It’s no secret that many artists seek ways to earn a side income in addition to their jobs.
Over the years, numerous platforms for creators to sell their art have emerged, with Society6 being a popular choice. Using this type of ecommerce platform means you’re among thousands of talented individuals with similar goals and interests, selling your art alongside them.
But is selling your artwork on such platforms more profitable than running your own online store? To answer this question, we’ll take a data-driven look at the differences in profit margins between using Society6 and Printful.
Society6
Society6 is a popular platform for artists to sell various products with their designs. The platform provides print-on-demand services and a built-in marketplace. Let’s explore how Society6 works to understand the earning potential for artists on this platform.
How does Society6 work?
Just like Printful, Society6 operates as a print-on-demand service. However, Society6 also functions as a sales platform. Society6 keeps an inventory of blank products instead of holding physical stock of your designs—when a customer orders an item from their website, Society6 prints and ships it directly to the customer.
To start selling on Society6, you need to create and verify your account (there’s a $0.01 verification fee), upload your designs, and select the products you want to sell.
Source: Society6
Products on Society6
Society6 offers a wide selection of products to showcase your artwork and reach a broad audience. The Wall Art category features art prints, canvas prints, and framed art. For a more dramatic display, options like tapestries and wall murals are available.
The Home Decor collection includes everyday items such as throw pillows, blankets, rugs, and blackout curtains. In the Apparel collection, you can find t-shirts, hoodies, and leggings, among many other items.
Additionally, Society6 offers categories like Bags & Accessories, Furniture, and Tech. Whether you’re looking at backpacks, tote bags, coffee tables, or phone cases, there are numerous possibilities to choose from.
Profit margins on Society6
Your profit margins on Society6 depend on the Artist’s Plan you choose. There are 3 options available—Free, Basic, and Pro.
Source: Society6
The Free version is very limited—you can only upload 10 designs, and Society6 determines how much you can profit from the sale of each item.
With the paid options (Basic and Pro), you get the freedom to set up your own profit margins and upload more designs. The Basic plan lets you upload up to 100 designs, and the Pro plan—10,000 designs. The default profit margin is 10% and can be adjusted up to 999% for both paid plans.
Note that Society6 is allowed to lower your sales price to make your products more appealing to customers. When selling your artwork at a discount, the price will be $3–$10 lower, which means your profit won’t be as promised. Additionally, a shipping fee of $0.30–$8 will be deducted from your earnings.
Your profit depends on the product price, shipping fee, and the margin you set. Let’s calculate your earnings with and without a sales discount.
Without a discount:
Artist earnings = (base price × markup) – shipping fee
A 16″ × 16″ throw pillow has a base price of $35. You set a 15% markup for throw pillows. The retail price is now $40 (the price is rounded up to the dollar).
Artist earnings = ($35 × 0.15) − $1.00 = $5.25 − $1.00 = $4.25
With a discount:
Artist earnings = ((base price – discount) × markup) – shipping fee
The same 16″ × 16″ throw pillow with a 15% markup is purchased with a 20% discount. The discount is calculated from the base price and comes out to $7.
Artist earnings = (($35 – $7) × 0.15) – $1.00 = $4.20 – $1.00 = $3.20
Before setting your pricing, you should calculate your potential profit, considering any discounts applied by Society6. Additionally, review the platform’s shipping fees to ensure accurate profit calculations.
Monthly store expenses
As mentioned above, Society6 offers three different subscription plans. If you’re just starting out and want to test the waters, you can choose the Free plan. This plan has no monthly charges, but your earnings will be limited by a set 10% profit margin, and you can only upload up to 10 designs.
You can opt for a paid plan to set higher profit margins and potentially increase your earnings. The Basic plan, which allows up to 100 design uploads, costs $4.99 per month. The Pro plan, which lets you upload up to 10,000 designs, is priced at $12.99 per month.
Your choice of plan depends on your goals and experience. If you’re new to ecommerce, the Free plan provides a good starting point to learn how the platform works and experiment with a few designs. For those looking to establish a more serious ecommerce presence, the paid plans offer uploading more designs and potentially earning a substantial income.
Printful
Printful is a print-on-demand service that enables artists to sell their designs on a wide range of products, from custom stickers and candles to home decor and apparel. Let’s delve into how Printful works and the opportunities it offers for maximizing artist earnings.
How does Printful work?
Printful is a print-on-demand dropshipping service, meaning you can create and sell products without holding any inventory. This dropshipping model allows you to focus on your art while Printful handles the logistics.
