information Archives - Julie Erin Designs

Today I’m sharing a comprehensive guide on Redbubble vs Society6 for selling your art online.

These two popular Print on Demand websites are great options if you want to generate an income from your art and designs online without paying for inventory, shipping etc.

You can watch my video below, or read on to learn more about selling your art through Redbubble vs Society6 and determine which one is best for you!

Artist Store Front

Rebubble and Society6’s store fronts are visually quite similar.

The most obvious difference is the custom header on Redbubble is a lot larger. Both store fronts feature custom logo or bio pic, a small bio section, and can be slightly customized to show specific item categories on Society6 or feature a collection on Redbubble.

Your Redbubble storefront shows your products sorted by most relevant by default. On Society6 you can choose whether to showcase your products in order of most popular items, most recent, or random.

There store front layouts have apparently been optimized for shoppers and to increase sales based on marketing research by the respective companies.

Type of Audience

Both Society6 and Redbubble cater towards a young, hip, and trendy audience. Think festival gear, college dorm or first apartment decor, stickers, and unique accessories.

Trendy pattern designs and quotes are popular on both websites, but I think Redbubble is more on the trendy side while on Society6 you will find more abstract art and modern art based designs.

The audience on Redbubble is slightly younger though than Society6 as they focus more on stickers which are popular with teenagers and young adults. However, Society6 has stickers too which can be popular with the right design.

Overall I think the target audience for both of these sites are young adults (20s and 30s) and their parents buying gifts for them.

Ease of Uploading Artwork

Redbubble’s uploading tool is easier and more efficent than Society6, hands down.

Not to say you shouldn’t spend the time uploading your art on Society6, just expect it to take longer. Their current uploading tool is an improvement on what it used to be, and they are planning further changes for the future.

What is better about Redbubble’s uploading process?

You can upload one image for all products, and individual images as needed.
You can set a background colour for all products.
The ability to create square or offset patterns.
The “Copy” tool which allows you to copy all of the settings from an existing artwork, great to quickly upload recolours.

Products from Redbubble featuring my designs

Redbubble vs Society6 Products

Society6 and Redbubble offer a similar range of print on demand products including apparel, tech cases, home decor items, and accessories. But both have some unique products as well.

For example:

Redbubble offers more tops and blouses, mini skirts, dresses and scarves.
Society6 has a lot of different furniture and yoga mats.

Myself, family and friends have purchased items from both sites. The quality has been good overall, and any time there was an issue it was resolved promptly.

Both websites add new types of products from time to time, which is fun.

Reviews of different Redbubble and Society6 products I own:

Earnings and Payment

Redbubble earnings are paid automatically around the 15th of every month (to Paypal, or direct deposit), and there is a $20 minimum threshold. If you don’ t meet the threshold by the end of the year they pay you out in December.

Similarly, Society6 pays automatically to Paypal, with whatever balance you have on usually on the 1st of every month.

Both are reliable and I haven’t had any issues getting paid from either.

society6 can cooler review — Can coolers from Society6

Product Marketing

Redbubble and Society6 have their own marketing departments who are professionals and good at driving traffic to their own websites. However, until your designs get their attention they probably won’t be promoting them. You will have to do some of your own marketing as well.

They do have re-targeting ads which means if someone views your design on their site a “cookie” will make it so they will see ads for your design on Facebook and Google etc.

Tips for Marketing your Print on Demand Products:

Most products have nice mockups that are easy to share or take a screenshot for social media, blogs and other marketing initiatives.

You can also find some nice Photoshop mockups on the Redbubble blog.

throw pillow mock up template selling art redbubble — Redbubble throw pillow mockup

Society6 sends out e-mail notices to artists prior to upcoming sales. They will often provide a link to download a .png overlay to use for your ads. Usually it’s just text containing the discount amount and promo code.

Redbubble sends an e-mail to their subscribers when there’s a sale. It’s useful to be signed up for their newsletter to get these notifications so you can promote these.

Shipping and Packaging

Redbubble and Society6 both have pretty reasonable shipping costs which vary depending on your location, the product size and weight.

Redbubble has manufaturers worldwide and products are shipped from the closest one to your location. They usually add in a free sticker with your purchase, and the packaging is cute and fun to open.

Society6 works with manufacturers in the U.S. and they often have free shipping worldwide promotions.

Both companies work with different manufacturers for different products. So, for example if you ordered a t-shirt and coasters, they might come in separate packages and at different times.

