Did anyone see these questions on the CP Forum?

Posts : 19 Join date : 2009-04-27 Location : North Texas

Did anyone see these questions on the CP Forum? Neatly tucked away under CafePress> Community Forums>Community Chatter>2009 Marketplace Announcement Discussion>Please Read Before Posting > News and Announcements page

Shopkeeper Questions

This page will be updated regularly.

As it stands right now, the 10% commission a shopkeeper makes for selling their own design is less the the 15% commission that same shopkeeper can make for selling someone else’s design. That doesn’t seem right to me. Is there a reason that the shopkeeper commission is even less than an affiliates?

Why 10%? That’s even less than what affiliates get!

The 15% commission received by affiliates is to drive traffic to CafePress products, the traffic they send is traffic we wouldn’t receive otherwise. The decision for a 10% Shopkeeper commission for Marketplace sales was a combination of what was realistically affordable, what we thought felt was right, and what industry experts recognize as a fair design licensing fee. Most importantly, it affords us the ability to take a more proactive role in managing a good retail experience and driving new traffic to the Marketplace.

How can there be 2 prices for the same product- 1 if you buy in the marketplace- 1 if you buy from a shop?

The traffic in the CafePress Marketplace is a different from the traffic Shopkeepers drive to their shops and shoppers rarely jump from one to the other. Having different pricing in a shop and in the Marketplace is unlikely to be noticed by an individual shopper.

Will it be possible to keep some products out of the marketplace?

At this time there isn’t a method for opting individual products out of the marketplace. Opting out of the Marketplace will remove all products from the Marketplace.

However, there is one work around that would keep a specific design it out of the Marketplace; by removing tags from a specific design it will no longer show up in Marketplace searches.

Does this mean that, for example, if a white basic T-shirt has a base price of $8.00 and I make a design and sell it for $16.00 I would get .80 cents, when I used to get $8?

In this scenario, if the product was priced at $16 in the Marketplace you would receive a $1.60 commission when it sells in the Marketplace. The commission for Marketplace sales is 10% of the final retail price for marketplace sales.

When you are talking about “bringing the best designs to the front, and reducing redundant designs” are you talking only to Shopkeepers with premium paid shops or ALL shops?

This applies to all merchandise in the Marketplace, whether it comes from a Premium or a Basic shop.

Will you be putting code in place so that if a shopkeeper wants to keep his or her prices consistent between his/her shop and the marketplace, that the changes will occur automatically?

This is not currently planned, however it’s an interesting idea and we’ll pass it to the proper team.

Will we be notified if we are included in the new marketplace?

All Shopkeepers who opt into the Marketplace will continue to be included in the Marketplace provided images are tagged. The part that’s changing is how we determine premium placement in the marketplace search results.

How does CafePress decide what designs are “best” and get better placement?

There are numerous factors that will go into determining design quality and premium placement. For instance we’ll look at tags to determine if the design is relevant tot he tag, is the design unique or innovative, will it print well on our platform, are customers responding to it, does it merchandise with the rest of the item on the page, etc.

In many ways it will be the shopper who determines quality by what designs respond to though sales, clicks, etc.

Are you going to reduce or eliminate the charge for the premium shops?

We have no plans to change or eliminate the charges for Premium shops at this time, however we do plan to continue investing in new shop tools and enhancements.

Are you going to reinstate volume bonuses for sales coming through the marketplace?

At this time we’re not planning to reinstate volume bonuses for Marketplace sales.

Why should a shopper pay more in my shop when they can get my design through the marketplace for less? Why do you think it’s OK to undercut the prices I’ve set for my graphic designs and essentially sell my designs for cheaper than I will in my shop?

While we have not determined final pricing for the marketplace, the Marketplace pricing will not necessarily be less than the average markup in shops. There may be situations where products are less expensive in shops than in the Marketplace.

How do you define “high-quality” or “unique”?

There are numerous factors that go into determining quality design. For instance, we’ll be asking questions like the following to determine specific changes to the search platform:

· Is the design relevant to the search term?

· Is the design unique or innovative?

· Will it print well on our platform?

· Are our customer’s responding to it?

· Does it merchandise well with the rest of the design assortment?

· Is the design appropriate for the product (for instance adult themes on baby bibs)?

In many ways it will be the customer who determines quality by what designs respond to though sales, clicks, etc.

We recognize calling something a “quality design” is subjective– a quality graphic at Ed Hardy is different from a quality graphic T-shirt at Old Navy. We look at what our customers are responding to through sales and search data and try to make sure we are delivering a breadth of innovative and unique designs.

