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Building a Profitable eCommerce Business Model and Why It's Easier Than You Think

In this episode of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast, we give you tips to build an eCommerce business model and show you why it doesn’t have to be that hard! If you want to start an online business but feel overwhelmed by all the options out there, this episode is for you! We want to introduce you to an eCommerce business model that’s more lucrative and passive so you can work smarter, not harder to make money online. 

In the episode, we’ll cover what Zazzle is, how it’s different from other e-commerce platforms, and how it will benefit you as a creative online entrepreneur.

eCommerce business model for Zazzle

But before we dive right in, let us introduce ourselves in case this is your first visit. Welcome to The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast. We’re your hosts, Jen and Elke Clarke. We are a mother and daughter team that started Zazzle e-commerce businesses over 10 years ago and has sold over 15 million dollars-worth and counting of products on Zazzle.

 

The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast is for you, the creative. We share actionable steps that you can take to make money in your e-commerce business. In each episode, we will take you one step closer to achieving freedom with your time, location, and finances.

 

We believe that a profitable eCommerce business model is what opens the doors for you to start living your dream life if you work smarter, not harder, use the right tools and follow the proven roadmap. We’re here to give you the tools you need to make your dream life happen. Let’s get started!

 

And today we’ll discuss how building a successful online business model on Zazzle is easier than you think! For all the details, listen to the ENTIRE episode of The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast on your preferred streaming platform.

What is Zazzle?

Zazzle is a print-on-demand (POD) company. That means that their products get printed only once the customer purchases them. This has great environmental impacts, but it is also amazing news for you as a designer. 

 

You don’t have to print your own products! You don’t have to worry about having an inventory or shipping products. Zazzle takes care of all of that for you. All you have to do is design them and post them for sale in your virtual store. It’s all digital until the customer buys the item. 

 

Another unique aspect we love about Zazzle is the capabilities for customization. Zazzle has a unique design tool that allows customers to change and manipulate designs to look exactly how they want and change out the sample text or photo for their own. 

 

While you may think at first that you wouldn’t want someone to change your design, this is actually great news for you too. 

 

With the customization capability, customers can make your products look exactly how they want, and they don’t have to go back and forth with you to make changes. This saves you so much time!

 

The reason this is another great feature is because when your design offers a capability to be customized as needed, customers are less likely to look at another designer’s products to meet their needs. Whatever the customer decides to do with your design, YOU still get the royalty when they use it. 

Jen and Elke

Engage, LEARN, IMPLEMENT

How Zazzle eCommerce Business Model compares to other e-commerce platforms.

No e-commerce platform is exactly the same. However, most platforms like Shopify, Etsy, and Amazon have some requirements in common:

  • Fees for posting products
  • Inventory requirements
  • Product limits

In addition, these platforms have a lot of overhead. You may need to pay for website development, ads to drive traffic to your site, and much more. 

Zazzle, on the other hand, is extremely unique from these other eCommerce business models. Here’s how it compares to other platforms:

  • No fees for posting products
  • No inventory requirements (You don’t have to worry about inventory at all because your products are digital. And THEY take care of printing and shipping!)
  • The product limit is 100,000 products (it’s unlikely you’ll ever even reach this amount!)


Zazzle makes things so much easier for you as a designer and seller. All you have to do is create your designs and post them online in your online store on the Zazzle platform. This helps you work smarter, and not harder, like you would have to do on other platforms.

successful eCommerce business model

How Zazzle makes e-commerce easy.

Sell on Zazzle

We want to show you how Zazzle makes running your business simple in a variety of areas:

  • Set-up. All you need to create an account and set up your store on Zazzle is a working email address, and you can set everything up and post your first product for sale in around 30 minutes! If you want help we have training for that.
  • Customer service. You really don’t have to deal with customer service very much. We have occasionally worked with a customer on a custom design request, but if there are issues with product quality, Zazzle takes care of it because they have an amazing customer satisfaction policy. 
  • Money. With Zazzle, you earn a royalty for your designs that you set. They have an easy payment system through Paypal. And you don’t have to worry about sales taxes. 
  • Maintenance. We are able to spend less than 20 hours per month working on our Zazzle businesses, and we teach our students how to do the same. This allows us to focus our time and energy on other things because we know our Zazzle business is working for us even when we’re away from it!

Of course, while Zazzle does make it incredibly easy for you as a designer, you do have to post products that people want to buy. There are some business skills you need to learn. We didn’t have this training when we first started our online businesses, and we had to learn through years of trial and error. That’s why we created  The Profit by Design Academy ™ to teach the strategies we use to profit on Zazzle. If there’s any “catch” to Zazzle, it’s that you do have to know how to make something people will buy, how to market your products and manage your business. But that’s what we’re here to teach you.

Building a Profitable eCommerce Business Model and Why It's Easier Than You Think: The Bottomline

zazzle wedding invitations

We get tired just thinking about the hoops so many entrepreneurs have to jump through using other e-commerce business models! We didn’t get into this business only to end up exhausted, and neither did you. We all want to work smarter, not harder, and Zazzle is THE platform to support that. 

Thank you so much for listening to The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast! 

Be part of our community where we can continue the conversation on these topics and tools. Join our Facebook group

We love when we make new friends. Connect with us on Instagram, @msjenclarke and @elkeclarke.

We appreciate you and thank you for your review, rating and becoming a subscriber.

Share on IG. Tag us @msjenclarke and @elkeclarke, so we can send you some love to you and get to know you.

DM us and let us know if you’ll be taking action to build your own Zazzle business! We’d love to cheer you on. 

See you back here next week!

About your hosts

Jen and Elke Clarke are a mother-daughter duo that empowers women entrepreneurs to make money online. Through courses and coaching, Jen and Elke help women (and men) become successful creative entrepreneurs on Zazzle and e-commerce. Combined Jen and Elke have sold over 15 million dollars-worth of products, and earned over $1.5 million combined through their businesses on Zazzle. Jen and Elke have influenced and transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide with their free content, paid and private coaching.

They are international, award-winning authors. Click the links to purchase their books through Amazon: Earn Around The World and Create Online and Grow Rich.

Jen and Elke Clarke have been featured in Yahoo Finance as TOP 5 e-commerce coaches.

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