With Backstage, shipping prep finishes while the show is still running. Without it, you're writing item-and-buyer post-its all night and packing boxes the next morning. Scrub the slider — that's what your show feels like.
With Backstage
Backstage isn't one screen — it's three workflows in one app. The same account works across iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows, and Chrome.
Pull photos off your phone, drop them onto inventory cards, fill in titles, brands, sizes, condition, prices — Backstage exports a Whatnot-ready CSV when you're done. Your show is loaded before you press Go Live.
Capture sales, giveaways, and raids the moment Whatnot shows them. Each buyer gets a bin on their first win — every later win that night drops into the same bin. Tap any item to add notes. End-of-show button generates the PDF manifest straight to your iOS Files.
Flip consignment mode on, pick a consignor. Every sale gets stamped with the agreed split. End of show: per-consignor manifests with payout totals. A companion app for your consignor (so they can watch their items sell in real time) is in build.
Small things that bite during a show. Each one already handled.
Each event type gets its own color-coded popup (mint, peach, gold, coral, emerald). You see what just happened without taking your eyes off the show. Most tools forget tips even exist.
Whatnot mixes auction wins and Buy It Now sales in the same show. Backstage captures both the same way — same bin, same buyer card, same manifest line. No second system to babysit.
Set your items-per-box threshold. When a buyer fills their first box, Backstage prompts to start Box 2 with a small pill on their card. No more cramming or losing track of which buyer needs two parcels.
Each event Backstage captures lands in local storage before it syncs anywhere. So a 30-second connection drop mid-show doesn't break your manifest — it catches up the moment you're back online. (Whatnot itself still needs internet to stream the show, but a hiccup on your end stays a hiccup.)
One button. The PDF manifest generates, the show files into Past Shows, consignors get their personalized manifest by email, the Whatnot stream closes, the feed clears. You're free to go pack.
Before Prep exports, it scans every item — missing photos, blank fields, mismatched categories. It refuses to advance until the batch is clean. Whatnot Seller Hub doesn't get the chance to throw it back at you.
Each wrapped show gets a card with the total in big serif, item and buyer counts, and a line that names what made it interesting. "Up $400 from your last show. You sold out the back room." The kind of detail you'd otherwise lose by next week.
Generate a code in the Consignment tab, hand it to your consignor, they redeem it in their companion app. Now their items are tagged on your show in real time and their payout math is automatic.
Most live sellers report hours of packing after a show — locating items, grouping them by buyer, taping boxes, labeling. Backstage cuts that to checking the boxes that are already grouped, printing a label, and out the door. Three numbers, real math.
Rough estimate. The numbers are based on what other Whatnot sellers have told us their actual post-show time looks like. Your real shipping pace will depend on your stock, your printer, and the kind of week you're having.
Other live-selling tools cover label printing. The manual workflow covers the post-show grind. Backstage covers what comes before the show, during the show, and (soon) the consignor side of the show — all on the device you're holding.
Backstage
✓ shipping
✓beta in beta
→soon coming
~ partial
✕ not in product
We don't name names. The other live-seller tools out there are real
products built by real teams. What's different about Backstage is the
device it runs on and how much of the show it covers — before, during, and
(soon) on the consignor's end too.
Drop your Whatnot handle. We'll write you a one-paragraph read on what Backstage would change for your particular kind of show.
The pitch is written on the fly by Workers AI on Cloudflare's edge. We don't store your handle past the cache window. We don't access your Whatnot account.
We're still in private beta — real seller quotes will land here as testers come out from behind the curtain. Want yours up here? Send us a line.
We invite sellers in waves. Drop your email and your Whatnot handle (optional) — we'll send your access code when it's your turn.
Every sale, every giveaway, and every raid the moment Whatnot shows them. Raids are their own event type (red popup with viewer count), giveaways fold into the buyer's existing card as a 🎁 row, and sales create or update buyer cards. Nothing chat-related, nothing that isn't already publicly visible on the show.
Whatnot today. eBay Live and other live-commerce platforms are on the table, but Whatnot is what we ship against right now and what every guide is written for.
Native iPad and iPhone (TestFlight beta), Mac and Windows desktop (existing), and a Chrome extension for the laptop-first workflow. One account works across all of them.
Any reasonably modern thermal label printer with Bluetooth or USB. Bin-label-friendly sheet sizes work too if you don't have a thermal printer yet — there's a pre-printed-labels workaround in the beta resources.
By default, no. Sales, buyer info, photos, manifests stay on your device in an encrypted SQLite store. The only things sent to a server are your beta access code (to validate it) and your email if you opt into our list. Optional cloud sync exists for cross-device, but it's off by default.
Free during beta. When we move to paid plans you'll get fair warning, a chance to review pricing, and the option to keep using or step away. No surprise charges, no auto-enrollment.
Consignment is in beta. You can tag items by consignor, get per-consignor manifests at end of show, and we're actively testing the contracts and payout flow with early sellers. A companion app for your consignor — so they can watch their items sell live — is in build.