Society6 Review 2020

Below is an in-depth Society6 review to help you decide whether it is right for you. On-demand print services are increasingly popular for both buyers and sellers. The wide variety of benefits for sellers are continuing to build this push. Everyone wants something custom and tailored for their personal style. With on-demand print services, such as Society6, you can sell your designs to a broad target audience. For those debating whether or not to use Society6, you’ve found the right place.

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What Is Society6?

Society6 is an on-demand print store, located in Santa Monica, CA.

The company allows sellers to upload their designs to create eye-catching merchandise. Used primarily by artists and designers, the platform enables those to sell their original works onto merch.

With thousands of products from different artists and 30+ premium stock products, they are an excellent eCommerce choice for indie artists.

With their extensive selection of products, you’ll never need to worry about them missing a niche. Society6 sells standard products such as t-shirts, mugs, phone cases, prints, stickers, home décor, and accessories.

They even have some oddball products, such as shower curtains, gift wrap, and wallpaper. All of these items have a high rise in demand in the marketplace.

Additionally, Society6 handles manufacturing, producing, shipping fulfilment, and customer service. This means you won’t have to worry about starting from scratch just to make a sale. For indie artists, it can be a struggle to get your work recognized, nonetheless start an independent eCommerce store. Society6 removes the pain of reaching that target audience by creating an online platform for artists to sell their unique creations. This means that those who favor customized merchandise will have a higher chance of finding your product by clicking onto Society6.com. Also, they have a global shipping program, allowing your products to have a wide range of potential buyers.

How Does Society6 Work?

Making money off art sounds great right! But how does it work?

Sellers on Society6 create their own online store by creating an account. The one-time-only fee of $1 is all you’ll need to pay to set up your shop! Relatively cheap when compared to other eCommerce platforms, such as Shopify and Squarespace.

Once your store and profile are customized to your liking, you can upload your product listings. On your product listings, you can upload your design. Once uploaded, you can select the item of your choosing. Depending on the product, you will be allowed to adjust the markup percentage to your liking. And that’s all there is to it!

Society6 Earnings

The business model is similar to other on-demand stores. Sellers earn 10% of the retail price on goods that aren’t prints. As for prints, artists can set their own markup percentage and it can be adjusted at any time. This doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but when taking other factors into consideration (such as handling fees, product costs, marketing), it is a considerable percentage.

The standard formula is:

“Base Price x (Markup % x (1 – Discount %)) = Artist Share*”

Now, how do you get Society6 earnings? To set up your shop, you will need to link a PayPal account to your shop. After each transaction, you will be paid your percentage straight to your PayPal account. If a payment is unclaimed after 30 days, it will be returned to Society6. Though, they send all returned payments with the next scheduled payment.

As long as you have an active PayPal account, you will have zero worries claiming your hard-earned cash.

In total, the seller process is easy and affordable—not to mention risk-free. The scariest part about starting an eCommerce shop is what there is to lose, but with Society6, there are no potential risks. If a product does not sell, you didn’t spend hundreds on stock products just for it to go down the drain.

With the wide selection of on-demand print stores, indie artists can begin to sell their works without risky contracts or threats.

How to Sell and Make Money on Society6?

For those interested in creating a shop to sell your original products, below is a handy guide for selling on Society6.

First off, what do you need to set up your shop?

• Profile Image (Square)
• Cover Image (1000x100px)
• Shop Bio (30-50 words long)
• Ready-to-upload designs
• PayPal account

To join Society6’s online platform, all you need to do is create an account using an email and password.

Once you’ve created an account, you’ll need to customize your profile. Upload your desired profile and cover image, write your bio and boom! Your homepage is already beginning to shine.

The next important step is to link and verify your PayPal account. You can verify your PayPal account by clicking onto your shop avatar and then click “Get Verified.” You’ll is directed to a simple verification process using PayPal.com.

The process costs $1 through PayPal, but this is so Society6 can confirm your PayPal is real. Though, if you ask me, $1 isn’t anything compared to other online store fees.

Once you are verified, you can begin to upload your original artwork!

Uploading Designs To Society6

To upload your works, click on “SELL” on the navigation menu. Here you will be able to drag and drop your files. Society6 recommends using the highest quality available, to ensure the customer is satisfied.

