Feedback on single invitation sale

[shellifitz]

In the old forums there were several threads discussing how people will buy one ivitation with the intention of using it as a digital invite or to mass produce and print their own. 

Well I don't sell that many invitations (so far) so I didn't jump in to those conversations.  

However over the past weeks I have an example where I know this is why one single invitation I designed is going to be used this way. 

I was contacted by a shopper a couple of weeks ago through my own email addy  asking me if this specific invitation was offered as a digital download.  I informed the person that it was not and they thanked me.  Then nothing happened until this morning when that exact invite sold one copy to a person whoses name matches the one that emailed me asking about it.  

So, okay I got a sale of one invite but I am pretty sure it was not so she could sample it and come back for a bulk order.  Anyway I just wanted to mention it.  Hopefully this kind of thing only happens rarely. 

[Emma]

Hi @WittyBetty , 

Many thanks for your suggestions here! Passing these along to our Team now ✍️

- Emma 🌻

[ChromaMaven]

Sorry this happened to you Shelli. 

After selling over 2K worth of business invitations, I have never had a single "sample" purchase.  However, I sold a single business invitation two days ago and I am beginning to get a sinking feeling. It never occurred to me that people would buy one to make copies on their own. If my buyer doesn't return to buy more of that invitation, then I will never know if they didn't like the "sample" or if they just had it copied themselves. 

I would welcome the addition of digital downloads. 

@Emma Another possible solution to this problem would be to allow a creator to check a box on a particular design indicating that the intention is for multiple items (ex. a business dinner invitation).  If one invitation is ordered, it has a watermark of "SAMPLE" on it. The buyer gets their sample and if they like it, they come back and order the quantity they need. If you're designing a birthday card, for example, you leave the box unchecked so no watermark is printed on the single card. 

[shellifitz]

this is an update: 

enough time has passed since this single invite sale happened for me to know that she did not buy it as a sample so she could come back and buy more.  No additional sales ever came in from her.  so she obviously customized it, then used it as a digital invite sent out on sm or printed it herself or at a kinkos or something. 

[shellifitz]

@ChromaMaven thank you! agree about the watermark and also the sample should not be customizable imo. 

[CrazyMermaid]

@shellifitz Or they bought singles from other Zazzlers too and chose theirs to use. Zazzle has all the metadata and can see the real trends on these. I am trusting that they have a better idea than I do of what is really happening. I was a little surprised when they ended the free sample and didn't restart it. I guess they still could. 

I do know after talking to many customers buying all kinds of invites, it can take them (and their family members or  bridal parties) ages to agree on one

[Rachel_E]

@shellifitz I only saw your post now. I sell mainly invitations, and I sell a lot of them. 

Some people don't have this issue because you barely ever see someone sending a wedding invitation for example as digital so if this is your focus, it will not be a problem. However, I focus on birthday invitations for kids and baby showers - this happens quite often. I wish I could put minimum quantity of sales. 

I would love Zazzle to allow us to sell the invitations as digital but it needs to be a different product so we can set up the margin much higher. After my ongoing costs I still take about 6 dollars from each sale. It should be the same here to worth it. 

Cheers,

Rachel

[shellifitz]

@Rachel_E 

Agree with you 100% I hope Z will take at least one of our suggestions here! 

Like you I don't have many Wedding invites, but I do have several for retirements, anniversaries, birthdays and other occasions where someone might send digital invites. 

[Rachel_E]

Stopped to check this thread. Funny enough, even for items with digital download enable, I still have people buying ONE invitation, obviously to scan it. I don't mind if they do buy 1 and buy a digital invitation as well as I imagine these cases are just to save a memento. 

Ideally, it should be, if you buy a digital invite you have the option of buying one printed invitations, if you don't you can't. 

Is not a huge problem because there aren't many people that do that, just annoying to think someone is cheating the system. 

Cheers,

Rachel