Changes to Society6
On February 3rd, Society6 announced its business restructuring. Since then, thousands of artists selling their work on Society6 received emails saying their shops would be closed in March 2025. The statement on the Society6 website claims the changes are taking place “to maintain the highest quality and on-trend designs, better align with market dynamics and customer preferences, and operate as a more focused brand with a smaller pool of artists.” Their goal, per Society6, is a more curated collection of select artwork.
What the Changes Mean for Artists
There are potential positives and negatives to this change for artists, regardless of whether they’re staying on Society6 or not. Depending on your preferences and goals, the change could be welcome, or the push you need to get your own website.
What’s Society6?
For those who are unfamiliar with Society6, it’s an online store/print-on-demand (POD) business where artists can sell their art. It’s not only art prints, either. If you wanted, you could decorate your entire life using that one print. You could purchase a framed print as well as bedding, curtains, a shower curtain, a mousepad, a coffee mug, a phone case, and more in that design. Would it be a lot? Sure. But you could do it. I’ve not done that, but I’ve purchased a lot of artwork there over the years—many from local artists who used it as their sole source of online income.
Top Six Changes
Multiple changes are coming with the restructuring but let’s get into the six most mentionable.
Removing Artists
There are currently over 400,000 artists selling with Society6. By removing artists whose work they don’t want on the site for whatever reason(s), they claim to be able to “improve visibility and sales.” That’s a fair point if we take it at face value. I find it hard to believe that will be the case unless they remove the vast majority of their artists, which would hurt their bottom line.
Artist Plans Eliminated
In 2023, artist plans were introduced. Three tiers were available: Free, Basic ($4.99/month), and Pro ($12.99/month). The differences in plans were largely connected to the number of designs and discounts artists could offer. As part of the restructuring of 2025, artist plans are going away.
Requiring Approval
Moving forward, artists will need to submit their work to Society6. It will then go through a new approval process.
Removing Shipping Fees
Beginning March 18th, there will no longer be shipping fees deducted from artists’ earnings. This sounds like a positive for artists and customers. Then you remember the pesky price issue.
Not Allowing Artists to Set Prices
This is the kicker for a lot of artists. Not being allowed to set prices for your own work is wild business. Society6 says this is a way to offer standardized pricing to make products “more accessible” (more affordable). It’s probably going to come at the expense of the artists actually supplying the art.
How Artists Get Paid
The new earnings structure going into effect in March means that artists will earn 5-10% of the net sale amount, broken out as follows:
- 10% for pillows, wall tapestries, framed art, and posters
- 5% for all other products
The timeline to expect, per Society6, from shipping date to payment is important to note. There’s a 30-day grace period and payments are made via PayPal between the first and third business day of the month. For example, let’s say an art print you sold ships on March 15th. The 30-day grace period is over April 15th. You’d get paid somewhere between May 1st-3rd.
Products Disappearing & Reappearing
Worth mentioning is that artists who received emails saying their shops would remain open are reporting that some products have been removed. Others are claiming products they previously removed have returned to their store without their permission. If true, that’s another reminder that artists aren’t in the driver’s seat with the company.
Why Have Your Own E-Commerce Website?
Set Your Prices
Having control over your prices is Business 101. Whether you started selling your art as a main source of income or an additional stream of income, you likely didn’t envision having someone else set your prices. Listening to customers and shifting is always part of pricing, but having full control over what you offer your work for is imperative.
Apply Discounts as You Wish
In that same vein, you probably also didn’t think you’d have to put a cap on your discount percentages. If you’re ready to get rid of some stock (if you’re keeping prints in stock) and want to set deeper discounts, you can when you have your own site.
Add & Remove Products
Get your own website so you don’t have to wait on and hope someone else’s approval system works in your favor. When you’re ready to add, edit, or remove a product, you can.
Gain Full Analytics Access
When you have full access to insights like statistics and other data, it can be useful for marketing. See things like the customer journey (how website visitors are bebopping around your site), what pages do well, what shifts could be made, etc.
Choose a Small POD Partner
I’m a huge proponent of finding smaller businesses to partner with whenever possible. It takes a lot of research that can really pay off. My favorite is Raygun because they’re super-responsive, knowledgeable, and use union labor.
Own the Customer Experience
Taking care of your own customer service is a lot of work, but it can really be worth it in the end. Don’t sleep on the power of word-of-mouth when it comes to marketing. Plus, this allows you to build stronger direct customer relationships.
Take Advantage of SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) can help customers find you online through keyword research and thoughtful content strategy. Lean into it to invest further into your business.
Be Reachable
Put all of the ways a customer could contact you on the site. Your email, phone number, social media pages, and whatever else you can think of can live there. This is especially important if you’re an artist who offers custom work.
Stop Relying on Social Media
This is a bonus tip. Part of taking control of your business and brand is having a website. If all of your social media platforms go down, your website remains.
Final Thoughts
A lot of work goes into having your own website, handling customer service, shipping, etc. You’re also going to have to rely on third-party software like point-of-sale systems. You can learn if you want to learn. I believe in you.
Build your brand around your website and take control of your business! I’m also here to help build that site, obviously, and can assist in adding products, handling the SEO strategy, and more.