Here are some things to keep in mind when uploading your artwork.

• Your images must be at least 6500px @72dpi
• The maximum file size is 150mb.
• Some products require specific file sizes. You can view them on the Seller Guide.
• Use eye-catching, bright colors for the best result.

Once uploaded, add a clickable title, tags, and a detailed description to your product listing. SEO is key to achieving the most out of your listings.

To activate your products for viewing, select the item you would like your artwork featured on and toggle ON. You can place your design on as many products as you’d like, perfect for testing the waters.

Don’t worry if you made an error, you can always go back to quickly edit your product listings.

When in edit mode, you can view your product description, title, and layout. Using the drag and scale tools, you can tweak and adjust the position of your artwork. Once you’ve made the desired changes, simply hit save & close.

You can also upload custom assets! When wanting to create a custom asset for a specific product, you can drag and drop your new image to do so. Just make sure it fits the size pixel requirements.

You can adjust your royalties as well, but you can only do so on art prints, framed art prints, and canvas prints.

Once you have arranged your product to your liking, you can list them by clicking “PUBLISH.”

What Products Can I List too?

Society6 offers a WIDE variety of product options. From yoga mats to phone cases—they cover it all.

Though, it is notable to state that you cannot change the markup (your profit) on most products. Only on prints, you can change the amount you earn per sale.

The highest traffic comes from home décor products (art prints, tapestries, throw pillows, phone cases, comforters, mugs, and shower curtains.) These products sell more because other on-demand print stores do not offer them freely. While creating your designs and art, it is essential to keep this in mind. What would sell best for home décor, rather than apparel? Since the target demographic is going to buy a fleece blanket more likely than a t-shirt, be sure to tailor your products to meet these expectations.

Although Society6 does offer office, tech, apparel, and outdoor products—they do not sell as much. Regardless of the product, the higher quality the image is, the more likely you will gain sales.

How To Promote Your Products

It’s a great idea to promote your shop as soon as your product is live. Let everyone know that your open for sale! Society6 recommends having at least 5 items on your shop, so customers have a selection to choose from. Promoting your products using product filters allows customers to browse your shop with ease. For example, you can create a selection called “Popular Prints.” Customers can click on the filter to view the products under the “Popular Prints” section only. Now viewers can sort through your shop and find what they want faster. A win-win situation if you ask me.

Figure 1 https://blog.society6.com/4-easy-ways-take-full-advantage-society6-artist-shop/

Another great tip to making sales is to directly send the customer to your new products. By creating an email list or through social media promotion, you can direct your potential customers to your latest product. Once they see your most recent, they will most likely begin to look at other products—hopefully bringing in a sale. Society6 also allows you to create Collections; these are grouped products of your choice to match a theme. In the example below, you can see the seller has collections based on themes.

Figure 2 https://blog.society6.com/4-easy-ways-take-full-advantage-society6-artist-shop/

The use of themes is excellent for grabbing the attention of your audience—if someone happened to find your product because they like stripes, they would end up browsing more of your products under the collection featuring stripes.

The final tip I have for selling & promoting your artwork on Society6 is to expand your brand. With all business’, brand is key. Try creating a YouTube account or posting on social media—ALWAYS linking back to your store. People who like your content on social media will more than likely go to your store page. If you are already on social media, add your website to your account’s bio.

For more tips on generating online income, click here.

Society6 Review – Conclusion

In our opinion, Society6 is the best site for artists looking to branch out to make a profit. With the minimalist aesthetic of the website, viewers will associate it with your products. Like all on-demand merch partnerships, there are no risks, website hosting fees, manufacturing costs, nor shipping & handling to be done. With so many options to choose from (such as CafePress, Zazzle, Redbubble) it can be confusing to pick a company to list your products onto.

If you are looking to create an eCommerce store with stock products, we don’t recommend using Society6. Rather, if you are an existing artist wishing to expand your brand, we cannot recommend using Society6 enough! It is perfectly engineered for indie artists, and the company’s vibe is outstanding too. We’re confident that artists will love and enjoy the flexibility and ease Society6 offers for selling custom products.

Society6 Frequently Asked Questions – FAQ