Designing wedding stationary - where to begin?

[LuciFinch]

I've never posted to this forum before, hope I have this in the right section.

I've had my Zazzle store for a little while now and although it's making money, it's not near what I'd like it to be. I realize the most successful sellers on Zazzle are wedding stationary sets/products. But I've been putting off creating any because the process of creating 20 or more individual designs to a single set feels overwhelming. There's announcements, save the date, wedding invitations, RSVP, menus, bridal shower invitations.... this seems to go on and on and on....oh-my-gosh! 😰

I've never had a wedding myself, so I don't even know what goes into a complete set of wedding stationary. But this daunting feeling has left me believing I need to create every. single. product. in a wedding stationary set or not bother trying at all. Maybe I just don't know where to begin.

Can anyone please help me, perhaps by providing a list of what the most common/searched for wedding stationary products are sold on Zazzle? I thought perhaps if I had a punch list of, say, the top five or ten most essential or searched-for items that are part of a wedding set, I could just start with those. And that might help me to feel as if I'm eating the elephant one bite at a time.

I warmly welcome and appreciate all suggestions and advice! 🙂 

[Cat · Accepted solution]

Well, this probably isn't what you want to hear, but I don't really think there are any shortcuts. You just have to start somewhere and build from there. Focusing on only the most popular products might seem like a good idea, but the most popular products are also the ones with the most competition, so I think you'll have a hard time breaking into such a saturated market with that approach. I sold a fair amount of pretty random wedding stuff before I ever sold my first invitation.

I think it's like anything else - you just have to try a lot of different things until you get a few sales. Then you can build from there - meaning make more products to match the ones that sold, as well as making more colors or variations of that particular product.

Also don't assume that people are always looking to buy a whole bunch of matching stuff. On occasion they do, and it's wonderful when it happens, but I'd say that's the exception rather than the rule. The vast majority of my wedding related sales are people buying only one product. Sometimes they buy 2-3 things to match, but only very rarely do I get a customer who wants to buy more than that. 

Of course, the more products/designs you have, the better your chances, but I don't think you need to feel like it's an all or nothing game because that certainly isn't my experience with it.

Good luck! I hope something in my blathering was helpful!

[Connie]

So true! I have some wedding designs where I only sell invitations, and others where I sell most everything EXCEPT the invitations! And the majority of orders aren't full suites of matching products.

[LuciFinch]

Thank you so much for such a thorough and helpful answer Cat. Your suggestion makes quite good sense, actually and believe it or not, it's exactly what I wanted to hear! lol

I agree. It's been my observation thus far that buyers who purchase on Zazzle are not necessarily customers that are looking for a matchy-matchy set. Which is why I perceive your suggestion to how I should approach this as a relief, because it removes the burden of creating numerous products that may never get off the ground.

You've given me some ideas for laying out a plan that will make approaching this much easier. Sincerely and very much appreciated! 🙂

[Cat]

You're welcome! I'm glad it was helpful. I think @Connie's suggestions are good too. You probably want at least the basics for each design (invitation, RSVP, Save the Date, etc) but just know that your first successes are more likely to come with other less popular/in demand products - and who knows what those will be! 

[Connie]

If you want to get started in weddings, it's probably best to start with the invitations, and matching RSVPs, and probably Save the Date. You can also do matching address labels and stickers, and maybe table cards or favors, just to kind of spread the design around to different segments of the wedding process, and see how it does.

I generally do about 5- 10 products in a new design, to see how it does before making a bunch of different products. Generally I start with invitation and enclosure cards, a few accessories like stickers, and a few table items. But after you've been in the market for a while, you start to get a feel for what designs sell best on what products. For example, if I see that a particular design niche only sells on decor items, I'll probably start out a new design just making those items, and add the invitations and other cards later.

One thing I highly recommend is to do a lot of research on Zazzle to see what's popular in your niche or theme or style. Some styles and niches seem to do better on certain products than others- for example, a particular style might be more popular with budget conscious brides having casual weddings who mix and match and only order the basics, while other styles might attract high-end shoppers who want the most expensive options and a complete suite of exact matching products. I've noticed some of my designs are more popular on the all-in-one invitations, while others do a lot better on regular invitations where the customers buy the matching enclosure cards and other matching products.