Require A Purchase Of 10 Printed Invitations

[glitterandchic]

Now that we have a digital download option for invitations I would really like to see Zazzle require a purchase of 10 Printed Invitations.  I think customers primarily purchase samples of Wedding Invitations, not Birthday invitations.  In that case offer a sample set of 5+ invitations so customers can see the wedding invitations before the final purchase, but make it specific to wedding and call it a Sample Pack.  I am seeing quite a few sales of birthday invitations where the customer buys one printed invitation, which clearly means they are going to copy that invite.  That really hinders the digital download option.  Even at 10 invites my commission is going to be much lower than a digital download but it might discourage this type of buying behavior and it certainly not a 28 cent commission! 

[Cat]

I love the idea of a sample pack - but generally, people who are buying samples are doing so to check out different papers and cuts, so it would need to allow for that, or even for selecting 5 different invitations in the pack.

I'm really not in favor of limiting the purchases in any way, especially for wedding stuff because in my experience, people who buy samples often go on to purchase entire wedding suites - these are BIG sales, so limiting the ability to buy samples would qualify as "penny wise and pound foolish" IMHO.

I'm really not convinced that there's a big problem with people buying single invites to copy them anymore - because once you figure in the shipping costs, it's probably less expensive to simply buy the digital download, so why would anyone buy a single invite to copy it? Maybe they do, but it doesn't make much sense to me.

But since this issue keeps coming up, maybe Zazzle could come up with a system to allow designers to set their own minimums? Not sure if that would be technically possible, but it has a better chance of making everyone happy. 

[Mariholly]

@Cat I don't totally agree with you. With the purchase, a free trial of Black Z is usually offered, which makes the shipping completely free. There is no commitment. Additionally, if the card has a 50% discount, you will only earn a few cents and the customer will have their card ready to copy. It can even happen that they register with different accounts and do the same thing whenever they want. I think it's a complex issue and I'm not sure how to address it... Maybe with a discount on the next purchase, greater than the one usually offered... I don't know... There are great minds here, hopefully we can find a great solution together.

[Cat]

@Mariholly I dunno. I guess I just figure that there are always gonna be bad actors out there who will find a way to game the system. And often times, the attempts to stop "cheaters" get in the way of legitimate customers making a purchase - so you're really just shooting yourself in the foot. 

The way I look at it, if someone is going to go to all the trouble of signing up for Zazzle Black and then cancelling it, yadda, yadda, yadda - they're not going to make a legitimate purchase. If they're that invested in finding a way to get something for nothing, they'll probably find some other way to steal the image (not going to mention how here, but there are ways.)

So, even though the idea that somebody might be getting away with buying one invite to copy it is maddening, I don't really see how requiring a minimum purchase would help us. I mean, it might stop the occasional person who wants to buy one invite to copy it, but it's not like those folks are going to say "Oh, gee... well I guess I can't steal it so I'll go ahead and spend $200 buying it legitimately." I mean, if they're not willing to spend $15 to buy the digital copy, they're certainly not going to buy printed copies! 

I look at it this way. I would rather somebody buy one copy than none. And I think that's really the choice here. 

Just my 2 cents.

[CreativeLeahG]

This issue can simply be resolved by Zazzle automating a 'watermark' to be added for single use invitations and being explicit that single items are SAMPLES only.

[Marcia]

I used to get upset about this. Now I agree with @Cat. Besides, it's a still sale which boosts that product's visibility in the mp. So not a complete loss. My gut also tells me I've gotten less of these 1 off sales since the addition of digital downloads but I could be wrong.

[Mariholly]

@Cat Oh, of course, the audience that does these kinds of things is not going to spend their money, and in fact, they are not our audience. I'm just saying that we should make it difficult for them. I think we all work very hard here. I'm about to throw in the towel because now we have very few sales, even days without sales, and I feel very frustrated thinking that on top of that, they are stealing our work. I'm not naive; I know this world is complicated... 😔

[Connie]

I agree with @Cat. @CreativeLeahG has a good suggestion for a sample watermark, also. But maybe not put that on if people order the digital AND printed. Sometimes they might send out all digital, but want one printed invite for a keepsake.

If someone wants to buy one invitation to copy it, they can very easily just screencap it and not buy any! I'd rather have that one invite sale! Those kinds of people aren't our customers anyway, so there's no point in worrying about it. In my experience, most of the people that buy single invitations later come back and purchase more- sometimes even several other items. I certainly don't want to risk giving up those lucrative sales by not letting the customer order one sample!

Also, I like buying samples of my invitations, and I sure don't want to have to buy 10! I was disappointed that they put the foil minimum back to 5 instead of one! (I understand their cost concerns, though).