The print-on-demand market is thriving and expanding rapidly. Redbubble is one of the companies offering a wide collection of merchandise on which the many custom designs listed on the website can be printed.
Redbubble serves as a bridge between shoppers who are looking for unique prints on items they want to purchase and artists who want to unlock another stream of income from selling their work.
However, Redbubble’s rising popularity has brought with it some complaints and skepticism about the platform’s legitimacy. Does it offer the services it claims to or is it just a front to scam artists out of their intellectual property and customers out of their hard-earned money?
In this post, we are going to analyze every aspect of Redbubble’s operations to determine whether the platform is legit or if it’s wiser to take your money and talent elsewhere.
So if you’re worried about whether Redbubble is a trustworthy site or not, check out the results of our investigations before making up your mind.
Overview of Redbubble
Redbubble materialized in Australia in 2006 with the goal of helping independent artists make more money from their craft by selling their creations.
The company functions as an online marketplace where designers and artists can upload their work to be printed on the wide variety of products that Redbubble offers for sale.
This means that customers who like the artworks or designs can buy them as prints on wall art, stickers, clothing, stationery, and more.
At the moment, Redbubble claims to have over 700,000 active designers and artists across the globe using the platform to connect with fans and make sales.
Redbubble’s business model and how it operates
Essentially, Redbubble operates as a middleman between artists who want to sell their artworks and customers who want uncommon designs on the items they purchase.
These artists and creators list their unique designs on Redbubble and the platform enables people who love the designs to print them on products they want to buy such as cups, t-shirts, phone cases, and more.
Redbubble doesn’t charge artists any fees to create an account on the platform. They can just sign up for free, set up their shop within minutes, and start uploading their designs and art on the platform.
Unlike a personal print shop where the artists themselves would be responsible for selling the art, printing requested designs on merchandise, and shipping it out to customers, they don’t have to do any of these with Redbubble.
All they have to do is create designs, add them to their shop, and state how much they’d like to sell them for.
Then customers looking to buy items like accessories, clothing, wall decor, or even canvas prints, can browse through Redbubble’s offerings to find designs that speak to them.
Once they come across something they look at, they can have that artist’s creation printed on the products they want. And within a few days or weeks, the customer’s order will arrive at their destination.
Redbubble handles all the responsibilities from printing the designs on selected products and delivering them to buyers all over the world.
Redbubble’s business model is a three-way agreement in which buyers get to own original art and high-quality merch and artists get to make money and get their work out there. And in return, Redbubble keeps a fraction of the sales price.
It’s a win-win for everyone, right?
Redbubble’s reputation and popularity among artists and customers
So what do the people who buy and sell on Redbubble think of the platform and the way it handles its business?
For the most part, it seems as though Redbubble is regarded as a trustworthy and reliable service by the general public who use the online marketplace to buy artistic merch or sell their designs.
It also helps that Redbubble is a publicly traded company, which means the company has been vetted by security exchanges and investment banks and found to be of good repute.
Redbubble has also earned commendations for promoting an inclusive and diverse artistic community. The platform welcomes artists from all backgrounds, corners of the world, and levels of experience to feature their art and garner support for their work.
According to reviews on Trustpilot, Redbubble has a rating score of 3.7/5. On the lesser-known review website, Sitejabber, Redbubble scores a lower rating of 3.51 stars.
Based on ratings from these platforms, it appears that most customers and artists have a good experience using Redbubble.
There are lots of positive reviews and comments about the platform, as well as some complaints about the company’s quality control, delivery time frames, and customer service.
However, Redbubble has also had several complaints leveled against it with the Better Business Bureau.
The negative reviews are further buoyed by the company’s reluctance to respond to complaints and reassure customers that their concerns are being taken seriously.
Evaluating Redbubble’s Legitimacy
To properly determine whether Redbubble is legit and worth using, we’re going to analyze some important facets of the business.
Copyright infringement and intellectual property rights concerns
Naturally, when you upload an original design to Redbubble, you retain the copyright and intellectual property rights over that piece of art.
On paper, Redbubble respects these rights and requires that all sellers on the platform respect the intellectual property rights of others. It even has a clear procedure for reporting copyright infringements.
If an artist believes that some other party is infringing on their intellectual property rights by passing off their designs as belonging to that party, they can report the content and have it taken down.
Despite the measures Redbubble takes to prevent copyright violations, many artists have still experienced issues with copyright infringements.
There have been cases where a bigger seller ripped off the work of another artist and the latter got penalized with account suspension after reporting the issue.
This means that Redbubble is simply not doing a good enough job of investigating copyright complaints. Hence the process can lead to unfair results and the wrong party being punished.
Quality of products offered on Redbubble
As a customer, you want to be assured that whatever product you buy on Redbubble will be durable and of good quality.
