Please help me understand these royalty reductions.

[PacifierCity]

I posted this about 10 mins ago and it is not showing up... so I am sorry if this is all the sudden a duplicate post.

I recently sold a card that has a 11.9% royalty.  I earned 11.4%  It looks like they opted for an envelope and to remove attribution.  I thought we earned 5%, but I earned 4.8%.

I've searched the Secondary Content Explainer on Z help but can not figure a royalty loss of .5% nor do I see anything that explains why the 5% went down to 4.8%.

"None" appears in the referred column.

There is probably a good explanation for the reductions but I just can't locate them.

Any help appreciated.

PC

If a mod needs it the sales 169#, it is 169-10462274-5159759

[Emma]

Hi PacifierCity, 

I can confirm this was a Secondary Content Carveout. For instance, if a customer opts to change the background image from one of many available within the Design Tool, a carveout is retained for the Creator of the background image in question. 

I hope this helps! 

- Emma 🌻

[J32Design]

Hi Emma,

Could you explain why the main royalty has a 0.5% carve-out and the additional 5% royalty has a 0.2% carve-out? I think this is what is confusing many.

[WBartworks]

Dear Emma,

I posted the following in another section already but I think that discussion was closed so no one will probably look at it.  So I am posting it here again.I believe Zazzle made a mistake when calculating my royalty yesterday.  It took 5% off the subtotal and then gave me 20% off the reduced amount.  I checked my history and learned that this is not how Zazzle calculated my royalty before whenever my set royalty was above 14.9%.

Yesterday I made a sale and I was puzzled why I only received $5.88 royalty instead of $6.27. 
The original price is $39.20.
Taking 15% discount off the list price leaves $33.32.  So that is what the customer paid.
Since my product got referred, Zazzle took of another 5% off the total of $33.32 ($33.32 times 5% = $1.67) which brings you to the subtotal of $31.36 as is shown in my royalty history. 

I assumed Zazzle would multiply $31.36 by 25% (my set royalty) as it did before, and then take the 5% out off the resulting royalty amount, because I set my royalty over 14.9%.  But no, Zazzle took off 5% of the subtotal which lowers the subtotal amount to $29.79.  Zazzle then multiplies $29.79 by 20% and that's how I wind up with only getting $5.88. 

However, had Zazzle multiplied the subtotal of $31.36 by 25% ($31.36 times 25% equals $7.84) and then took the 5% out of $7.84, I would have received $6.27 royalty.

BTW:  Since $5.88 equals only 18.75% off the subtotal amount of $31.36, Zazzle actually deducted 6.25% from my 25% royalty and not just 5%.

[PacifierCity]

@Emma 

I don't see any explanation in the Secondary Content explainer that adds up to a .5% loss.  and I don't understand the .2% loss on the 5% earning.  I've not seen a deduction like that before.  I don't need to know specifics, like this background from this designer....yada yada... but knowing that a background plus whatever adds up to a .5% reduction in my royalty rate.  Likewise, if x,y or z happens, then the 5% portion of your earning is reduced by .2%.

As I stated before, I pretty sure its all on the up and up, I'm just seeking to understand the specifics because I can't find any documentation that adds up to the deductions I am seeing...

Not trying to be difficult...

I do wish I could see what they did though as this card is completely designed from front to back.  Oh so curious... or did they just leave something hidden in the background and I'm charged for it...  idk... the mind just wonders...

Interactive Little Magician Redhead Boys Birthday Card
by PacifierCity

[PacifierCity · Accepted solution]

This is the page that explains carveouts:

https://help.zazzle.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037785973-Zazzle-Royalty-and-Referral-Percentages

and I just can't seem to find any math that explains my carve outs.

PC

@Emma  Edit:  I figured out the 11.4%!   11.9 x 96.15% equaling 11.44185.  This is for two elements being added.  So I get that part.  Now the part I don't understand is why I lost .2% on the 5% for the envelope and removal of attribution.  I can't find any policy stuff that explains that.

Edit II: This is what is stated on the earning page. "^ User Options, such as special sizes and embellishments, pay a fixed royalty of 5%."

Last Edit:  It looks like the same carveout is being applied to user options. 5% x 96.15% = 4.8075%.  I was unaware that User Options could have a carveout applied.  But that must be it.  The statement on our earning page should be adjusted.  It is no longer fixed rate.  Mine was 4.8%.  FYI 

I could also see someone adding a few elements too.  So that's all good.

Yeah me!  I found the solution!

PC

[shellifitz]

okay I know I am repeating myself but I still feel so very strongly that we need totally itemized earnings reports. Line by line and completely transparent.   Please PTB! 

[MissPaperFarm]

I agree!! I can't understand my report here:

It was a card that costs $3.79
The referred was "none"
It sold on June 30th so I don't know if a sale factored into it, but I am completely confused.

I only understand that my royalty percentage was set to 20% under rate

But I'm wondering why there is $0.29 cents under the subtotal and why there was a +5% under the rate?

The Zazzle Royalty and Referral Percentages page did not help me visually at all -__- 

[MissPaperFarm]

UPDATE: I realized that the $0.29 and 5.0% refers to someone modifying the order in some way like a different type of paper but I'm not totally sure. Except when I did the math, my royalty came out to $0.33. It seems to be this way on all my royalties where the final royal total is either a few cents or sometimes dollars above or below what it should be with my calculations. So, I'm still confused 😅

[shellifitz]

I think in your case that 5% represents an "upcharge" for choosing and envelope ?  or maybe removing the attribution from the back?  not really sure. The 5% represents your royalty on the upcharge. 

[lroles]

how do i delete a post?

[shellifitz]

@lroles As far as I can see, there is no way we can. 

[CrazyMermaid]

If your total royalty is over 15 percent, I think there is a carve out for that too. I have to admit I can never figure this stuff out and do agree that there needs to be more transparency on all these charges. There seem to be quite a few of them now!