Can we please change royalty rates?

[Anne]

I am still not able to change royalty rates. In a rare case they stick, mostly they don't. I know this has been mentioned about a zillion times during the past couple of MONTHS. Please fix this, Zazzle! Thank you.

[NigelSutherland]

I believe they change on 20th of the month. You can alter them at any time before this date, but it won't take effect until 20th. You'll still see the "old" rate.

[Anne]

@NigelSutherland Yes, they go into effect the 20th, but should be visible on the backend or product page. I also noted there may be a delay of several hours before it shows (if it does). That delay is not helpful either.

[LMGildersleeve]

FYI, I changed my royalties on some products yesterday and today they are changed. I was shocked I didn't have to wait for the 20th. Did I miss an announcement?
ETA... I was lowering my rates and not raising them. Maybe this had a different effect for timing? 

[mgdesigns]

Oh wow I hope the let us change them at least weekly from now on. 
Can I as you if there is any reason you're lowering them? I had them at 10% but I'm changing them to 15% or more because I lost 50% of my income with the recent changes. It's scary being stuck with them for a month if I can not change them again until the 20th and turns out people don't buy them at the higher price, specially if they get rid of constant discounts as I'm seeing now. I wish they let us know everything..

[LMGildersleeve]

It sure is scary when you mess with royalty rates. I used to be a flat 10% before April 1st. I then hiked my best sellers up to 15+% and then the bottom dropped out. My hunch is this is a perfect buyers storm happening right now. Zazzle has hiked prices on stickers but lowered them on invitations (from what I read on a different thread). They also stopped giving their deep discounts to customers and the customers aren't buying. And than we have an ever evolving daily threat to imported goods happening now. I raised my rates and experienced rock bottom sales (from this perfect storm). 

So, I'm seeing if bringing those higher percentages back down brings in any sales at all. I'm lucky that I don't survive on my Zazzle earnings. At this point I'd rather make my/Zazzle customers happy that they purchased the products they liked.

For me it's not about earning a living wage from this work but making someone happy they found the right products for their daily lives. I realize we are way off topic and I'm sorry for the longish post.

Big ((hug)) for those creators trying to make a living on Z. 😞

[mgdesigns]

Thank you so much for the detailed answer, Lynn Marie!
I had 10% as you all recommended and it seemed fair until now but I do want to make a living here and after 5 years I can not spend the same amount of time if I will get 50% less so this really concerns me. We really need to be able to change royalties weekly. We really need to know if the discounts will come back or not because if they change their entire business method we need to adapt to it. If I up my prices but discounts don't come back and sales go even lower I either have to move on to something else or go all in on promotion and try to get self referrals (but I'm concerned a lot are counted as 3rd party now for some reason). Hope they realize they need to be more transparent and go back to how they treated creators. 

Wish you the best!

[mgdesigns]

Also I just checked my royalty history and seems they changed my royalties yesterday. I have half my sales yesterday and today with my new royalties (even ones I put really high just to test to almost 30% sold so this is a good sign for me!). I'm going to go finish changing everything just in case it's temporary!!

[Jadendreamer13]

If it’s any consolation to you, I have kept my royalties steady at 10% while I’m deciding how (or if) I will proceed on the Zazzle platform. All my sales have completely tanked as well. So it may have less to do with your royalty settings than the overall gloomy economy and job market.

[DiamondWillow]

Yes I found the same.  I changed them thinking it would be the 20th, they are already in effect