Printful integrates with ecommerce platforms and marketplaces like Shopify, BigCommerce, eBay, and more. As an artist, you can launch your store and integrate with numerous ecommerce platforms and marketplaces without the hassle of order fulfillment and shipping—Printful takes care of all that for you.
To start selling your art on printed products, you need to create an account on an ecommerce platform of your choice and connect it to Printful. Then, design your products and add them to your store with a price tag you set yourself.
When a customer buys something from your store, Printful charges you a fixed fee for fulfillment and the product itself. What’s left is your gross profit.
Products on Printful
Just like Society6, Printful offers a broad blank product range for artists to design and sell. In the Wall Art category, you’ll find items such as posters, canvas prints, metal prints, and flags, allowing you to showcase your art in various formats.
The extensive Home & Living category features numerous home decor items like pillows, blankets, and towels, as well as drinkware, beauty products, and pet accessories. Additionally, the catalog includes footwear, bags, tech accessories, and a wide selection of hats.
Printful’s largest product category is apparel, which includes sportswear, casual wear, swimwear, and more. This allows artists to appeal to a diverse audience.
Unlike Society6, Printful provides different product customization options—printing, embroidery, and all-over printing. This flexibility allows you to choose how to showcase your artwork, enabling you to create various collections.
Profit margins on Printful
Understanding profit margins is crucial for artists looking to maximize their earnings on any platform. Printful stands out by offering transparent pricing and allowing you to set your own retail prices, giving you control over your potential earnings. Here’s a breakdown of how profit margins work at Printful:
Gross profit: This is the revenue you earn from sales minus the product base price.
Gross profit = revenue – product base price
Net profit: This is the money left over after all expenses like taxes and advertising costs are covered. Net profit shows your overall profitability.
Net profit = total revenue – total expenses
Printful’s average profit margin is around 56%, which is quite competitive. However, this can vary depending on the product. For instance, the lowest margin is typically 32% for sublimated tote bags, while the highest can reach up to 75% for framed art prints.
Calculating your margins allows you to strategize your pricing and maximize profits.
Monthly store expenses to consider
One significant advantage of Printful is that the platform itself doesn’t impose any monthly costs or limitations on the number of designs you can upload. This gives you more flexibility and control over your business operations.
However, running an online store has costs, which vary depending on the sales platform or marketplace you integrate your store with.
As an example, let’s take a closer look at potential monthly expenses for Shopify:
$15/year for domain name
$29/year for hosting
$288/year platform fee
Total monthly expenses would round up to $28.
To pick the right marketplace or ecommerce platform for your business, it’s important to compare the monthly costs and possible commission fees of each to make sure your store is profitable.
The artists’s choice: Society6 vs. Printful
Learning how to sell art online and make money involves strategic marketing efforts and understanding trending products. No matter which provider you choose—Society6 or Printful—you’ll need to invest your time and money because just showcasing your products on a website won’t be enough to make sales.
The advantage of Society6 is that it’s a well-known page for artists and buyers. It’s easier to drive traffic to your store and get more exposure, while your own platform is more challenging to promote.
But remember, on Society6, you’re competing with thousands of talented people with eye-catching art who could “steal” your potential customers. On your own platform, you’re the one in charge and can stand out from the crowd with well-thought-out marketing campaigns.
Ease of use and setup
Not every artist is a skilled Photoshop user or tech-savvy professional capable of launching and managing an online store by themselves. So, one of the biggest draws to Society6 is the simple store setup.
The process is straightforward:
Create and verify your account on Society6
Upload your design once
Select the products you want to sell
Publish them on your store
Society6 automatically generates product images for you, so you don’t need to adjust your design size and prepare mockups for every product you want to sell. All you have to do is direct your followers to your store on Society6 and optimize your product titles and tags to show up in search results.
If you want more control over the products you sell and the price tag you put on them, consider opening an online store with Printful.
Here’s how you do it:
Create an account on an ecommerce platform of your choice
Connect it to Printful
Design your selected products
Add the products to your store
It’s up to you which ecommerce platform or marketplace you use to sell your products.
With Printful, you have more products to choose from as well as various color and sizing options. Additionally, you can tweak your designs for each product, adjusting them to your preferences and the style you’ve envisioned.
Finally, you can build a strong brand presence with white-label branding services.
Monetize your art
Whether you want to sell your art on Society6 or open your own online store is up to you. But if you’re ready to explore options that allow you to earn more for your artwork and build a strong brand, consider taking matters into your own hands. Doing so will give you more creative and financial freedom, which is something you can’t get too much of.
Read Next: What is a Giclée Print? All You Need to Know about Giclée Printing
FAQs
Explore your options for selling your artwork with Society6 vs. Printful! Learn which one helps to earn you more.
