Worst month since March 2022. Why???

[MadjackGG]

What the hell is going on? After putting a huge amount of work into my shops (and keeping them maintained and products turning over), I had built them up to the point where I was seeing 1-3 sales per day, my shop was rank 7 and I'd moved up to Pro Bronze level. The future looked bright and I was motivated to keep going, thinking I had a reliable partner in Zazzle.

But since April of this year, things have changed; sales have steadily declined to the point where I'm seeing single small sales every 2-3 days, if I'm lucky. The last time monthly sales were so low (as this month), was two and half years ago. What is going on? I know I'm not the only one who's sales have been smashed this year.

This is what I hate about PoD. An algorithm changes somewhere, somebody alters a number or a flag is reset inadvertently and suddenly and for no apparent reason, your hard work loses most of its value. Has Zazzle nerfed my store? Has Google nerfed my store? Is Temu eating Zazzle's lunch? is it just the economy? Is Zazzle not spending as much on advertising? I don't know and Zazzle won't say.

Can Zazzle at least comment on the situation in general?

[Barbara]

Sales figures are bad throughout, not just at Zazzle. Blame inflation, not the businesses.

Colorwash's Home

[HeatherM]

I agree with @Barbara 

Retail sales were reported in August for the US and discretionary spending is down and people are focusing on purchasing necessities from value driven stores like Wal-Mart and Target. (Dollar General is even struggling.) People are just trying to meet the needs of their households right now..

[kills]

But since April of this year, 

they did a update at that time and all store got crunch

[Barbara]

Different designers started experiencing a slowdown in sales at different times. I began seeing it much earlier.  Others didn't see that much of a change until June/July, which made them think the slowdown was the standard one we've always had in the summer. I don't think it's something Zazzle did or didn't do. I've been watching the same somewhat stagnant sales at Redbubble, and others have noted it at other PODs. I've spoken with various people who know nothing about PODs, and every single one of them is tightening their wallet, including at the grocery store. More and more of them are getting into gardening, preserving, and stocking up when there are sales. It's not Zazzle; it's everywhere. Blame governments around the world. They cause inflation and the lack of sales.

Colorwash's Home

[CrazyMermaid]

I agree with much of what you have said, but also think that the competition on Zazzle and other POD platforms has increased a lot over the past years. Partly Youtube gurus who promise quick returns have increased POD in general. Etsy designers who are into personalization have also started to move to Zazzle, because of changes there in the way etsy is moving back to featuring handmade. 

[tiffjamaica]

Agree with this plus there's an influx of people who now use midjourney or other AI to create their art. That's really opened up an easy path for them to sell on PODs. The hurdles of either having money to purchase graphics OR having skill to create your own are just...gone.  I think the competition is only going to grow exponentially with AI in the game.

[HeatherM]

For peace of mind @kills you can search through the Zazzle Creator forums and see that all stores were not crunched in April. Slow sales is a very common topic.

The economy is brutal right now and inflation is hurting everyone. I cannot change the economy but I can find a bit of comfort knowing I am not the only one struggling.

When I am reading through the forum concerns about compensation, I always try to remind myself that I am an independent designer and Zazzle allows me to place my designs on their products in their marketplace. Sometimes I see the harsh words directed toward Zazzle and I cringe.  It just feels like it goes against the old expression: "don't bite the hand that feeds you."ight now my sales are in a slump and so I am asking myself:

• Have added products that Zazzle's customer are searching for?
• Can a customer personalize all of the items I have added?
• Are my templates setup correctly?
• Do I have items that people will be searching for during the current season?
• Are my items trending?
• Have I incorporated items Zazzle asks for in their creator guides?
• Have I contributed fresh new designs to the marketplace?
• Has my traffic gone up or down?
• Were my sales coming from a specific design/product/collection that are currently not selling?
• What does the Moments planning Guide say I should be working on right now?

I am not saying that all this pondering I am doing will turn my sales around, but it feels good to take action and work on the things I can change and let go of the things I cannot change.

[Daniela]

Do you mind telling me where to find the Moments planning Guides and the suggested items by Zazzle? I think I've read (re-read) all the help section for creators but I couldn't find them. 😭

[HeatherM]

Of Course:  https://community.zazzle.com/t5/creator-guides/bd-p/trendz

[Daniela]

Thank you Heather! ❤️

[Barbara]

I agree that AI is beginning to affect us, maybe in the sense of competition or perhaps in the sense of a flood of designs, but it's only more stuff the public is currently not in the mood to buy, choosing chicken over miscellaneous doodads. Once inflation wanes, we may find out how viable PODs are for us. In the meantime, I've a new design idea floating in my head, and nothing will stop me from seeing it through. Take that inflation! And AI, too!

