More news from CafePress. The link I mentioned to get to Shopkeepers from the MarketPlace has been removed. There is NO way to get from the MarketPlace to individual Shops! There is, however, a workaround to find them, but it isn’t easy and something the average customer will never know to look for. They’re even hiding the Shopkeeper’s name in some instances. Depending on how you get to the design, you’ll see either, "See all designs from XYZ Shop", OR you may only see this: "See all designs from this designer." With no reference to the Shopkeeper’s name at all!

By clicking the link to see all designs, you’re taken to a page with every design from that shop, but you are NOT taken to the Shop itself. You are STILL in the CafePress MarketPlace! In addition, the designs are just thrown onto the page in no particular order, and completely unrelated to the search itself. Shops with thousands of designs, ranging from animals to brides, to the zodiac, have all their designs mixed together in no particular order. So a bride looking for more designs for her bridesmaids might have to wade through several pages just to find a matching design.

Here’s how to get to the individual shops, where the majority of prices are now LOWER than the MarketPlace price:

Look in the address bar at the top of the page and you’ll see the Shopkeeper’s ID. It should look something like this:

http: / / shop.cafepress. com/?from=YellowRoseGal (I’m removing this as a link on purpose. I’d rather not link my OWN designs to the MarketPlace, nor do I want to direct you to anyone else there, so I’m using myself as an example)
Change "shop." (including the . ) to www. and REMOVE "?from=" in the address bar.

Example: http://www.cafepress.com/YellowRoseGal

This should get you to an individual Shopkeeper now.

But that’s not all they’ve done. It seems the CafePress executive team missed class the day business class taught them it’s not good to put all your faith
into a few large accounts while ignoring all the smaller accounts. If you’d like to know what I’m talking about, visit http://www.cafepress.com/ and type "the office" into the Search field. You’ll be redirected
directly to the Shop, bypassing the MarketPlace completely. The same is true for the lucky folks who are "featured shops." (Just how does one become a featured shop anyway? No, I’d really like to know. I want a link to MY shop from the home page!) No other shopkeepers are given this courtesy, even the ones who’ve been with CafePress for a long time, and helped them build their small empire.

Is that all? Far from it. People who have opted out of the MarketPlace, removed tags to stay out of MarketPlace searches, or even closed their shops completely are still getting MarketPlace sales! A few reasons have been given for this, including the time it takes for designs to be removed, shoppers placed the item in their cart prior to the change, etc. However, read this article for just one example of one astute shopkeeper and how his research shows a very different story:

http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2009/06/10/cafepress-shop-sales-posted-as-marketplace-sales/

CafePress: Why I’m staying

Wait, what? After everything they’ve done and you’re not leaving??? I’m not only not leaving, I’m doing what I can to support other Shopkeepers who are staying as well. Which is why you’ll continue to see CafePress shops recommended through my blog and my site. Anyone who thinks that EVERYONE will pick up and leave still has a lot to learn about the business world. Will CafePress stay in business much longer? I believe it’s inevitable that they’re going out of business. It isn’t a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. You don’t stay in business making poor, unethical business decisions that put hundreds of people out of work, and they’re making one bad business decision after another. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be hundreds of new shopkeepers and new designs signing up with them. The main thing they’re losing here isn’t shopkeepers, it’s their reputation. With every blog post I write, that won’t change. Nor will their decision. MY decision to stay is a purely business one. I’ve since found out there are other PODs that offer things like tile coasters and framed tiles, and still another that offers an almost identical keepsake box. But is it ethical for me to force my own customers to go to each one separately if they want a matching set? No, while I’m expanding to multiple POD companies, I don’t want to confuse my own customers by having the same items offered all over the Internet if I can possibly help it.

I don’t agree with what CafePress has done, but just because they chose to cut their legs off, doesn’t mean I have to shoot myself in the foot.

If you’re looking to open a new shop, or move your shop, have a look here for an extensive list and reviews of other PODs:
http://sefast.com/podreviews.info/index.html

And, as promised, here’s some really cute designs I’ve come across recently. Design reviews for even more coming soon!

Tags: Business, CafePress, designs, POD companies

Last week, CafePress made the decision to fix prices within their MarketPlace and give Designers only a 10% commission on those designs. They listed several reasons for this change, including “deliver a higher-quality shopping experience to customers” and “Inconsistent pricing on the same product makes shopping confusing for customers.” In the announcement, which can be read here, http://announcements.cafepress.com/?p=167, they also state, “These changes DO NOT impact the pricing, markup, or sales you are driving in your own shops.”

