The devil’s advocate

Shopkeepers are more than miffed at CafePress.

They are pissed off.

I support their right to be, but not necessarily their reasoning.

If someone told me, upload your art, and we will offer it on apparel and merch on our site, take orders, produce and ship the items, manage inventory, advertise heavily, maintain the site, get great search engine ranking – all at no cost to you — and give you 10% of the sale price, that would sound pretty cool.

The reason that people are angry, is that CafePress wants to take the “shop” that THEY promote, and make the prices consistent. It IS a good move for the consumer, which some may be forgetting is why “shops” exist.

Shopkeepers have a CHOICE. They can continue to offer their products at their own markup — often considerably higher than 10% — in their own shops, do their own advertising, make the same profit they are accustomed to. They can either stay in the Marketplace (CP’s “shop”) or OPT OUT if it is beneath them to make $2.50 commission on a $25 T-shirt.

There are many people who rely on their monthly CafePress check to make ends meet. For some, it is just fun money — something that would be missed, but not necessary. I feel bad for those who are looking at a potential 40% decrease in income from what they are accustomed, but also, question the ferocity of some of the backlash from angry shopkeepers.

There is a sense of entitlement — that CP is taking something from them that they rightfully earned — although they freely admit 90% of their sales are driven by the Marketplace and not their own shop promotion. Even as people are losing their jobs or having their hours cut, as “unsinkable” companies are closing doors, foreclosure is an epidemic and unemployment is high, some seem to feel that CafePress is reaching right into their pockets.

I look at it this way. CafePress has been handing you customers. Now that they are making changes that will benefit those customers, the shopkeepers are threatening mass exodus. (I urge you not to cut off your nose to spite your face.)

What does this mean for the “hobby” shopkeeper? The same as it means for the full-time T-shirt designer. Something you should have already been doing: have a Plan B. Something to fall back on. Diversify. Build a presence on Printfection, Zazzle or any other print-on-demand vendor site. Make a bulk purchase of your top-selling items and open a retail site of your own. What would you do if CP suddenly ceased to exist?

Be mad. Leave CafePress if you want to. But taking pot shots as you’re leaving? You’re just hurting those who choose to dig in their heels and promote their own shops.

Why I’m not jumping ship

If you look at it from the consumer POV, it makes sense. If I go to the CafePress Marketplace and search for a “Team Edward” T-shirt, I’m going to see somewhat similar designs but with a range of prices from $1 over base price to $10 over base price. Are these two Jr. Jersey shirts the same? Yes, but the price difference is confusing and frustrating to the shopper. I love the idea of having the shirt style offered at a fixed price, because then the buyer is going to be focused on the best DESIGN rather than the best DEAL, and that helps the better designers. It really does.

If you are only making $2 per shirt and you’re used to making $6 per shirt, look at it this way … you could triple your sales by appealing to those shoppers who would have bought a competitor’s (inferior) shirt because it was cheaper than yours.

Some people feel that this is putting their quality artwork on the same level as the Comic Sans text design quickly done in Paint. Personally, I think this is going to make the better designs vastly outsell the “cheap” ones. I never want to see a sloppily executed, misspelled offering in the search results. (As someone who has plenty of plain text designs out there, among others, it is going to make me work harder to compete with the excellent artists who remain at CafePress.)

If you simply must make $6 PER SHIRT, you can still do that. Opt out of the Marketplace. Promote your own shop. You can sell your shirt for whatever markup you want, from zero to $20 or more. This has not been taken away from you, but you will need to drive customers to your shop the way CP has been doing it for you … advertise, promote.

If your designs are good enough, they will sell.

Posted in CafePress, freelief
Tags: commission, Marketplace, POD