Zazzle Review (2024): What You Need to Know

Many print-on-demand companies empower ecommerce entrepreneurs to design and sell customized clothes, homeware goods, and accessories. 

…and one such platform is Zazzle. 

With all that said, this Zazzle review endeavors to unpack everything this POD service offers so that you can decide whether it's a suitable fit for your business. 

There's lots to sink our teeth into, so let's dive into the nitty-gritty of this Zazzle review!

What is Zazzle?

Zazzle is a Californian-based online print on demand marketplace that’s been around since 2005. 

It allows designers to create personalized items to sell worldwide via its own platform. 

It’s free to register with Zazzle. Just input an email and password, or sign up with Facebook. After that, you can choose which products you want to customize. Zazzle's product catalog offers more than 3,200 items organized into the following categories: 

• Home, sports, and games
• Clothes and accessories
• Invitations and stationery
• Arts, crafts, and party supplies
• Office and school
• Electronics
• Baby and kids
• Weddings

You can use Zazzle’s free design tool and templates to kickstart the customization process. On top of that, you’ll also find ready-designed products to sell, and/or you can hire a graphic design pro to create custom products on your behalf. 

I also like that your customers can adapt your designs, for example, change the font or text, and so on, to suit their own bespoke needs!

Zazzle also partners with some big-name brands, offering officially licensed products from household names, including Disney, Star Wars, Marvel, and Harry Potter. You can even personalize these, for example, a Classic Mickey Mouse Family Vacation T-shirt to which you could add, for instance, a family's name. 

Zazzle Pros and Cons

No Zazzle review would be complete without a quick run-down of the platform's pros and cons:

Zazzle Print on Demand

As previously mentioned, Zazzle offers POD creators a choice of thousands of customizable products that fall into eight categories. 

Some examples from these categories include:

• T-shirts
• Posters and prints
• Business cards
• Skateboards
• Drinkware
• Wedding invitations
• Stickers
• iPhone phone cases

…And much more. 

Suppose you want to customize a t-shirt. In that case, you choose the type of t-shirt you want to work on and its size, e.g., the women’s basic t-shirt costing $17.09. Then, click the “Customize” button to start designing. 

On each product page, you'll see more information about the item. For instance, in our t-shirt example, details about the fabric, how it fits, washing instructions, etc. You can also see ratings and reviews of the product from other buyers. Reviews are rated on product quality, print quality, how it fits, whether it was shipped on time, and whether the buyer recommends it. 

You can upload or drag and drop images into the design editor. You can also access Zazzle icons and configurable shapes to place onto your design. Likewise, you can add text, choose your font, and drag and drop it in the right place on the front and back of the product. 

Finally, you can preview your design within the editor to ensure you’re happy with its appearance. 

Remember, you have to create your online Zazzle store before you can start selling. Then, once ready to sell, Zazzle will manufacture your design and handle your inventory, shipping, and customer service. 

Finally, once you make a sale, you get a percentage of that sale based on the royalty percentage you set (more on this below). 

Shipping and Fulfillment

As I've already said, Zazzle takes care of order fulfillment and shipping on your behalf. It ships to most international locations (that’s 100+ countries.) International orders can take 10-21 business days, depending on your shipping method. 

So, suppose you’re operating and shipping in the US. In that case, Zazzle offers five shipping options: Zip PLUS, Zip, Express, Premium, and Standard shipping services. 

In the case of both domestic and international shipping costs, Zazzle’s Help Center states that because there are so many variables, i.e., the product, shipping location, and so on, it recommends placing a mock order to receive a more accurate pricing figure. Don't worry; you can do this without making an actual purchase. 

When creating products to a specific deadline, you can use Zazzle’s shipping deadlines page to see which products and shipping methods will meet your deadline. For example, suppose you wanted to create something for Father’s Day on June 18th.

In that case, select which shipping method you want from the drop-down menu and enter the zip code you’re shipping to. Then, a range of customizable products that meet those criteria will appear. Handy, right?

Payments or Earnings

Zazzle offers various customer payment options, including PayPal, Klarna, and major debit and credit cards: Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. Unfortunately, it doesn't accept personal checks, cash, or money orders. 

Once a customer has paid for one of your products, earnings are credited to your Zazzle account. The payments cycle, referred to by Zazzle as an “earnings cycle,” is a month long. This is followed by 30 days of clearance. Once this has happened, payments are queued for processing and issued to you in the next 15 days. 

For example, if you accrue earnings in May, they'll clear in June and be issued to you in the middle of July. 

