Recent changes & the effect on royalties

Discussion Forums General Zazzle Discussion
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With the recent changes here on Zazzle and their negative effect on royalties, I would like to give some insight. I have been selling digital invitations for over 10 years. I am very familiar with Etsy and Zazzle and what works for me and what does not. 

Here is a quick comparison of my sales in April 2024 and April 2025:

April, 2024 on Zazzle: Average Royalty per sale was $5.17

April, 2025 on Zazzle: Average royalty per sale was $3.68

April, 2025 on Etsy: $5.91 per sale (after all fees - including marketing)

If I include “self-referrals” here on Zazzle, my average does bump up to $4.57, but that is extra time I am putting in to advertise. I do not have to do this on Etsy, as Etsy does it for me, I just set my daily advertising budget and they handle it from there. Totally worth it in my opinion. Etsy does not charge me 3rd party fees, as I am already paying my chosen budget of $1.30 per day. You can adjust to whatever works for you. $1.30 per day is much more reasonable than $1.49 per order (on average), which I am now paying here on Zazzle.

Etsy also offers multiple dashboards, which I find incredibly helpful. You can view your shops stats by day, week, month and year. You can see how many views your shop and each item receive, as well as revenue. They have graphs, so you can see overtime how certain items are doing. Etsy also has a section called “how shoppers found you,” where you can view exactly how people found your shop or item, as well as how you brought people to your shop. This is extremely helpful for sellers, so you can see where to focus energy. 

I am not saying Etsy is better than Zazzle, I am just saying these things are helpful. I am hoping Zazzle can find a way to get royalties back up for sellers, as it will not be worth it in the long term to be investing time and energy into this platform, when the same time and energy could be put elsewhere and receive more in return. 

Lastly, it doesn’t feel “fair” that ambassadors receive such a large portion of each 3rd party sale, as the designer is putting in much more time. I haven’t delved into Etsy’s ambassador program, but I do know that I am not losing money on 3rd party sales. My royalties stay the same, no matter how the customer was brought to me. 

This is my two cents. Hoping for positive change going forward. 

Thanks,

Kim Wilhite 

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Thank you so much for the insight ! a few days ago I opened an Etsy store for Cliparts and planning to open one for invitations and party printables in coming month to see how it goes 🤞 As much as I love Zazzle , I’ve put a pause on creating new products for now till I come up with some new strategy…

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An important detail: from what you say, on Etsy you decide the daily budget you want to spend and, as I understand it, you know how and where it’s applied. Unfortunately, here, you neither choose nor know what it’s spent on or how.

I have a shop on Etsy that I’ll need to review and update, and right now I feel very unmotivated on Z. In fact, I’ll probably start a small job unrelated to all this just to keep paying the bills, which means my time on Z is going to be reduced.

I’ve been saying it for a while—this is “natural selection.

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I really don’t want Zazzle to move the etsy pay for advertising up-front model. I do prefer the sales based fee. I really don’t have time to go into a long post, but I just want Zazzle to know that every Zazzler  doesn’t want their Zazzle store to be like an etsy store. 

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You definitely don’t have to have ads on Etsy to make money and you are only charged when someone clicks your ad, but I do understand what you are saying.

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I should also add that Zazzle has a lot of great features Etsy does not have. One thing I love about Zazzle is they do take into account seller opinions. Etsy has mostly bots dealing with customers and sellers. I also love that Zazzle has a customer service feature, so I am not spending as much time messaging customers as I do on Etsy. I really LOVE the royalty aspect of Zazzle, I am just hoping they can get a little closer to where it was a year ago. I would also really love some of the dashboard features Etsy has, just to see how people are finding my items and all the other things I mentioned. Not bashing Zazzle at all, it has given me so much opportunity that I am extremely thankful for - just putting some ideas out there.

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I left Etsy because of Etsy. If people want to sell there instead of here, just go and take their chances with integration.

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To each their own is correct!  So  I just want Zazzle to know I absolutely DO NOT want to pay a sale based fee on “advertising” on every single sale , especially those they did not have anything to do with. And that’s what is happening now. With no transparency. Nor do I want pay for their marketing in general (that THEY get to deduct at tax time)

They know will likely be the “referrer” / “advertiser”. They send out mass emails for everything. They have the ads on the side in blogs, on google, etc. They have them pushed on Pinterest. They know the likeliness that someone clicks their link from somewhere once every 14 days is DRASTICALLY higher than someone clicking an *average link* affiliate link with marketing push.  So we are essentially paying for them to market their own affiliate links.  They are charging us to often take half of the money of our sale… I can’t believe more people don’t think that is insanity.  I am not saying they should not get a cut *if* they market it, that is absolutely fair! They already have an advantage in the fact that they can spam their links everywhere. There was no need to start charging us every sale. It’s insulting.

