Using Zazzle
Jeff Schnitzer avatar
Written by Jeff Schnitzer
Updated over a week ago

Products supported: All as far as we know
Title: 50 characters
Description: Doesn't seem to have a limit
Tags: Takes the first 10, but order within the 10 is irrelevant (Zazzle sorts them alphabetically)

The Zazzle integration is more complicated than most of the others, so read these instructions carefully.

Zazzle uses Airlock and Satellite Sync. You may wish to read that documentation first.

Zazzle's UI may feel a little antiquated, but they've been around for a long time, have a lot of organic traffic, and sell thousands of different products. Want to sell custom skateboards or poker chips? Here's your chance! In fact, shirts are a relatively small part of their business.

If you are new to Zazzle, these points may help you get oriented:

  • On Zazzle, you upload images (into your image library) as a separate step from creating products.

  • You create products one at a time, referencing images from your image library. Unlike other platforms where you publish a design and click checkboxes to select what products you want, on Zazzle a product is a single item like a tshirt, poster, or mug.

  • Title, description, and tags are associated with products - not images.

  • Newly created products sometimes take a while (tens of minutes) to show up in the products list.

  • Navigation can be confusing; it's usually helpful to start with the My Account page.

  • Zazzle has the idea of templates built into it; when you create products, you can designate images as template images that are replaceable when quick-creating new products.

  • Zazzle has two ways to organize products, categories and collections. It's kinda confusing. 

OrbitKit/Zazzle Integration

OrbitKit tries to make this integration as "Zazzley" as possible, using their template mechanism. This means that:

  • You will need to carefully construct template products for use as OrbitKit blueprints. OrbitKit won't let you use "just any product" as a blueprint.

  • If you want to publish your designs on a lot of products, you will need to create a lot of blueprints.

Setting Up A Blueprint

#1 Log into www.zazzle.com. You must log into the .com site, not one of the regional sites (.co.uk, .es, etc) - non-US users should watch out for the automatic redirect.

#2 Upload an image to your image library to use as your generic blueprint image. I always prefer a simple tall rectangle that approximately fills a shirt's print area.

#3 Create a product of the type (tshirt, wallet, etc) that you want to make a blueprint out of. You'll create it almost exactly as if you were setting up a quick product create template. Add your image to the product, then click MORE, then Make this a template object:

#4 When you make the image a template object, Zazzle will present you with additional options. You probably want to change the Inner fit/fill mode to Fit. It doesn't matter what you call the template parameter, but OrbitKit will only replace the first one.

#5 Click Done, then Sell It. Pick categories, tags, suitable audience, royalty, etc, just like you would for any other blueprint. You can leave this product Hidden; all products published with OrbitKit will be made Public. Be sure to leave Make product a template set to yes. You might want to give all your templates the tag template so you can find them again.

#6 Post It and copy the address of the product. You can paste this into the New Blueprint box on OrbitKit.

Note that to authenticate your Venue, you will need to run Airlock in the exact same way as you do for Redbubble or TeePublic. Install the Chrome Extension, make sure you have logged into zazzle.com recently, click the airlock icon, and click 'Link'.

Synchronization

  • Because a Zazzle blueprint represents one product, an exhibit is tied to one product and cannot be changed.

  • Royalty will be synced from the blueprint.

  • Title/tags/description is synced from your designs.

  • If your design is flagged Mature in OrbitKit, it will be given an R rating at Zazzle.

Categories

Zazzle listings can be categorized by Events & Occasions and Recipient. OrbitKit intelligently picks these values from your designs by considering tags. Your design's tags are scanned, in order, for something that matches in Zazzle's available list. The matching is somewhat fuzzy to accommodate tag limitations (ie, no special chars in tags).

Here are some example tags that match Events & Occasions:

  • blessings-faith -> Blessings & Faith

    • You can ignore the ampersand

  • faith -> Blessings & Faith

    • Categories with ampersands can be matched by either part

  • youre-welcome -> You're Welcome

    • Apostrophes are ignored

  • $new-job -> New Job

    • Private tags work just like normal tags (ignore the $)

  • 25th-anniversaries -> Occasions > Anniversaries > Wedding > 25th

    • Special case for wedding anniversaries (also reunions)

  • 25th-birthdays -> Occasions > Birthdays > By Year > 25th

    • Special case for birthdays (also birthday-parties)

  • bat-mitzvahs -> Bat & Bar Mitzvahs

    • Special case

  • engagement-party -> Occasions > Weddings & Engagements > Engagement > Party

    • Special case - there are quite a few of these sorts of adjustments

  • bubble-bath-day -> Other > Special Days > 01 January > 08 Bubble Bath Day

    • All the special days match like this

That isn't an exhaustive list. Generally speaking, OrbitKit "does what you want" - and if doesn't, reach and let us know.

Note that since each listing can have only one Events & Occasions category and one Recipient category, the first tag on your design that matches "wins".

Zazzle listings also have a Store Category. This is taken as-is from the blueprint.

Gotchas

  • If you want the design artwork on multiple sides of a product, create template images on both sides - but give them both the same "url name". For example, name them both image1.

  • Newly created products don't show up in your list of products right away - sometimes it takes hours. This happens when you create products by hand using their UI too. Probably some sort of database replication issue. Just be patient.

  • Artwork positioning and color options cannot be changed after a product is published. Unlike most platforms, you can't just change your blueprint and resync your exhibits. Royalty amount and metadata like title/tags/desc do get synced, however.

  • Grace C. says: "If your products are over 15% profit Zazzle will not promote them in their marketplace. I set everything at 14.9% (been selling on there since 2011). Of course if you spend time promoting your own stuff you can set whatever percentage you want. Someone I know who makes 6 figures annually on Zazzle suggests 10% for everything."

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