Read more:

• Printful Review
• Printify Review
• Printful vs Zazzle
• Printify vs Zazzle

Zazzle Pricing

The part of this Zazzle review you've all been waiting for: How much does this platform cost?

You'll be pleased to hear that Zazzle is free to join, but a couple of paid plans are also available. These are:

Zazzle Plus (Formerly Zazzle Black): For $19.95 a year, you'll benefit from a free 30-day trial, unlimited Standard Shipping on all orders for qualifying products, a $10 shopping credit, and access to a free Zazzle design service. 

Zazzle Plus Premium: For $49.95 a year, you'll unlock two to three-day shipping on all orders for qualifying products.

Where pricing is concerned, it's worth noting that you'll be responsible for calculating your profit margins- referred to on the Zazzle website as “Royalty Rates.” The minimum royalty you can set is 5%, and the highest is 99% on most products.

Generally speaking, Zazzle recommends setting a royalty of around 10-15%, with an average of about 12%. Still, it depends on how you value your work and what you think your customers will pay. 

You can also join the Zazzle Associate Program and earn 15% per sale when you share Zazzle products on your blog, website, social media, email, etc. If you sell in large volumes, this 15% increases to 17%. 

There’s also the Zazzle Pro Program. This is for the most successful creators on Zazzle. It's free to join and is accessible by invitation only. However, some reports say you can be part of the Pro Program after selling as little as $100 products. If you’re invited to participate, you’ll be part of a tier system: Basic, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. The level you’re assigned depends on how much you sell. 

As for POD product prices, these vary. Here are just a few examples, and in each instance, at the time of writing, a discount code was offered with code CONGRATS2023. Prices quoted below are non-discounted:

• Women’s sweatshirts and hoodies: range from $29.30 to $57.45
• Men’s t-shirts: range from $18.95 to $28.45
• Mugs: start at $14.95 up to $29.95
• Posters: start at $0.80 up to $72.30
• Bags: start at $6.85 up to $67.80

Zazzle Alternatives

Before settling on any POD service, we always suggest shopping around to make sure you pick the right print-on-demand platform for your business. So below, I've listed a few POD alternatives to Zazzle:

1. Printful

Another big player in the POD game is Printful, which fulfills over one million monthly orders. In addition, it offers 331 customizable products, including apparel, hats, homeware, accessories, etc. Orders are fulfilled using Printful’s 15 global fulfillment centers. 

Printful integrates with several online marketplaces and eCommerce platforms, including TikTok Shop, eBay, Squarespace, and Wix. 

You can also use its Design Maker to mock up designs. For instance, you can add images, text, and customize fonts, etc. 

Read our in depth Printful review for more information about the platform.

2. Printify

Used by 4.5m sellers worldwide, Printify offers over 850 POD products to customize. These include apparel, home decor, accessories, and so on.

The Printify website is super easy to navigate, and pricing is transparent. In addition, you can use its free Mockup Generator to design your product. Plus, you can access a range of print partners with factories in the US, Canada, China, Australia, the EU, and the UK. 

When you choose a product to customize, you can immediately see the following:

• Which print partners are available to create the said product
• Estimated shipping prices
• Average delivery times

Lastly, Printify seamlessly integrates with well-known ecommerce platforms, including Shopify and Wix. Read our full Printify review for more info about the platform.

3. Gelato

Gelato offers hundreds of POD products, including wall art, apparel, wallpaper, and tote bags, that can be produced in 130+ locations worldwide. 

Products are printed closer to your recipient’s destination, making Gelato a more sustainable option. 

Its website is, again, super easy to navigate. For example, when you choose a product to customize, you can see the shipping options on the same page and the product’s features and print specifications. 

Gelato also integrates with popular eCommerce platforms, including Wix, BigCommerce, and Shopify. 

Read our full Gelato review for more info.

Zazzle Review: My Final Verdict

I hope my Zazzle review has provided sufficient information to help you decide whether Zazzle is worth investigating further. While Zazzle offers a wide range of POD products, its website can be challenging to navigate. For example, it took some investigating to find it had paid plans.

It also doesn’t appear to offer one-click integrations with popular eCommerce platforms. So, if you already have an online store, Zazzle might not be the most convenient POD service.

That said, if you’re interested in being part of a global creator community, selling your products on Zazzle, and customizing licensed products from known brands, then it may be the platform for you. 

That's all for my Zazzle review. Over to you; has Zazzle piqued your interest? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!