Understanding the Logic Behond Zazzle's New Fee Structure

[CreativeLeahG]

The way I see it, Zazzle’s new fee structure is about protecting their bottom line.

1. They run big discounts (sometimes as high as 40% ), and to ensure those sales are impactful prices must appear significantly lower. High royalties might cancel out the impact of sales. Hence discouraging higher royalties?

2. Google made massive changes to what they show via images so the promotional pins took a hit, they don't appear in results like they once did. Sales overall might be significantly down. We have Amazon and Temu offering personalized goods at significantly lower prices. That has got to have made a dent.

The way to overcome that is to focus on personalized goods that neither of those providers is capable of producing!

3. Part of it is also about royalties/referrals. With a high royalty rate and 35% self-referral fee Zazzle could actually end up barely covering their own costs once sales and discounts were applied. So now with the carve-outs and caps, they’ve made sure that doesn’t happen anymore. I can see the logic there. 

4. I also think Zazzle wants us to market ourselves more. By making royalties alone less reliable, they’re nudging us to use referral links, which saves Zazzle the cost of advertising. Hence cover images and videos and reward systems/features for those sharing media and so on. I expect to see more reward systems in the future for those doing particularly well on social media. 

5. And then there’s the category thing — higher carve-outs in areas like home décor and digital products just mean Zazzle makes sure they always get their cut, no matter what we set as a royalty.

So yeah, it’s built to make sure Zazzle stays profitable. Our job is just figuring out how to work with the system instead of fighting against it. I'm working on that now. I as you know haven't been active on Zazzle a while so it will take some time to work out new strategies. But I am on it! 

[Cat]

Unfortunately, the way the new referral system works, even when your promotional efforts result in a sale, the chances of actually getting credited with the referral are pretty darned low - at least that's been my experience, and it seems to be what others are experiencing as well. Perhaps there is some "secret sauce" that the rest of us have not yet come up with. I look forward to any insights that you might be able to uncover!

[CreativeLeahG]

It may be related to the fourteen day rule?

Zazzle’s referral tracking lasts forty-five (45) days, with a rolling fourteen-day (14-day) lockout period during which other referral clicks won’t override your attribution.(help.zazzle.com)

In simple terms:

• Once someone clicks your referral link, you’re credited with any sale they make up to 45 days later.

• For the first 14 days, your link is "locked in"—even if they click someone else's referral link, yours stays valid.

• After day 14, if they click a different referral link, the new referrer gets the credit for any future purchases.

I wonder if 'new referrer' includes Zazzle itself as a referrer?