On Earth Day CafePress sent an email out to shopkeepers explaining drastic changes to their business model. They didn't call it that, but that's what it is. I won't go into all the details but the nut of it is this, they will be dictating prices as of June 1. All products sold through their Marketplace will net the creators 10% of the retail price. Up to now they've always allowed creators to set the markup, set their own price. Many creators have built successful businesses making a decent profit from every sale, inspiring them to grow and promote their own ecommerce "shop" and brand. Generally by default all products created are for sale in their Marketplace. CP says their new pricing won't affect products in shopkeepers "shops" only in the CP Marketplace. Well, when same product selling in the CP Marketplace for sells for $12.99 and the designer has it in their shop for $18.99, who will make the sale? The creator makes $1.30 vs $6, My spouse calls it the "WallMartization of CafePress".
CP is abandoning their model of empowering creators to build their own brand and control their content to one where they control the market. They say it's to improve the customer experience.
Most of my sales come through the Marketplace, so I will be affected. CP is mostly a fun sideline for me, but this action by CP sours my enthusiasm. I really feel for those with highly successful shops, like one of my favorites "Obey the Purebreed". Maybe CP will be cutting side deals for select creators to stay, who really knows. If not many will be cutting out the Marketplace entirely and/or moving to the big competitor Zazzle.
It's a cold, cruel world. CP has made a pure business decision to change their fundamental model. They may regret it.
Zazzle here we come. Now if only I had snagged "matissimo" as my user name way back in 2004 when I first signed up. Someone else has it, but they've posted no products. Zazzle "matissimo" who are you?
P.S. CP also announced it changed the Marketplace search platform to bring the best designs to the front and reduce redundant designs. I welcome this change because in the past you had to wade through a lot of junk to find quality. Just too bad this change comes along with the price fixing. Maybe CP will back track.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Like you, I'm a CafePress shopowner. I also have a small presence at PrintFection (which I'll be expanding with new designs) and I've just signed at two other PODs to handle my new designs. I'll be opting my shop out of the MarketPlace as of June 1st and depending on existing weblinks to keep the existing CafePress shop viable.
Leslie, Thanks for the tip on cafe press. I had no idea they were changing their policy. Have you picked a store name on zazzle? What is the url? Any other ideas of where to sell original items?
Hi Smart Spark, My Zazzle store is http://www.zazzle.com/matissimojo
I haven't spent the time required to customize it or add all my designs. Nor have I searched seriously for other alternatives, as Britt mentioned PrintFection is another POD and selling service. Seems to me Zazzle has the most features for shopkeepers including some very powerful product customization tools. So you could set up templates for customers to customize with their own text. Here's more info comparing the big three http://www.squidoo.com/cafepress_alternative
Good luck
yeah, that was not cool. Especially since they never mentioned that it was about profits. apparently they are cutting our profits in half to improve "user experience" in the marketplace. lol
obeythepurebreed.com
Recently CafePress began competing with the artists for whom it acts as printer and shipper.
CafePress rents web shops to its artists. The artist creates a website page and manually loads the desired blank products. The artist imports his image onto each product, arranges the products on the page, describes the products, titles the products and tags the images.
Initially, the artist would set a markup and received the markup for each product sold.
However, recently CafePress began competing with its artists, using the artists' own images. CafePress created a marketplace where a customer can search a keyword. That search brings up artist products. When the customer buys from the marketplace CafePress pays the artist 10% of the price CafePress set. Both the customer and the artist lose money. If the artist's shop sells a t-shirt for $21, the artist makes $3.01. If the marketplace sells the same shirt for $25, the artist gets $2.50. The customer pays $4 more, and the artist gets $0.51 less.
CafePress tells artists to "promote your own shop," but CafePress buys Google adwords using the very image tags the artist provided.
CafePress justifies this bait and switch of service terms by telling artists they can opt out if they don't like the new terms; however, many have spent as much as 7 or 8 years creating as much as 88000 images.
In spite of their sweat-equity, many shopkeepers (content providers) are building shops at other print-on-demand companies and then closing their CafePress shops due to the broken faith and trust, the financial hardship CafePress has delivered into so many lives, and the huge amount of time and dedicated effort all lost in the momentum of their own businesses. Would you keep your AMOCO station franchise if AMOCO built a company store across the street from you?
Post a Comment