Zazzle vs CafePress

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic by 19 people | Log in to rate

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Zazzle vs CafePress

Zazzle is a print-on-demand manufacturer that allow you to create, share and celebrate your unique interests and passions.

CafePress.com is an online retailer that produces and dispatches a large variety of user-customized products on demand.

Both are free. Both offer great products. Which do you think is better?

Zazzle: 

Zazzle is a print-on-demand manufacturer that allow you to create, share and celebrate your unique interests and passions. They combine innovative manufacturing, a robust community, the largest online collection of customizable digital images and unmatched personalization tools to empower you to create apparel, posters, cards, stamps and more. In addition, you can choose to become a contributor by sharing your unique creations in Zazzle's public galleries. Within these galleries, you can browse, comment and connect with others who share your interests. Contributors also earn royalties every time their creations are purchased by others. For anyone who wishes to create, wear, display, sell or celebrate their interests, Zazzle provides a compelling interactive marketplace to a worldwide audience.

In 1999, Zazzle began pioneering new printing technologies enhanced with proprietary, automated manufacturing systems to produce high-quality, on-demand products. In 2003, Zazzle launched the Zazzle.com website to test the user experience. Since then, Zazzle has continued to innovate by improving manufacturing efficiencies, expanding the online customer experience and growing its online community.

Copper Cockeral Cards & Gifts opened it's first Zazzle Gallery in 2004. Today we have four Zazzle Galleries.

Old Orchard Beach Pier Maine mug

Old Orchard Beach Pier Maine
by
eelkat

Get this custom mug at Zazzle

Buddy on black, I love Cocker Spaniels! stamp

Buddy on black, I love Cocker Spaniels!
by
pidgiefund

Get this custom stamp at Zazzle

Zazzle is an online retailer that allows users to upload images and create their own merchandise (clothing, posters, etc), or buy merchandise created by other users, similar to CafePress.com or Propell.com, as well as use images from participating companies such as The Walt Disney Company. Users are allowed to open their own shop for free and set the profit they wish to make on each item.

Zazzle was founded in 1999 by Robert Beaver, and his sons Bobby and Jeff Beaver. In 2005, Google investors John Doerr and Ram Shriram invested US$16 million into the business. The site was recognized by TechCrunch as 2007's "best business model" in its first annual "Crunchies" awards,2007 Crunchies: The Winners. and has been noted by industry experts, such as B. Joseph Pine, for its easy-to-use technology.

Zazzle.com offers Digital printing, and embroidered decoration on their retail apparel iteams, as well as other personalization techniques and items.

RSS Feed from Zazzle 

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CafePress: 

CafePress.com is an online retailer that produces and dispatches a large variety of user-customized products on demand. Opening and operating a basic CafePress shop is free. A basic shop can be upgraded to a premium shop for a small monthly rate, allowing an unlimited number of products per type and additional maintenance and customization features.

CafePress was founded as a privately owned company in 1999 by Fred Durham and Maheesh Jain. As of February 2006, the site hosts over 2.6 million online shops with over 35 million products. CafePress.com is headquartered in Foster City, California, and its production facility is located in Louisville, Kentucky. Major accounts include Star Trek, Dilbert, Phil Collins, Peanuts, and Wikimedia. Shops are also frequently created for pop-culture phenomena such as JibJab.com and "All your base are belong to us". Besides the esoteric, CafePress.com distributes a wide range of items: apparel, teddy bears, ornaments, clocks, mugs, stickers, buttons, magnets, greeting cards, prints, mouse pads, coasters, pillows, and more. Shop owners have the ability to customize their own merchandise and select items that best reflect a particular consumer group. CafePress.com also offers print on demand and CD production on demand services.

After creating a shop, the owner can proceed to select products and upload files, such as images to print on t-shirts or bags. They can also determine a price markup for each item sold in the store. CafePress.com provides the online storefront and website hosting, order management, fulfillment, payment processing, and customer service. In other words, the shop is effectively managed by CafePress.com, and the shop owner only has to take care of customizing the products they want to sell. The base price for every item is determined by CafePress.com, providing its chief revenue stream. Shop owners can buy items at the base price, but they also receive commission payments within regular intervals.

The most popular CafePress item is the white t-shirt; according to a company fact sheet, almost half a million white shirts were sold in the first five years of the company's existence.

In July 2005, CafePress announced a partnership with Stamps.com to allow shopkeepers to sell "custom postage", similar to the already existing PhotoStamps service.

In November 2005, CafePress announced print-on-demand for dark apparel, starting with a Black T-Shirt.

While CafePress is renowned for offering a great variety of products, the company has received sharp criticism for censoring many of the images on products offered by its shop owners.

CafePress.com is an online retailer of stock and user-customized on demand products. CafePress.com is headquartered in San Mateo, California, and its production facility is located in Louisville, Kentucky.

RSS Feed From CafePress 

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Zazzle vs CafePress

You choose the best!

Which is better? 

Have you used CafePress and Zazzle? If so, why not tell everyone which one you liked using the best, and leave a link to your Storefronts and Galleries.

