Home › Forums › The Art Business Center › General Art Business › Internet Sales Strategies › cafepress.com: A Disrespectful and Unsustainable Royalty Rate

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  • July 21, 2014 at 10:18 am #992077
    Catherine Twomey
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        A conversation I had with cafepress.com this morning:

        Catherine Twomey: I recently received a sales report from Cafe Press. I haven’t sold anything on your site before, tho I’ve had things posted since 2010. Is it true that I’ve made $1.47 on over $44 in sales?

        Teni: Yes, if you see this amount in the earnings of your sales report, then this is the amount that you would receive from your sales.

        Catherine Twomey: This is not a personal attack on you, but that is an obscene return. Your company is, in effect, stealing from it’s most valuable contributors. What is this percentage – 5% ? This is unsustainable.

        Catherine Twomey: Please remove all of my content and information from Cafe Press immediately. Your company should be ashamed.

        Teni: I see, I apologize if you feel this way. To clarify, when you place you items in the marketplace, you’ll receive a 5% royalty, but you have the ability to raise it to 10% by improving you Sales Quality Score, which rewards sales and involvement in the community. You can learn more about your SQS here: http://blog.cafepress.com/?p=12882

        Teni: Additionally, if you decide to place you items in a shop, you’ll have the ability to set you own mark-up prices for each item you sell.

        Teni: However, if you would rather close you account, you can do so thru this link. Just be aware that this will remove all content and login information from your account:

        https://members.cafepress.com/account/closeaccount.aspx

        Catherine Twomey: I appreciate the information. However, even 10% is ridiculous and untenable, and you want me to work harder for it? Insanity. Amazon pays their authors 40% of their sales. Your company needs to have a great deal more respect for it’s contributors. Good luck, you’re going to need it.

        July 21, 2014 at 4:26 pm #1208413
        CSForest
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            I closed my shops a while ago. Unfortunately, CP is still selling my art on items. I told them to remove all items but they don’t respond.

            Crista Forest
            My Animal Art Sites            [/COLOR] -- My Animal Art Gifts -- My Art Prints Page

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            July 21, 2014 at 5:13 pm #1208422
            Davkin
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                I closed my shops a while ago. Unfortunately, CP is still selling my art on items. I told them to remove all items but they don’t respond.

                Sounds like a stern letter from a lawyer is in order.

                David

                David

                July 21, 2014 at 10:14 pm #1208415
                Liz
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                    I deleted my products and images but I keep my account open just in case I catch them still selling my stuff.

                    My Art
                    --------------------

                    July 21, 2014 at 11:46 pm #1208425
                    falcon012
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                        Yeah, that conversation is typical. I closed down shop years ago when they first implemented their policy which totally rips off the artist. They lost alot of shop keepers at that time to other POD’s. Unfortunately there are lots of artist out there who don’t realize they are being exploited.

                        Website: Mark Karvon Art Studios
                        Blog: Mark Karvon Studios
                        Facebook: Mark Karvon Studios

                        July 22, 2014 at 4:56 am #1208406
                        timelady

                            5% is actually a fairly standard royalty rate. In fact often with art publishers it’s 5% of wholesale.

                            Does it suck? Yes. But there are other PODs out there with much better rates, or even the ability to set your own profit.

                            Abstract coast and geology art: www.tina-m.com | Art/Science gallery: www.grejczikgallery.com

                            July 22, 2014 at 7:23 am #1208409
                            Catherine Twomey
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                                I guess it’s the “once a schoolteacher” in me that likes to believe in educating by example, so here I went again.

                                If you feel like you’re being exploited, you probably are. And you can do something about it, so do.

                                July 23, 2014 at 9:05 pm #1208426
                                falcon012
                                Default

                                    5% is actually a fairly standard royalty rate. In fact often with art publishers it’s 5% of wholesale.

                                    Does it suck? Yes. But there are other PODs out there with much better rates, or even the ability to set your own profit.

                                    This may be true but most folks signed up under the original contract of being able to set their own rate. Then cafepress got greedy. They have investors who demand profitability. After 2008 their numbers started to look pretty bad. In order to make the books look a little better they decided to put all that extra commission in their own pockets. This was after using the artists and their work for years to build up a good marketplace. Then, instead of sharing the good fortune, they back-stabbed their partners. All legal but dirty pool nonetheless.

