Upcoming Enhancements to Earnings Reports – We Want Your Feedback and Suggestions!

[Heather]

Hi Creators,

Thank you so much for submitting your questions about the recent changes to our Terms of Use and the launch of the Ambassador Program. We’re reviewing your feedback and please don’t hesitate to continue sharing your questions to the form. 

As part of your feedback, we’re working on improving Earning reports to make them clearer to understand and more transparent. We’d really appreciate hearing your specific requests, thoughts and suggestions on what you'd like to see in the backend Earnings reporting so we can ensure we’re meeting your needs as a Creator. 

Feel free to share your feedback directly in this thread; we ask that you stay on topic regarding the backend Earnings reporting to help us compile actionable feedback. 

Thank you for helping us shape the Creator experience. 

Best,

Team Creator

[Lea]

We definitely need columns showing each of the deductions - the marketing referral fee, the excess royalty fee. That's pretty crucial for transparency. It would also be nice to see whether the 3rd party is an ambassador or Zazzle getting the cut. Helpful to know who's driving our sales.
I'm glad you all are soliciting feedback but it is pretty frustrating to see "coming soon" on the earnings page and then learning it's still in the planning stages. Having this entirely new fee system implemented without giving us a way to track it or fully understand it only creates more confusion.

[LMGildersleeve]

"I'm glad you all are soliciting feedback but it is pretty frustrating to see "coming soon" on the earnings page and then learning it's still in the planning stages. Having this entirely new fee system implemented without giving us a way to track it or fully understand it only creates more confusion."

Agreed. While I'm grateful our suggestions may play a part in the decision to how new Earning page(s?) will function, I find this was a pretty amateurish way to implement it.

[Lea]

Yeah with that note on the earnings page, I really thought/hoped that the improvements were imminent - any minute it will switch over. They set an expectation and probably would've been better served to not put that message on there at all if it's still in the early stages.

[Boki]

It would be good if you could enable us to set the "Royalty" in percentages at once for each store, and not as before only for the entire account or manually separately for each product. I think that would make tuning a lot easier too ?

[antiqueart]

It would be good to know how much money has accrued toward the next monthly payment. I've been here for many years, and kind of go by earnings/summary/current total balance, but I can't depend on that at all, as it never even comes close to what the next payment would be. Also, please explain better what I'm reading in the summary page - can't understand it at all.

[Zorinda]

In view of the realization that these promised enhancements to earnings reports, which should have been introduced simultaneously with the new royalty rates, are even more of a mirage than we initially thought given that Zazzle just started to seek our input 9 days after the fact, Zazzle should extend the daily changing of royalty rates until a week or two after the supposed reports actually arrive.  Even on the optimistic side it sounds like there will be nothing coming for weeks. The lack of urgency is disrespectful and appalling.

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@Heather wrote:

Hi Creators,

Thank you so much for submitting your questions about the recent changes to our Terms of Use and the launch of the Ambassador Program. We’re reviewing your feedback and please don’t hesitate to continue sharing your questions to the form. 

As part of your feedback, we’re working on improving Earning reports to make them clearer to understand and more transparent. We’d really appreciate hearing your specific requests, thoughts and suggestions on what you'd like to see in the backend Earnings reporting so we can ensure we’re meeting your needs as a Creator. 

Feel free to share your feedback directly in this thread; we ask that you stay on topic regarding the backend Earnings reporting to help us compile actionable feedback. 

Thank you for helping us shape the Creator experience. 

Best,

Team Creator

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[JerryLambert]

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@Zorinda wrote:

In view of the realization that these promised enhancements to earnings reports, which should have been introduced simultaneously with the new royalty rates

Zazzle should extend the daily changing of royalty rates until a week or two after the supposed reports actually arrive.  

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I am expecting these reports that are applied post factum to contain all data starting from the first of April. 