Which, basically, means that there will most likely be separate pricing on items within the CafePress MarketPlace vs. what you will see in individual shops, thus creating inconsistent pricing for the same design.

This decision is an insult to designers and customers alike. While telling designers that their hard work is worth only 10% ($2 on a $20 t-shirt; mere pennies for small items such as magnets and stickers), they are also telling their customers that they don’t have the intelligence to see the difference in quality of a professionally rendered photograph or carefully drawn Celtic knotwork, or handpainted animals and wildlife vs. countless “I heart Edward” and “World’s Greatest Mom” text designs.

If you are new to print-on-demand (POD) sites, the basic premise is the POD provides the printing service on books, t-shirts, mugs, etc, etc, etc. (Varying by company. Some work only with book publishing, while others specialize in t-shirts, and others try to offer a variety of POD options.) and Designers, also often known as Shopkeepers, upload their designs for sale on the POD. Both sides benefit from the sale, albeit, the POD stands to profit quite a bit more than the designer. On the sale of a Jr. Spaghetti Tank for $21.99, the POD earns $16.99 while the Shopkeeper earns only $5 on average from that sale. This is how it works when the Shopkeeper sets their own markup. Some Shopkeepers may decide to markup their prices by only $3, some may decide their designs are worth $7. Thus you will see fluctuating prices for the same basic item, but for different designs. Just as you will see different prices on pillows when you visit Ikea, and different prices on journals when you go to a bookstore. And every bride knows there’s going to be a huge difference in the price of flatware when they go to register for their bridal shower. The key difference in this new policy at CafePress is that Designers will no longer be allowed to set their own markup for items found on the CafePress Marketplace – the “search” box on the main CafePress website.

Here’s a rundown of the difference using our Jr. Spaghetti Tank as an example:

*Shopkeepers no longer allowed to set their own markup on their own designs within the CafePress Marketplace.

⁺CafePress has hinted that the final Marketplace price will be anywhere from the current base price plus 10% to the standard current premium markup. No final word has been given, so these are only estimates based on this scenario. As you can see from the “base plus 10%” example, both shopkeeper and POD stand to lose, not gain from this. And the difference to the customer is at best $5.30, and at the least $1.30. The customer may not see a difference in price at all.

As a customer, is your integrity worth $3 or $5 when the Shopkeeper who created the design stands to lose up to and over 75% of their (already small) profit? The question isn’t whether change needs to be made or keeps things “as they always were.” The status quo isn’t the issue here. Other POD companies, upon learning of the announcement (and seeing a tremendous influx of designers as a result) have stated they won’t be adopting this new policy though who knows what they will do in months to come? The question is one of ethics. Is this a good business decision on the part of CafePress? By telling designers their work is worth only 10%, they risk losing top designers and leaving their Marketplace full of redundant “I heart Edward” designs. If that was their goal, more power to them. If their goal was to grow the business of their competitor, they did just that. If their goal was to increase their standing as the top POD of the industry, the end will most definitely result in just the opposite. And if their goal was to increase their own revenue in times of economic crisis, the $2.80 per item they stand to gain won’t be worth much when they end up in bankruptcy as top designers leave for the competition.

Here are just a few of the high quality designs that can be found on POD sites. This is just a very small sample. I hope to include more top designers in future blog posts, whether they’re on CafePress, Zazzle, or on the designer’s own site. If you see links to CafePress, however, I ask you to purchase ONLY from the Shopkeeper/Designer directly as the goal is to promote the Design, not a blank t-shirt. For that, go to Wal-Mart.

• http://www.artoffoxvox.com/
• http://www.sagashirts.com/AboutSaga.shtml
• http://www.cafepress.com/maggieross
• http://www.cafepress.com/dartshirts

If you want to keep up with CafePress announcements, feel free to visit this link: http://announcements.cafepress.com/

To view the top competition, visit the following links:

http://www.zazzle.com
http://www.printfection.com/shop

My Zazzle shop, which is where I’ll be moving all of my t-shirt designs: http://www.zazzle.com/yellowrosegallery

My Printfection shop, where you’ll find glass designs, suitable for framing and useful as glass cutting boards: http://www.printfection.com/yellowrosegallery

My CafePress shop (yes, I’m keeping it open): http://www.cafepress.com/YellowRoseGal

I would link to the CafePress Marketplace too, but they have yet to approve me as an affiliate. If you do visit their Marketplace, please send them the message that unethical price fixing won’t be tolerated by customers or designers alike by going directly to the Shop that created the design to make your purchase. (You should find a link labeled “From ShopName”.) Let CafePress know that even in unstable economic times, ethics and integrity is worth far more than a few dollars.

