I'm feed up with 3d party royalties

[Bellissima]

1 tee shirt sold today coming from 3d party, royalties : 0.80 $ 🤐😠😱

All that work for that! working on the design, on the mockup, posting on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, it doesn't even pay for the electricity used and the time spent!

Can they prove to me that the sale comes from a third party? no

I know that I'm not the only one, but compared to other POD platform, it's 👎

[LMGildersleeve]

I'd be really curious if other Creators sell t-shirts on different platforms. How much is their set royalties, if they pay fees out of their set royalty and if they get more than a $1 for one t-shirt sale.

Even with the new AP fee structure, Z never paid a fair royalty from a t-shirt sale. 

[Van]

I'm familiar with one that has two levels, based on how the quality of work is viewed.  The higher tier accounts get $4 per shirt at regular price, $2 when they are having a sale. Another has levels as well - shops falling into the lower tier get hit about as hard as we do here but designers in the higher tier set their own royalty and aren't hit with fees.  Both frown on using clip art packs and things like just slapping public domain clipart and such on products.  

[alissag]

I do sell t-shirts elsewhere. All the other sites I use have sales to encourage shopping, and that does tend to be when my items are most likely to sell. I usually make between $1 and $2 per sale. The exception for me is Amazon which has only just started experimenting with sales. Over there you set your price on each individual item, and I usually make $4.89 per shirt sold, though with the new random sale thing that gets cut to around $2.

[Jadendreamer13]

Top Etsy sellers typically receive a $5.00 royalty for T-shirts and mugs. However, I don’t know if all of that is profit or how much they have to pay in Etsy fees.

[PenguinPower]

If you sell on Etsy, don’t you have to have the stock too? Or do they now have a print on demand service?

[alissag]

Etsy's just a selling platform like Ebay. So, yes you would have to hold stock or what a lot of sellers there do is set up their own drop shipping with a print on demand company like Printful. Etsy sellers must also handle all their own customer service.

[PenguinPower]

That’s what I thought. It’s a bit of a different business model than working directly in a POD. 

[NigelSutherland]

I wonder if the CEO of Zazzle and the rest of the Executive Team knows about the widespread dissatisfaction the new system has engineered, or whether they is distant from it. I would hope that there is an awareness.

[LJ]

Until every designer does their job as usual, why would they care?

[Jadendreamer13]

They care (as all business owners do) because designer and customer dissatisfaction affects their bottom line.

[sm_business_car]

THIS. Thank you. To summarize everything that has been posted over these several past months, this is what will ultimately influence Zazzle's bottom line.

[LJ]

We’ll see. I’ve been here for more than a decade, and my experience disagrees. The most I expect is some new unnecessary shiny things that mess up some others that worked fine. But financially… we’ll still work for pennies. And that’s what really counts for designers (not volunteers).

[DancingPelican]

It feels like a sweat shop!

[Jadendreamer13]

Yes, I imagine that they are aware, and yes they either occasionally view designer and customer feedback themselves or have employees that keep them up to date.

[Jadendreamer13]

I sold a t-shirt yesterday at 15% royalty, also a third-party sale, to a US customer. My royalty was $1.30. Not much, but more than you received.

I sold a bunch of camp t-shirts two weeks ago, for a repeat customer who buys camp t-shirts annually. I received the small royalty I described above for each shirt, plus a $60.00 referral fee.

Maybe switch your focus from t-shirts and designs that customers typically only buy one at a time to group t-shirts. Then use your single-purpose t-shirts to capture small royalties (they add up when you find the right niche, the right design, the right trend, etc.).

The marketplace that Nigel described is not easy to get approval to sell. (Though some people get lucky on their first application). So, you’d need to apply more than once.

[LMGildersleeve]

THIS 👆

I've only ever sold group t-shirts here on Z. 

[Zorinda]

My first ever sale on Zazzle in 2011 was a t shirt that netted $6.95.  I was so proud of that sale that I treated myself out to lunch.  By the time I returned it had gone pink in what was my first cruel Zazzle lesson learned (of many many more to come). 😂. Good news, the buyer returned a week later and I still made $6.95.  The bad news, t shirts were never good sellers for me.

[designsbydani]

It is pretty frustrating. I can only assume it's because the most traffic is from people promoting and not customers finding Zazzle organically on their own.