Zazzle vs CafePress

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I like Zazzle best!

thomasveil says:

Cafepress is a lot different now than it was a year ago. Now they use your own designs to compete against you.

Your design sells in two places: the marketplace (Cafepress's search engine) and your own store. In the marketplace, Cafepress has removed your option to set your own markup. Now you get a flat 10% of whatever CP decides the price of the product should be.

Since most shopkeepers make the bulk of their sales from the MP, that signifies a HUGE drop in income for them. To add insult to injury, CP has removed from the marketplace any links to your store. They don't want customers finding your STORE, because God knows you might make $3-4 off a t-shirt instead of the $1.40 or whatever CP will give you for a marketplace sale.

Needless to say, shopkeepers are leaving CP in droves, or at the very least opting out of marketplace sales.

It's not even a contest anymore. Zazzle is the one to go with. Printfection isn't bad, either.

PNDesign says:

I like Zazzle, but I sell better on Supprint than Zazzle

RossCustomGraphics says:

I have several shop with Cafepress. The sale are great but now with the commission change I am in the process of moving my products to Zazzle. Zazzle does not charge a monthly fee of $6.95 to run a shop. You set your commission and you have a lot more products to choose from. http://www.zazzle.com/rosscustomgraphics

Lampros says:

Zazzle is the best

sandyspider says:

Unless you have a Pro (paid) shop at Cafepress, a free Zazzle shop looks more professional. I do miss some of the products that Cafepress offers when I am in my Zazzle shop. And I like being able to chose the products from Cafepress for the modules. Zazzle you can't do that, but the modules look nicer.

BayAreaDigs says:

zazzle is much more gallery owner oriented- Cp is becoming cut throat

kalos_eidos says:

I haven't actually used Cafe Press, but after comparing them I decided to start with Zazzle for my first foray into putting my art on products. I liked not having to pay for a store, and still not be limited. I may try Cafe Press eventually, but for now I'm sticking with Zazzle.

Rajays says:

I have only just signed up with Zazzle. Still learning the ropes and creating my first designs. I prefer the product selection on Zazzle.

Robert T. says:

Cafepress may have been better a few years ago, but not any more. Zazzle offers Skateboards, Shoes, US-Postage Stamps, and a bunch of other features that cafe press is missing. One of my Zazzle favorites is the way you can see and sell your Zazzle shirts on real people in a huge number of poses.

Lolalette says:

Zazzle has more choice in t-shirts, and allows you to be more creative. Cafe Press sometimes has a wider variety of already printed stuff. Overall, Zazzle better, but I use both.

sirkeystone says:

But, I also like the more variety of product at Zazzle, so I will likely be doing BOTH.

Noadi says:

Zazzle has a much nicer selection of products. So I just started using it but I don't plan on ditching my CafePress shop. Every opportunity someone has to see my artwork is great.

princessklb07 says:

Zazzle is the best and is so easy to use. I have made many sales on zazzle and none on CP.

No_Con_Products says:

Zazzle for the win. At least for free shops. Because we're cheap that way. There are other choices too, it's not a one or the other thing.

zazzle is great to set up a clean looking page:
www.zazzle.com/no_con_products

that's ours. NO WAY is it possible to do that in a free cafepress shop.

mike40033 says:

Why does cafepress charge $ for a full-featured shop? To me, that shouts out "We can make more money by charging you for your shop that we can off the sales it produces", at least for a typical seller.

On the other hand, zazzle has no clocks. I want to make a clock! Or books.. Well, I guess lulu.com would be better than cafepress at books...

carycharles says:

Zazzle has wonderful community spirit which has enormous potential to be developed further. It also allows you to integrate multiple product lines through one profile, simple for customers and you don't have to keep setting up new banners etc. as you do at CafePress.com. The visuals are much better at Zazzle too, I find. Cafepress looks a bit old and cheap. I think Zazzle is definitely the one to watch. A much more rewarding experience, not least because I have sold on Zazzle thanks to the community spirit. Cafepress has good range indeed, but Zazzle is catching up.

Tiddledeewinks says:

I do use Zazzle too!

ArtistsUnite says:

Wholeheartedly Zazzle.

I've tried CP and just don't get along with their Setup.
I'm not a Geek, nor am I a complete looser.
But CP and I are not made for each other ;)

EelKat says:

oh, forgot to add:

I love the new Zazzle Merch booth! Now I can create 10, 20, or 30 products at a time! No more creating one item at a time for me!

Useing Zazzle's Merchbooth I created over 400 new products for my gallery this week alone! It used to be slow to create stuff, cause you could only create one item at a time, and for the longest time I only has 15 items in my gallaery cause I got so bored with the slow creation process, but since they added Merchbooth, now I have over 2,000 products in my gallery! I love it!

EelKat says:

I esp love that Zazzle no longer only ays you 10%. ugh! For years I've made next to nothing on Zazzle cause I couldn't set my own commision, but now I can set my own commision and I'm starting to make money now!

I like CafePress best!

AlishaV says:

I've only used CP so far and I like though I'm still feeling my way around. Zazzle is definitely on my list to try though.

mbrownauthor says:

I've got items on both, but none have sold. I find it much easier to put CafePress modules on my lenses. For some reason Zazzle doesn't want to work properly for me. Could be I'm doing something wrong???