Also, considering the gravity of the "fees situation" and the constant change in base prices, which are likely to become more turbulent due to the tariff situation, Zazzle should extend the daily changing of royalty rates indefinitely or just stop having a deadline altogether. 

[KittyValentine]

I'd love to see my data in graphs or charts in my earnings report or have the ability to sort my sales by categories or product departments like we can sort products in the back end.

[BevStuff]

A couple people have said this, but I, too, am a visual learner and charts, graphs and with an ability to select which charts or graphs and so on we want to see would be helpful. I need written information summarized into a series of bullets I can read easily and a long text explanation of anything is globality-**bleep** to me.

[igiftcenter]

Apologies I don't have time to read all the replies: 
can we please have a page subtotal that would display at the bottom of each page of the royalty history.
This would give us an at a glance view of our total sales for that page. 

And if you want to really help next to the sales sub total for that page a sub total of that page cancelations but the product sales total is priority for helping us in the moment.
I recognize there are ways with spreadsheets and CSV files but not all of us are savvy with spreadsheets (that includes me)
Thank you in advance for considering the idea and THANK you for even asking for our feedback and suggestions

[nikkileigh]

I'm sorry, you haven't even started with the updates yet??? This is absurd. What the actual F*ck Zazzle.

[Deseades]

It would be lovely to know where the referrals come from: the Zazzle site or private. Also selfreferrals. This way we could know how to promote better. Thank you!

[AirTwin]

(To everyone's point about where the links are from, so on)   IF this marketing fee is going to Zazzle and charges us from all Zazzle links even including site search, editors picks, google organic, the newsletter email, platform 3rd party stripping of external, and cookies issues (including whatever EU is doing now 🙃 ) ...

Why are any of us expected to promote or share anything ever anywhere with anyone? 😕 So that a handful of selected funneled to stores get punished by our actions of promoting in hopes we get a half royalty sale?  😕 I don't want Silver levels to get punished if I try and share one of my products but someone comes here, the link get highjacked and buys from the Silver instead of me... why are we being used against each other? Other than to do what other pods have done without the sitewide purge? 😕 

[mgdesigns]

- It would be nice to get a graphic with sales and returns per day with a monthly view that we can sort by month too.
- This is basic: show how exactly we receive x amount per sale with a drop-down of the fees.
- For the none/self/3rd party: show exactly where it came from

(not for the earning page but related: in the products stats in the backend, please add the stats for return items so we don't duplicate products that are being returned because of small font/color problems/etc and we just never know if we don't go page per page in the earnings page to see what was returned).

Thanks!

[osea]

In a referrer earning report usually appears the link to the product and so the referrer can see the designer, but in the designer/creator report, designer cannot see who is the referrer when it is referred from third party. I do not see any problem if a designer can see the referrer...

[Bluebird]

It would be helpful to have a dashboard that displays earnings by date and by month, complete with graphical representations. Additionally, a daily report should be included, featuring estimated royalties, referrals, cancellations, and the top sellers on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, with options to filter by specific dates. I am including some quick examples for reference.

Daily reports
Estimanted Royalties			$45
Referrals			$23
Cancellations			-$5

Top earning printed product
Today	Yesterday	This month
	Total
Product Id 1	$10
Product Id 2	$7
Product Id 3	$5
Product Id 4	$4
Product Id 5	$3
Top earning digital download
Today	Yesterday	This month
	Total
Product Id 1	$10
Product Id 2	$7
Product Id 3	$5
Product Id 4	$4
Product Id 5	$3

[Will]

I can’t speak for everyone but for me it will be nice to know and to be written in the earnings all the details in every sale of who is getting what in a sale that it has a royalty of $20.00 at 25% 

—how much we lose when we have a non referred sale for $20.00 at 25%

— who is the 3rd party that refers one of my sales and how much of my royalty they get in $

—how much zazzle gets from each royalty as a marketing fee in $

—and how much in $ administration fee in a 25% sale that it is $20.00

and for last how much of the royalty for a self referred sale of $20.00 it is taken out if the % is 25%

All that will be transparency don’t you think so? ‘that will be nice 

Will

[HeatherM]

For the export file I would love to see...

