throw them back! And that’s exactly what I’m doing. Today has been a quiet day for me blog-wise because I got some extremely upsetting news at 11:45am. I spent the first 2 hours crying, then another two hours panicking, and now I’m just plain angry. Some of you may know that I’m work from home mom but I’ve never gone into great detail on what I do.
Well, I’m a CafePress shopkeeper. Basically, since 2004 I’ve been designing graphics that I transfer to apparel and general merchandise and sell them in my own shops through the CafePress service. Over the past 5 years, one design turned into over 1,000 of them in several shops. I can’t begin to tell you how proud I was when I received my first commission check of $55.73. Then my next check came, then another until I started getting checks in the thousands. All my hard work had paid off. I found my niche in the marketplace, it was the American dream for a mom that wants to stay at home and raise her children.
Then last year I got the disturbing news that CafePress was making big cuts to their volume bonus program. It cut my income in half. Due to the fact that I was making as much as my husband, that ended up being a quarter of our total income. Can you imagine a blow like that? It was tough at first, but we adjusted and I kept plugging along even though I had felt like CafePress had just slapped me in the face.
Today I received the devastating news that my income that already got cut in half, will now be cut by another 90% because of changes they are making to their marketplace and commission structure. Basically, they are taking the ability to set my own markup out of my hands, and giving me 10% of the product value. A t-shirt that i once made a profit of $10 on, I will now get $2.49 for.
This is going to hurt my family more than they will ever comprehend. They took greed to whole new level. My checks, that I worked damn hard for, which by the way brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars for CafePress, were paying my bills, the car payment, our groceries, and clothes for the kids. It’s not just me they are hurting, but their entire community. Well CafePress, you can keep your lemons, I’m going to go make my lemonade somewhere else. Things are going to hurt us pretty badly for awhile thanks to these changes, but I’m not giving up. I never used one of the competitor services because of the loyalty I felt to CafePress, clearly that loyalty isn’t recipricated, so I’m taking my designs to a different service. Zazzle, here I come!
About Cat Davis
wow. I looked into that site and thought It looked pretty cool. Sorry to hear that they are doing a snatch and grab on your income hope that zazzle has a better offer.
Oh honey, I’m so sorry
I’m glad you’ve found somewhere else, though *huge hugs*
Oh sweety! I’m so sorry to hear this! My thoughts and prayers will be with you! ((hugs)) But ya know what? YOU ARE GREAT AT WHAT YOU DO!!! You will definately find someone better to do business with! Tell them to suck your lemons…wait…that doesn’t sound right! lmao But you get the idea! lol
Here’s my philosophy:
When life gives you lemons, squeeze them into a squirtgun and shoot people in the eyes!!
So screw Cafepress!! You deserve better!
That is totally rotten, I’m so sorry!
oh man how devastating! I hope your zazzle account kicks off like crazy!
Sorry to hear your news, things are hard enough as it is at the moment, and after all the loyalty that you have shown them, this will make you a stronger person but unfortunatly may make you more wary, please dont let it get you down,look at the comments and you will soon see that you are not alone
x x
What a crock!! Way to not give up on something you are fabulous at and justly deserve to be rewarded for!
The economy is tough right now and it sure does hurt families. I wish you the best of luck — sometimes there are hidden treasures in tough times.
I am so sorry!
I have also been a CafePress Shopkeeper since 2/2005 and have gone through the same range of emotions…this is financially devastating to my family. To top it off, I invested in a new computer & software (this week), started a blog with my own .com, all to further promote my cafepress shop. I no longer feel happy or proud of my shop, I feel sick to my stomach. Etsy and/or Zazzle plans are in the works. I actually started a Zazzle shop when they changed the volume bonus plan, but was still focusing on cafepress. Not anymore.
I wish you the best.
I’m so sorry. I agree with Miss Blondie! I hope Zazzle works out for you!
I’m really sorry. Good luck.
Like hundreds of other shopkeepers I’ll be losing about 80% of my revenue also. I’ve crunched the numbers and done side by side comparisons based upon what I think I know. This hurts me but at least it isn’t as major a part of my family’s income as it is for many others.
As bad as I feel for myself I feel worse for others that are hit more harshly.
On a side note I have a store I set up for a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization that supports the military. It was a fund raising effort. So CP has just plundered the revenue stream of a small non profit military support charitable organization. Isn’t that nice.
I really appreciate you sharing this with us. I just started a store on Cafe Press and I though I would try it out. A friend of mine uses Zazzle and he loves it. So I am switching to Zazzle as well. Why should Cafe Press get all the money for custom designs you worked your but off creating. They are crooks!
Thank You
http://twitter.com/circuitvapor
Appalling! This galls me. I got the same bad news. The sacrifices and expenses of an online artist are extraordinary before acquiring income. Shame on CafePress for preying on the dreams of artists. I thought they were above that. I recently went to Zazzle. As long as they play fair, I’ll make my new home at Zazzle.
Okay, here’s a new way of looking at the CafePress changes: I read their statement, at http://announcements.cafepress.com/?p=167
If the quality of content increases; then, customers are more likely to buy what they see. In other words, it appears that CafePress is attempting to eliminate the “redundant” products, which clutter the shopping experience.
Instead of going off the deep end, I am going to wait and see if fewer items of higher quality generate more frequent purchases.
After reading their statement in entirety, the changes appear to have been made carefully, and with the durable shopkeepers in mind.
Let’s see how it turns out. Give it a chance.
Exactly how does dropping a shopkeepers income by 80% help the shopkeeper? I am a professional artist. I set the prices I feel my artwork is worth. It is NOT the right of a POD to arbitrarily decide my work is worth only $2.50 (my profit on a $25 shirt) instead of $9.99 (which is my profit on the shirt I set the price on–$29.99).
Also, how do you reduce redundant artwork by making them all the same price? The only way to reduce redundant work is to toss out the shopkeepers making it! And who decide what is redundant and and what is original?
It is akin to your boss saying “I’m going to reduce your pay by 50%. You’ll make more money now.”
Tery=ry
BTW: I hope you have approval to use the CafePress logo on this blog site. If not, it would be like someone using your art on their blog to tell the world what they think of you.
The only thing in life we can depend on is chsnge(I’ve grown to detest that word) The greedy will become greedier and agendas will always become more favorable in the direction of those with the power to make corrections. Cafepress in light of the current economy is making corrections in favor of their own survival and forgetting what made them so great.. If it wheren’t for people like yourself they could not exist…They seem to have forgotten that.
Wish you THE BEST WITH ZAZZLE….rebuild BIGGER and BETTER.
Want more encouragement Email me it’s free…BTW if you are not on TWITTER good advice….get there
Oh Cat, I am so sorry. I have had no dealings with CafePress and do not know how the structure works, but that just seems completely unfair to the shop owners. I am glad you have found a better alternative. HUGS!
I’m sorry, Cat. That really stinks. I would be super pissed if I were you. I hope things work out at Zazzle.