What: Sell your art through print-on-demand
Commissions and fees: Not applicable (You get a royalty on each product sold with your art on it; the royalty depends on the product and the mark-up you set.)
Husl $core: $$$$
Where: Nationwide
Review: Like Society6, Redbubble puts your art on t-shirts, hoodies, notebooks, stickers and posters — and a wide array of other products. However, where Society6 sets a price per product and tells you how much you’ll make on each, Redbubble has a dynamic pricing formula where you can set your own margin, which will affect the final price of the product. For instance, if a t-shirt’s base price is $18.50, you can add a $10 mark-up and the site will sell it for $28.50. Or, you could decide to accept a lower mark-up to sell at a lower price. By and large, seller reviews are positive; buyer reviews — which you care about because you want your art to show well to maintain your brand — are all over the map. There are literally hundreds of buyer reviews on TrustPilot and it seems that buyers love Redbubble or hate them. But, to the site’s credit, someone from customer service appears to respond to everything. Our positive overall rating is influenced by both the seller reviews on several sites, as well as positive artist and blogger reviews.
There are several other print-on-demand services, including Threadless and Design by Humans, but our read is that Society6 and RedBubble are the two best. (If you want to sell art outside of print-on-demand, consider Etsy or Zibbet.)
What their sellers say:
“I’m a seller on Redbubble (I earn about 40-70 dollars/month) and I really like the platform. Good quality products, even tutorials and easy understandable guidelines when it comes to uploading and promoting your artwork. I also did some research and compared other websites to Redbubble and most of them can’t keep up and got less than 2 stars ratings and an immense amount of people complaining. On the other hand, they deleted 2 designs from my account once, I got no email or anything so I asked if something was wrong with it and why it was deleted. Since I got no response weeks later I just re-uploaded them and I had no further problems since then. But of course I’d have been happier with a proper reply and explanation.”
“I am satisfied with the quality of fabric used (especially in the tri-blend shirts) and the color, sharpness, and overall quality of the prints are great as well (and i think i don’t need to mention the insanely huge selection of designs and options, do i?). But in this review i want to focus on the fantastic customer service as i find this to be a major part of my experience;I was treated with great kindness and respect and felt that the support actually wanted to help me and find a solution.I didn’t have to wait long for responses and was met with a generous and very fair solution within one day, after explaining to the customer service that there was a difference between the color of the shirt i ordered (as seen in the preview online) and the actual color i received.So my concern was taken seriously and i was offered a satisfying solution, even in a case where other companies might probably argue that you should expect a possible difference between the preview and the actual product, thus making the customer responsible for it and denying any compensation.But the Redbubble customer service went the extra mile for me and this is why i have taken the time to write this review.”
“Didn’t get a clear reason to why my account got deleted by them, contacted support and they sent me to their “specialists” that handle that stuff but haven’t heard from them in weeks. They also did’t answer any other mails about why it’s taking so long… Also, the products are under mediocre quality, but at an expensive price. edit: to reply on your comment, I did mail the content team, I received one back saying they will need more time to look into it. That was like a month ago…”
“Redbubble has the most amazing network of artists selling their designs but don’t always do them justice. My first order, a lightweight hoodie, I was super excited for but the print was messed up (it looked like it had been bumped while it printed and the colors were very dull and sad). The customer service team was quick to issue a refund in the form of a Redbubble voucher and assured me this was an unusual occurrence. The hoodie itself is super comfortable and light weight but still warm enough. The print was just a disappointment. I had the voucher so I thought ok I’ll try them again. Probably was a one time thing. Uh, it wasn’t. My next purchase of one of their stock standard t-shirts was also s bad print. The stickers I ordered were ok though, quality was acceptable.”
“This is so disappointing. I’ve seen other people with Redbubble gear that is AMAZING. One of the girls in the apartment across from me wear pretty much only Redbubble shirts and the prints are crisp and clean and the colors are electrifying. Maybe Redbubble just hates me? Which sucks because I’m a big supporter of Australian businesses but am feeling like I have to take my business elsewhere. I don’t want a refund when I order from them, I want a decent product.”
Nice comparison of competitor Society6 vs. RedBubble
Endorsement from artist/blogger Michael Essek
And another positive review from EmptyEasel
And from Fish of Gold
