Cratejoy is known as an e-commerce marketplace where you can subscribe to receive a monthly package of goodies from a variety of categories: jewelry, crafts, games, beauty, books, and much more.
Cratejoy is also known as an e-commerce platform for selling subscription boxes. It’s a niche platform for small to medium-sized businesses, but it also offers some impressive e-commerce features.
Anyone can start selling on Cratejoy, provided that they can regularly source their products to provide their subscribers with the best experience. Its pricing system is pretty simple, though the difference between what you get in the plans is substantial. While Cratejoy is a well-equipped platform, it’s not without its flaws, and this only becomes apparent once you start comparing the plans.
So, let’s dive into their pricing plans and say a few words about the features you get while we’re here.
Pricing Plans
Cratejoy used to offer three pricing plans, but as of recently, the Cratejoy pricing system consists only of two plans: a free plan and a paid plan. There is a considerable difference between them, so let’s compare them.
Free Plan
The free plan entails selling on the marketplace only, meaning you’ll have a listing (or a store) on the marketplace where potential subscribers can find you. Being listed on the marketplace means you have high exposure, as Cratejoy has fairly solid daily traffic. In fact, they estimate that most merchants that sell on the marketplace can make over 40,000 monthly sales.
Basically, the perks you get with the free plan mostly revolve around getting exposure, increasing your reputation, and building a customer base that can hopefully grow with you. Cratejoy also enables you to work with affiliates through their affiliate referral program and not only make some extra money but also get extra exposure and build your brand’s identity.
As for the technical features of this plan, you’ll be able to sell in 138 currencies and accept payments through Stripe, which is the default payment gateway for Cratejoy. Your customers will be able to manage their own subscriptions according to their preferences, like choosing the renewal date or making custom orders.
The best feature of this plan, though, is that you’ll be able to integrate with different apps for added features. Lastly, there's fraud protection, which is another plus.
All-in-One Plan
The paid plan, which they call the “All-in-One” plan, costs $39 per month and includes many more features than the free plan, mainly because it’s a slightly different business model. While the free plan only enables you to sell on the marketplace as one seller among many, the paid plan enables you to open your own storefront or, in other words, design your own website hosted by Cratejoy.
In addition to the hosting, you also get a custom domain, unlimited bandwidth, and SSL protection upon checkout, so your subscribers’ private information remains safe.
With Cratejoy’s website builder, you’ll be able to create a fully responsive website by customizing a web template of your choice. The site editor is an easy-to-use tool, and no coding knowledge is required, but if you want to make more customized changes, you can do so through the code editor. Besides the editor, you also get access to Cratejoy’s public API and can use its data to build custom tools for your business.
Other features you get with this plan are advanced e-commerce analytics, automated tax calculations, and real-time shipping calculations.
Fees and Additional Costs
All e-commerce platforms incur some types of fees and additional costs in addition to the usual monthly subscription, and Cratejoy is no exception. On the contrary, as a seller on Cratejoy, you will be required to pay several different types of fees:
Referral fees
Referral fees are charged according to the product’s main category listing that applies to the whole order, including the tax and shipping fees. For most categories, the referral fee is 15% of the total price of each order, and it applies to each item sold as well as to the subsequent renewals, not just the first month.
Transaction fees
Cratejoy charges a fee of 1.25% + $0.10 per transaction, regardless of whether the order was made from the marketplace or your storefront. The transaction fee is the same for both plans.
- Payment processor fee
Cratejoy doesn’t charge any additional fees connected to your payment gateway. With that said, you’ll still have to pay transaction fees imposed by the payment processor itself – in this case, Stripe – depending on the pricing. If you choose their standard plan, you’ll pay 2.9% + $0.30 per successful transaction, as well as an additional 1% for international cards and when there’s a currency conversion.
Payment Processors
Cratejoy accepts payments through Stripe, so if you don’t have a Stripe account, you’ll have to make one. Stripe isn’t available everywhere, but it has a list of supported countries, and as long as the merchant’s country is on the list, they can accept payments from customers anywhere in the world. If your country isn’t supported, you can head over to Stripe Atlas.
It’s also important to note that Stripe has certain restrictions regarding business categories and which type of goods you’re allowed to sell. You can find the full info here. If your business is restricted on Stripe, then you’ll have to contact Cratejoy’s support team to see if you can use a different payment gateway.
Free Tools
Running an e-commerce business isn’t simple, so having additional tools to help you with certain aspects of selling is always welcome. Thankfully, Cratejoy is aware of this, and based on their experience, they have created a collection of free tools that can help you and save you some time and energy.
Subscription box calculator. You can use this interactive calculator to learn how much money you could earn from selling subscription boxes, considering the product and fulfillment costs.
Power subscription box calculator. This tool is similar to the one I just mentioned, but the difference is that this one also includes graphs and more detailed calculations. It also allows you to export the data.
Etsy calculator. This one is specifically for Etsy merchants who sell one-time products. You can use this tool to calculate the difference in revenue if you switch to the monthly subscription business model.
Pricing guide. This handy tool will help you put the right prices on your subscription boxes taking into account costs like buying and shipping, as well as additional fees, marketing costs, and packaging materials.
Startup costs calculator. This tool is aimed at all e-commerce beginners who are still figuring out how much they’ll need to invest when they start a business, and this calculator can help you to better gauge the startup costs.
Product sourcing guide. Another useful tool for newbies because you get Cratejoy’s recommendations on where to source your products.
Who Is Cratejoy For?
Cratejoy is great for new entrepreneurs who want to ease their way into e-commerce and test the waters because, with the free plan, you can do just that – it gives you the most necessary features to get you started. As soon as you find a product supplier and a shipping service, you can start selling.
Cratejoy’s free plan gives you enough room to learn the ropes around selling online, and if you’re already an experienced merchant, you could also opt for the paid plan and start building a brand through your website.
On the other hand, selling on Cratejoy can also be something like a side hustle. If you have no intention of seriously getting into e-commerce but still want to dabble in it and make some money on the side, you can definitely do that with Cratejoy. Granted, you should be mindful that even though it’s not your main source of income, you still need to run your subscription business professionally and make sure your subscribers are satisfied.
Is Selling on Cratejoy Profitable?
Considering the high daily volume of visitors, yes, selling on Cratejoy can be quite profitable. Maybe it won’t make you a millionaire, but get this: there are some merchants who have over 100,000 subscribers, so you can imagine their monthly revenue.
Still, we have to note that the fees aren’t low, and in the first couple of months, you may not see a big return on investment. However, as your subscriber base grows, you’ll probably start making more money.
Over and Out
Cratejoy is a unique platform and a great way to enter the e-commerce world or to make some money on the side. Currently, it has two pricing plans, both of which are good in their own right, depending on what you’re looking for. If you’re crafty and enjoy preparing a curated box of goodies for others, you’ll probably like Cratejoy.