sites that waited until the very end of the checkout flow to inform me that a limited edition item was already sold out, and even one site that required me to grant a Facebook app permission to do everything short of inspecting my underwear drawer before I could make a purchase. Throughout all this I kept asking myself one question: why’s it gotta be so damn hard to give some money to the artists I love?
The worst of it is that these sorts of hurdles don’t merely annoy customers – they prevent them from buying at all. If 10 of your most dedicated fans were faced with the checkout gauntlet described above, how many would make it through? One? Two? The result is that something as banal as an online shopping cart can actually end up doing something as catastrophic as keeping artists from making a decent living. Helping artists make a living is of course Bandcamp’s raison d’être, so when we set out to add a shopping cart to the site, we made it our objective to knock every last one of those hurdles out of your fans’ way.
Here are a few of our cart’s more noteworthy features:
* It doesn’t add a single additional click to the existing checkout flow. If your fans want to use the cart, it’s there, if they’d rather bypass it and check out immediately, they still can.
* It’s conspicuous. When a fan adds an item to the cart, they won’t be left wondering where their cart is or how to checkout.
* It doesn’t require an account. The cart’s contents are still remembered in between sessions per machine (so a fan can always come back to it, or use it as a wish list), but there’s no cumbersome account creation process for your fans to slog through.
* It uses location wisely. Once a fan sets their location, they’ll be able to see an item’s shipping costs up-front, view pricing in their native currency, and even checkout in their own language.
* It not only works across all Bandcamp sites, it works across custom domains too. So if you’re a label with custom Bandcamp URLs like digital.fangisland.com and store.omar.com, fans can buy items from both artists in a single checkout.
The cart is active on every Bandcamp site now; there’s nothing for you to do other than sit back and bask in the cha-chings. However, if you’re selling physical goods, please read about how combined shipping works – you may want to make a tweak or two to your shipping settings.
The final reason we’re excited about the cart is that it means we can now get on with the business of giving your fans more ways, and more stuff, to add to it. Please try it out yourself so you know what your fans are experiencing and, as always, let us know if you have suggestions for improvement. Enjoy!
100 Comments
Holy shit, you guys. Every time you announce something, it is in fact a better thing for the site and for artists / labels. Great work.
Yes!!! Thank you!
the best feature!
Absolutely fantastic; you guys nail it again.
Thanks!
You would help indie music with that!
always loved Bandcamp for having such quick and easy methods of purchase. never needed to buy more than one album at once, but now I know that I can! :P
Niiiice!! Thank you!!
Great, absolutely great.
This would have been great a while back — I once was buying individual tracks from a favorite artist’s “rarities” album and ended up making 9-ish individual $0.99 transactions. A cart would have made the process much much simpler and faster.
This is great but how much does it cost to use it???
Free as in beer.
Thanks, I got a Cha-Ching probably from the new system, just before you emailed that this article was up! Congratulations on the enhancement.
So excited every time I see a new blog post here. It’s *always* good news and that’s just so rare. Fantastic as usual, guys! Thank you so much for your hard work.
You get it!
This is great news. It’ll boost sales on my site, and streamline accounting and sales for me. Thanks Bandcamp!
This is awesome news! Is there a way to link from a completed shopping cart transaction to a digital file located on my site (i.e. PDF file of sheet music)?
wow, that saga above is why i hardly ever buy CDs on the internets. thank you bandcamp for making it super easy!
Oh man. This is fantastic! This was the one hurdle that was about to send us over to [lolwut]…albeit reluctantly. This feature is critical to us as a growing label. THANK YOU!!! p.s. now how about tabs on our index pages???? You guys rule!
any chance we can get pop up carts like this on our website?
I knew you would do this sooner than later. Thank you!
Cool! So…what kind of cart module is it? Or is that a trade secret? :)
amazing, you guys rule so much.
This is yet another reason to love you folks. You’re the BEST.
That’s what’sup!!! *Kool-aid Smile*
Been waiting for this! Thanks BC!
Ahhhh, I love it when companies take heed of good–and terrible, in this case–user experience and improve.
Good on you, folks.