Colorwash's Home

[Wesha]

Not just low sales, I don't know why during last 4-5 days views have also declined to minimal, as low as 2 or 3 views only in a day! I never had such low views before ... is anyone experiencing a decline in views recently ? 

[Barbara]

I'm not sure how to interpret views, given that the view count seems to lag an entire day. I've also noticed they go up and down a lot, and it's made me think the views may often be coming from fellow designers who are looking out of curiosity. What's really odd is that my linkovers are somewhat steady and don't in any way mesh with views. If a linkover doesn't lead to a view, what, exactly, DOES it lead to?

Colorwash's Home

[HeatherM]

I have not seen a drastic reduction in views other than what I would expect for a long holiday weekend.

[SkullPilot]

Yeah, it's the economy, and possibly general seasonality. Depends what your store(s) are selling. My advice is to gear up for Q4, and hope people are looser with their cash for Christmas, having saved up during the year.

In my case, I was dumb enough to try out Amazon KDP ads for the first time last month. It was a disaster. I've always thought of paid advertising as literally no different from casino gambling. I know many professional ad and marketing people will laugh at that, but my experience last month pretty much confirmed my fears. I think I switched it off once the ACOS had got up to 190%.

I'm guessing, with my rational hat on, that August is a terrible time for sales of non-urgent items, when people are spending all their money on vacations, or buying stuff to get their kids back to school! And that's before the dodgy economy more generally.

[igiftcenter]

For those thinking Inflation has anything to do with a slow down here? in the US inflation has dropped from a whopping 9.1 just after the covid crises to 2.8 this month. Covid caused enormous expense increases for example: businesses who were importing things from overseas were paying TRIPLE for freight rate to get the goods here to the us because of the backlog of container ships. 

So I can't blame the inflation rate for sales now  / today. IT may be a variety of reasons why some on this site are seeing a decrease and others not as much. None of us.....really knows the reason and I'm not sure you can expect Z to know the answer either in all fairness. BTW Inflation was a whopping near 14% in the late 70's.. who are we to complain lol

I wish you all continued success.

[Barbara]

@igiftcenter 

The thing is that, even when inflation decreases, the price of food, fuel, and other necessities doesn't decrease. Different number, same circumstance.

Colorwash's Home

[igiftcenter]

The price of food is still too high. I walk out of the supermarket with a dozen things and a 50 - 75.00 number appears on the register, I know what it's like

[SkullPilot]

Indeed. Small inflation (as opposed to high inflation) still means prices are going up. To reverse the trend we'd need deflation. And with national debts across the West so high - esp as igiftcenter alluded to, because of Coofie - there's no way governments would permit any deflation. It would mean defaulting on all the debt as they would no longer be able to service the loans. IMO, they want inflation precisely because it enables them to inflate away the debt over time, instead of paying it off.

Definitely agree the economic slowdown will be for a variety of reasons, though.

[HeatherM]

The annual inflation rate has gone down, but the impact to the economy is cumulative. Goods and service in the US have gone up on *20.9% since 2020, yet household incomes have not increased at the same rate.  While the inflation rate appears to be stabilizing, the high prices are likely to stay in effect unless the consumer hits a point in which they stop spending and deflation takes hold. (Currently occurring in China.)

I don't feel like blame has been placed on the inflation rate in this thread. For me, I have simply acknowledged it as contributing factor to the amount of disposable income households have available to spend. I do not think that any of us should ignore the current economic conditions when making decisions that can make us money on Zazzle or on any other platform. As an independent designer I know that need to work harder and smarter now to earn any and every dollar someone spends. 

With Zazzle not being a publicly traded company, none of us have true insight to Zazzle's financial health. My assumption of inflation impacting Zazzle sales comes from personal decisions to cut back on non-necessities in our home and market indicators in the retail sector that economists are discussing in the news. 

Sidenote 😊 - This is is an interesting table that acknowledges the pain we all feel and I am sure that the average Zazzle shopper is feeling too:

* Since February 2020, consumer prices have increased 20.9 percent, a Bankrate analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. (https://www.bankrate.com/banking/federal-reserve/latest-inflation-statistics/ )