Redbubble Versus Threadless Again

[kerravonsen]

I am facing a dilemma. I have realised that removing everything from Redbubble would impact all my non-US friends and family, because Threadless ONLY manufactures and posts from the US, thus making shipping costs prohibitive to elsewhere.

What should I DO????

I still want to boycot Redbubble for charging fees. But I really want my family to be able to get my stuff (they are all in Australia except for one nephew).

Argh!

Also, I have come to the conclusion that I will never ever be listed on the Threadless Marketplace, because the only thing they are interested in is t-shirts, and thus the only designs they want are ones which are primarily intended for t-shirts, which 95% of mine are not. Because it certainly isn't "not having enough designs" which is causing them to reject me -- my uploads have reached the letter I, and there are over 200 pieces in my shop.

Threadless shop: https://fluidvisions.threadless.com

Redbubble shop: https://redbubble.com/people/kerravonsen

What should I DO????

Comments

[pattrose]

I’m not familiar with either company. Threadless shop had some beautiful things. But Red Bubble is nice too. Only one of them ships to Australia, is that right? But one does but you have to pay extra for shipping? Could you buy or make your gifts and ship them yourself? I’m not much help, I’m sorry about that.

[kerravonsen]

They are both print-on-demand websites which work like this:

1. Artists upload high-resolution digital images of their art.
2. The company (Redbubble or Threadless) takes care of all the transactions and the website e-commerce stuff.
3. Customers order a product, such as a mug, or a t-shirt, or a fine-art-print.
4. The company (Redbubble or Threadless) print the art on the product, and ship it to the customer.
   • The customer pays for both the product and the shipping.
   • They both do ship all over the world.
   • Threadless only manufactures its products in the USA, therefore all of their products are shipped from the USA, which makes the shipping very expensive if one does not live in the USA.
   • Redbubble has manufacturers in not only the USA, but in Europe and Australia, and the products are produced and shipped from the place which is closest to the customer. Thus Australians get products which are made in Australia and shipped within Australia, making the shipping costs more affordable. (Not every product is produced in every place, but most of them are).
5. The artist is paid a royalty for the art.
   • The royalty is generally 15-25% added on top of the base cost of the product; thus the customer pays base-cost plus royalty, and the company (is supposed to) make its profit from the base-cost of the product.
   • However, Redbubble changed their policy to now charge an extra fee to (some of) the artists, which basically cuts their royalty in half. Which is mean and unfair and biting the hand that feeds them, and that has made me very cross.

So, no, I cannot make the products myself, and it would cost me just as much to ship them to Australia as it would anyone else who lives in Australia.

[pattrose]

I understand now.

[watervole]

Well, to be fair to Redbubble, it does cost a lot to set up and promote a good site. The money has to come from somewhere.

[kerravonsen]

I'm not going to be "fair" to Redbubble, considering that they have been a successful business for years, and have already "set up and promoted" their site, and done all of that without charging fees to their artists. This is sheer greed.

[watervole]

Hard to say. I've watched enough of Dragon's Den to know that the upfront costs of some web businesses run into millions.

You have to grow to a significant size to become profitable, and you may have to run at a loss in order to reach that size, until you have enough market share to actually charge a viable rate.

Not saying that this is the case with Redbubble, but it's a possibility that they have investors who want a return on the investment.

Or they may just be extortionate bastards :)