Evets says:

I haven't used zazzle yet but just might give it a try after reading the gray side...

Mobiiart says:

I have to go with Cafepress over Zazzle. Zazzle is easier, and has great choices, but CP is bigger and will get you more exposure (wich equal more sales). CP is ultra paranoid about copyright stuff though. That sucks, because the topics that are hot, are what sell. Also, do yourself a favor and check out redbubble.com , They have a limited product range, but they are super easy to use, and the community is very supportive. Much more friendly and interactive than CP or Zazzle.

sirkeystone says:

Only having owned four free cafepress shops and only just signed up for zazzle, I really can't make a comparison fairly. But I like my shop, and as it makes more money, it will get upgraded to a better set of shops.

Lorie says:

CafePress is 'it' for me at the moment, with a Printfection shop on the side. I'm trying to find time to add shops everywhere!

Irenemaria says:

Difficult to choose - they are acually not so alike. Zazzle I have not yet figured out how to build my stuff. I still am a beginner. Cafepress is more familiar. But I might change and then I will tell you.

Tiddledeewinks says:

I seem to be able to do cafepress, but I use Zazzle too!

JohannTheDog says:

CafePress gets my vote for their huge (and much larger than Zazzle) selection of dog related merchandise!

EelKat says:

I have been on CafePress longer than Zazzle and have made more money because CafePress ALWAYS let you set your own commision (Zazzle only started doing it for the Christmas season 2007... CafePress had the option like 7 years ago.)

Plus CafePress has some pretty cool products that Zazzle doesn't have: tiles, jewlery boxes, dog shirts, clocks, pillows, etc.

Both are good though, so I use them boh.

EelKat says:

I started out with CafePress, and over the years I've made more money via CafePress. To date I have over 60 designs, each on over 40 products each.

You can find an index of all my designes useing the basic storefront option here on the Copper Cockeral Home Page.

You can find my premium CafePress storefront here.

 
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Great Stuff on CafePress 

EK's Purple Iris Button

EK's Purple Iris is a watercolor on ragcloth by Maine artist Wendy C. Allen.

Price: 3.43Buy Now

EK's Purple Iris Cap

EK's Purple Iris is a watercolor on ragcloth by Maine artist Wendy C. Allen.

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EK's Purple Iris Framed Tile

EK's Purple Iris is a watercolor on ragcloth by Maine artist Wendy C. Allen.

Price: 11.19Buy Now

EK's Purple Iris Golf Shirt

EK's Purple Iris is a watercolor on ragcloth by Maine artist Wendy C. Allen.

Price: 22.39Buy Now

EK's Purple Iris Journal

EK's Purple Iris is a watercolor on ragcloth by Maine artist Wendy C. Allen.

Price: 11.89Buy Now

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AlishaV wrote...

Thanks for sharing this information! I've been a bit lost of the whole which is better thing and wasn't sure whether there were any differences between the two sites. I'm still confused, which is a normal situation for me, lol, but am going to join Zazzle and check it out. Thanks!

ReplyPosted April 24, 2009

sandyspider wrote...

Very nice comparison of the two shops. I have two lenses on Pros and Cons of both shops. But I never used "Monkey Brains" template. Very nice touch.

ReplyPosted April 20, 2009

Portable_eBay wrote...

I really should start learning this Cafe Press things... but so many things to do so little time... I hate dial-up!!!

ReplyPosted September 21, 2008

sarahjjac wrote...

thanks for sharing this info. I have never been to Zazzle, but I think i will check it out!

ReplyPosted September 11, 2008

icjackson wrote...

Very informative - I had not considered getting a Zazzle store before, but I see now that it is something I need to do ASAP!

Thanks for this :-)

ReplyPosted September 08, 2008

annetteghallowell wrote...

OK, just when I think I am going to go to Cafe Press, I think I need to go to Zazzle too! One more lens to add to my growing resource group!

ReplyPosted August 01, 2008

EelKat wrote...

OMG! This lens is now coming up as the #2 search result on Google when you search for: zazzle vs cafepress

ReplyPosted July 16, 2008

Attraction wrote...

Great Lens! I'm always looking for ways to improve myself on ways to make money online and I'm glad to have found your lens. My lens is about Step by Step to Start Making Money Online, would love to hear your comments :)

Cheers,
Roy Phay

ReplyPosted May 28, 2008

Lorie wrote...

I'm a Mainer, too!
Awesome lenses- good luck!
Lorie @
http://www.meetmytees.com
http://www.preintfection/bikergirls

ReplyPosted May 09, 2008

Tiddledeewinks wrote...

I use both of them!

ReplyPosted March 27, 2008

WhitneyWells wrote...

Good choice for an arguement, hard to choose since they both have their merits!

ReplyPosted February 27, 2008

EelKat wrote...

Hey everybody! Just testing out the new guestbook. Don't forget to leave a comment or just say hi, after reading this lens! I love hearing from you! Thanks.

~~EK

ReplyPosted February 26, 2008

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