After 8 Years of Growth, a 26 Percent Decline in 2025

[SORS]

I am a Platinum-level designer who has been growing my Zazzle business steadily since 2016. For eight years, I consistently scaled—expanding product lines, improving SEO, investing in top-level marketing, and building a loyal customer base through my own website and domain. This is not a hobby. It is a serious business that I have worked hard to grow.

In 2024, I reached my highest earnings. But in 2025, everything changed.

From June to August, I experienced a steady and painful decline:

• June 2025 earnings fell by 12.24 percent compared to June 2024

• July 2025 earnings dropped by 16.8 percent compared to July 2024

• August 2025 saw a sharp 25.76 percent decrease compared to August 2024

These are not seasonal dips. They represent thousands of dollars in lost income. In any business, a 26 percent decline in revenue is considered severe. That kind of drop is not a normal fluctuation—it’s a signal that something foundational has shifted.

The most significant change during this time was the Ambassador Program.

Even though Zazzle has recently shown us how earnings are calculated, that transparency has only made things more disheartening. It is now clear how much is being deducted, but we still have no insight into where the money is going. We do not know who is benefiting from third-party referrals or how much of our earnings are being redirected.

Many of us are bringing in our own traffic. I personally drive visitors to my shop through my own domain and website, and I have made a significant investment into growing that presence. But instead of being rewarded for those efforts, I am often paid less than before—sometimes receiving only a fraction of the royalty rate I set. In many cases, nearly half of my expected earnings are taken through marketing and referral deductions…without clear explanation of where those fees are going or how they benefit the designer.

I am asking Zazzle for three things:

• Restore full self-referral rates for designers who bring in their own traffic

• Honor the royalty rates I set , without cutting them down through excessive deductions

• Provide true transparency , including how royalty and referral earnings are calculated, how they are distributed, and to whom

_ To Zazzle’s CEO and leadership: _
Designers like me have invested years into building strong shops that serve your customers and grow your marketplace. I want to continue. I want to build. But I need to know that my work will be honored, my royalties respected, and my compensation made sustainable.

Please listen. The numbers speak for themselves.

[jadendreamer13]

This drastic loss of income is not likely to be accepted and overlooked by designers. We need answers and solutions, please.

[Nelda_Hoxie]

Did your actual number of sales and sold items stay the same or increase? This would show it’s the Ambassador Program to blame. If your number of sales or items sold decreased, then it would be something else or a combination of something affecting customers buying habits and increased fees. 

I always watch number of sales and items sold as closely as royalties to make sure my traffic is healthy.

[jadendreamer13]

Good questions.

[SORS]

Here’s what I’ve seen so far this year:

• May 2025: My number of sales increased by 8.4 percent compared to May 2024

• June 2025: Sales increased again, up 3.1 percent compared to June 2024

• July 2025: Sales decreased slightly by 5.95 percent compared to July 2024

So my overall sales volume has been pretty stable—some months even showed growth. But despite that, my earnings have dropped sharply :

• June earnings were down 12.24 percent

• July earnings were down 16.8 percent

• And my August payment , which reflects July’s sales, is down 25.76 percent compared to the same payment last year

This shows that the problem isn’t fewer sales or lower customer demand. It’s that I’m being paid less per sale —which strongly suggests the structure of the Ambassador Program is what’s driving the loss.

[Sara_H]

@SORS  The payment that we receive in August is for June sales - not July

I’ve just compared my numbers for June 24 verses June 25. The number of sales decreased by 6.67% and my earnings decreased by 40.92%

It stinks

(can’t find manic laughter emoji)

[SORS]

Thank you for the correction! 

• June earnings (paid in August) were down 12.24 percent

• July earnings (to be paid in September) are already known, and they are down 16.8 percent

[Nelda_Hoxie]

Those are truly disheartening!

[Nigel_Sutherland]

You should email this to the CEO, otherwise he may not see it. It is very well put together and polite.

[Nigel_Sutherland]

My earnings for the last period are the lowest since June 2021, and a fraction of many previous months since then. A SIXTH of the best month in that period, and more commonly half, or a third of previous remunerations. It’s a disaster.

[Nigel_Sutherland]

A creator license agreement between Zazzle and its creators (us) should not be changed unilaterally (without consultation). If a creator license agreement is changed without consulting the creator, it is considered a breach of contract. It was changed on 1st April.

A problem for us is that we don’t have any collective representation. We can politely discuss the effects that the changes have had on us, between ourselves, on this forum, but don’t have a voice outside of that. 

