In a good week, John Bloodworth sells over 1,000 SVG cutting files. His customers use them to make projects with their Cricut, Silhouette, and Brother Scan-n-Cut machines.
Bloodworth had his own ecommerce shop for a few years, but when the UK tax regulations changed requiring independent sellers to collect and remit VAT for digital files, he began looking for a solution. That’s when he found Creative Fabrica. The Amsterdam-based startup offered a marketplace for creative digital file sellers just like him. They took care of VAT and he was intrigued by their other offerings so he signed on.
“Creative Fabrica was a way to save a lot of time and effort and allow me to focus on my design work,” Bloodworth says. He set up a shop on the site in April of 2021 and now has dozens of files for sale there.
The Genesis of Creative Fabrica
Launched in June 2016, Creative Fabrica says it’s now the largest digital platform for crafters with over a million products for sale. The startup raised its first round of venture capital in 2019, and a $7 million Series A in January 2021, for a total of $7.6 million.
Creative Fabrica co-founders Roemie Hillenaar and Anca Stefan.
Prior to launching Creative Fabrica co-founders Anca Stefan and Roemie Hillenaar ran a digital marketing agency where they found themselves frustrated trying to source graphics and fonts for projects. They set out to create a new marketplace that would improve how digital files are discovered and consumed. Although the company is based in the Netherlands, over 60% of Creative Fabrica’s business now comes from the US with another 20% from the UK, Canada, and Australia.
After a strong start with fonts and graphics, Creative Fabrica then expanded into SVG cut files like the type Bloodworth sells, as well as machine embroidery patterns. In 2020, it expanded further into knitting, crochet, sewing, and quilting patterns.
Getting started as a seller
Setting up a shop and listing an item on Creative Fabrica is free. Each listing is vetted by the Creative Fabrica team before it goes live to ensure that there are no intellectual property violations (such as the unlicensed use of a Disney character).
“We always try to process the product queue as quickly as possible, and our policy is to have the products reviewed within one working day,” explains Linnea Holgersson, Lead Product Marketer. “We have a lot of designers on the platform, uploading thousands of products each day, so sometimes we can experience a larger volume of products uploaded, and then it might take longer for us to process. Our product quality assurance team always reviews the request as fast as they can.”
Designers can link to their social media accounts from their profile and can link to their Etsy shop. (There’s no way to link an email newsletter signup and sellers don’t get access to their customer’s email addresses.)
Bloodworth was assigned an onboarding representative with whom he’s worked over the last two years. “You can contact them anytime and they get back to you within 24 hours,” he says. “That human contact is important.”
Fees
When Creative Fabrica brings in a new customer who then makes a purchase, the marketplace takes a 50% commission. If the seller makes that referral, Creative Fabrica takes 25%. For crochet designer Julie Desjardins, these fees feel very high. “50%? I mean, people think Ravelry and Etsy are expensive, this is bonkers,” she says. Desjardins turned down Creative Fabrica’s invitation to sell her patterns on the site.
One thing to note is that Creative Fabrica may edit a seller’s listing descriptions. “We have certain guidelines for what can and cannot be included in the listing, and formatting rules to make sure that the titles look consistent,” says Holgersson. “We only make edits to comply with the guidelines and formatting rules, and if further, more in-depth edits are needed we always make sure to align with the designer.”
Creative Fabrica handles all of the customer service questions on behalf of sellers. For several designers we spoke with this was a big advantage over Etsy which encourages buyers to contact sellers directly if a problem arises, and expects sellers to respond within 24 hours.
Membership
Beyond a la carte sales, Creative Fabrica also offers a membership plan to its customers. For a set monthly fee, members can download as many files as they’d like. The first month membership is just $1, and it goes up to $19 after that.
Half of the subscription revenue goes to Creative Fabrica and the other half is divvied up among sellers (20% is split over all designs and the other 80% is split based on the number of downloads of their designs that month). According to Bloodworth, the payment for subscription downloads ends up being a few cents each month.
A paper artist from New York we spoke to says she’s concerned about giving away so much of her work to $1 subscribers. “I don’t sell everything with Creative Fabrica, just my low cost templates that aren’t selling well on Etsy,” she says. “That’s my game plan.”
Business license
A unique aspect of Creative Fabrica is that every purchase comes with a business license. The single sale license allows customers to create and sell unlimited end products using the file they’ve bought, including creating print-on-demand products. The subscription license is the same, except customers can’t create new products to sell with the files once their subscription has expired. Neither allows customers to resell the files themselves.
The business license created some confusion for one of machine embroidery designer Luci Ayyat’s customers. “She contacted me saying she loved my gnome design. It was selling very well for her. Will I have any more patterns of gnomes in the future?,” Ayyat recalls. “It took me a while to realize she’d just downloaded my pattern and was reselling it, using my photos, my pattern. She changed nothing. She started an Etsy shop it was selling quite well. She thought that it was okay because Creative Fabrica says unlimited commercial use on everything.” After Ayyat explained the details of the license, her customer took the file down.
“That’s why I ignored Creative Fabrica’s email invitation (to become a seller) in the beginning,” says Ayyat. “I wasn’t comfortable with the unlimited commercial use.” Eventually, she reevaluated. “I thought, well, maybe I can just put the more generic stuff on there.”
