Zazzle, Please Explain This

[Jadendreamer13]

I just sold two items: stickers and matching business cards to someone who messaged me directly via Zazzle and to whom I sent a link to the products - yet both sales came through as third-party sales.

How do you explain this when no third party was involved?

[ColsCreations]

Obviously not a Zazzle rep here, but, if they messaged you via Zazzle that means they were already on Zazzle when they messaged you. Which means they could have anyone's "cookies" in place, be it Zazzle or other, which can't be over ridden for 14 days. 

I 100% understand how disappointing these type situations are, but, we have to accept that we cannot control "cookies" on the buyers end so regardless of how the transaction happened, they might have someone else's "cookie" active when they order.  This is the way it's always been. 

[CrazyMermaid]

It is what they did before they messaged you for the previous 14 days. How do you know there were no affiliates involved in bringing them to Zazzle? Although I think the message system itself attaches a tracking code, if the person didn't already have one. I think Zazzle has every basic movement that customers take nailed down. Nothing else makes sense. I would if I were them.

I think the only way to get a referral these days is to pick up the tracking code before they reach the site through one of your off-site links. 

[Jadendreamer13]

I wasn’t expecting a referral fee, just my full 15% royalty rate instead of less than 10%. That’s not unreasonable,

[CrazyMermaid]

Oh, I get that frustration big time. Under the new rules 10% is 5%. It does feel like a bait and switch. I should add I know it isn't always exactly 5% and that it varies. My brain now just makes that simplistic adjustment, so I think about the new fee structure. 

[Cat]

This is why I've pretty much opted out of helping Zazzle customers, doing any sort of custom design work, or sending any of my own customers to Zazzle. With this new system there's just no way to control your royalties anymore - it's all up to chance. It's like if you send a customer to Zazzle, you might make $50 on a $100 purchase, or you might make $5 - and there's no way to control that.

At this point, the way I view my Zazzle work is that I'm creating templates for Zazzle's customers to use - period, end of sentence. If a Zazzle customer needs help, I'll point them to a published design or send them to customer service. But for my own customers, I'll use a different fulfillment method so I can control how much I charge and how much I make. 

It's disappointing because I headed into this year with great plans to rework my entire website to funnel my customer base to Zazzle, but I've basically shuttered that plan because it would be stupid to send a customer here just so I can take a chance that I might get paid.

I mean, 5% is fine if it's basically the passive income model (i.e. invest your time upfront, put it out there, do some promoting, and aim for volume sales.) But this new system makes it entirely unfeasible to do any sort of work that requires individual attention for a particular customer - even small design tweaks are a money losing proposition when you figure in all of the back and forth to communicate with the customer. It's much more cost effective to lose a sale than it is to sink any time and effort into making a few pennies. 

[Jadendreamer13]

Zazzle, please respond to my post. Designers deserve answers to questions about their royalty.

[James]

What other Creators have said is correct. This customer was already on Zazzle when they contacted you and could have come to Z via any source. This isn't a new scenario. 

[Heather]

Hi @Jadendreamer13 - Referrals depend on how the customer arrived to Zazzle. If they clicked on an email, sponsored social media post, Google ad, another Ambassador link, etc within the Referral window, the sale would be classified as Third-Party.