Gigs & Bytes: Zazzle Dazzle
In English, that means Zazzle gives those who sell the ability to offer merchandise modified for customers’ needs by providing artist Web sites, blogs and MySpace pages a technology platform for selling on-demand merchandise to fans.
Zazzle’s focus is on music, entertainment and fashion, and promises a 24-hour turnaround on orders.
Zazzle recently launched their technology-powered platform and three new features – Model Realviews, Dark Apparel 2.0 and Name-Your-Royalty – designed to make fulfilling customized merch orders as easy as clicking a mouse.
Model Realviews enables users to design apparel online by uploading images and designs directly onto real models. For example, a band can design its own T-shirts, upload the designs and see how they look on real human beings by choosing from hundreds of models in all demos, sizes and ages.
Zazzle describes Dark Apparel 2.0 as the “first ever on-demand manufacturing of dark apparel that is better than screen printing.” Zazzle says users can upload images and designs with “millions of colors” as opposed to the limited number of colors available with screen printing. What’s more, Dark Apparel 2.0 merch can be sold just hours after finalizing the design.
Name-Your-Royalty pretty much functions as implied by giving users more control over merch income streams by enabling them to name royalty rates on every product sold, and real-time reporting of sales and royalties earned.
How promising is Zazzle? So promising that the company has reached an agreement with News Corp.’s MySpace giving musicians on the popular social-networking site an easy way to sell customized merchandise to fans, according to the Wall Street Journal .
Aside from the ease-of-use factor, Zazzle’s technology gives music fans the ability to order a band T-shirt, but customize it so that only the fan’s favorite band members are on the shirt – and have it the next day.
“These technologies will dramatically change the game for online retail,” said Zazzle’s chief strategy officer, James Heckman. “The innovation is remarkable, and Zazzle’s platform with the proprietary tools could allow any retailer or designer, regardless of size, to conduct business with similar distribution, inventory strength and the ability to market, as a major brand.”
