It’s no secret that artists seem to have the most difficult time to find a steady source of income. As a result, sites like Society6 and Redbubble, where artists can upload their designs and people can buy them on all sorts of print products, have become a standard.

Regular people can browse the products and buy them online on the sites’ stores, and the items usually go for market price (like $22 for a tote bag). After talking to our friend MightyFox, an artist that sells on Society6, I was shocked to find how small the cut of the profit is for the artists.

That prompted this blog post, a monetary data-based look at the differences in profit margins between using Society6, and what you stand to gain by using Printful. Artists deserve more, so why not work a little for it?

https://society6.com/product/deer94254_print?curator=mightyfox

https://society6.com/product/lizards-0b3_print?curator=mightyfox

Setting up our imaginary store

In both “stores” we’ll set up a few products. We chose products that are available on both platforms so that we can compare the two experiences more easily.

The products we’ll sell in our imaginary store are:

• Canvas print
• Framed art print
• Throw pillow
• Mug
• Sublimation tote bag
• T-shirt
• Art print (8×10″ on Printful, 8×9″ on Society6)
• Square art print (12×12 on printful, 13×13 on Society6)

How the math works

The main difference between Printful and Society6 in terms of understanding the pricing is that Printful tells you how much you’re the product + printing costs, and then you can add your own profit.

Here’s we’ll set the prices – they’ll be the Society6 prices that they themselves set, as well as a poster price that our artist friend Arpi sets for herself. Then we’ll calculate the profit the artist makes from selling the same item on both platforms.

To calculate the profit margin percentage, we used the following formula and then found the average between all of the products:

profit ÷ price the product is sold = profit margin

Profit margins speak the truth

After evaluating the profit margin for both platforms, selling comparable products at the same price, the Society6 margin is always 10% except for the art prints, where they let you set your own price (and therefore brings up the average profit margin). While the Printful profit margin is an average of %28.5 (the lowest margin being for throw pillows at 15%, while the highest is for framed art prints, at a 37% margin).

Even in comparison with Nuvango, a similar platform that offers artists’ work on products like phone/laptop/tablet skins, they only make a 20% profit. That’s still less than the Printful option, and more than the 10% Society6 standard profit cut.

Other expenses to take into consideration

Of course when creating your own store there are other expenses that take a portion of your profit margin.

– domain
– hosting
– design/maintenance
– ecommerce fee (if using Shopify or Bigcommerce)

Say you sell 20 t-shirts in a month. With Printful profit margins you’d be making $120, while with Society6 you’d be making $44.

Your yearly expense for a regular domain and basic hosting would be about $17 for your domain and $3.95/month for hosting (based on regular BlueHost prices). Divide the $17 by 12 months and you’re left with $1.40/month payment.

Your expenses:

$1.40 – domain
$3.95 – hosting
$29 – ecommerce platform (if you’re using Shopify or BigCommerce

Total expenses: $34.35

From your $120 profit subtract your extra expenses, and you’re left with your total profit:

Total profit: $85.65

Reasons artists still use Society6

An artist is just that – an artist. Not necessarily a graphic designer or skilled photoshop’er. One of the biggest draws to Society6 is the simplicity of setting up all of the different products. Rather than adjusting your image and preparing mockups for every design you have, and for every product you add it on. You upload your design, and Society6 automatically prepares the images for all of the products for you.

But artists that are looking towards making a bigger profit margin through Prinful can rest easy – our new feature, the Mockup Generator, is expanding every day. You can already easily generate your t-shirt, tank and poster mockup images, and other products are coming soon.

Are you willing to work for it?

As an artist, of course it makes sense for your designs to be seen by the world and maybe even profit a little bit, rather than gathering dust in your closet. The question is, do you want to put little effort into it for little profit, or are you ready to put a little bit more effort into it to create your own store, and double your profit? It’s up to you.