Zazzle, the site that lets you custom-design and sell everything from T-shirts and sneakers to postage stamps and skateboards, is launching localized sites and offerings in Australia and Canada. The company has also expanded its existing UK site, which was launched in late 2008, to the greater European market by accepting payments in Euros. And for pet-friendly users, Zazzle has unveiled a line of custom dog apparel, letting sellers put the same designs on items for both dogs and humans.
Zazzle allows anyone the opportunity to become product designers and to earn money by selling designs on a variety of items displayed in custom store fronts, free of charge to the seller. Designs and images can be screen printed or embroidered on items. Sellers earn royalties from the sale of products they design and can also allow consumers to further customize their creations.
The design site has also unveiled a suite of new “seller-friendly” tools to spice up sellers’ offerings. Sellers can now uber-customize their online storefronts, creating a branded destination for their products. Sellers can also enable a a filtering mechanism to specify which designs can be featured in different products in various colors. Additionally, Zazzle has implemented a Flash-powered bulk image upload tool that is compatible with Macs and PCs.
It’s good to see that Zazzle is growing by expanding its reach and offerings. Earlier this year, the startup underwent a round of layoffs, letting 15% of the company’s staff go due to the sluggish economy. Competitors include CafePress and Spreadshirt, which both have an international presence.
Zazzle seems to be heading into a good direction. A customer-created design business to produce products like that had better focus on community by community, targeting specific audiences, because that way it can serve directly its customers.
I have always used Cafepress, but would be very interested in why others would pick either of the other two.
Zazzle is top out of all the POD companies IMO. Best for artists and customers. Top quality products and always excellent service… I have ordered many of their different products and have always been 100 % satisfied! I am also an artist / graphic designer who has worked with many POD sites, and Zazzle tops them all in their product creation tools, customer and seller protocol and community support. Great article BTW.
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One big caveat about Zazzle that I never see anyone mention in stories about them: once you upload your designs, your TOS agreement grants them reproduction rights in perpetuity, and you can’t remove the designs from the site. If you like to have total control over your creations, I would avoid them like the plague.
(Unless they’ve changed this point – which last time I checked, they hadn’t.)
Checking again, it appears that they *have* changed this behavior, and do allow you to delete designs now. Disregard my previous post (also: I suck cocks.)
Curious, all of these type site … which one is the best bet for a designer to make $$?
Be warned, the company will constantly spam you once you create an account. While they offer decent product, I won’t be using their service again.
After specifically opting-out of their email program, I received 1-3 emails a day hocking their wares. It took 6 tries and 2 months to finally get the emails to stop. I can only imagine how many 3rd party vendors they gave my info too…
I really like the layout of Zazzle compared to Cafepress. I have had great service experiences on Spreadshirt. Maybe I’ll take a closer look at Zazzle for my next random t-shirt idea.
custom skateboards are the best thing on this site – not sure why they aren’t feature on the home page…about to test three variations for solid pop…
Oh great, now the whole world can enjoy getting Zazzle’s horribly cheap, badly printed crap. Sorry for the harsh words, but it’s just plain true. I ordered several shirts (dark, light, adults, kids) and mugs, and they all came back with horrible coloring and wacky registration. I even ordered replacements after I uploaded photos of the crap merch, and they sent more of the same! Pure jank IMO.
Been using Zazzle for years for just about every product they have ever offered. Never had any problems like this. In my opinion, it is one of the coolest engineered sites on the web and their products rock.
I just used Zazzle for a custom work project and it was a great expereince – it was EASY and the products were delivered quickly. We made shoes and shirts and are very pleased with both. Will definitely use them again in the future.
Is this an article or an ad?
Looks like a Yelp Page to me. “it was great”, “uploaded photos of the crap merch”, ” won’t be using their service again”, “I really like the layout of Zazzle”.
Really people, can’t we talk about the race for POD’s to internationalize or how the downturn is affecting startups or something else more appropriate.