topic Re: Zero Royalty? in Ask a Question

Zero Royalty?

whimsywhim — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 15:51:57 GMT

I know someone wrote on this topic, but I can't find it.

I just had a sale with zero royalty. How, exactly, is this possible?

Re: Zero Royalty?

Jadendreamer13 — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 17:00:09 GMT

You’re going to need our numbers wizard, ColsCreations, to reply. This is way above my math skills.

Re: Zero Royalty?

jophb — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 17:09:12 GMT

I believe in the other post they said it could be Zazzle themselves ordering to test an item or printing. I could be remembering wrong though.

Re: Zero Royalty?

whimsywhim — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 17:45:31 GMT

That would be atrocious if they did. Don't they have an account or can make one up in 2 seconds to try that? I really hope it's not that.

Re: Zero Royalty?

Mariholly — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 19:05:47 GMT

I found this: https://community.zazzle.com/t5/ask-a-question/zero-royalty-earned/m-p/93929#M7628

Re: Zero Royalty?

whimsywhim — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 19:39:15 GMT

Thank you. I thought there was a thread on this. I'm going through it. I also contacted Zazzle.

Re: Zero Royalty?

ColsCreations — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 04:51:00 GMT

There was a situation a while back where Frames on prints were being treated as a User-Option and in combination with discounts, because of the way Zazzle did their math, Designers were reporting negative royalties. There were a lot of posts about that, many with detailed breakdowns of the calculations. But then a month or three later Z stepped-up and announced they had mistakenly classified Frames as UserOptions instead of Accessories and said they would be crediting the Designers who were effected.

I have reason to believe that since the launch of the Ambassador Program, Zazzle is now calculating UserOptions in the manner one would expect (I.E. fairly) which is great news but I put looking into that more on the back-burner so can't confirm.

That former(?) User-Option situation led to many unexpectedly low Royalties. A zero royalty though, have to ask…

Is this 'sale' showing in your back-end & quick-stats as having sold but with no corresponding entry on your Royalty Report & Royalty History? If that's the case, it's most likely Z ordered the product to be made as a random quality check or because they are going to feature it somewhere.

If on the other hand it IS showing on your Royalty Reports, then the eye icon should show the detailed breakdown of how it was calculated and a screenshot of that would be necessary to make any guesses.

Re: Zero Royalty?

whimsywhim — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 12:15:49 GMT

It is in my royalty history. When I looked at the eye, it's just all zeros. There are no calculations. It's just bizarre. I called Zazzle, and the rep told me it sounds like a technical error. She referred it to a department that will get back to me. The product is a place card. I've been noticing constant and large price changes recently on these cards. I thought I was losing it so I asked my husband, who knows math way better than me, to look into it. He took everything into account - sales, discounts, royalty rate, etc. and even he was baffled. I'm wondering what's going on with place cards, and if that is adding to the possible technical error.

Re: Zero Royalty?

Anne — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 15:31:09 GMT

@whimsywhim I also reported about this recently. Discovered it when trying to set the royalty:
https://community.zazzle.com/t5/technical-issues/changing-royalty-rates-not-working/m-p/225939#M23631
Zazzle has not replied (what's new?)

Re: Zero Royalty?

whimsywhim — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 15:57:46 GMT

Yeah, that happened to me yesterday. I called Zazzle, and she said she believed it was a technical error and sent it to the appropriate department. I am going to follow-up with emails and phone calls if I don't receive a response because this is yet another problem of many recently.