Will it be possible for the price of products I am driving to my own shops to be the same as the marketplace prices?

As of this time, there isn’t a tool that will align Marketplace retail prices with prices in shops. This suggestion was passed along to the team for consideration.

Will there still be a link to my shop from the Marketplace?

We realize that different pricing for the same product in the Marketplace, and in your shops, could cause customer confusion. We are working on a solution for customers to quickly see, within the Marketplace, other designs and products you offer. Look for these changes in the upcoming months.

These changes mean that no matter anything I sell through the Marketplace will earn me 10%. To get my full “listed” commission, the sale has to be through my shop. Right?

That is correct. You will receive 10% of the retail price if the sale is through the Marketplace. You will receive your markup commission if the sale is through your shop.

If I want to remove my designs from the Marketplace, do I need to remove image tags?

No. If you would like to remove your designs from the Marketplace you can do so by opting out. You can do this by checking the opt out field in the Shop Profile page.

Maybe I'm just a little slow on the uptake, but this is the first time I saw these questions and answers from CP. There was a bunch under the news and announcements for April 22nd, but not these. I thought I would share them in case no one else saw them either. Just FYI.

Shari
bearabull7
www.flowerswithfeelingscentral.com

Yeah I saw some of them but some are new (to me) interesting stuff thanks....

Of course it changes nothing they are not backing down or changing the 10%

We do all the work they earn all the money.... simple!!

That's been up there a while. Same stuff they've been saying. As far as I'm concerned, the bottom line is that we are the ones that design, fill, maintain, and pay for our shops. They are nothing without their artists.

Personally, I think they should have raised the price of the premium shops and started to charge for the freebies. That would have weeded out the kids that just throw junk on anything and try to make a "Quick buck"...and left the serious artists. That would have cleaned out most of the crap in the MP and we could have all gone on with our sales.

The place I freelance through charges about $300 a year (quite a bit more if you pay quarterly) to keep out the fly by night artists. I wouldn't expect that much for a POD, but they could have easily doubled it. I know I would have paid as high as maybe $100 a year.

Posts : 7 Join date : 2009-04-23

I'm guessing the marketplace changes have something to do with their collaboration with Upsold.
http://upsold.com/

There is a thread on another forum about this. Evidently they will be incorporating 1.4 million designs from Japan into the CP marketplace.

Posts : 38 Join date : 2009-04-26 Location : Ohio

Some of those questions i haven't seen until now. Whatever questions they seem to answer makes them look even worse and untrusting. They are set on the 10% commission and there's nothing we can do about it. What i don't like is how people are having problems opting out. They take away the VB, our money, and now people can't even do something simple like opting out??!! CP really needs to get on the ball here....or that may be too late anyways.

Posts : 1 Join date : 2009-04-27

Upsold is simply an affiliate. Their press release was incorrect and it was not approved by CP before they released it. The only way their designs will be in CP's marketplace is if they open a store and upload them all - just like we do. CP is working with them on correcting their press release.

Posts : 19 Join date : 2009-04-27 Location : North Texas

[quote="Puzzled"]I'm guessing the marketplace changes have something to do with their collaboration with Upsold.
http://upsold.com/[quote]

Why am I getting an all japanese website when I click on this link? Is that the correct link?

confused?

Shari
bearabull7

Posts : 7 Join date : 2009-04-23

Yes that is correct. Notice the button under the header = Cafepress X Upsold
That pulls designs from Cafepress.
There's more about this partnership at:
http://www.podforyou.com/forums/index.php?topic=932.0

Posts : 19 Join date : 2009-04-27 Location : North Texas

Puzzled wrote:: Yes that is correct. Notice the button under the header = Cafepress X Upsold
That pulls designs from Cafepress.
There's more about this partnership at:
http://www.podforyou.com/forums/index.php?topic=932.0

Did you catch some of those emoticons on that podforyou forum! Hilarious!!!! Any chance we can get some of those too? lol!

I especially liked the one where the little guy pulled his pants down showing a little red emoticon butt. And the other that laughed so hard he lost his butt. Just too cute! lol!

Butt, seriously, oh, sorry Laughing

, the subject matter of that forum is very interesting!

Thank you for keeping us informed Puzzled. That just makes me want to pull off all my designs off the marketplace and to inform the world that cafepress is switching off to foreign labor artists to cut their costs! Grrrr..... What happened to making our economy stronger by employing at home workers. Well, I guess that can't hold water because CP has people from all over the world offering their artistry. It sounds like importing cheap labor to me though. I'll shut up now. I've said enough. sheesh! Mad

shari
bearabull7