Note: Some products take longer to manufacture than others so it could take longer to ship and receive!

Summary

I hope you’ve found this breakdown of Redbubble vs Society6 helpful. Society6 and Redbubble are both great options for selling your artwork online, but overall I prefer Redbubble, mainly because of their streamlined uploading process. I think it’s better for beginners.

However, both have great things to offer including unique products and audiences, so it really depends on what you like and what works for you.

I use both because, as they say, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

Want to learn more about selling your art online? Here are some more great posts to check out!

Cheers,

[Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2018 and has been updated in 2023 for clarity and accuracy.]

Welcome to part 1 of my 2 part series about Selling your art on POD Websites: Zazzle vs Society6!

I’ve been selling my designs on Zazzle and Society6 for several years now. So, I would like to share what I’ve learned so far about these two different Print On Demand demand platforms.

I hope this guide can help you decide which of these sites could be best for you!

“Print On Demand” basically means an item is printed or created after it has been ordered. You upload your art or designs onto a website and digitally place them on different product mock-ups. Then, the company prints and ships the product to the customer after they buy it, and pays you a commission in return.

You do not have to pay for anything or maintain an inventory, so this is a fairly risk-free way to get your art and designs out into the online world!

There are several websites out there who offer this service. I chose Zazzle and Society6 after doing some research because they are both popular and widely known, offering good customer service and fair designer programs.

Pros and Cons of Zazzle vs Society6

Now I would like to discuss some of the major differences (mainly pros and cons) between Zazzle vs Society6. This is my experience as someone who lives in Canada.

Audience

Society6‘s audience is fine art based. There is more of a focus on prints, and different ways of displaying unique art work (ex. framed art prints, tapestries).

Zazzle caters more towards audiences looking for graphic design based products. Think wedding invitations, birthday cards, and business cards.

Also, graphic t-shirts with funny/topical sayings are top sellers on Zazzle.

Store Front

As an artist I prefer Society6‘s store front, as you can customize your store front to show either just your designs as prints, or the different products you have for sale. You can also sort by new, random or most popular.

On the Zazzle storefront your “Home” tab is the landing page for your storefront.

Under the “Home” tab your “Most Popular” products show up first, followed by your “Categories”, then “Recently Sold” products, and finally “Latest Products”. You can customize which categories are shown and re-arrange these under the Store Settings.

There is also a “Products” tab which shows a mix of your most popular items, a “Collections” tab (which can include your own products as well as other people’s), followed by “Comments” and “About” tabs.

While this storefront is a major improvement from what they had before, I find it a little cluttered and also think it may be confusing or overwhelming for a first time user.

A redeeming factor for Zazzle is that you have the ability to have multiple stores under the same account, which is not possible on Society6 at this time.

Ease of Upload

When I first started I thought Zazzle was easier to create products with, but once I caught on to Society6 I realized it is actually less work in the long run.

This is because first you upload your original image and choose the appropriate tags, and then your work is automatically placed on all of their different products. You may have to adjust the size or orientation for some products but most of them should work if your image is large enough.

On Zazzle you upload your image only once but then you have to create each item separately (they do have a “Quick Create” tool but I don’t recommend using it), and then add custom tags for each product. This one by one process can be very time consuming.

One thing that does set Zazzle apart though is that you (and your buyer) can customize each individual item with text or other images, all within their website.

Society6 has no options for customization after you’ve created your products, besides changing the colours of some items.

Earnings

Now the part you really want to know – which of these websites can make you the most $$??

Personally I have made more on Society6, but it will completely depend on your style of artwork, target audience and how well you market your products.

On Zazzle you can set your own commission rate, so it can be as high as you choose — but keep in mind it will be hard to compete with other stores and get sales. The typical commission rate is usually around 10%. I get anywhere from 0.10 cents to $10 depending on the item sold.

On Society6 you get a fixed commission rate on products, but you can choose your own commission for prints. I generally earn about $4-$5 per sale, so the set commission rate seems pretty fair to me.

Also keep sales cycles in mind. Generally I get the most sales around the Holidays and Back to School (August) while the Spring and early Summer is generally quite slow.

CLICK HERE FOR PART 2 of Selling your Art on Zazzle vs Society6 including information about: Payment, Quality of Products, Marketing of Products, Shipping, and my own Summary remarks!

What has been your experience selling on Print on Demand websites? Do you have any of your own tips to share? Feel free to leave your comments below!