[Mistica]

I started very actively creating on Zazzle around 2018. The goal was to help me through my retirement. I joined in about 2008 when I designed a gift for my then boyfriend. My work is definitely better. I needed to help support myself during retirement. I have almost 13K products. My goal was to leave it to my son. I have been teaching him. It was his inheritance. Lots of kids today are struggling. So is he.

[NicheNest]

Greats points. These changes have real world impacts on hundreds if not thousands of designers. Many will be forced to make significant changes in their lives, such as moving or selling their homes because they can no longer afford mortgages/rent, having to go out and obtain new jobs etc. this is as a direct result of these changes.

The changes were originally presented as something beneficial to designers, which was misleading… however Heather from Zazzle did provide a more transparent/ realistic view/response in another forum post I made, which was very much appreciated.

Representation in some form for all designers could have assisted in negotiating a less painful outcome for designers 

[SORS]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Would you be willing to repost Heather’s message here or share a link to the forum post where she commented? I think many of us would benefit from seeing her response in context.

Appreciate your voice in all this.

[NicheNest]

Thank you and thanks to you too . Hopefully this link works 

Link to Heather’s post 

[ColsCreations]

Heather’s referenced post is here. I know that because a day after reading it, I made this blog post about it, to make sure the message it’s sending was not lost. It’s a pretty important message. 

[SORS]

Thank you for sharing the link! 

Heather’s message acknowledged the challenges we’re all facing, and I’m glad Zazzle is speaking to the realities of the changing digital landscape. Still, I felt it didn’t quite address the depth of concern many creators are feeling right now. The message explained the reasons behind the changes, but it left me wishing for more transparency, more concrete details, and more signs that there’s room for adjustment based on creator feedback.

For many of us, these aren’t just minor shifts—they’ve impacted our ability to sustain what we’ve spent years building. I think what we’re all hoping for now is not just explanation, but conversation. We want to feel like partners again.

I’m still hopeful that Zazzle will continue listening and that this period of transition might open the door to something stronger and more collaborative in the long run. We love what we do, and we want to keep building it—together.

[SORS]

Col, I really appreciate the time and thought you put into this reflection. You explained Zazzle’s likely business logic clearly, and I agree. It’s not hard to see why the company would shift focus from publishing to promoting, especially given the flood of content and increased competition across the POD landscape.

But I think what’s causing the deepest frustration isn’t just the change in strategy. It’s the way the shift was implemented and communicated. For many long-time designers who treated Zazzle as a serious business, researching trends, investing in branding, building niche catalogs, this new structure came without meaningful warning or partnership. It was a top-down pivot that drastically altered how earnings are calculated. For some, it happened after years of being told that designing was the business model.

Yes, adapting is part of staying viable. And many of us are learning marketing and adjusting our efforts. But it’s important to say out loud that this hasn’t just been a matter of switching tactics. It’s been a real financial blow for many who were already doing the work of serious entrepreneurs. That deserves recognition.

I’m hopeful that Zazzle will continue listening and that there’s still room for refinements as Creator feedback is gathered. Because as much as Zazzle needs traffic, they also need quality products to drive those conversions, and that still comes from designers who care.

[Cat_Ritchie]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing Heather’s post.

This sentence jumped out at me: The Ambassador Program was designed with the goal of supporting Creators who actively drive traffic and sales…

I’m wondering if they’re succeeding in that goal or not. I would guess that there is a LOT more general purpose promoting going on, both by “ambassadors” and by Zazzle itself. I have definitely noticed ads for Zazzle showing up in places I hadn’t seen them before (YouTube and other video streaming services for one.) And I honestly don’t have a problem with paying a hefty chunk for bringing in new customers because as they say, 50% of nothing is nothing.

But it also seems clear that creators are really starting to shy away from taking custom design requests and/or sending customers who are ready to buy because self-referrals have become so hit & miss, and I think that’s the real Achilles heel here. I hope that Zazzle can either come up with some method for designers to get better/more reliable compensation for that sort of thing, or that they can invest some energy in tutorials, AI helpers, or even paid staff to assist customers with designs because it seems to be a big missing piece here.

I don’t think that Zazzle can reasonably expect that we’re going to be willing to invest hour upon hour in assisting customers, or that we’re going to be willing to send customers that we know are ready to buy only to receive pennies in return. So they’re either going to have to come up with some system to _ reliably _ reward custom/direct orders, or they’re going to have to accept that they will lose that type of business.

[Nigel_Sutherland]

Having just read that post from Heather, this part stood out for me:

The previous structure had become unsustainable, and this new approach aims to encourage greater engagement by bringing targeted traffic to Zazzle, and ultimately increasing Royalties for Creators.

From what I can see, any targeted traffic we bring in is being ambushed by the cookies to negate any referral benefits we might otherwise have gained.