Why Lowering Royalties Is Helping Creators Boost Sales Right Now

[Susang6]

Many creators are seeing sales return after lowering royalties. With spring / summer spending shifting and customers becoming more price‑sensitive, adjusting royalties isn’t undervaluing your work; it’s smart seasonal strategy.

This morning I saw a creator in “Your Sales” say she dropped her royalty from 25% to 14.9% and suddenly her sales took off again. That really lines up with what I’m seeing in my own store.

It reminds me of when I owned my restaurant. Our busy season was October through Easter, and once the weather warmed up, everything shifted  people stayed home, grilled out, went to the lake. I didn’t just wait for things to improve. I adjusted prices, created value‑driven promotions, and focused on getting early‑evening customers in before they headed home. Those small changes kept us steady during the slow months.

I’m using the same approach on Zazzle. When my tissue paper was at 20%, it didn’t move. I lowered it to 16.8% and sales came right back. My invitations used to be strong too, but at 20% they stalled. To me, that says customers are more price‑sensitive right now not because our designs aren’t premium, but because the marketplace has changed.

Note: I used charm pricing for my invitations, dropping them from $3.03 to $2.97. Pricing just below a round number (“$2.97 instead of $3.03”) taps into charm‑pricing psychology. Customers mentally categorize it as “under $3,” which makes the listing feel more approachable without lowering the actual value of the design.  I updated this morning and will track for 30 days ( won’t go into effect until the 20th of the month) 

So yes, I think lowering royalties during the off‑season makes sense. You can always raise them again during the winter holidays when spending naturally increases.

If your sales are in a slump, are you open to adjusting your royalty for summer, or planning to keep it high and ride it out.

[Anne]

That makes sense, but unfortunately I can’t say that works for me. I have a wide variety of royalty rates and nothing sells, no matter what I do or don’t.

[Nigel_Sutherland]

How does “charm pricing” work when our products are sold all over the world in multiple currencies?

[Veselka_store]

“This morning I saw a creator in “Your Sales” say she dropped her royalty from 25% to 14.9% and suddenly her sales took off again.”

That was me writing about it but it’s not exactly what happened I had sales but slow sales now it’s more often sales than before which makes me happy. I didn’t make a lot per each product although that made me rationalize I am not the one who market my products, I am not the one who manufacture my products and I am not the one who ships my products and take responsibility for any mishaps that can occur during all of this Zazzle is. So I won’t complain. Although I think it’s time for Zazzle to change the expected royalty, when we are setting our royalty rate - to 50% off that expectant royalty, as it showing twice as much and that what makes us upset, what we expect is not what we in real scenario get. Just my two cents for what it’s worth. I lowered my expectations, old royalties where we were making twice as much are now in the past for good, so that’s my approach now. And in regards to 14.9% royalty I might still increase it to find a happy medium. As I noticed the same products at my store are bought which were before at 25% only I made less now. Go figure, I am still figuring it all out. Things change and we have to adapt, it’s a small business after all and we learn in the process.

[Susang6]

When nothing seems to move no matter what royalty you set it’s incredibly frustrating.

I’ve been sharing some of your products on Pinterest recently, and they’re getting views and even repins, which tells me people do like what you’re creating. But even with that activity, I haven’t seen any sales come through from those shares.

That’s actually why I started this thread. Different traffic sources behave differently for each of us, and lowering royalties doesn’t guarantee results across the board. For some creators it helps immediately, and for others it doesn’t make a dent.

I’m just trying to share what I’m seeing in my own analytics so creators don’t feel like they’re doing something wrong if their results don’t match someone else’s. We’re all adapting to the same shifting marketplace, just with different audiences and different traffic patterns

[jadendreamer13]

I feel your pain, Anne.

[Susang6]

@Nigel, charm pricing isn’t tied to a specific currency it’s tied to how the human brain groups numbers. No matter the country, people tend to mentally sort prices into “under X” categories.   Read discussion on charm pricing here.

So if a product lands just under a round number in any currency, it still triggers that same perception. For example, whether it shows as $2.97, £2.89, the customer still reads it as “under 3.”

It’s not a magic, but it can make a listing feel a little more approachable during slower seasons when shoppers are more price‑sensitive. I’m just testing it for 30 days to see if it helps conversions on items that stalled at higher royalties.

[Anne]

Thank you, @Susang6  and @Jadendreamer13  
Your support is so heartwarming ❤️

[Nigel_Sutherland]

You miss my point. You can’t have separate pricing for every different currency. So if you set a “charm price” in GB Pounds, it may not translate to a similarly attractive price in Australian Dollars for example. You can check this out by entering a price in a Currency app and seeing how it equates to other currencies around the globe.

[Susang6]

@Nigel, I understand the point you’re making about currency conversions. I wasn’t suggesting anyone should charm‑price globally or try to manage every currency individually I only said I was testing it.

My sales are primarily in the USA, so the only pricing I’m adjusting is in USD. I’m not trying to fine‑tune prices for every market, and I never expected charm pricing to land perfectly in every currency. 

I’m simply running a 30‑day test in the currency I actually sell in. Whatever Zazzle’s system does with international conversions after that is outside my control  it’s just one of the quirks of selling on a platform that auto‑converts prices.

[Susang6]

Sharing this in case it helps, charm pricing is definitely not a new idea. It’s actually been around since the late 1800s. Back then it wasn’t even about psychology retailers used .99 pricing so clerks had to open the cash register to give change, which helped prevent them from pocketing cash.