                                    Here is a very interesting article on Fine Art America which discusses the 5% commission issue. Very enlightening: http://fineartamerica.com/newsletters/five-percent-commissions.html

                                    Website: Mark Karvon Art Studios
                                    Blog: Mark Karvon Studios
                                    Facebook: Mark Karvon Studios

                                    July 24, 2014 at 7:12 pm #1208428
                                    members
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                                        I use RedBubble and at one point had an acct at bluecanvas, too. Both are free. I dont recall much about price setting on BC but on redbubble you set your markup and they dont mess with it or have conditions to cheat you out of it. (Tried artwanted as a free acct only, but to sell there’s a fee.)

                                        When I first started looking at POD sites a few yrs ago I was already hearing user complaints about cafe press. And then there’s this…

                                        http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/historical/550/

                                        http://www.martindale.com/intellectual-property-law/article_Loeb-Loeb-LLP_2104606.htm

                                        http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/historical/411/

                                        July 26, 2014 at 7:53 am #1208410
                                        Catherine Twomey
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                                            Thanks for the links. Seems their unethical practices are consistently so across the board.

                                            It is so critical to survival as an artist to educate yourself about fair practices, copyright and the long-term worth of your work. I have no interest in making other people wealthy at my expense.

                                            I have found fineartamerica.com to so far be a decent partner in production and sales. The end products that I’ve seen are professionally done, and I control how much I make. I don’t depend on it, but the ongoing revenue stream has been lovely.

                                            July 27, 2014 at 1:40 am #1208417
                                            wilfred
                                            Default

                                                I saw many Cafepress Newborn Baby’s Bodysuits and t-shirts in Walmart’s website. I think Cafepress does the drop shipping. Look at the prices… shocking!

                                                [FONT=Verdana]Wilfrido Limvalencia
                                                [/B][/SIZE][/COLOR][/SIZE]http://limvalencia.blogspot.com/
                                                http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/wilfrido-limvalencia.html

                                                July 27, 2014 at 6:03 am #1208418
                                                wilfred
                                                Default

                                                    They must be so desperate to increase sales they are willing to undercut their own website. Look at this same item:

                                                    CF Ugly People

                                                    Wmt Ugly People

                                                    [FONT=Verdana]Wilfrido Limvalencia
                                                    [/B][/SIZE][/COLOR][/SIZE]http://limvalencia.blogspot.com/
                                                    http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/wilfrido-limvalencia.html

                                                    July 27, 2014 at 3:12 pm #1208423
                                                    Davkin
                                                    Default

                                                        They must be so desperate to increase sales they are willing to undercut their own website. Look at this same item:

                                                        [URL=http://www.cafepress.com/mf/19460102/i-only-cry-when-ugly-people-h_bodysuit?productId=132592181]CF Ugly People[/URL]

                                                        [URL=http://www.walmart.com/ip/FAST-TRACK-Cafepress-Ugly-People-Newborn-Baby-Bodysuit/34429831]Wmt Ugly People[/URL]

                                                        I’m sure Walmart negotiated some kind of volume discount, they always squeeze their suppliers hard to get the lowest price possible. In this case it just looks like a case of shark eating shark to me.

                                                        David

                                                        David

                                                        July 27, 2014 at 6:25 pm #1208411
                                                        Catherine Twomey
                                                        Default

                                                            I agree, David. Walmart also probably required Cafepress concessions in terms of quality, a common thing asked of their vendors. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the fabric was thinner, cheaper inks were used to print, etc.

                                                            Cafepress may be desperate, but they may be crazy like foxes. If they’re successful with this foray into the big box stores, it’s on the backs of the artists who agreed to their terms. They could end up laughing all the way to the bank.

                                                            July 27, 2014 at 6:43 pm #1208419
                                                            wilfred
                                                            Default

                                                                I think they’ve made a very poor business decision to do it this way, they could have created another brand for the discount retailers or if they really want to use the Cafepress label, the prints must be exclusive.

                                                                I was a vendor of baby’s and kid’s apparels many years ago and did business with several US dept stores and mass merchants like Walmart, Kmart, etc., I have to make sure the styles offered to different types of stores are exclusive and/or have a different label, or someone will get really p—ed off and cut off future business.

                                                                [FONT=Verdana]Wilfrido Limvalencia
                                                                [/B][/SIZE][/COLOR][/SIZE]http://limvalencia.blogspot.com/
                                                                http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/wilfrido-limvalencia.html

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