Our analysis of Redbubble customer reviews shows that most people who have purchased items from the site found the products to be of fine quality. Lots of customers commended the quality of materials the platform uses to create its products.
Many customers also expressed their appreciation for Redbubble’s printing techniques which allows the colors and details of designs to be reflected accurately and vividly.
Similarly, there was ample praise for the life expectancy of Redbubble’s products because they don’t fade or deteriorate quickly over time.
Although most of the reviews about Redbubble’s product quality are positive-learning, the company’s offerings have failed to satisfy some customers.
There have been complaints about the prints on clothing items coming off after getting washed.
Some customers have also shared their dissatisfaction with the quality of print images, stating that they appeared blurry and had poor color accuracy.
Customer feedback and experiences with Redbubble’s products and services
Redbubble has a mixed bag of customer sentiments. For instance, on Sitejabber, one-third of the overall reviews for the platform are negative—below three stars.
Whereas, on Trustpilot, the numbers are a little less underwhelming with negative reviews claiming only 26% of the total number of reviews so far.
By these figures, it is clear that the majority of customers are either absolutely satisfied or merely content with the products and services they purchased from Redbubble.
But the number of unhappy customers leaving negative feedback is proof that the platform often falls short of expectations and needs to work on serving its audiences better.
Redbubble’s policies and procedures for handling orders, returns, and customer support
When Redbubble receives an order, it contracts it out to a third-party printer in the customer’s geographical area for fulfillment and delivery.
In the event that the item you ordered is not to your satisfaction, you can submit a return request within 90 days of the delivery date for most products.
The platform also allows customers to exchange items and get a replacement or a voucher for future purchases if they ordered the wrong color, style, or size for an item.
Redbubble has a help center that’s laden with guides and articles covering everything from how to get started with using the platform to its user policies and guidelines.
You can easily consult this knowledge repository if you have questions about the company or its products and services.
Additionally, the print-on-demand platform also enables users to reach customer support directly with questions and concerns via chatbot or by filling out a request form.
However, our evaluation reveals persistent complaints about the ineffectiveness and—in some cases—the nonexistence of Redbubble’s customer service.
Customers often lament over not getting responses to their messages or only receiving standard emails that do not address their issues when the platform bothers to reply to their requests.
Redbubble’s Artist Community
As you’ve seen from the reviews and analysis above, Redbubble is a legit place for customers to buy artistic goods. But how about from the perspective of artists?
Is Redbubble legit for designers and creators looking to make money from selling their art and design work? Let’s find out.
Experiences and feedback of artists who sell their work on Redbubble
Although many artists are making bank and have been able to create thriving passive businesses from Redbubble, things are not so rosy across the board.
There’s an avalanche of bad reviews from disgruntled artists who feel that Redbubble doesn’t care for artists as much as they claim. Artists claim that that platform arbitrarily suspends accounts for baseless violations regularly.
Sellers have to jump through hoops and spend weeks or months trying to get their accounts reinstated often to no avail.
Artists have also accused Redbubble of continuing to sell their work after their accounts were taken down and keeping all the money for themselves instead of paying the design owners their commission.
Redbubble’s newly introduced fees and account tiers have earned extensive backlash, particularly from independent artists with smaller sales volumes.
The artists see the company’s new policy of taking between 20%-50% of their sales earnings as daylight robbery that leaves them with peanuts.
As a result of these experiences, many artists are deleting their stores on Redbubble and moving to other platforms in the hopes of getting better treatment.
Payment structure and transparency for artists on Redbubble
If you’re wondering about the legitimacy of Redbubble, it should count as a point in its favor that the platform is pretty transparent about its payment structure and policies.
By default, Redbubble adds a 20% artist markup to the base price of the product, which is what the artist will take home after a sale. For instance, if the base price for a hoodie is $100, a 20% markup would mean you get an artist margin of $25.
So the end retail price will be calculated for the customer as the base price plus your margin—tax not included. However, artists can increase or decrease the default 20% markup anytime they like.
Artists can choose to get paid via PayPal or Wire Transfer. As long as you reach the $20 earnings threshold, you can expect payments to be processed on the 15th day of each month, or the following Monday if the date falls on a weekend.
Recently, Redbubble introduced tiered accounts—standard, premium, and pro—and an account tier fee that will be deducted from artists’ earnings based on the number of sales they generate.
If you’re unclear about any aspect of getting paid as an artist on Redbubble, you can always consult the Designing & Selling Section of the website’s help center for clarification.
The platform claims these fees are to enable it to build a healthy marketplace and create a better experience for artists.
Level of support and resources provided to artists on the platform
Redbubble has a comprehensive repository of information in its help center and blog aimed at giving artists all the resources they need to succeed in selling their art.