You can just turn Etsy marketing off if you do not want to patriciate. No one is trying to make Zazzle Etsy. Adapting a similar product marketing model that *tons* of platforms use is a logical ask. In fact Zazzle is the only platform I know taking a fee from every single sale for their marketing costs…

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And if Zazzle wants to keep charging us for marketing every single sale, hide it better. Don’t call it what it is. Call it a “Zazzle fee” and tack on a fee of 1% or .XX cents (I don’t like these options either, but I’d lose drastically less money than I am now). Then it also wouldn’t be a ridiculous amount calculations trying to figure out what your royalty will *actually* have to be set to if you want close a 10% royalty lol 

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I would imagine that Zazzle already take a cut from any sale, having negotiated terms with any product supplier who fulfils orders, BEFORE we add our commissions. For them to now want to take more from the designers that make the platform what it is, is just corporate greed. They know they’ve now created a pool of unhappy creators, and their silence on this issue is very telling.

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Because the new scheme is somewhat Machiavellian, there’s a whiff of desperation in it. This worries me.

Colorwash's Home

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I don’t think the debate is about Etsy yes, Zazzle no. Comparing features of different platforms and sharing opinions is fine, we can learn from all of it. And also, we don’t have to put all our eggs in one basket, so having different options makes more sense.

I abandoned my Etsy shop when I found Zazzle — it was perfect for me: no production, a friendly algorithm, and growing sales. At that time, Etsy required a lot of extra work that took me away from my main goal: creating, designing… Well, it seems that the trend in Z is starting to look similar: a lot of extra work and, on top of that, major cuts to our royalties and an algorithm that no longer seems friendly and has pushed back many products that used to sell daily.
I think @xBrie   has perfectly expressed what many of us are feeling

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I’ve always thought it was improvised. From the way it was communicated to the fact that no one thought it was necessary to have a royalty report that reflected all the changes. Asking for our opinion now is fine, but I don’t believe that when they decided on all the changes, someone said: Hey, and then let’s ask the creators for their opinion to make the new report!

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It is my understanding that on Etsy you need to do all the shipping and handling stuff? That would be a real no-go for me.

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Yes, that’s a downside, but you could consider offering digital downloads.

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They link to a print production partner (like Printify or others), that handles printing, shipping, and (I think) returns.

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There are a few print on demand apps you can use like Printify, which I have been seeing a decent amount of sales from. They create the product and ship it. But it definitely isn’t anything like Zazzle and Etsy still takes a ridiculous amount of fees. You also do have to worry more about customer interaction but I don’t get very many questions on these products. There are also a few downsides such as the fact that it makes tax time a little harder, and you need to be sure to have the capital in an account to front for the product (they charge you what it makes to create the product and then you get that back + your profit with your Etsy weekly earnings).

But in case you are ever interested in dipping a toe into prinitfy or something similar… Some upsides are they do offer most of the basics you can find here (t-shirts & apparel of all kinds, mugs, cases, etc.). They tell you the cost to produce and then you decide how much profit you’d like to make thus creating the final price. For example one of their baby bodysuits is listed to cost $11.81 to create, I have it set for a $6.68 profit making the total $18.49 + $3.99 shipping. They also do the math of the Etsy fees for you so you can still see what your profit will be after all is said and done. In the long run,  I do enjoy the ease of creating here on Zazzle and their variety of products more. But if you do have a few designs you know might do well and already have an Etsy shop, I’d definitely recommend trying a few products. They are free to use but have a pro plan where your product cost is a few dollars less per item that would be worth it if you start selling well.

If you do decide to look into it more just head to printify.com to check out their products available or click here https://try.printify.com/toobsb3rm6d8 😘

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@xBrie If you are promoting an affiliate link, it’s good manners to say so

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Thanks for letting me know!

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I use a company that I integrated with Etsy to print and ship mugs etc. The only items I ship myself are greetings cards. I invested in a card printer, and it soon paid for itself.

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