Comparing Zazzle to Renting

Discussion Forums General Zazzle Discussion
1

Deep thoughts for a Saturday:

After contemplating setting up my lower level in my house as a small print shop (and thinking about housing/rent costs), I had an epiphany:

Zazzle is kind of like renting an all inclusive luxury home or buying in an HOA area (I think?) where they take care of the lawn, the snow, the landscaping, the fridge filters, light bulbs, etc. With one caveat. You can get away with only paying rent for a few months or years or however much time you spend building your Zazzle store, and essentially be a squatter and still get some benefits, while coming back to do a little upkeep as often as you want.

Print/make yourself - lower cost/highest involvement

Standard POD - medium cost/medium involvement

Zazzle - high cost/lowest involvement *ability to let it sit & still make income with zero involvement

So Zazzle has its place. We pay a premium for not having to handle sending files to a print provider, not having to handle customer questions and issues, not having to worry about shipping delays, items lost in transit, ad spend, promotions, discounts, profit margins (except for royalty rates) etc. Watching all of these pod YouTube videos and setting up my website, it’s clear to me. The good thing is that we can “rent” multiple places at once.

And before anyone says how “zazzle allows us” as if it’s free of charge, I just have to say that we do pay (some heavily) with our time.

So being a “luxury (yet lenient on monthly rent if you’ve paid in advance) landlord” doesn’t make Zazzle the wrong place to “rent from” - it just makes it very expensive in the short term in comparison. For many, the trade offs are worth it. I say it again, if I was retired and wanted extra cash for fun, not necessity, the changes and rising costs (by way of royalty cuts, traffic diversion, current priority marketing on their own products and current features exclusive to only their own store) wouldn’t bother me as much. I think I’m gonna rent 3 places at once. Two where I’ll have to pay rent monthly, and Zazzle, where I can pull back on paying rent and kind of be a squatter some months.

2

I’m not sure why you say Zazzle is high cost? It’s free to list, and even free to promote on social media sites, so there’s no monetary cost. And the time commitment is less than the other two options you listed as well.

3

She means we earn a small percentage compared to if we did it ourselves. Effectively a high cost for choosing the convenience of Zazzle

I also think for some there’s an opportunity cost with being with zazzle.

4

Oh, I just mean as a high cost of fees because they take a huge percentage of the actual sale. Just in comparison to the 2 other options (going alone or POD)

For example, these menus that I’m working on converting over. If I frame it like this:

Zazzle Sale Amount for 100 menus:
List: $277 | w/Discount: $167 | My Profit (7.5%): $12.52 - (*My Cost: $154.48)

My Website Amount for 100 Menus:
List: $154 | w/Discount: $115.50 (edit: +ship $125.45 ) | My Profit: $57.85 - (*My Cost: $67.60)

I shouldn’t be using their prices directly, but if you pretend that their pricing is the same as my price, my “cost” would be $102.98

But yes, you’re right. It is free. But is it when I can spend my time creating these on my own website and using a printing partner? That’s all I mean : )

Edit: I guess the question is (if I use that lower number for these menus) Is what they do for me vs what I could do - including my time spent - worth losing (essentially paying) 30-35%-ish more (7.5% on Zazzle vs 40-45%-ish profit margin on my own)?

It’s way worth it with self-referrals. With only royalties, though (and with traffic being diverted elsewhere) with a lower number of sales, it seems not so much.

*Also edited my numbers to add shipping

5

The time commitment is less, yes, but the profit is also much less, which, in comparison to going it alone w/pod, makes the “cost” high.

Maybe I’m just explaining it wrong ha! It made sense in my brain.

Time commitment when you have a personalization app is just downloading the file from the back end after the customer has personalized and placed their order and sending it to a printing partner (or clicking “accept/send” depending on what you’re using.

Time commitment on Etsy is insane, you’re right there!

Edit! Ha! Sorry I keep editing. Here. This is where my brain was:

My rent: $3875 - Free lawn mowing, Free internet, Free community center pool, Free weight room, Free snowplowing and sidewalk shoveling, Free light bulb changes

Renting a non-community home: $2000 - I do all the stuff, no perks

Is my free lawn mowing and snow plowing and internet, etc. really “free?” I guess it’s kind of a stupid example and can’t really be compared apples to apples. It’s just where my thoughts were earlier today and it felt like a bit of a light bulb moment lol!

6

Oh, I see what you mean. Yes, I guess looking at it like that, you can consider Zazzle a high-cost option. Personally, I prefer having Zazzle do the production and marketing, even if it means less profit for me. Everybody’s different, I guess.

7

I do understand your analogy, now. It’s not really a stupid example, just maybe a bit more vague because there are a lot of hidden costs in doing things yourself, that are hard to pinpoint.

Besides the time commitment, I like the convenience of having everything “under one roof,” so to speak, and not having to outsource the production to another site after the customer orders. Plus the cost/ time of running a website and doing a lot more active marketing.

8

I prefer it too, but my base bills are about $9k a month. A little under. That’s just bare minimums. And I’m way behind on investing for retirement. I don’t see it so differently. I would love to design all day and have them handle everything (if their customer service could be exceptional etc). Just haven’t climbed to $12k a month on Zazzle and questioning if it will be possible. If it is, at this rate, it would take awhile and require at least 3-5 times the products I have up now. Which would be 12,000-20,000 products. Just questioning whether I would rather do that or put 200 products up on my website and deal w the manual stuff. Omnisend is great for email marketing. Meta ads and Pinterest ads and organic pins, etc are pretty easy and automated now. Yes, a lot goes into it. But repeat customers because of mailing lists is a plus too.

