New Store Questions

[peanutfarm]

3 questions

In starting a new store, what is a good general practice - should you stick with just a few products (ie mug, sticker) with multiple designs or multiple products with same design.  I doubt I'm correctly expressing myself.  I am just starting and so far have multiple designs on basically 1 product with just a couple other products.  Before I got too far into the process, I want guidance in a logical approach.

Since my design might not size properly on multiple products, should I choose Sell This Design on this style only or this style & size only preventing the customer from changing from say a button to a tshirt?  My thoughts are I should select that option and then have separate listings for the button and the tshirt.  Or is this incorrect thinking?

I am having difficulty understanding "Show Customize Button".  Should I always have it checked?

[DancingPelican]

Welcome to Zazzle! I have been designing on Zazzle since 2014 and wanted to share just a few tips based on the questions you present:
1) Should you stick with a few products with multiple design or multiple products with same design? You will have a  best chance of making sales if you put multiple designs on multiple products. Choosing only a few products (i.e. mug, sticker as your have indicated) could pose a problem if either of those products becomes out of stock, or even worse gets discontinued. Choose a variety of products that your designs look well on and have a function that suits the design theme.  So many products come to mind:  posters, cards, notebooks, badges, phone cases, tshirts, plaques, blankets, throw pillows, holiday ornaments and many more. Look in each Zazzle department (i.e. accessories, home, office, clothing, wall art & decor, etc.) You will find products in all those departments that your niche could appeal to a potential customer.
2) Should I choose Sell This Design on this style only or this style & size only preventing the customer from changing from say a button to a tshirt?  Give your customers the versatility of transferring a design to another product. They may land on one of your designs on a button and decide they want it on pillow (or some other product). Use images that are large enough to fit some of the larger product surfaces where possible. If your image isn't large enough to fit a particular product, you (or the customer) get a warning that the image it not large enough to fill the design area. The best images for fitting large surfaces are vector images (SVG, AI, EPS, and PDF). I use lots of .PNG images and make them large enough to fit on some of the larger design surfaces with good image editing. Also, remember that some images can be tiled successfully in the design tool to cover a large area. Not all can, but some can.
Since you are just starting out and have not grown your store too large yet, this is the best time to look for training on how to set up a store on Zazzle and best ways to be successful on Zazzle. There are lots of free training videos on Youtube as well as free podcasts by some of the pros at this.
Another thing I would suggest is this: type into the Zazzle search bar your niche (i.e. animal rescue or pet adoption). Look at the search results that appear. Pay attention to the product types and even look at some of the Zazzle stores that are in your same niche. See how they set up their store and which products appear at the top of their popular products. That could give you a bit of insight into the types of products you should try. Of course, do not copy another designer's work - that is not allowed!
I love your niche and wish you the best of luck and so much success as you grow your store on Zazzle! It takes time to make sales. It's a long game!

[peanutfarm]

Thank you for the wonderful information.  I wasn't sure how image sizing works.  So if I upload a large image and then shrink it down to fit say on a button and the customer wants it on a pillow, the large image will be there for their use?  I only use png files.  

[DancingPelican]

When you load your image, say for example your image is 20x20 inches. You put that image on a button. The image will adapt to the size of the button, but in your image library, that image is still 20x20 inches. When you transfer the design on the button to a poster, the image will expand to fit the poster design area. If it is large enough to cover the size of the poster you choose, all is well.

[peanutfarm]

Thank you!

[DancingPelican]

You are very welcome!

[ColsCreations]

Since my design might not size properly on multiple products, should I choose Sell This Design on this style only or this style & size only preventing the customer from changing from say a button to a tshirt?  My thoughts are I should select that option and then have separate listings for the button and the tshirt.  Or is this incorrect thinking?

There are two very different things happening here.

For "this style only" or "this size only" etc - that applies only to that specific product. So to keep it very simple - if you publish say a 16x16 pillow and lock it to "this size only" that prevents the customer from having the option to buy it in the 13x21 lumbar style size pillow which might totally wreck the design. The options under "Product Merchandising" aren't always ideal so it's a personal choice as to whether you want to lock it to a certain size/style, leave it open, or maybe lock it and publish another version made specifically for the other size. How you handle those situations is a personal choice.

