With 212 active stores imported, Snuggle Hamster Designs has amassed enough data to gain some interesting insights about the Zazzle experience. I wanted to share one with you all. Consider this chart:
This averages out the normalized royalty earnings for each month across a subset of stores that have been around a while. The red line smooths it out to make the trend easier to see. This chart tells the story for an "average" store that has been around while. I have data going back many more years that shows the fuller history, but I want to respect the privacy of that narrower set of store owners. You won't see any dollar amounts on the chart because all contributing stores' charts are normalized. Small stores have as much impact on the average as big stores do.
There has been a lot of discussion in various forums by Zazzlers scared and frustrated about their earnings. This chart helps quantify what's happening. In the early years not shown here it was common for some Zazzlers to earn quite a lot of money each year. That tended to go down over the subsequent years. The average nadir seems to be around 2019. 2020 marked a significant turnaround for many Zazzlers. The first few years of the pandemic were good for Zazzlers and no doubt for Zazzle as well. 2022 marked a turning point. Many of you still saw sales rise. But others started seeing a decline. The end of 2023 seemed dismal to many longtime Zazzlers. And the first half of 2024 seemed even worse for still more. The good news in this graph is that 2024 seems to have largely flattened out. Average sales appears to be solidly rising a little.
As a watcher of financial markets I do fear that we're in the first part of a recession. I think it started last year. The jury is still out on whether this is true and how this recession will play out. I think this chart should give Zazzlers some hope though. And odds are good those who stick around through the recession will come out the other side much stronger in earnings.
What can you do in the meantime? As always you can make the best of things as they are and focus on improving your craft. Not just making better products of course. But also getting a better idea of what Zazzle's customers are looking for and where you have been successful historically. There are quite a few longtime Zazzlers here who are happy to share their advice and offer paid premium services. And there are analytical tools available to help you understand your history and potential future better. Snuggle Hamster Designs offers such tools. We can't promise you'll do any better using our tools than not. But we give you more things to try. Those who have done deep dives have expressed surprise at the insights and concrete advice they've been able to gain from our tools. Maybe you can too.
What do you think of this chart? Does it surprise you? Or does it look a lot like your own experience? What are some of your predictions for the rest of 2024 going into 2025?
