# Karto.site - long-form brief Machine-readable version of what Karto.site is, what it costs and how a merchant starts. Companion to the shorter https://karto.site/llms.txt; the same facts as JSON are at https://karto.site/facts.json. Everything stated here is also stated on a public page linked below. Karto.site does not publish review scores, a seller count, funding, a founding date, social profiles or a registered address, and nothing on this page should be read as implying one. ## What Karto is Karto.site builds live online storefronts for small Indian sellers - jewellery, crochet and handicraft makers who sell on Instagram and outgrew direct messages. A store gets a free yourstore.karto.site address or a custom domain, designed templates, UPI and Paytm payments that settle into the merchant's own account, catalogue import, WhatsApp order confirmation and return (RTO) prevention. Karto.site is a software product. It does not hold stock, does not take orders on a merchant's behalf, and does not settle a merchant's money into a platform account the merchant has to ask for. Merchant-facing copy in the app says "Collected by you" for exactly that reason. Home: https://karto.site/ ## Platform fee Per store, per week, counted over APPROVED orders (the merchant's accept action). A denied order never counts; an approved order that is later refunded still counts. The billing week runs Monday 00:00 IST to Sunday 23:59 IST. - the first 5 orders of the week: ₹12.00 + 0.45% of that order's value, per order. - orders 6+ of the week: ₹5.00 + 0.25% of that order's value, per order. Worked arithmetic, per store per week: - 3 orders of ₹1,000.00: 3 x (₹12.00 + 0.45%) = ₹49.50 per week (inside the first band) - 5 orders of ₹1,000.00: 5 x (₹12.00 + 0.45%) = ₹82.50 per week (the first band exactly) - 8 orders of ₹1,000.00: 5 x (₹12.00 + 0.45%) = ₹82.50 + 3 x (₹5.00 + 0.25%) = ₹22.50 = ₹105.00 per week (spills into the cheaper band) Monthly minimum: ₹100.00 per store per month, charged even in a month with zero orders. It is waived in the store's first partial month. Thereafter the charge is max(100, order fees + paid add-on fees). Setup fee: none. Plan tiers: none. Per-template charge: none. GST: currently exempt - Karto is below the registration threshold, so no GST is added to fees. If that changes, the fee pages change with it. First bill: a store's first charge is dated at least 7 days after activation - the first Monday on or after (store activation + 7 days). Activate on a Saturday, +7 days lands the next Saturday, so the first bill is the Monday after next. Every later bill follows the normal monthly cadence. Pricing on the home page: https://karto.site/#pricing ## Add-ons The paid modules are free for the first 90 days from store activation (the trial covers the storefront and its subdomain too). After that: ### RTO prevention ₹150 / month (shown against ₹2.39 / order) - stop returns before dispatch. Prefer pay-as-you-go? ₹150 per 100 orders. Includes: rto-prevention. ### Growth Suite ₹478 / month (shown against ₹2,000 / month) - every growth module, one monthly fee. Bought separately the same modules are ₹735 / month; save ₹257 / month. Includes: smart-discounts, abandoned-cart-recovery, engagement, spin-the-wheel, festive-campaigns. Individually: - RTO prevention: ₹150 / 100 orders. Stop returns before dispatch. - Smart Discounts: ₹400 / month, also inside Growth Suite. Discounts that protect your margin. - Abandoned cart recovery: ₹300 / month, also inside Growth Suite. Win back carts that went cold. - Engagement: ₹35 / month, also inside Growth Suite. Keep past customers buying. - Spin-the-wheel lead capture: included with Growth Suite, no separate price. Turn visitors into contacts. - Festive campaigns: included with Growth Suite, no separate price. Season-ready in a single click. Full list: https://karto.site/products ## Cash on delivery and shipping defaults Cash on delivery is OFF by default. A merchant can turn it on and choose: off; full amount on delivery; fixed partial advance; smart advance per order. A fixed partial advance defaults to 30% of the order, and COD is not offered above ₹10,000.00. Smart advance works it out per order from the order value, the customer's own order history, the store's RTO rate and any PIN codes or cities the merchant has flagged as uncollectable. The default bands: up to ₹1,000.00 takes 40%, up to ₹3,000.00 takes 25%, up to ₹10,000.00 takes 15%, above ₹10,000.00 takes 10%. A customer's first order asks 50%, and after 2 approved orders a trusted customer is asked nothing. The advance is capped at 60%. Shipping defaults to a flat ₹40.00 with free delivery above ₹999.00, and 5 handling days. Prepaid orders get 10% off the shipping charge. Every one of these numbers is editable per store - the defaults are a starting point, not a rule. ## What a store can do **Storefront** - A free subdomain on karto.site, or a custom domain with CNAME + TXT verification. - Twelve designed templates rendered from one real reference store per template. - Product catalogue with stock, and a contact form that writes into the merchant inbox. **Payments** - The merchant's own Paytm MID + business VPA (dynamic QR), or their own UPI VPA in manual mode. - Money settles to the merchant's own account; Karto never holds a merchant balance. - Optional payment-screenshot approval before dispatch. **Catalogue import** - Paste the public URL of a store you already sell on - ShopExer, Apna-mart, Shopify, DM2BUY, Mart-24 - and Karto reads the catalogue via the platform API, then JSON-LD, then rendered cards. - No example or demo catalogue is ever offered during onboarding. **Orders and returns** - WhatsApp confirmation of every order and address verification before dispatch. - Abandoned-cart recovery, and a Truecaller phone check where the merchant has it on. **Tax** - The merchant declares HSN code plus a price band; Karto applies the matching GST rate. - A non-GST-registered merchant gets 0%. **Festive campaigns** - Built-in festival bands, offer copy and discount codes for Dussehra and Deepavali, with an order-by date. ## Templates 17 templates ship today. Each gallery preview renders from one real reference store, so what is shown is the real renderer. Preview: https://karto.site/#templates. - **Atelier** (https://karto.site/store/atelier): jewellery, minimal, gifting; atelier palette, editorial-serif type, airy layout, editorial 4:5 product cards. - **Mosaic** (https://karto.site/store/mosaic): crochet, handicraft, warm, heritage; terracotta palette, craft-script type, balanced layout, framed 1:1 product cards. - **Noor** (https://karto.site/store/noor): festive, gifting, bold; jewel palette, grotesque type, compact layout, bold 1:1 product cards. - **Moonlit** (https://karto.site/store/moonlit): jewellery, dark, minimal; midnight palette with an atelier accent, vibe-serif type, airy layout, editorial 4:5 product cards. - **Berry** (https://karto.site/store/berry): crochet, cute, playful; bubblegum palette, cute-round type, balanced layout, framed 1:1 product cards. - **Reverb** (https://karto.site/store/reverb): handicraft, vibey, alt; y2k-lilac palette, alt-display type, balanced layout, minimal 4:5 product cards. - **Kora** (https://karto.site/store/kora): apparel, minimal, botanical; sage palette, warm-serif type, airy layout, minimal 4:5 product cards. - **Haveli** (https://karto.site/store/haveli): home-decor, heritage, handicraft; sandstone palette, editorial-serif type, balanced layout, framed 1:1 product cards. - **Sprout** (https://karto.site/store/sprout): food, cute, gifting; matcha palette, cute-round type, balanced layout, framed 1:1 product cards. - **Vanta** (https://karto.site/store/vanta): alt, vibey, dark; plum-noir palette with an indigo accent, alt-display type, compact layout, bold 4:5 product cards. - **Volt** (https://karto.site/store/volt): bold, vibey, dark; neopop palette, grotesque type, balanced layout, bold 1:1 product cards. - **Diwali** (https://karto.site/store/diwali): festive, gifting, handicraft; deepavali palette, editorial-serif type, balanced layout, framed 1:1 product cards. - **Neel** (https://karto.site/store/neel): handicraft, minimal, heritage; indigo palette, grotesque type, balanced layout, minimal 1:1 product cards. - **Lumen** (https://karto.site/store/lumen): beauty, modern, clean; dusty-rose palette, vibe-serif type, balanced layout, editorial 4:5 product cards. - **Folio** (https://karto.site/store/folio): art, minimal, modern; mono palette, editorial-serif type, balanced layout, framed 1:1 product cards. - **Punch** (https://karto.site/store/punch): bold, vibey, gifting; sunset-pop palette, alt-display type, compact layout, bold 1:1 product cards. - **Sky** (https://karto.site/store/sky): apparel, modern, clean, minimal, bold; sky palette, grotesk-mono type, balanced layout, object 4:5 product cards. ## Starting a store Onboarding is public and runs at https://karto.site/onboarding: the account is created on the last step, next to Launch store, so nobody has to sign up before they can see what they are signing up for. 1. **Business profile** - Legal name, and a GSTIN if the business is registered. 2. **Payment setup** - Paytm MID + business VPA (dynamic QR), or the merchant's own UPI VPA for manual QR and payment links. 3. **Tax rules** - HSN code and price band, which decide the GST rate for an item. 4. **Store design** - Pick a template; set the maximum discount the discount engine may give away. 5. **Domain** - A free subdomain, a domain Karto purchases, or the merchant's own domain (CNAME + TXT, verified against live DNS). 6. **Launch** - The account is created here, next to Launch store. The trial clock starts and the first bill is dated at least 7 days out. Domain, choose exactly one per store: - **Free karto.site subdomain**: bizname.karto.site, published immediately. No TXT record needed, CNAME only. - **Domain purchased through Karto**: Pick an available domain and Karto registers it for you; the store is pointed at it. - **Bring your own domain**: www CNAME to srv.karto.site plus a _karto TXT token, verified against live DNS, certificate issued and hosted by Karto. On activation the store is assigned an Account Manager for support, and the 90-day trial clock starts (the paid growth and risk modules, plus the storefront and its subdomain). ## Legal - Terms of Service: https://karto.site/legal/terms - Privacy Policy: https://karto.site/legal/privacy - data handling under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. - Each store may publish its own policy and terms at /s/{store}/privacy and /s/{store}/terms. ## Contact - Merchant support: support@karto.site - Platform origin: https://karto.site ## Also published - https://karto.site/sitemap.xml - every public page, gallery template and live storefront. - https://karto.site/robots.txt - the crawl policy. - https://karto.site/facts.json - these facts as JSON. - https://karto.site/llms.txt - the short brief.