Going from a button to a t-shirt (different products entirely), that's a whole different feature. That's where "Transfer this Design" comes in.  If you want customers to be able to do this, you need to enable it in your store's Advanced Settings. 

I am having difficulty understanding "Show Customize Button". Should I always have it checked?

If you do not enable the Show Customize Button on the product page, then customers will not be able to enter the Design Tool on that product. This means the only thing they can change is whatever you may have included as template fields. If you have Transfer enabled and a shopper transfers the design from say a square pillow to a round button, it may not work out great so you'd want them to be able to access the Design Tool so they can tweak the results themselves. So basically, if you have Transfer This Design enabled, you should def choose to always show the Customize button. 

* Note that 'Show Customize Button' or not cannot be changed after originally publishing. If you change your mind later on letting customers edit the design or not, you'd have to delete and re-publish. 

[peanutfarm]

Thank you for the clarification!  So much to think about when listing!  

[peanutfarm]

1 more question to clarify I'm on the right track.  I first list a design on a product then use the transfer design to make the other products I want to use that design on, correct?  Do you normally list all your products at the same time?  As in, I list it originally on a tote, then immediately transfer the design to a tshirt then a magnet, etc.  Or would you wait to transfer at a later time?  I now see why Zazzle's process is more cumbersome than RedBubble.

[Sara_H]

@peanutfarm  Zazzle isn't redbubble where you just upload one design and it's available on all the products all at once.

Each product on Zazzle has a different design area (eg rectangle/square/round etc) and you have to be mindful of that.

Adding templates (eg names/initials) is a huge plus and creating thoughtful collections (eg cross sells for a specific occasion) has benefits too.

There's no way to "list all your products at the same time". One at a time is the way and then creating a mockup and promoting on your socials.

Best practices for cover photos https://www.zazzle.com/creators/playbook/media+manager

Zazzle may be cumbersome but the design tool allows you to add personalization which redbubble can't and that's a huge plus for customers looking for unique one of a kind products.

[Wollastonite]

The others may have said this, but you definitely should keep the Customization button available for most, if not all products. The mindset here on Zazzle is customization, and the customer should be able to play with things and make them their own. That's the main draw between buying something here and buying a static design for cheaper elsewhere. I might like your Save the Bees magnet, but maybe I want to change the background to blue instead to match my tastes, or I might want to shrink that image and add the name of my organization or my farm below it. Think about those types of situations and make products that are as flexible as possible. And try to anticipate some of those uses (i.e.: make a second Save the Bees magnet with a text box and attractive font already included). 

Try to avoid "this style only" as much as possible. The only time to use that is if the design absolutely doesn't fit on one of the options and you'd rather set up a more fitting version yourself. Like the Post-its have several different aspect ratios, and what fits on the 4x3" version likely won't fit on the vertically tall 4x6" version. You may want to set up and post a 4x6" version yourself so the customer doesn't have to mess around with it. 

Set up all products that you want to sell. If the customer searches for a design on a shirt, but you only have it on the button, it won't come up in search and they'll never see it to realize they can transfer it themselves. Once they're on your design, they can move it to something else, but finding your design in the first place is the trick. But within a product type, you don't have to list the different variations (e.g., don't post a design on every single t-shirt option). 

[peanutfarm]

Thank you for the very easy to understand explanations.  This is very helpful.  I did change my Post it notes and a few other items after your explanation.  I'm now going through my designs and adding other products.  I've created a checklist to make sure I get all the designs on the products I have chosen.  I just hope I'm not making any glaring errors in my method of posting.  I failed at Etsy with another niche so I'm hoping I do better here with this new niche.  Time will tell.

[peanutfarm · Accepted solution]

I've uploaded 182 listings over 13 product types  and 16 designs.  Now I'm questioning if my niche is even viable.  Yes I understand it is going to take time. Seeing that Zazzle has a ton of products, how are sales if you are not in the wedding/baby niche?