Account Balance

All accounts on Cotton Bureau now having a running balance (“to be paid”) which is settled monthly (typically the 15th). You can see yours right now in your payment history tab. (Not the most obvious place, we know. Maybe it will get rearranged in the future.)

In the olden days (October), pre-order campaigns would be paid out 15 days after campaigns ended while stock and on demand products would be paid the 15th. We’ve consolidated all those into a single balance and payout that you can view any time in your account. That should make it a good deal easier to see what is coming and to know when it is arriving.

Depending on your account type, you might also notice a “site credit” box, or it’s possible your “to be paid” number is negative. If you happen to have one of those special accounts that we work with to coordinate merch giveaways, you can now see a live accounting of how much of your deposit has been used.

More certainly to come in this area, all in good time.

Notifications

Speaking of new stuff, we’ve got a whole new area in your account dedicated to managing notifications, a sure crowd pleaser. Step one for us was integrating Mailchimp’s API, so you are now able to directly control which emails (including this one) you get from us via your account. We’ll be adding additional notification management options as we are able to incorporate each service type into that area. Purely hypothetically though, if you wanted more (or less) frequent sales notifications, that might be something we are working on, hypothetically.

Our extended phone case kickoff is coming to an end this Monday (Dec. 5). If you’ve already added a few phone case designs to the site, thank you! Every new phone case product counts as an entry for the giveaway up to the maximum of 10 entries. The winner will be chosen and notified next week.

If you haven’t submitted anything yet, you still have time. You can convert an old design or send a new one.

There are rumors that retail stores have begun playing Christmas music and selling all manner of year-end paraphernalia. We give no credence to these rumors, but they must be acknowledged. Naturally, Cotton Bureau is deep into planning and executing our own brilliant plan to take over the world promote your many wonderful designs. We can reveal, however, that focusing on discounts was not an accident. We want you to have all the tools you need to spread the word. We’ll be doing the same on our end with the usual assortment of promotions, giveaways, and relentless social media pressure. There will be free shipping. There will be surgically-timed campaigns targeting those among us who wait until the very last minute to take care of shopping for loved ones.

In order to be as aggressive as possible this year (which is to say, still quite conservative by the door-busting standards of the greater internet), we’re taking advantage of our new discounts infrastructure to carve up the discount responsibility among multiple parties. Historically, site-wide discounts have been an all-or-nothing nothing affair, with Cotton Bureau taking the “all” and sellers the “nothing”. Honestly, that has severely limited our ability to grab shoppers’ attention with attractive promotions. We’d like to change that.

After accounting for costs, inflation, the rotational axis of earth, gravity, windage, and myriad other factors, we’ve come to the decision that a 50/50 split on general sales and promotions is the most equitable distribution, with the proviso that your share of the discount will never exceed 50% of your cut. As a concrete example, if Cotton Bureau ran a 12 hour and 21 minute winter solstice flash sale on December 21 for 21% off, a seller with the standard $5 cut on a t-shirt would be responsible for: $30 × 21% × 50% or $3.15. With the 50% cut cap, that would be reduced to $2.50 with Cotton Bureau covering the other $3.80 of the customer discount. Similarly, the math for a hoodie would be $45 × 21% × 50% or $4.73, reduced to $2.50.

We see enhanced site discounts as a classic Michael Scott win-win-win. Creators win with additional sales, customers win with better prices, and Cotton Bureau wins too, for having successfully mediated a conflict at work. In our opinion, promotions should be strategic, relatively infrequent, variable, and highly motivating. We hope that by nudging the site slightly more in the direction of customer-friendly discounts, we’ll be able to deliver a better experience across the board. As usual, hit us up with your feedback. We’re in this together.

Friends & Family Discount

The friends and family discount is back! OG Cotton Bureaucrats will remember the friends and family discount code tucked deep inside their accounts, reserved for only the nearest and dearest in your life. As of a few weeks ago, that code (the same one) is back, to be used at your discretion. Your code, should you choose to accept it, is located in the new-and-improved discounts section of your account. You should see it right away, but if you happen to have lots of discounts associated with your account, simply type “friends” in the filter box to hide the clutter.

Now, a few important notes regarding your friends and family discount code:

— The code is good for 10% off any item in your store. However much that turns out to be based on the item price will be deducted from your payout automatically.

— This code is private. It’s up to you to decide how much or how little to share it. We will never share your friends and family code.

— The code can be disabled, by you, at any time, using the new discount details view. Just click the discount code in the table, then find the “enable discount” toggle at the bottom to activate or deactivate your code.

— Speaking of the discount details view, you can see total uses, uses remaining, discount type, and a few other helpful details. More features and statistics surely to come in good time.

Earned Free Item Codes

In addition to the friends and family discount code that is available to all creators, we were able to bring back an even more beloved discount type: free stuff.

Like the free sandwich card at your local sub shop, we’re punching tickets every time you make a sale. Make your first 10 sales? Free on demand t-shirt or phone case for you or a lucky person of your choosing. Get to 25 sales, same thing, another free shirt or case. Any on demand or pre-order campaign product in your collection is eligible, excluding only fleece. (We’re not made of money!)

And it doesn’t end at 25 sales. We’re also sending free item codes out at 75, 100, 150, and every 50 sales after that. Earlier this month all sellers received emails containing their earned codes for 2022 (maximum 10 codes). Going forward, however, there’s no limit. You’ll get an email every 50th eligible sale. Codes are also visible in your account, just like the friends and family discount. If you missed the email, be sure to check to see if you have any free item codes waiting for you. Free shirts and cases are 100% on us, including shipping.

What’s Next?

While we’re excited about the improvements to discounts we were able to add this month, we’re far from finished. If you have particular feature requests, you know where to direct them.

This is not a drill. A phone case is only as good as the phone it’s… encasing, so we want you to have nothing but the best.

We are giving away a brand-new iPhone 14 Pro to one Cotton Bureau designer.

Starting right now and ending 11:59 PM ET on Monday, December 5, create one new phone case, get one contest entry. Create two new phone case products, get two contest entries. One entry per design, maximum 10 entries (no limit on the number of new products you create though, go wild). The winner will be randomly selected and contacted the week of December 5th.

These cases are phenomenal, but they’re pretty boring without your equally fantastic designs on them. We want to see people with them in their hands this holiday season. We need your help to do that, and we’re willing to bribe you. We’re not above a little bribery.

Go forth, create new products and convert the old. One is silver and the other gold.

(If you need help — or have questions — just email us. Operators are standing by.)