Tags: Business, CafePress, ethics, POD companies

An open letter to CafePress:

Hello, I am – was – a new shopkeeper on your site. I have spent the last several weeks going through the forums on your site, reading help files, tutorials, etc to learn just what you and your company are all about and how it can benefit me as an artist looking to sell my work.

Compare this new business model to a direct competitor of yours, a book store selling blank journals. Walk into any book store and you will see an entire wall of journals to choose from. Narrow that down to a specific size, 5×8, and a specific style, O-ring wire bound, with a specific number of pages, 160. There is still a wide variety of selections and also prices. There will be a journal with a ghastly polka dot design for $7.95 next to one with a beautifully rendered Celtic knotwork design with an Irish Blessing on the cover for $15.95. Does the bookstore decide that since they are, in effect, the same product, the same size and with the same purpose that they should both sell for $11.95? No, they use the price set by the publishers who created each of these journals. Do they set up a discount bookstore next door and sell both books at the $7.95 price, undercutting the publisher of the higher priced book and telling them that their design, while nice, is the same as the lesser design and publishers of both books that the amount they will receive is going to be considerably less from the discount store? Of course not! It’s bad business practice and both publishers will undoubtedly pull all their products out of that store for the one down the street that gives them the price they wish to make for their journals.

Another example is that of the artist selling prints to local galleries. The artist and the gallery agree that both can sell prints independently of each other. They also agree on a set price for one design, based on that artist’s design and definitely not on the work of other artists. The artist may make an agreement with the gallery not to sell to other galleries within a specified boundary surrounding the gallery so customers won’t see it both places and become confused where they should purchase the print. And the artist will definitely agree not to sell it at the gallery next door for “X” amount cheaper! (In the online world, the “gallery next door” would be the convenient link on shops to the CafePress Marketplace, who has just become a competitor and no longer a partner.) No gallery is going to keep prints from an artist whose prices are lower in other galleries or online. And no artist is going to leave their prints at a gallery who lowers the price of their designs based on the work of other artists.

From your own announcement, this is the line that makes the least sense of all:
“Why is CafePress setting the pricing in the Marketplace?
Inconsistent pricing on the same product makes shopping confusing for customers.”

From both examples provided above, you can see how design drives consumer actions more than price. Different prices for different designs on the same product are understood by retailers and consumers alike. (i.e. A journal, a print, a pillow, a mug, all available commercially at different prices within the same store.) Your actions contradict your words by creating different prices for the same design on the same product, and basically in the same store! This will most certainly confuse consumers even more. The more savvy customers will benefit by checking with both the Marketplace and the Shop to see which price they can get lower, and thus “Shop” sales will most likely be tagged as coming from the Marketplace as the customer unknowingly clicks back and forth between them shopping for the best price. Newer customers, buying items directly from shopkeepers may discover the lower Marketplace price and return the item, only to buy it from the Marketplace at the lower price. With the economy the way it is, no one can blame customers for trying to find the best price that they can, but even customers will be confused by two separate prices on the exact same design. Have you never gone to the store and found one item tagged for one price with the identical item (And by “identical” I mean same design. Not two different designs on one product.) at a different price? Fair pricing standards dictate that the store (this would apply to shopkeeper and Marketplace, as these are one and the same in the eyes of the customer) allow the customer to purchase the item at the lower price, regardless of whether it was a mistake on the tag. Some stores don’t adhere to this, but most do.

How is this good business practice, undercutting prices of shopkeepers on your site and lowering commission rates for all designers to match across the board, regardless of design quality? My understanding in my research is that this type of print-on-demand service, while higher in price than what I would find at a local super-store, offers something the local super-store will never have: quality designs created by artists that can’t be found anywhere else. If I don’t care about the design, I have no problem going to XYZ Super-Store and buying the cheapest t-shirt they have. If I don’t care about the design of a journal, I’ll buy the $7.95 polka dot journal. I can tell you, as a consumer, I never buy the polka dot journal, even when my budget is tight. As a consumer of print-on-demand products, I’m buying the design, not the product. And in doing so, I’m buying the Designer as well. The Artist. Not the company. I can buy t-shirts, journals, mugs, pillows anywhere. When I shop for these items, I’m not comparing name brand to generic brand. I’m comparing one design over another and will pay according to a design that suits my taste. In any retail experience, there is room, and a market, for all reasonable price points. Why force a shopkeeper to accept one commission while allowing them to set a different commission for themselves all within the same site? It can lead to nothing but confusion for shopkeeper and customer alike.

Tags: Business, CafePress, POD companies