By the mid‑1900s it had become a standard marketing strategy, and later on the research explained why it works. People read numbers left to right, they anchor on the first digit, and something like 2.99 feels like “two‑something” instead of “three.” That’s the left‑digit effect.

Charm pricing also isn’t a “USA thing.” It’s used all over the world because the psychology is the same no matter what currency symbol is in front of the number.

And just to circle back my post wasn’t about global conversion at all. It was simply about me testing charm pricing in my own shop to see if it helps my sales. Since my traffic is overwhelmingly from the USA, I’m only adjusting prices in USD. And when it comes to Zazzle’s currency conversions, that part is completely out of my control the platform handles all of that on its own.

[E_K]

Not just that, but all the discounts too. As an example, I looked at wallpapers. Currently, the ones set at $49.95 show as $42.46 thanks to the discount. Yes, the original price is visible too, but since the discounted price is what the customer is paying and also the amount that stands out visually, I’m guessing it’s the discounted price that would need to be a “charm price.” And if that’s the case, this becomes rather complicated to put into practice for individual designers.

[Anne]

Indeed, @anertek  
Plus we can only change royalties once a month. I would like that to be instantly instead …

[Susang6]

@Nigel and @anertek

Charm pricing isn’t about trying to hit the “perfect” number in every currency. It’s really about how shoppers read the price they’re paying in that moment.

Most people lock onto the big, bold price they’re actually going to pay which during promos is almost always the discounted price. And those discounted numbers often naturally land just under a round number anyway (like $42.46 instead of $49.95), which still triggers that familiar “under X” reaction.

None of us can manage charm prices across every currency or every rotating discount that would be impossible. The psychology still works because shoppers see the price in their own currency and mentally sort it into a better price like “under 40,” “under 50,” and so on.

Out of curiosity, are either of you running any small tests with charm pricing yourselves, just to see how your own audiences respond?

[Susang6]

What gets me is this: I mention I’m doing a simple charm‑pricing test, and suddenly people put it under a magnifying glass to prove it “won’t work”… without ever testing it themselves. It hits me as maybe they don’t really understand what charm pricing is, or they’re thinking of it like a math formula instead of psychology.
Charm pricing isn’t new, and it isn’t “if X then Y.” It’s a tendency in human perception. People see something like $42.46 and instantly file it as “under 50.” That’s it. That’s the whole effect. It doesn’t have to be perfect across every currency or every discount cycle to still influence how shoppers read a price. @anertek  @NigelSutherland  @Jadendreamer13  @Veselka_Store  

[Anne]

I have most of my prices set in “charm pricing” yet where are the sales? … I think in theory you are right and it’s been done forever, yet at the moment it seems other factors are thwarting sales.

[Susang6]

Anne, your store absolutely should be getting sales. It’s professionally set up, very visual, and you offer something for everyone. You’re also using charm pricing  which has been around forever for a reason  but even that isn’t helping right now.

From what I’m seeing across the entire platform, if it’s not pricing, it’s visibility.

Most of my customers come from Pinterest, then Facebook, and I also see traffic coming from my blogs. When I don’t promote, I don’t have sales. Gone are the days when we could list something and hope the marketplace ranking would carry us. The marketplace just doesn’t surface our products the way it used to, even when the shop is excellent.

Charm pricing only works after a customer is already looking at your product. It can’t fix a visibility problem. If people aren’t being shown your listings in the first place, no pricing strategy will make up for that.

I also have a strong Zazzle group on Pinterest called “$50 or Less.” You should at least join that group when you share a product there, many eyes see it. I know you don’t love Pinterest or Facebook, and I get it, but for many of us it’s the only reliable way to drive traffic to our stores and actually get sales.

And just to show you how much visibility matters:
I manually pinned your farmhouse rooster clock early this morning around 7 AM. It was a perfect mockup, so I added a strong SEO title, tags, description, and alt text. For being on Pinterest only a few hours, it already has 14 views and 4 click‑throughs straight to your store.

That tells me two things:

1. Farmhouse designs are still strong performers.
2. Roosters have a loyal following because of the whole “country kitchen” aesthetic — think Fitz and Floyd décor. People love that look.

So the product isn’t the issue. The design isn’t the issue. The pricing isn’t the issue.
The moment it gets visibility, it moves.. Charm pricing only matters after a customer is already looking at the product. If no one is seeing the listing, no pricing strategy will make a difference

[Susang6]

Also …

 I want to mention something that confuses a lot of us at first: a click‑through doesn’t automatically mean a sale. A click just means someone was interested enough to look. It doesn’t mean they were ready to buy right then. Most customers browse, compare, save ideas, or come back later  especially for home décor items like clocks.

On Pinterest especially, people are in “collecting ideas” mode, not “checkout” mode. So a click‑through is actually a good sign. It means the product is appealing. But it still comes back to visibility the more people who see it, the more chances you have for the right buyer at the right moment.

Your rooster clock is a perfect example: when it finally got visibility, it performed immediately. The interest is there. Now it’s just about getting more eyes on your products consistently.

[Anne]

Thank you SO much, @Susang6  
That is just so sweet of you! The clock has now 28 views according to my back end. I’ll check out your blog and Pinterest, thanks again!

[Nigel_Sutherland]

My sales are more global - most recently including Italy, Switzerland, UK, USA, and Australia. Previous months include other regions such as Japan, France and New Zealand. Obviously I welcome having this wider marketplace.