Primary Collection: this will help to identify successful collections more easily. 

Date Product Published: to provide easy insights to the success of the product and how productive a date of designing was. This should help designers find successful theme/styles to double down on.

Subtotal Column Same Curency As Referral: this will help to calculate margin on all sales easily.

Do not use asterisks in royalty column: this will make the data easier to calculate.

Detailed Referral/royalty export: one detailed export that includes all earnings. This export would include a royalty and a referral column. 

Thanks!

[ShabzDesigns]

• It would be nice if we have the option of weekly or fortnightly payouts instead of monthly basis. If a designer is in need of his/her earnings in the middle of the month, he/she can request for a fortnightly payout.
  
  
• A designer should be able to see the date at which latest payment was requested at his/her backend. Usually I am just left guessing If I requested the payment for this month or last month or just forgot to request payment at all.

[jophb]

I think it would be awesome to have a photo of the item next to the other columns. Even if they change the design, it would still give us a quick glance of the recent sales styles/themes in a visual way.  I process things visually better, so that would help me know mentally what my current stats are looking like.

And yes, I know we can search by orders for the last 7 days, but I just thought this would be a good thing to have so we can make some decisions quicker if we see a trend on our royalty page.

[Susang6]

Designers at Zazzle who earn royalties on their product designs are generally considered independent contractors. They are not employees of Zazzle, they operate independently, creating and uploading their photos and artwork to the platform. Many designers also view themselves as small business owners, as they manage their own creative work, set royalty rates, and do internet marketing to drive sales.

Some think of their store as a fun way to be creative and earn some extra money, while others build it into a full-fledged business. Either way, they are responsible for their own taxes and business expenses.

I would like Zazzle to be more transparent with the 35 to 50% marketing fees.  Since these fees impact designers' earnings and financial planning. Without a clear breakdown of the advertising/marketing fees that Zazzle deducts, it becomes difficult for designers to understand how their contributions are being used, let alone properly account for those expenses when filing taxes.

Transparent reporting would help with tax deductions but also build trust within the designer community. If Zazzle clearly outlined these fees on the earning page.

[Saints_Aplenty]

At the risk of appearing rude but before this thread sinks into oblivion, I would like to point out that it is now more than six weeks since Zazzle implemented its new Terms of Service Agreement pulling the rug out from under designers and greatly reducing our royalties in favor of promoters and Zazzle itself. Almost daily in one discussion forum or another someone asks for help with the math Zazzle is using and/or asks for greater transparency with regard to third party sales. Nevertheless, Zazzle has still not provided an up-to-date royalty calculator showing the actual percentage realized under different scenarios on our listing pages or new by-the-numbers earnings reports. Surely, the accountants who devised the arcane formulae by which Zazzle’s earnings are being calculated for Zazzle itself and the computer wizards who implemented the requisite record-keeping procedures can devise the necessary tools for us. (It goes without saying, but I’ll say it again anyway: These tools should have been rolled out at the very same time as the Terms. It is unfair to expect Zazzlers to step up—and several have—to explain the math, provide interim tools, and double-check Zazzle’s calculations. It is unfair to leave us making guesstimates about future earnings and setting current pricing. It is unfair to leave us floundering while rolling out “Creator Polls” and pretty new “Publish Success” pages—albeit I realize these are the work of other departments within the organization.)

For the enormous amount of sweat equity designers have contributed to Zazzle’s success in the past and for the work being done at present and in the future, I think we deserve better.

When may we expect an up-to-date royalty calculator showing the actual percentage realized under different scenarios on our listing pages and new by-the-numbers earnings reports?

[Zorinda]

Perhaps this would be better as a separate thread so that it’s not buried?