How much do I earn from my sales?

As a selling independent artist, it’s important to get familiar with the way pricing and payments work in the Redbubble marketplace. The following article should shed some light on topics like:

• Base Price, Artist Margin, and Retail Price
• Sales and Discounts
• GST, VAT, and Taxes
• Account Tier Fee

Base Price, Artist Margin, and Retail Price

This is how it works.

Let’s break it down.

Base Price

The base price includes Redbubble’s service fee for hosting the marketplace and the manufacturing fee charged by the third-party manufacturer. Changing the delivery address at checkout could very well change the total because of different local production and material costs charged by the respective manufacturer.

Please note that fluctuating currencies and costs can occasionally alter the base price.

Artist Margin (& Markup)

The artist margin shows how much you make off of a sale, with the markup being the percentage of the base price and the margin being the actual cash amount.

This defaults to 20% but you are free to raise or lower that amount any time in the Product Pricing section of your Account Details page. Keep in mind that the Product Pricing page displays these amounts based on your local currency and shipping settings. The final amount will differ for visitors in different countries.

Sales Tax (a.k.a. VAT)

Sales Tax or Value Added Tax is collected on each sale and paid to the appropriate tax authorities.

Retail Price

The base price, artist margin, and sales tax combine to create the retail price, which is the price you see per product across the Redbubble website.

Let’s use an example.

Large framed art prints going to the US have a base price of US$125.00.

You set a 20% markup for large framed art prints.

20% of the $125 base price means you get an artist margin of $25.00.

$125 base price + $25 artist margin makes for a $150 retail price (before tax).

Sales and Discounts

So how do sales and discounts fit into the equation?

Remember, your markup is a percentage of the base price, meaning if the base price changes, your artist margin changes. The visual equation looks something like this:

Some of the products have bulk discounts that can affect the base price of items in larger orders. Let’s look at another example to see how this affects your margin.

Let’s say Stickers to the US have a base price of US$2.00

You set a markup of 50%, which means your margin is $1.00. The retail price for one sticker is then $3.00.

Now, let’s assume the volume discount for stickers is 50% off the base price for 5+ stickers. This means that if your customer buys 5 or more stickers, then the new base price is $1.00.

If you kept your markup at 50%, then 50% of $1.00 is 50 cents. The new base price ($1.00) plus the new artist margin (50 cents) means the new retail price is $1.50.

At the end of the 5 sticker sale, costs and payments (before taxes) round up to:

Customer pays $1.50 per sticker, meaning they paid $7.50 total.
The total base price after the discount was $5.00.
You receive 50% of the base price, meaning you get $2.50.

Though site-wide discounts might feel like you’re making less profit, it’s good to keep in mind that discounts drive customers to the site and attract them to your work.  

Taxes and Fees

Redbubble is an online marketplace where artists can sell their products to customers using the Redbubble platform. Redbubble collects proceeds on behalf of the artist and deducts Redbubble’s service fee, shipping costs, and the supplier’s manufacturing fee before paying the remaining funds to the artist (Artist Margin).

Tax is included in orders where applicable, and may include sales tax, GST, or VAT (indirect taxes). Because indirect taxes vary around the world and are based on various factors, it is the responsibility of all artists on Redbubble to make sure they are handling their own tax obligations correctly. This is further outlined in our User Agreement.

As an online marketplace facilitator, Redbubble has an obligation in certain jurisdictions to collect and remit the relevant indirect taxes from the customers on behalf of artists. In these circumstances, this means artists do not need to collect or report the indirect taxes on their products sold in those jurisdictions.