Awesome! I just want to see more people downloading my songs, my band’s single is free: http://yearonamountain.bandcamp.com
We’re Indie/Folk/Rock
Thank you bandcamp! and everyone who uses bandcamp regularly, it’s really a great website.
Five stars for BandCamp’s new shopping cart . . . simple, straightforward and user-friendly.
Loving it. BUT CAN YOU GUYS INCORPORATE THIS KICK ASS SHOPPING CART WITH FACEBOOK PAGE PLEASE!!!!
Wow! We’re signed up on other sites too, but BandCamp seems to be the way to go. You guys are on it man. Dig.
Sounds great, but I can not see it on my bandcamp page. Do I need to do something?
Nope. It’s there, you just need to click Buy on any of the items on your page, then click the Add to Cart button.
Now if I had something I figured would sell…..
So glad I discovered you guys a month ago, I thought Bandcamp was already great, now it’s even better, thanks a million!
You guys rock! Thanks a lot for the good work! Keep it up :)
HOLY FLIPPING HELL! MY PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED! LOVE YOU GUYS!
love!
Can’t wait to see it in action. You guys really offer value to the musicians.
Awesome! I have been making multiple purchases and have to log into Paypal each and every time…. and that gets REALLY bloody annoying. The shopping cart is a MUST have.
Brilliant site guys, thanks.
love love love bandcamp, simple clean straight forward…ARTIST friendly!!!!!
nice…..I’ll be more active very soon….
About page is needed! come on dudes
This is brilliant. My day job is web developer. I’m going to post a brief write-up and link on my Web Manager Tipsheet blog to the “19 clicks” article above as an example of the ways that e-commerce sites sabotage themselves.
I already tried out the cart — it works beautifully as far as I went. (I can’t even afford my own bargain priced music these days, LOL.)
As always, you guys are solid.
(Now if we could just jazz up that player a little… :D )
Great!. You’re the best!
Downloaded the single from ‘Year On A Mountain’ mentioned above. Cool track. Hey, here’s an idea for a feature, make our pages web 2.0-ish – so I can tell the band directly that their track is cool? Just a thought. Love me some bandcamp! FYI – I’m releasing a new album 8-2-11.
I love you guys so much! Bandcamp is essential for anyone with a band. Also, I love Fang Island and was super pleased that you used them as an example of a custom Bandcamp URL. Easter egg ftw!
you guys rock! i swear, every update just makes this site better and better. i’m proud to say that a percent of my sales supports your incredible service, because nothing else could ever dream of coming close!
Yeah, you guys rock!
Yay! Good work, y’all!
BC IS VVINNING ♆♆♆ ӊѦΪᴌ ϟ▲†△₦ ♆♆♆
Awesome. You guys keep managing to make the site better and better.
You never sleep ;-)
Great stuff!
This is brilliant, the continued improvements to ease of use is making Bandcamp practically unrivalled for online music distribution!
Yay! I’ve been hoping you would add this feature. Very excited :)
you rock my world so damn hard by making it so much easier for my music to rock other people’s worlds!
Thank you!
Mycket bra!
Thank you so much for this new feature, it’s fantastic!
Why not allow others to add it to their custom site?…as a widget?
awesome. :)
Just want to say thanks for making things simple as they should be! Bandcamp just keeps getting better and better. Big props from PT :)
Love it!
You guys are the best in the game, further proof just added here now… Keep it up!
Aaaah yeah.
Bandcamp is awesome.
Great job! Always thinking about the fans and the artists and not the advertisements and bullshit. Always promoting Bandcamp!
even better than kangaroos!!
Way too awesome!!! – Finally, someone who understands the consumer side of the purchasing process…and does something awesome about it. Bandcamp…I’m in love. =^)
Band camp rocks.Keep up the good work.
Everything you do just makes it better. Thanks! :)
Umm,…U know, like,…this one time, on ‘bandcamp’,..they added something really cool and umm,…
:-)
Seriously though, this is cool.
Thanx 4 being there Bandcamp. Peace
You guys have just made my day, thank you Bandcamp.
thanks bandcamp..see u always looking to improve this site for both the artist and the listeners…u should start a top 100 chart in each genre too that would be cool
I LOVE you guys. That my friends is all I have to say. Oh, and keep doing it!