It’s a lot to think about. I’m only bout $50k down from platinum (if that’s the next one after gold) - I have no idea if that level gets priority marketing or a shot at editor’s picks or not. I sure wish we had a crystal ball right now. I’m just trying to foresee as best I can, and I truly don’t love being 100% at the mercy of platform changes.

9

Asking Google what’s best, it spit this out at me. I’ll have to come back and do either a “this is awesome!” or “totally not worth it” update on this post mid next year : )

moderator edit: copy/paste of AI content is not permitted. AI Generated Messages Policy

10

There are no additional perks for being a platinum or diamond. You earn your place in the MP every day. If a product’s sales drop off, it’s rank falls regardless your Pro level. Any perceived status as an “upper level” seller is really having products currently selling well.

11

Ahhh I see. I wonder why they have it listed as a perk.

probenefits
probenefits1073×555 97.9 KB

Edit: oh I see what you mean. Nothing more than what I already have except for pro support and employee promotions, you’re saying?

12

Holy smokes! @doggenhaus was right! I just googled:

classic platform lifecycle shift online marketplaces

I’d never even heard about “platform lifecycle stages.”

13

Out of love for you, Karma, I’ll keep it brief. I don’t claim to be an expert on anything, but the simple truth is: everything in this world has a lifecycle. Every human being, literally everything. Nothing that was once powerful stays that way forever. A leading global nation elects a clown for president, overrun by far-right know-it-alls. Others have their schoolchildren playing war. That’s just life—everything goes through its stages. Every emerging medium has completely disrupted whatever market leader came before it. Very few businesses manage to survive long-term; I think the oldest surviving company in the world is a Japanese blacksmith. Nobody has managed to reinvent cutting tools yet, which might be the only reason they’re still around.

That said, I don’t think your comparison fully hits the mark here. What you shared is an extremely inspiring, hands-on account from a real person who actually walks the walk. I’ve looked at your shop—you’ve been a 5-star Etsy seller for years, and your expertise here is truly unique.

Still, Zazzle doesn’t cater primarily to seasoned pros like that. They also cater to the hobbyist or homemaker who, instead of sewing a physical quilt, now wants to sell a digital AI quilt—completely free of charge, with zero upfront investment. The other business models don’t offer that. Expecting a complete beginner to jump straight into that kind of heavy machinery—dealing with upfront printing costs, hosting, strict new EU packaging and shipping regulations, plus far tighter tax compliance—is simply unrealistic. When you factor all of that in, it’s really an apples-to-oranges comparison to Zazzle.

But despite that, I genuinely love reading your posts. The internet is flooded with generic clickbait, whereas your contributions are 100% genuine, real-world experience—like getting to look right over your shoulder. If you ask me, that kind of insight is priceless!

… hm… Where is Diamond Pro in this overview? It only lists Basic, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, but completely skips Diamond."

14

Hey there! Yah, my mind was all over the place yesterday. Well you already know of my insanely ridiculous high rent. I was sitting there thinking about the pros/cons of this home and then instantly compared it to Zazzle. Basically that Zazzle takes a huge chunk of the sale vs POD but comes with the benefits of not having the stress of customer issues, deadlines yada yada. My rent takes a huge chunk of my income (total understatement) but comes with the benefits of basically an HOA. So renting a less expensive place and hiring those things out is cheaper than this home that comes with all of the perks embedded in the rent. Much like the difference between say Shopify + Printify, etc vs Zazzle. Making Zazzle a premium/luxury priced marketplace in my mind.

But you’re right. My analogy probably only makes sense when compared at scale to higher volume POD.

Well, when I saw that (I think it’s called “enshi**ification” or something) marketplace lifecycle stages, I thought omg! That’s what you were saying!. I think zazzle must be on stage 3 right now.

PS: Thank you for your kind words : )

PPS: Idk why diamond isn’t listed, but maybe they get ultra super extra customer support or something :rofl:

15

I have no idea what “merchandising Priority or Priority Markety Campaign Consideraton” is. If they happen at all, noone has every brought them to my attention. Honestly, I think it is just you have to sell more to reach these levels, so you have products that have the sales details to rank well. Those lists were there when I arrived in 2016. So maybe they once mattered. I see plenty of bronze sellers included in the Green Room and other promotions and contests. So I think they are meaningless.

16

I think you’re probably right. It was silly of me to assume that the big bright “platinum” label would somehow earn an “editor’s pick” that wasn’t one of my products from like 2017 or something ha!

17

I received several editor’s picks when I was a brand new seller. But those editor’s picks never resulted in any sales for me. They aren’t always beneficial. I’ve been in the Green Room; and I’m a Bronze level seller. Just FYI.

18

I remember you saying that before about the editor’s pics, and I think I’ve had that happen too. But I’m wondering why they gave them to themselves in their own store.

19

Editor’s pick work to boost products within popular categories. They don’t always result in sales, but they improve exposure for things for which lots of people come to shop on Zazzle (weddings, baby showers, birthdays, branding etc). If you get an editors pick for something that’s not popular, then that may not have any benefit, but the majority of the top selling products on the site are editors picks.

20

Yes, that’s what I was thinking and wishing they would “pick” something not from my 2018-ish items ha!

Edit: Or, I guess 2022 was when the latest one they “picked” was made.