Customers purchasing just one invitation

[OakAndPine]

Dear Zazzle

Invitations are generally meant to be sent in bulk — whether for weddings, birthdays, baby showers, or other events. Allowing the purchase of only one invitation goes against the very nature of the product. It's highly unlikely a customer would need just a single invitation for a real event. One-off purchases may enable users to buy a single card simply to replicate or scan the design, which risks undermining the creative work of designers and leads to potential copyright infringement. Since designers earn royalties on a per-unit basis, allowing single-unit sales (often for under a dollar) significantly reduces earnings. When only one card is purchased, the royalty is minimal, and it does not adequately compensate the designer for their time and creativity. Most online invitation platforms and printers enforce minimum order quantities to protect product integrity and support independent creators. Aligning Zazzle with these standards would reinforce its reputation as a designer-friendly marketplace. I believe setting a minimum order of 10 invitations (or even 5) would better serve the interests of designers and help preserve the professional integrity of these event-specific products.

Thank you for your consideration 

[Bellissima]

I also think that customers buy one copy to test the quality before buying 50 and being disappointed, it makes sense. Or, as you said, they scan the design and send the invitation online, or print it cheaper elswhere.

[DancingPelican]

For something as important as a wedding, I would buy a sample first before ordering all of my invitations.

[OakAndPine]

It was a birthday invitation 

[DancingPelican]

That does make one wonder the reason for only purchasing one. There was no mention of the type of birthday, so no way to know what the customer was needing with only one invitation, but there are various reasons.

[Jadendreamer13]

It’s a bummer, that’s for sure. But anyway you slice it, that customer is only going to buy one invitation. Whether it’s because they want to see the quality before they commit to buying more, or they want to take it to a local office supply store and have copies made (because they’re short on money), that customer was only planning to purchase one invitation. And, although it’s a bummer, you did make a small sale, so that’s a small win.

[Zizzago]

Yes it seem that suddenly from the first of August it has been a change with customers just buying 1 invitation which it doesn’t make any sense, and it doesn’t matter if the invitations are weddings, birthdays or baby showers or whatever, you have to sell thousands of invitations a day to make any kind of money as half of it it goes to third party sales anyway. So yes peanuts as earnings for store owners, apart from sales been very down since the first of April and our income has been devastated and all our hard work and expenses in advertising over the past 17 years has been for nothing.

good luck to all of us.

William

[xBrie]

I get it, I feel your pain lol ! I have almost as many sales for 1 invitation as I do for multiples 😓 I also get the sample argument for wedding invitations, but I don't sell wedding invitations and still get them all the time. So I think they are more likely to be scanning or taking a picture of the invite to send digitally or print cheaper near them 💔  It is possible that some want to have a copy of a child's birthday invitation for a keep sake as well. But again, just seems more likely with how often it happens that that's *probably* not the case. I do think it would be cool to have an option to set a minimum of invitations to 10 print, but I just can't see that being something they would be interested in spending time on adding unfortunately!

[Fizzy · Accepted solution]

What I don't understand is why Zazzle doesn't offer a "sample only" purchase option that is stamped with a watermark. It would make this scanning and printing elsewhere nonsense a lot more difficult for the buyer.

[OakAndPine]

What an excellent idea! 

[Zorinda]

It is an excellent idea but unfortunately not an original one.  Many designers have asked for this for years. It has fallen on Zazzle’s deaf ears.  Hate to be pessimistic — an easy thing to do these days at Zazzle — but don’t get your hopes up.