Zazzle Widget – A Review

Zazzle is an online design and printing shop that allows users to create and sell custom t-shirts, posters, stamps, etc.  Designers earn royalties when their work is sold.

The Zazzle Panel is a script-based widget which extends the sales aspect of this service out to blogs and other sites that allow script embeds.

This widget is a logical extension of Zazzle’s core business.  Increasingly, commercial entities (whether they are companies or individuals) are using blogs as a means to communicate with their customers.  What better place for that commercial entity to display custom apparel and products to their communities than on their blog?

As more and more companies choose a blog format as their corporate face, and custom, online print shops take more and more market share away from offline, bulk order shops, I would expect the demand for this sort of widget to go through the roof.

Configuration and Testing

I’ve been on Zazzle a lot recently getting some new t-shirt designs set up.  Not once did I notice any mention of the Zazzle widget.  Indeed, I only found it because I specifically set out looking for it.  A search for “Zazzle Widget” took me to a SixApart page announcing the Zazzle widget point to a Zazzle landing page at www.zazzle.com/typepad.

My guess is that Zazzle is not yet actively promoting their widget because they’re not through developing it yet.

The configuration process is pretty bare bones – in fact there isn’t any configuration process.  On the zazzle.com/typepad page, clicking the “preview my Zazzle Panel” generates a snippet of code along with a preview of the widget.  All of the designers’ products are included in the widget, with no way to remove products from the widget, edit the design of the widget, or otherwise customize the widget.

Thankfully, the widget is optimized for a blog’s sidebar, and there’s a one click TypePad add functionality.

The widget design is sweet.  It’s nice and clean - not unlike the ThisNext widget - with a link to the publisher’s Zazzle store and prominent Zazzle branding at the bottom of the widget.  It consists solely of an image of the product, with no pricing displayed.  There are no viral features displayed on this widget (e.g. “add this widget to your site).

I had no problems adding this widget to either my Blogger or TypePad sidebar.  Because it is a script, it won’t work with MySpace or most of the other big social networking communities.

The only real issue that I had with this widget is not so much a problem with the widget, than with the Zazzle TOS.  I published a product that didn’t come out right – I screwed up the formatting a bit related to a black on black background.  Zazzle doesn’t allow publishers to remove products once they have published them to the site.  This annoyance is compounded by the widget which displays ALL of your products – even the ones you screwed up.

Editorial

I find the concept of distributed shopping carts intriguing.  Unlike ThisNext, Kaboodle, and the rest of the social shopping sites, the distributed Zazzle cart is built for folks who want to sell their own products.  To me, this is a much less risky proposition than hoping that folks will use your viral tools to promote other people’s products.

If the greed / self promotion motivation was not enough, unlike most of the other widgets that I’ve looked at, Zazzle offers a clear financial incentive for blog owners to use their widgets.  The Zazzle affiliate program pays 17% of sales, so referring sales through a high traffic blog could become a decent revenue stream.

Currently, you can only add widgets to your site that correspond to products that you designed on Zazzle.  Down the road, I would imagine that Zazzle will open this up – shouldn’t anyone wanting to promote any Zazzle product be given the tools to do so?  This of course would enable the one click, “sell this product on your blog” link.

It’s unfortunate that the Zazzle Panel doesn’t work with MySpace, but the technical requirements of having a widget that dynamically reflects the publisher’s Zazzle store may not allow it.

I don’t blame Zazzle at all for delaying a full scale launch of their widget – this is something that they need to get right before they push it to market. I would imagine the sales potential of a fully distributed Zazzle network that spans thousands of blogs could dwarf the sales potential of the Zazzle destination site.

The day that a widget has a dramatic impact on a company’s top line will be the day that widgets go mainstream.  Although they are just getting started, it’s not hard for me to envision Zazzle becoming the poster child for the potential sales impact of a properly executed widget strategy.

Comments

[Mark Ridley]

I've recently written a Google Gadget usable on blogger by any store owner to address the key problem of the Zazzle Panel - that of controlling which products get shown.

As you wrote a thoughtful review on the Zazzle Panel, I thought I'd try and get some feedback from you. My tutorial with live examples is here:
http://www.highton-ridley.co.uk/tutorials/zazzlit-gadget-tutorial-adding-it-p1.html

Feedback much appreciated and gratefully received :)

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Le processus de configuration est assez Bare Bones --
http://www.playerassist.com/darkfall/
En fait il n'ya pas de processus de configuration. Sur la zazzle.com / page typepad, en cliquant sur l'aperçu «mon Zazzle Panel" génère un fragment de code ainsi que la prévisualisation du widget.
http://www.playerassist.com/fallenearth/
Tous les produits de designers "sont incluses dans le widget, sans aucun moyen de retirer les produits du widget, modifier la conception du widget, ou personnaliser le widget.http://www.playerassist.com/darkfall/

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