1)
For Cairns of Apeiron I plan to make certain
digital prints available for digital download or as merchandise through point
of sale print services. The main websites I have been looking at include
Zazzle, Etsy and CafePress. The prints will include only a couple of art
variants, as the quality of finished digital painting requires a certain amount
of monetary commission. While my digital paintings are decent, the level of
detail in a professional artwork is much more striking and beautifully
rendered. 40 hours of work or more is often necessary in such a painting.
Canvas prints would also be limited.
2)
Fees:
Etsy
Etsy charges
$0.20 per listing for a life of 4 months. Private listings only charge if
the item sells. If the item exists as multiples of the same it will renew after
each sale. If you list multiples it is still $0.20 for 4 months. Multiply $0.20
for each item sold in addition to the first item. Stacks continue to expire
even if they are selling. At the point of sale a transaction fee of 3.5% is
taken from the original list price.
Etsy also offers equivalent or reduced price shipping
options for labels purchased through them from select mailer services.
Zazzle
There is no cost to start a store. The creator sets
prices by setting a royalty up to 99%. The final price = base price + the
royalty (up to 99%) that you set for the product.
CafePress
Up to 10% is deducted from royalties(not the whole sale
volume) for up to a max. $10/month.
- $6.95
per month
- $18.45
for 3 months ($6.15 a month)
- $34.95
for 6 months ($5.83 a month)
- $59.95
for 1 year (only $5 per month)
User Consensus and
Pros and Cons:
Etsy
“popular
for side-business” but big sellers report that success on Etsy
is more than a 40 hour a week job.
User reviews also indicate a
general dissatisfaction with Etsy’s enforcement of it’s own policies. These
policies have been described as fallbacks to be leveraged at will by the
company based on their loose interpretation. This includes past reports of
vendors who did not produce handmade items but were featured and reports of
vintage sellers being kicked out of the vintage section despite selling early
and mid-century items. The most disconcerting reports are by people leaving the
site after years of purchasing/selling with Etsy. Buyers generally report that
items bought and received are as described.
Personally I may use Etsy because
of the simplicity of my products and because they have the lowest available
fees. They take no base price and don’t
kick back based on royalties. On the flipside Etsy is a bit over-saturated and
people associate the site with handmade “crafties” and less with digital
prints. In addition people who have payed for advertising report being low on
the featured sellers list.
Bounce rate: 24.80 (down 7%),
Daily Pageviews: 13.43(down0.44%), Daily Time on Site: 9:43(up 6%)
Majority of visitors from U.S.
(64.4%)
Zazzle
Zazzle is slightly expensive with
base prices coming in high. Royalties come in to inflate cost to the customer
while earning a little for the artist. The website seems to hold promise, being
listed as a top Silicon Valley company and earning investments from Google
investors John Doerr and Ram Shriram. There are not many consistent reviews but
the site seems straightforward and offers low barrier to entry on cool and
popular products such as playing cards and cell phone cases. Unfortunately most
of the reviews are middling and ultra low citing low quality products and bad
prints while better reviews cite the occasional timely received wedding
announcements. Not sure what to think about this one but I really would love
some playing cards to promote my film. Others cite spammy search queue and bad
customer service.
Bounce rate: 39.50 (down 2%),
Daily Pageviews: 7.86 (up 28%), Daily Time on Site: 6:47(up 15%)
Majority of visitors from U.S. (60%)
CafePress
CaféPress has the most consistent
and high marking reviews. Bad reviews cite the same stuff from other sites including
poor quality products and bad customer service. I don’t know still seems
expensive.
Bounce rate: 46.50 (up 1%), Daily
Pageviews: 5.52 (down 2.47%), Daily Time on Site: 4:25(down 7%)
Majority of visitors from U.S.
(71.4%)
Sign-Up and
Requirements
Sign-Up is complete with email verification and satisfactory profile completion. The site managers retroactively review web pages to check for code compliance.
All of these sites have few limitations. The standard
prohibited materials apply for things like selling illicit substances, weapons,
pornography etc. Etsy requires things to be handmade and digital prints qualify
as handmade. Additional limitations for these sites concern rights to images
and original content.
Interesting plan. How much would you charge to make this worth the time investment on your part in designing these, or is this more to drive people to your film/site? I'm looking forward to seeing some of your animation for this film.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, I can't wait to see the merchandise. Are you planning on handling all of the nitty-gritty details of selling merchandise yourself, or do you plan to have help? I found this post very informative. Thank you for compiling all of this data!
ReplyDelete