Today CafePress may have turned a positive Internet entity into a graveyard of former talented designers. If you follow my magazine column you know the company I am talking about. For those unfamiliar, CafePress is a fulfillment service that provides print on demand production for online designers and shopkeepers.
From their web page:
In a nutshell we sell T-Shirts, apparel, gifts for the home, stationery, gear, and other stuff that gets printed on. But the interesting thing is, we don't design a thing. Our shopkeepers create the designs. So every time a shopkeeper designed product sells, they make money.
Great Program, Great Traffic
The CafePress web site averages a reported 11 million unique visits per month, and see as many as 2000 new independent shops join the online network each day. The great thing CafePress has (or after today, had) going for it is the designers. Anyone in the imprinted sportswear industry knows that it is the designs and creativity that sell. With a virtual army of designers covering thousands of styles, markets and audiences CafePress has probably one of the largest art departments in imprinted sportswear history. And, they set their own pay scale and are happy with that!
Prior to today the policy was simple for designers. Open your CafePress store, upload your designs and start selling. You are given a base price for each item and the profit was left up to you by marking up each item to what you feel is a fair price for what you have created for the market.
I have had my dart shirts web site going strong there for quite some time now, and as many of you know I have marketed the web site effectively in the search engines, online forums, blogs and other channels around the Internet. After today that will pay off, as I have had to pull all of my designs out of the CafePress marketplace.
Don't *%^& With The Art Department
The announcement arrived in this mornings email. CafePress will now be setting prices for anything appearing in their marketplace, and providing the designer 10% commission for each item sold through the marketplace. Thinking that was surely a typo, some joker broadcasting a 4/20 prank message to shopkeepers or me just plain reading it wrong I was off to investigate.
Unfortunately I found that to be true. CafePress has taken it upon themselves to set a 10% commission - on a pricing structure they create - and apply it as a "reasonable licensing fee" to the designers. What that means is the very graphic designers, photographers and artists that generate sales through CafePress have now had their income cut by an estimated 70% to 80%. Plus, they will have no say in pricing.
What This Means
Shopkeepers who have successfully created a CafePress store that does not rely on marketplace traffic are not going to suffer very much. The way I understand this new policy, all sales through your shop remain the same: your pricing with your designated markup. So in my case, in all honesty I feel like my target audience will find my web site first if not right after searching the marketplace and finding that all of the talented designers have pulled out. Other shop keepers who have kept their Internet marketing strategies focused outside the marketplace will likely experience the same.
However the thousands of designers and entrepreneurs who have been selling through the marketplace and finding success are now left out in the cold to either move to a different print on demand company or suffer the pay cut. Many are reporting that this decision will more than likely destroy what was their primary source of income. Others are simply shutting down, while the majority are just packing up and leaving for another place to sell their creativity.
What it means for CafePress is yet to be determined, I can only imagine it isn't very pretty with the majority of the art department packing up and moving to the competition.
Having brought all of that to the blog, I apologize to any readers of my magazine column that joined in on last years "Online Adventure" series and have been working on a successful CafePress web site. Of course, if you've been successful with the marketing tips I included and not relying on the marketplace for your traffic you're fine for now just as I am. Despite that, I am still disappointed in this turn of events.
A Word On POD / Fulfillment Services
For anyone researching fulfillment services and print on demand opportunities, consider this a heads up. I won't deny CafePress still has my nod of approval for the way things are set up for their premium shops, the shopping cart system itself and the services offered. I decided to go with them for those reasons and more.
However, I will no longer offer my designs in their marketplace under these new terms. I will also be keeping my eyes peeled for a place to move my dart shirts web site. And I will stand by my peers as an insulted graphic designer who has been offered a mere 10% commission on the artistic expression that made CafePress what it is... Or was.
Blog Rolling the Subject
If you post a blog I have missed feel free to add the link in the comments section with your opinion or shoot me the link. And of course, linking back can only better the subjects chances of search engine goodness.
- Ms. Dow Antiques ~ 'Tique Talk: Cafe Press Creates Zazzle's Lucky Day
- Spiritual Counseling, Perfume, Healing and Me: Cafepress? No More!!!
- Writing With Impact: Cafe Press Shopkeepers Unite
- 365 Days on South Dixie Lane: Cafepress and other things I'm sick about
- Amuzed Grace: Kicker
- Mattie’s Soapbox: Standards in Best Business Practice
- Paul Hood: CafePress Fires 6.5 Million People
