We’re glad you asked! Here’s why.
Sorry, no.
For a long time at Bandcamp, adding images to merch items was optional. Many people did (and many of those images are beautiful), but many others did not, choosing to instead list their merch simply as “vinyl” or “cassette” with no other product details. We decided to track the performance of these two approaches, and made the not-at-all-surprising discovery that merch items with images sell more than twice as much as those without.
As a result, images are now required for all merch listings on Bandcamp, but we’ve done two things to make it easier to produce those images. First, the Bandcamp App for Artists and Labels makes it easy to add photos of merch right from your phone. Second, if you don’t yet have your merch in hand, we supply the following templates so you can create mockups of your merch, and use those as a stand-in until the real thing arrives:
Here are a few samples of images created using these templates:
We make it dead easy for you to manage everything yourself. When someone orders a CD, t-shirt, or other merch item from your Bandcamp site, we’ll send you an email with all the shipping details. In that email you’ll find a link to your Merch Orders page, a simple table where you'll see all your merch orders at a glance. Here you can mark orders as shipped, generate shipping labels and packing slips, and search and filter your orders. You’ll also find a link to this page in the Sales section of your Tools page.
If you want to work with a fulfillment partner, sister, friend, or ne'er-do-well to help pack and ship your merch for you, you can grant them access to manage your merch orders for one or more of your shipping origins. Just click the link at the top of the page to send them an email invite. They can then download your orders and view and edit the merch orders page (but not the rest of your site).
If you’re planning to sell more than 200 units of merch and want to flee the drudgery of packing and mailing them yourself, we can introduce you to our preferred fulfillment house. To inquire, please send us an email.
Let’s look at the simplest case first. If a fan buys two or more of the same item, and they're available from the same shipping origin, then we use the base shipping from the “shipping and handling” section of the merch editor (the value that you specify in the “for 1 unit” field) and add the incremental shipping (the value you specify in the “more per additional unit” field):
For example, if you sold three 12" EPs with the above shipping settings, total shipping would be $4 + $2 + $2 = $8.
When a fan buys two or more different merch items available from the same shipping origin, we calculate the shipping by taking whichever item has the highest base shipping, and then adding the incremental shipping fees for the other items. For example, let’s say you had three items with the following shipping settings:
12" EP
Base shipping: $4
Incremental shipping: $2
Compact Disc
Base shipping: $2
Incremental shipping: $0.75
T-shirt
Base shipping: $3
Incremental shipping: $0.50
If a fan purchased all three items together and they're available from the same origin, the total shipping cost would be $4 + $0.75 + $0.50 = $5.25. This is the highest base shipping cost of the three items (the 12" EP, $4), plus the incremental shipping costs of the other items (the compact disc, $0.75, and the t-shirt: $0.50).
When you have items available from different locations (for example, your EP and CDs ship from the United States, but your t-shirts ship from the UK), we'll first group those purchases into separate orders based on the origin, and then calculate any applicable combined shipping following the rules described above.
If you have stock in multiple locations or you're using international distribution partners, you can add additional shipping origins from the Physical Goods section of your Profile page:
You can manage inventory, assign fulfillment partners, collect sales tax, and configure separate shipping rates for each individual shipping origin. When your fans buy your merch, we'll automatically choose the best shipping option based on their location and your available stock.
Still wondering?