The platform guides new artists through every step of setting up their accounts, uploading their designs, and promoting their store to help drive more traffic to it.
Also, Redbubble has designed several initiatives such as its affiliate program and fan art program to help artists earn more and gain wider recognition for their work.
Trust and Security Measures
One of the most crucial points to consider when measuring the legitimacy of a platform is its approach to privacy and security.
In our bid to answer the question of whether Redbubble is legit and safe to use, we investigated and explored the platform’s privacy policies and security protections.
Here’s what we found.
Redbubble’s security protocols for handling customer data and transactions
The online marketplace has in place several measures and takes all necessary and reasonable steps to promote the security of all its user data.
All payments on Redbubble are processed using encrypted connections and secure data processors to safeguard sensitive financial details.
According to Redbubble’s privacy policy, the company does not sell or rent personal data for marketing or any other purpose.
The voluntary personal data—name, address, phone number, email address, fax number, bank account info, etc.—it collects from users are only used to provide and manage the services the marketplace offers.
User data is processed for the purpose of preventing fraud, maintaining the integrity of the platform, and administering optimal user experience.
Redbubble does not share personal information with third parties except when permitted by law, as a necessity for the provision of its services, or if the users themselves consent to the activity.
Considering that Redbubble has a defined, publicly accessible user agreement and privacy policy, it lends credence to the authority and credibility of the platform.
Redbubble’s compliance with privacy regulations and data protection
Redbubble is compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and other relevant legal requirements.
All of Redbubble’s privacy policy and its protocols for handling the personal data of its users are in line with the rules laid down by these regulatory laws and standards.
The company even goes as far as outlining the exact legal basis for each of the circumstances for which it collects and processes user data.
This way you can easily consult those sections of the legal documents in question to determine whether Redbubble’s policies actually reflect the true tenets of the requirements.
Under applicable data protection laws, Redbubble users have tentative rights to request access to their personal data which is stored on the platform. And if found inaccurate, you can request that it be rectified, deleted, or have its use restricted.
Users may also be entitled to object to how their personal data is being processed or have their data sent to them in a machine-readable format. You can also withdraw your consent to the collection and processing of your personal data by Redbubble at any time.
If you feel your data protection rights have been violated by Redbubble, you are free to file a complaint with the appropriate supervisory body.
All this goes to show that Redbubble is a legitimate business charged with operating within the confines of the law.
Reported security breaches or concerns regarding user information
So far, there have not been any reports about any security breaches involving the Redbubble marketplace. Likewise, there are no complaints about the company processing users’ personal data for inappropriate or non-consented purposes.
The absence of these issues suggests that Redbubble does a pretty great job of protecting its users’ privacy and ensuring their data remains secure.
So if you’re concerned about whether it is safe to buy from or list your work for sale on Redbubble, you shouldn’t be.
The platform is quite secure so you won’t have to worry about your sensitive information falling into the wrong hands.
Redbubble Legitimacy – Recap
Summarizing the findings of the analysis on Redbubble’s legitimacy
Our in-depth evaluation of Redbubble’s legitimacy reveals that the company has been around for a long time.
Its longevity can be attributed to the fact that a lot of people have purchased or sold items on the platform and have found that it does exactly what it says it does.
Furthermore, Redbubble is a publicly traded company that publishes its annual operations and financial reports for all to see. If it was an illegitimate company engaging in illegal activities, it would not be so keen to share its business information with the general public.
What’s more, if Redbubble was not legit, its spurious operations would have been found out and exposed by now. So far, the issues people have with the company are subjective and not centered around its legitimacy.
User complaints are more concerned with Redbubble’s poor quality of customer service, the state of its products, and its wanton suspension and restriction of artist accounts.
Providing an overall assessment of Redbubble’s credibility
After reviewing various aspects of Redbubble’s operations, it is our submission that the platform is legit and a credible place to do business.
If you’re looking to buy products or gifts for your loved ones that feature uncommon designs from independent artists across the globe, Redbubble has an expansive inventory for you to choose from.
Similarly, artists who want to start a passive business and share their art with the world can also list their work for sale on Redbubble.
Many artists and customers have reported happy experiences using the marketplace, while some others have expressed their frustrations with Redbubble.
For the most part, there’s no harm in using Redbubble. You just have to keep in mind that the platform might not live up to your expectations all the time.
Final thoughts and recommendations
Redbubble has many positives as well as some downsides, particularly for artists that are worth considering before deciding to use the platform or not.
Whether you’re a customer or an artist, it’s not always easy to get recourse from its customer support department when you have issues or complaints that need addressing.
But on the plus side, it’s a legitimate business so you don’t have to worry about being scammed and you get access to millions of designs and customers.
Redbubble might not be the right or perfect platform for everyone, but it’s worth checking out.
