Who doesn't hate the color "Zazzle pink" in their royalty and referral lists?
I still remember our greatest disappointment. We don't sell many wrapped canvas but it is a source of pride when we do as they are all wildlife photographs I have taken over the years. When we sold our second and made a $100 royalty, the smiles nearly broke our faces. The next day it turned pink and it never came back as some cancellations do.
Zazzle provides very little, if any, detail on cancellations, but here is what we think we know.
Cancellations that take place within a day or so of the purchase are likely to be an issue with the order because the customer has not yet received the product. Either a credit card issue or Zazzle has caught a personalization problem. Zazzle sends an email notice and the customer re-orders.
Somewhat maddening is that the re-order frequently comes back for a lesser royalty because it has a third party referral. How does that happen? Zazzle is the third party, counting their email on the purchase problem as what brought the customer to Zazzle to make a purchase. How do you feel about that?
Another quick cancellation comes from fraud. Having dealt with this issue at my real world place of business, I know that those with stolen credit card information need to test it to make sure the card works. So they test it on small incidental online purchases that will go unnoticed on the victim's billing statement. For us, luggage tags seem to be the product identity thieves prefer (Check out our high cancellation rate in the chart below).
Cancellations that take place a week or more after the purchase date are mostly likely because the customer simply did not like it. They are taking advantage of the Zazzle 30-day return policy. (By the way, we have had some cancellations past the 30-day return period changing an already green royalty to pink. Arrgh!) We are not alone in wishing that Zazzle had some way to let us know if the return had to do with our layout. Did our design get cut off by going too far outside the red line?
Of all types of royalty cancellations, our average cancellation rate is 8.51%. Our cancellation rate on referrals is 5.4%.
Below we is a list of our actual cancellation rates by product type.
I still remember our greatest disappointment. We don't sell many wrapped canvas but it is a source of pride when we do as they are all wildlife photographs I have taken over the years. When we sold our second and made a $100 royalty, the smiles nearly broke our faces. The next day it turned pink and it never came back as some cancellations do.
Zazzle provides very little, if any, detail on cancellations, but here is what we think we know.
Cancellations that take place within a day or so of the purchase are likely to be an issue with the order because the customer has not yet received the product. Either a credit card issue or Zazzle has caught a personalization problem. Zazzle sends an email notice and the customer re-orders.
Somewhat maddening is that the re-order frequently comes back for a lesser royalty because it has a third party referral. How does that happen? Zazzle is the third party, counting their email on the purchase problem as what brought the customer to Zazzle to make a purchase. How do you feel about that?
Another quick cancellation comes from fraud. Having dealt with this issue at my real world place of business, I know that those with stolen credit card information need to test it to make sure the card works. So they test it on small incidental online purchases that will go unnoticed on the victim's billing statement. For us, luggage tags seem to be the product identity thieves prefer (Check out our high cancellation rate in the chart below).
Cancellations that take place a week or more after the purchase date are mostly likely because the customer simply did not like it. They are taking advantage of the Zazzle 30-day return policy. (By the way, we have had some cancellations past the 30-day return period changing an already green royalty to pink. Arrgh!) We are not alone in wishing that Zazzle had some way to let us know if the return had to do with our layout. Did our design get cut off by going too far outside the red line?
Of all types of royalty cancellations, our average cancellation rate is 8.51%. Our cancellation rate on referrals is 5.4%.
Below we is a list of our actual cancellation rates by product type.
Highlighted are our top two selling product types. And you can see the fraudsters' favorite, luggage tags, has a high rate. If tags stick around to turn green it is more surprising that if the sale turns pink.
Don't let a cancellation get to you. Get past that initial disappointment. Remember that it could not have gone pink with first being a sale. And where there is one sale, there are likely to be more.
Please leave your thoughts and comments below.
Don't let a cancellation get to you. Get past that initial disappointment. Remember that it could not have gone pink with first being a sale. And where there is one sale, there are likely to be more.
Please leave your thoughts and comments below.
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