Bandcamp is the opposite of Facebook. When Facebook updates people are sad, when Bandcamp updates, people are happy.
Whoa. you are now the online version of cool little record store
I love that you use Fang Island as the example.
LOVE IT! YOU GUYS ARE REALLY IN-TUNE WITH ACTUALLY HELPING ARTISTS! THANKS A MILLION!
Amazing! and about time! I also can’t wait until you add a bio link or a bio header that tells you a bit about the band you’re about to listen to. Right now our header links to our web page where we have all of that but it would be nice to have something on the Bandcamp page itself… We’ve also included a lot of info on each album’s page and each song but it could be a good thing to have a small one page or one paragraph bio one could click on…
Amazing. An email that’s helpful and not annoying spam. Thanks guys!
Very well written — you totally nailed it.
And, thank you!
Thanks for making it easy for my fans to buy my music. One of the things I’ve hated about myself trying to buy iTunes music, along with most sites, is that you have to register and fill out all of this stuff before you can make a simple purchase, which really turns me OFF!
http://www.devoraclark.bandcamp.com
Thank you for the added functionality of the SHOPPING CART. I will invent some merch and try out the new e-Commerce Shopping Cart soon.
This looks great, and will save a lot of tedium!
Great stuff!!! just what we wanted.Must be Christmas….COOLEO
Yet again, bandcamp wins by taking something others overcomplicate and making it simple like it ought be. Can’t wait to start entering our merch into this thing.
Not only a hysterical rendition of the oh-so-frustrating, piss-poor shopping cart experience that even some of the biggest bands are guilty of (perhaps the majority), but also a wonderful display of the seamless web design and common sense abilities of the Bandcamp team. Thanks for this one, guys. You blew the competition out of the water.
You guys are rockin’!
Powerful stuff man! :)
looks great! i assume that the percentage bandcamp takes from each purchase is still included in all sales (and is still the same amount)?
really nice gui…cheers to the designer or design team. that is what i like most about bandcamp…the look, and ease of maneuvering.
Thanks John! And that’s right, the pricing hasn’t changed.
Bandcamp knocks my dirty sox off…cleans them by hand and hangs them in the sun to dry. loving this experience.
MArina
I think you guys are awesome. A website made intelligently ! To me, selling my music, it is the easiest, the more convenient, the best (for me and for my fans)
Thanks a lot,
Mathias, Piano Man
Amazing. You guys are awesome, thanks for all the great updates, and unlike other companies, each update doesn’t screw something up!
Thanks guys. Really wish you’d give the artist the ability to offer 30 second samples. Personally I’m not selling anything at the moment because my music really isn’t ready nor am I promoting it because of that. I’ve read both sides of the argument. Sorry but I’m old school. 2 or 3 full songs then the rest samples. If they don’t like, don’t buy. 3% of the artists sell anything anyway. My 2 cents.
Jimmy
Can you add physical merchandise like tshirts etc?
I was actually concerned releasing my album that those who don’t like Paypal would be discouraged from buying. This makes me very happy! :) Good work! Thanks!
You guys never cease to amaze us. You continue to add tools that are actually useful to the artist and customer while keeping it incredibly simple. From the bottom of our hearts we love you. Not that we don’t appreciate [woopwoop, beepbeep and wagawaga] but we REALLY love you. the other sites are nothing more than flings with no real emotional attachment. <3
Love this. Now that this is in place, any chance you could add an up-sell feature?
For example, if someone adds Album X to their cart, a notification could appear saying “Great! If you add Album Y and buy it at the same time, we’ll knock $2 off the price!”
I feel like this kind non-advertised up-selling could significantly raise sales, and I think it’s strange that I’ve never seen a site do it. (Amazon’s Frequently Bought Together feature could do this, but doesn’t.)
You guys are the very, very best. Why can’t you run the entire music industry?
You just went from cha-ching to ba-da-boom!
Love you people.
Great stuff :) You know what would make this even more fantastic?… If the cart showed up on the index pages too.. :)
Agreed, we’ll get that fixed up.