Everything is inter-related so can't really piece out the answers into short tidbits without a general understanding of how it all works.
On Zazzle, you can earn money in two ways:
1) When people buy a product you published you earn a Royalty.
This is the % you choose yourself (minimum of 5%). The royalty rate you set affects the final cost of the product to the customer. The royalty is calculated on how much the customer actually pays for the item. If you list the item for $20 but the customer uses a 50% off promo and thus only pays $10, then your royalty is calculated on that $10, not $20.
2) When you successfully send a customer to the zazzle domain from elsewhere and they buy something, you can earn a Referral.
You can earn Referrals on your own products and the products of others. The referral system is dependent on cookies which are basically a marker set by one's browser after visiting a link and transmitted to Zazzle so they know who if anyone to credit the referral to. Zazzle's cookie rules as to how long they last and when/how another cookie can override yours are complicated and honestly I've let them all just wash over me without caring because you cannot control what's happening on the customer's computer.
Referrals pay a flat 15% of the total the customer paid and do not effect the purchase price the customer pays.
So ...
When you look at your Royalty History, the second column shows "Referred?" and it will be noted as None, Self, or 3rd-Party.
None = NOBODY earned a referral credit for that order
Self = YOU earned a 15% referral credit on that order
3rd Party = another Zazzle member or Zazzle themselves was credited with the 15% referral
If the sale was referred, meaning it shows as Self or 3rd Party, then 20% is deducted from your gross royalty. This is what is known as the "carve-out" fee. You can look at it as paying a part of your royalty to the person who led to that sale by sending the customer to Zazzle.
Regular affiliates earn 15% of the total sale as a Referral, on their products or the products of others, if their cookie "stuck" and they are thus credited with leading the customer to Zazzle. This is achieved by having ?rf=yourNumber in links you share. Promoters (people who have opted to join the Promoter Program 2.0) can earn a 35% referral on the sale of their own products but earn nothing if the product purchased wasn't theirs. This depends on the type of link they use; they do still have the option of sharing links that will earn them 15% on anything. It's a gamble but if you're confident in your product and your target audience, that 35% instead of 15% is a sweet deal.
As far as I know, referrals always earn a flat 15% of the order total (or 35% if you're a Promoter and it was your own product on a promoter link) - there are no fees deducted from referrals.
Royalties on the other hand, that is where fees get deducted from.
20% "carve-out" if the sale was referred.
5% transaction fee if the royalty rate was 15% or greater.
If the customer added one of the background images from another designer from within the design tool, that'll reduce your royalty a bit. Likewise if they chose a "user option".
This may be helpful to you:
Earnings Calculator - No Math Required 🙂
On 11/14/2023 11:36:55 AM 1 Sale $9.48 15.0%+ Got $1.07 USD $1.07. Should have been $1.42. Short $0.35.
There is also a reduction for sales to non-US domain to cover costs related to processing VAT taxes. (See notes at bottom of your Royalty History page.)
Would setting my rate higher to absorb that 5% Transaction Fee not price me out of the market compare to the competition?
It's a pretty minor fee, setting your royalty to 14.9 or lower to avoid it doesn't pay off. You don't have to go very high to "absorb it". I did some figuring a long while back but the results were lost when the old forum went away. So I don't remember the exact numbers but there was a small window from 15 to 16.something where the fee did result in earning slightly less than if you remained at 14.9%. Past that you always earned more even with the fee applied.
Congratulations on all your sales!
