It’s clear that Zazzle intends to become a major contender in the Print on Demand arena. It was only a month ago that they announced their “relaunch” which included a partnership with Myspace, Realmodel technology (allowing customers to view t-shirts on actual models), improved printing on dark apparel, and most importantly, the ability for designers to set their own markup on products. (With the previous system the designer received a paltry 10% of the selling price.)

On December 4th, Zazzle announced the addition of 88 new colors across 25 styles, including 13 brand new styles. The additions include:

Dark Sweatshirts & Dark Hooded Sweatshirts are now available in white, gray, dark gray, deep forest green, navy blue & black. (For comparison, Cafepress & Printfection offer only gray & white)

The Destroyed T-Shirt: One of my favorites, looks like a well worn vintage shirt with grinding at the collar, bottom and sleeves. Available in vintage black, vintage white, dirty blue, moss green, & linen.

Many more colors added to the regular line of shirts, but the coolest part is the new patterned shirts!

Shown left to right is houndstooth, argyle, camo and tonal stripe. AND they are available in ladies styles too. (I think I might pass out………………………..Okay, I’m better now)

To be honest, in the past I never put much effort into a Zazzle store because of the limited 10% royalty. But with the recent improvements and additions I’ve begun seriously considering Zazzle as a major part of my future in the pod business. I did a quick comparison of a few categories from Cafepress, Printfection & Zazzle.

Men’s Short Sleeve T-Shirts ( I considered each color of each style a separate product)

Cafepress: 14 light & 8 dark

Printfection: 21 light/24 dark

Zazzle: 48 light/24 dark

Women’s Short Sleeve T-Shirts

Cafepress: 19 light/8 dark

Printfection: 45 light/7 dark

Zazzle: 75 light/19 dark

Mugs

Printfection does not offer mugs. (Printfection specializes mainly in apparel. The only non-apparel items they offer are a tote bag, coaster, mousepad, and two cutting boards)

Cafepress offers a white mug in two sizes, and a beer stein.

Zazzle offers:

A white mug in two sizes

A ringer mug in two sizes, in which the handle and top rim are available in six different colors.

A two tone mug in two sizes, in which the outside of the mug is white and the inside available in 6 colors.

A morphing mug, in black and blue. When filled with hot liquid the design is revealed.

A 15oz travel mug in white & gray

Beers steins in blue/gray or white/gold

And a clear frosted mug in two sizes.

Cafepress and Zazzle were both founded in 1999. Cafepress has always been the industry leader, the “800 pound gorilla”. Zazzle has always had a larger assortment of products but I believe they were held back by the limited 10% royalty and the inability for designers to delete their own images after they were uploaded. Now that those issues have been resolved and with the addition of some awesome new products (that Cafepress shopkeepers have been requesting for years) Zazzle is in place to give Cafepress a run for it’s money.

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