Zazzle Update 2023

[abbyjuli]

is Zazzle going to do a tier system like Redbubble and Society6 in the near future? What are some of the future updates? Will their also be recurring fees?

[idraw]

@abbyjuli 
In reply to your basic question, RB did not give us any advance warning of their plans, neither has any other POD that I can recall, Including CP back in 2008 when I left there, and came here with the other POD shifters.
Z has never in my memory given shops any advance notice of drastic updates, such as RB just incurred.
If they ever do include shops and inform us ahead of their future major/extreme  update plans, I will probably go into shock.
From my perspective, they are a privately owned business, we are subcontractors, not employees. Wish it were more inclusive for most of us as shops, but from my viewpoint,"for the time being", it is what it is.

BTW, when you titled your post, "Zazzle Update 2023", it read as if it was a notice of an update.
A gentle reminder, if you are asking a question, please add on a question mark---
Zazzle update 2023?
or maybe---
is there a Zazzle update 2023 coming?

[abbyjuli]

Thank you. 

[waterart]

Zazzle did add a fee for non active accounts a few years ago so I don't think they have any plans on picking through our earnings, though I wouldn't be surprised if they did do something like that if they see people are sticking around despite the fees some POD's are implementing.

[abbyjuli]

Thank you! I hope they dont do a tier system

[LMGildersleeve]

Z already takes away from earnings from us in the carve out and being a 3rd party referrer. So I'm not worried they'd impose a fee.

Redbubble took nothing from their designers prior to this. So I don't blame them for taking a little off the top to help pay for all the business expenses they have to deal with.

[waterart]

Why should RB take anything, they already made the profit from the sale. It's not the same as Z taking a commission from being a 3rd party, not that I agree with it but it's pennies compared to the cut RB wants to grab with this new tier system

[CrazyMermaid]

Affiliate commissions are 20 percent. That isn't peanuts. 

[waterart]

It is compared to what RB is planning on taking, even when you combine all the so called Z fees

[CrazyMermaid]

"so called" Zazzle Fees? Don't forget all the Google ads we also compete with that have the potential to entice Shoppers to click away from our products. This may sound like it is a complaint. It really isn't, I make good money on Zazzle and think it is the best. I am just amazed at the people who think Zazzle doesn't charge fees. 

[abbyjuli]

what are these fees you speak of? 

[LisaMG]

I closed my S6 shop when they came out with their new shipping policies mainly because I'd had no sales there anyway and the uploading process was atrocious. I've put my Redbubble shop on hiatus to see how this plays out after the dust settles. I've not made a lot of sales there but they put me in the premium tier, so no new extra fees on top of the usual ones. I hope they are just weeding out the AI art and/or scammers with this new system. I've been working on that one and my Zazzle shop. I'm okay with them taking a fee for all they do but I have $1.55 in my Zazzle that I can't get out because I'd almost closed my shop a year or so ago. I'm adding things but I've had no sales yet. So no telling how long it'll be before I'll get that! 😄

[CrazyMermaid]

If RB isn't charging you fees, why did you put your shop on hiatus? Doesn't that keep you from making money?

[LisaMG]

That's a very good question and one I thought about before doing so! They are going to a threshold before paying out. If I make very few sales to reach their threshold it could take me quite awhile to get paid. It would be different if I were making regular sales there and being I'm recently retired I don't want to have to wait months or years to get paid, if ever, which is the same situation I'm in here at Zazzle currently. And being RB isn't being transparent in their tier rating system right now who knows when they'll bump me down with no warning. 

[waterart]

As far as I know if you don't make RB's threshold, at the end of the year they pay you whatever is in your account. Did that change?

[LMGildersleeve]

No that has not changed. In December you are paid whatever you have earned in that year.

[abbyjuli]

yes! thats one reason why I quit RB all the spammers and copycats. I stayed with Z because its nearly impossible to scam here and I am seeing less copycats. 

