Designers Need Transparency on Third-Party Sales

[Jadendreamer13]

I just made another third-party sale. I want to know who is taking 50% of my royalties.

• Was it an affiliate sale?
• Another Ambassador listing my products on Pinterest?
• Was it a sale from a Zazzle email, promotion, or other marketing tactic?

We designers need to know who or what is grabbing half of our royalties, so we can plan our next steps. We can’t develop a sales strategy without this data.

We need transparency—not just a notation that a sale was a third-party sale.

[Cat]

I agree that more transparency would be nice, but the marketing fee (the 50% you referenced) always goes to Zazzle, it doesn't go to the 3rd party referrer. Third party referral payouts have not changed - it's still 15% of the net price like it was before the new ambassador program.

[tiffjamaica]

Yes, I also agree about transparency (and that the hike of up to 50% is excessive), but this is an important point.  The fee is used to offset the payment to affiliates/ambassadors (same thing), and even before the changes was 20% of third party sales.  But they still only ever get 15%.   I don't care to know each individual ambassador who's referring my products, but I would be interested in how often Zazzle is credited. I think it would be a good thing for them as well to let us know that they ARE marketing our products and these fees are not for nothing... although I still think the jump from 20 to (up to) 50% is harsh.

[Jadendreamer13]

I want to know how specifically (and if) Zazzle marketed the product sold. Keeping that information from designers means we have no way of knowing if that sale was a direct result of Zazzle marketing. If it wasn’t, then no marketing fee should be applied.

And taking 50% of our royalties is not only excessive, it’s outrageous.

[osea]

In my point of view the designer should see the third party Referrer/Ambassador reference in the stats. In this way maybe collaborations and overall improvements can arise. Where they go, alone?

Moreover, where the product start.

The new program works very well. Designers/Creators can have good revenues for their own promo, and Referrer/Ambassador are still wellcome. 

We have to refresh and go on.

[Jadendreamer13]

I understand what you’re saying, but I’m not seeing good revenue from my own promotions. I promote all my products on Pinterest and Instagram. In fact, my earnings have dropped drastically since the inception of the Ambassador program. The only person/entity that seems to be benefitting from that program is Zazzle.

[NigelSutherland]

I clicked your Instagram link in your profile and it comes up "User not found". Thought you should know.

[Jadendreamer13]

Thanks, Nigel. I’ll go fix that.

[LMGildersleeve]

This is just speculation and I have no way to knowing if this is how Zazzle's promotion links work but...

What if Zazzle promotes a creator A's wedding invitation on Google, the customer clicks on that ad and collections the Z cookie and then chooses creator B's wedding invitation to purchase? Are they getting 50% from the creator B's sale even though they didn't actively promote them?

When creators write of "promoting our products", who is "ours"? Zazzle can't promote every single creators products. So there must be a cookie attached to the original ad that would cover any product the customer chooses to buy from Zazzle.

Zazzle may not be promoting "your" products but they still pass along that advertising tax to us.

Just thinking out loud here.

[SJoy]

I mentioned something similar in another thread when this mess first rolled out. I don't want to be paying for someone else's limelight, especially when it is forced out of my own royalties. We are paying for someone else's marketing while our own products and stores are seeing less visibilty. Not only this but the fee for doing so is a hefty one that is creating a disaster across  the board no matter a designers pro level.