I ran into something "frustrating but ultimately preventable" that I wanted to share.
I created a set of table cards for a friend's wedding: 4 variations of the same design using Zazzle's table card product. I set the royalty to 10% and marked them all as direct-only to make the order simple for her. When the sale came through, I noticed one of the cards had both a higher referral AND a higher royalty, even though all 4 were created the same way (I used the first one as a template for the others).
After checking the backend, I saw that one of the cards had gone into Weddings > Invitations & Stationery > Day-of Stationery > Table Numbers, while the other 3 were in Crafts & Party Supplies > Party Supplies > Stationery > Table Numbers.
Now, I had assumed all table cards would default to the same department (they don't…surprise!). I used the first one as a template, but somewhere along the way, one of them got re-categorized, which explains the discrepancy in payouts. Granted, I was moving quickly (these were direct-only, so admittedly I wasn't being overly careful about Marketplace placement), and I'm honestly not sure if Zazzle auto-assigned the category or if I just clicked through too fast. 🙈
But that small change in Marketplace Department was enough to affect both the referral rate and the royalty! 😦
I've always known referral rates were tied to Department, but what I hadn't realized is how PRODUCT TYPE can also influence which Department your listing ends up in. And that mismatch obviously matters a lot, because my nearly identical products earned very different payouts based solely on where Zazzle filed them.
Anyway, just something to keep an eye on...especially if, like me, you sometimes use alternate departments for visibility. (For example, I list my downloadable games on flat cards under Party Supplies > Games & Activities, but of course now I’m wondering if I should just leave them in Invitations to be eligible for the higher referral rate. 👀)
It's also a good reminder to double-check your Marketplace placements across the board (and especially if you're using one product as a template for others), because even small category shifts can mess with your earnings more than you'd expect.
I'll add a screenshot for transparency. (Ignore the blurred-out product - it's not part of this issue.)
You can see that three of the table cards show a 34% referral rate and $0.70 royalty, while one shows 45% referral and $0.58 royalty. All were created using the same product and sold in the same order. The only difference? Marketplace Department.
That's really good to know. One of the sales I used when making my earnings calc sheet showed the ref was based on the default dept for the product type blank, not the self-appointed dept. But this is the second time since that it's been shown to be otherwise, that is is being based according to the self-appointed department cat. Thanks for sharing this info.