[CrazyMermaid]

They also impose a 5 percent fee for royalties above 14.9 percent. There is also a fee for inactive accounts. Then there is the fee that designers pay to other designers for secondary content. These are in addition to the base product price that they can adjust at any time. So fees are nothing new on Zazzle.  It is just the cost of doing business. Like buying a computer, using photoshop or taking a course. 

[WHS_Designs]

So in this respect, Zazzle is ahead of the game compared to the other PODs (maybe not enviable from a creator's perspective, but perhaps more justifiable).

[abbyjuli]

Thank you for explaining the fees! its much more difficult to scam Z than other platforms

[abbyjuli]

Hmm good thinking! 

[KeegansCreation]

My theory on why them (Redbubble and Society6) and why now? AI art. Bad AI art is fast and easy to make. (I like to think I make good AI art by having AI be the first step in a design process rather than the only part.) Until a couple weeks ago, it was also free on Midjourney with some limits that were apparently being circumvented. A couple weeks ago Midjourney required a subscription but prior to that, a person who didn't care about quality could churn out thousands of images for free on Midjourney. Redbubble and Society6 have bulk uploaders which means many people could generate many images for free and essentially spam those sites at no cost to themselves.

Spamming Zazzle is a fair bit harder because as of 2023, all products must be made one by one. I think that's a significant hurdle against spamming. I theorize these are anti-spam efforts by those PODs which aren't needed by Zazzle because it is set up differently.
My theory on the timeline:

1. 2022: AI image generation becomes available to the general public. Both DALL-E and Midjourney allow a certain amount free although Midjourney says you have to pay to use commercially. Not that spammers care. It now becomes possible to generate images at ginormous quantities for free as long as you don't care about quality. 
2. December (I think) Zazzle retires QuickCreate, likely permanently, as it turns out. Redbubble and Society6 are the fastest options for putting thousands of designs on thousands of products as fast as possible.
3. Two weeks ago: Midjourney states that people were abusing the free option by creating numerous accounts to get around the only-X-images restriction. Midjourney is now strictly pay-to-play and spammers want everything fast and free.
4. Now: Redbubble and Society6 put up fee hurdles which will impose a cost on spammers that they didn't have before.

Combine that with the existing fees from Zazzle that CrazyMermaid spelled out and I don't think Zazzle will go that route. I could be wrong. My theory that this is to disincentivize spammers and Zazzle had already disincentivized them could be wrong. Time will tell.

[TabbyG]

I wonder if that's why art of where closed it's marketplace, maybe they couldn't cope with a big influx of ai?

[CrazyMermaid]

AI art is no better or worse than handmade art. It all depends on the talent of the designer. Using QC or the Redbubble interface to churn out 1,000s of products is another matter. Allowing spam and copyright infringement adds another layer of woe. I am seeing junk with no personalization filtering into all of the categories with Zazzlers hoping to cash in on weddings and other lucrative feeds. Zazzle has never been about those kinds of products. I hope it doesn't become one. 

[abbyjuli]

Good Thinking! I chose Z for my POD stuff becuase it was less spam even if the royalties were less.

[WBartworks · Accepted solution]

I think Redbubble did this to entice designers to put more effort into promoting their products and to weed out products that has been sitting on their site for years without being sold.  Personally, I don't like Redbubble because it doesn't allow you to manipulate your designs so that they fit properly on a variety of products. I only made a few sales there, so after receiving the "tier" email, I decided it was time to say good bye to Redbubble.  I don't think Zazzle needs to start the "tier" policy because they already charge designers $2 every month, if designers don't add at least one product every 15 months and because product that hasn't received any views for 15 months, automatically gets hidden. 

[abbyjuli]

Good to know, this worries me about the hidden products, Im still not very good at seo yet. I just dont want my prodcuts to be hidden from Z marketplace

[chefcateringbiz]

Huh, I had no idea Redbubble was charging fees; I haven't uploaded anything new for a very long time, and I only make 20-50 per month. Still, they listed me as a Premium and aren't charging me a fee. I really only sell a dinosaur sticker there, but I've sold an absolute sh-ton of the same one, it's so weird.