For those who may not know, I've been selling my designs on Spoonflower since 2016. Spoonflower is an online marketplace where designers can upload their patterns, and they can then be purchased on fabric, wallpaper, and home decor. Back then, gift wrap was also an option (I wish it still was). Through Spoonflower, my passion for surface pattern design grew and completely changed the course of my focus as an artist, especially once royalty payments from my designs started to become more than pocket change.
In 2021, Spoonflower was acquired by Shutterfly. This acquisition was presented to us artists as something that would be beneficial and allow for growth on both ends. At first, I did see a lot of growth. This year, however, things are much slower for me, and it's been a little discouraging. It's hard to tell if the slowdown is due to growing pains from the acquisition or because of world events, the state of the economy, etc. But could things be changing for the better?
Starting January 2024, Spoonflower will be changing the way they determine royalties, in addition to what I consider to be a few more really big changes. While it's easy to get caught up in the fear that comes with changes like this, I am choosing to be optimistic and hoping these changes will bring some light back into the tunnel that I'm trying to work my way out of! So, let's explore these changes, and I'll tell you what my thoughts are.
Royalty changes
Royalties start at 10% and increase up to 15% depending on an artist's threshold of sales. Our commission used to be based on the original retail price; the change will base it off the sale price. The concern among artists is that this means less overall income. However, my thoughts are that this will allow Spoonflower to have more sales, making the purchase more appealing to buyers who might otherwise just be window shopping. I haven't met anyone who doesn't love a good sale, and sales often come with a sense of urgency. So while a 30% off sale means less commission on that particular sale, it could also mean many more sales that we wouldn't have otherwise had. My hope is that this is a good thing.
Free proofing with a limit of 25 designs a week.
Swatches start at $5.00, less if you have a Pro account or do it through the Fill a Yard option. My point is, this adds up. Over the years, I've spent a grip on swatches, and some of these designs have never actually sold. In addition, artists have to write in to get new scales of previously proofed designs up for sale.
Effective December 31, 2023, artists will no longer have to purchase swatches to proof their designs. They will use a digital proofing tool. Currently, Spoonflower designers have to purchase swatches of their new designs to proof them before making them available for sale. This sounds a little scary, and some of us artists are concerned that this will open the platform up to spammy accounts and designs or it being taken over by endless AI-generated art. I share this sentiment, but I trust that Spoonflower has thought this through and has a plan to stay on top of this potential issue.
With those concerns aside, I think this will be a huge relief for some very talented artists who are currently not able to make their designs for sale as often as they'd like because of the cost. I think this is also going to free up the staff and the printers at Spoonflower, which will result in faster production times.
In addition to free proofing, there will also be a limit of 25 designs a week. This seems limiting, but I understand the need for a limit. I personally like to create multiple scale and color options for a lot of my designs, as do many other artists. I don't have much to say about this one at the moment, but I am hoping Spoonflower has something in the works for scale adjustments. I don't mind creating the color variations, but having to upload four different scales of one design seems like a way I'd rather not use up my 25 weekly design slots.
De-listing Stagnant Designs
If a design hasn't sold in over 2 years or doesn't have at least 50 likes, it will be de-listed. This is the announcement that seems to be getting the most attention. In my previous point, I touched on the cost of the swatches required to proof. A lot of artists are upset about this because they've paid to proof those designs. At first, I was also a little disheartened to read this, but after looking through my own shop, I've seen plenty of designs that no longer reflect my current skill level. If our Spoonflower shops were a real storefront, those stagnant designs would be taking up valuable shelf space, and that could be overwhelming for a customer. This will be an opportunity for many of us to review old designs for either a refresh or retirement.
I have a lot more thoughts on these changes and some ideas for saving those designs that just haven't had a chance to shine because of competing designs, but I'll save that for another post. I just felt like I needed to write something about these upcoming changes to the Spoonflower platform and hopefully bring some optimism to the topic.
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Hi Spoonflower Artists!
As we continue to listen to your feedback and listen to our shoppers’ feedback, we have a round of important upcoming site updates to share with you. These changes will go into effect starting in December 2023 and will apply to all designs as of that date.
New – Free Digital Proofing
Exciting news! Effective December 31, 2023, you will no longer be required to purchase proofs of your new designs to make them for sale. Instead, you will use our new digital proofing tool, which will allow you to pan, zoom and review design edges. As always, there will never be a substitute for sampling your designs on physical products to gauge true color and feel, so we still strongly encourage this step. This is especially important prior to purchasing larger orders.
Weekly Listing Limits
While we are excited about digital proofing and the removal of the proof-purchasing requirement, we also want to meter an overload of newly made-for-sale designs to the marketplace. As there was no listing limit before, we have now set a limit of 25 made-for-sale designs per artist per week.
De-listing Stagnant Designs
We hear over and over from many shoppers that they feel overwhelmed by the number of search results, often receiving hundreds of pages and thousands of results to wade through. To condense search results, make new designs more discoverable and encourage more design diversity, we will be de-listing (making private) older, stagnant designs starting in January 2024. Some important points to understand:
The criteria for the possible de-listing of a design is that it is at least two years old, has not sold in the past two years and has less than 50 favorites.
We will test this out slowly and evaluate at various intervals before conducting a full rollout. So, it is not guaranteed that all designs meeting the criteria will be de-listed.
A de-listed design will maintain all data associated with it (number of favorites, who favorited it, whose collections it was in, etc.).
You will maintain the ability to re-list (make for sale) a design again, no questions asked.
A re-listed design will return to the marketplace with all data previously associated with it (number of favorites, who favorited it, whose collections it was in, etc.).
A re-listed design will not be eligible for involuntary de-listing for two more years.
Before you re-list, however, we would suggest asking yourself: Do I think this is a strong design? Is there something I could improve about the design before re-listing? Can I better optimize my title, description and tags for improved findability? Here are some tips on optimizing for findability.
You will be notified via your Spoonflower messages when you have designs that have been de-listed.
To see which designs have been de-listed, you will visit your Design Library and filter with a new “Previously for Sale” filter.
Donation of Manufacturing Waste
In lieu of discarding on-site manufacturing waste material from production of the products purchased through Spoonflower’s Marketplace that feature your designs, we may donate it to nonprofit organizations for educational purposes. Donated waste will be limited to flawed public designs only (not your private designs). Once the educational purposes are fulfilled, the nonprofit organization will discard the material.
New Tax Information System and Seller's Agreement
As required by the IRS, we must collect up-to-date tax information from all Spoonflower artists. This tax year, we're upgrading our tax information collection system to be more secure, accurate, easier to manage and available in more languages!
We are updating our Seller’s Agreement in connection with these changes. Your use of the Spoonflower site, including the sale of any designs through the platform, will be subject to accepting the updated Seller’s Agreement and submitting your tax information into our new system between November 28 through December 18, 2023.
We will send a reminder when the new tax information system and Seller’s Agreement are ready for your attention.
Sincerely,
The Spoonflower Team