As the company expands into knitting, crochet, sewing, and quilting patterns, some designers we spoke with raised questions about whether the business license terms that work for fonts and graphics would work for pattern designers. “Knitting and sewing patterns have historically been personal use only,” Bloodworth explains. “I’m not sure if this community would be comfortable with the rights being given away.”
Desjardins says the business license raises red flags for her. “Even for cut files, I don’t think it’s fair to those designers either, though I’m not familiar enough with that model to have a say. When you apply the model to knitting and crochet, it’s just so bad,” she says. “Subscribers can have all the patterns they can download in x amount of time for almost no money – with no way to prevent them from using them after. I really think it was an odd choice for Creative Fabrica to get into yarn crafts.”
Right now, the knitting, crochet, sewing, and quilting patterns are listed under “graphics” on the Creative Fabrica homepage (rather than “crafts”) which could make them hard for consumers to find.
Affiliate program
Creative Fabrica has an especially generous affiliate program that allows sellers to use their affiliate links when promoting their own products. (The Etsy affiliate program, on the other hand, prohibits this.) Affiliates earn 25% of every order they refer. They also earn 20% of every subscription they refer for every month that the customer is subscribed. The link has a 90-day cookie (versus Etsy’s 30 days). Becoming an affiliate has been a profitable avenue for Bloodworth who has referred over 10,000 new customers to Creative Fabrica to date.
Fans site
A unique feature of Creative Fabrica is its fans site which operates similar to Patreon. Designers can create a fan page that subscribers can join for an additional monthly fee the designer sets. Bloodworth’s Gentleman Crafter fan site costs $5/month and he currently has 118 fans who receive exclusive SVG files. “It’s not huge at the moment,” he says. “I was debating setting up a Patreon or using the Creative Fabrica fan site and it was easier to do it all in one place.” Although he thinks it has promise, he says the fan site itself is not very easy for customers to find yet and doesn’t get a lot of traffic.
Video courses
In addition to a digital file marketplace and designer fans site, Creative Fabrica also offers video classes focused on various craft projects. Designers film the class videos themselves. They’re paid upfront and don’t earn any additional royalties. Ayyat has created several already, but she’s still unsure if it was the right decision due to the newness of the platform. “I don’t know. I was on the fence. I’m like, well, I may as well do it, because it can’t hurt and it hasn’t hurt me yet. I just wonder like five years from now, am I going to regret doing it?” she says.
Analytics
All of the sellers we spoke with mentioned some level of disappointment with Creative Fabrica’s analytics dashboard. It’s difficult to understand exactly where the income is coming from because a la carte file sales and subscription revenue aren’t broken out into separate categories.
What the future holds
Creative Fabrica aims to become the go-to place for digital craft files globally. While digital file marketplace Creative Market also sells fonts and graphics, Creative Fabrica’s audience is different.
“Creative Fabrica is where hobbyists go to get their graphics,” says Bloodworth. “Creative Market is where professionals go.”
Creative Fabrica is a newer player among online craft marketplaces and it operates differently from its competitors. “I do think that they’re still growing, I think that they’re going to work through a lot of growing pains,” Ayyat says. “And I have gotten sales. I mean, I’m making money. It’s still less than $100 a month, but honestly that’s more than the designs on my website or bringing in right now.”
Bloodworth acknowledges that there have been some hiccups, too, but says Creative Fabrica is already a household name among crafters in the UK. “I’m a bit worried they’re trying to run before they walk,” he says, but then wonders whether this description is truly apt. “They can walk already.”
Abby Glassenberg
Co-founder
Abby co-founded Craft Industry Alliance and now serves as its president. She’s a sewing pattern designer, teacher, and journalist. She’s dedicated to creating an outstanding trade association for the crafts industry. Abby lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Thanks for this article, perfect timing ! So glad to learn more about this site and their owners.
I’ve tried selling patterns there for a couple months now. I was cautious because of the “unlimited download for $1” option and glad for that… I agree with most things you say (esp the few cents earned every now and again, and total lack of visibility over what actually sells or not). But I have a couple more things to add: first, when you want to remove a pattern uploaded there there’s a 3 month period before it will actually be removed from your shop. So don’t think you can just give it a try and remove the listings right away if you don’t like it.
Also, my files were flagged because they include the url to my own website and copyright terms. Apparently, both of those are not ok. I’m still debating whether to stay or leave, as I’m only making a few $ per month with patterns that never sell on other sites. Which is good in a way (every little bit helps) but because of the possible confusion about copyrights, I’m also afraid to see my patterns suddenly resold by other people…
Hi Sylvie, Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I did ask Linnea about the removal of files. She said: “If the designer wishes to remove the product from the platform, they can delete the product listing from their Designer Dashboard. The product listing will then be automatically removed within 3 months. However, if the designer wants to speed up the process, they can always contact our support after they have requested the removal and we will delete it manually.”
Oh ok, that’s good to know 🙂 Thanks !
I’m very confused by Creative Fabrica’s decision to add needlecraft patterns to their marketplace – crochet, knit, hand embroidery etc patterns are a very different product from the digital assets they sell, and it doesn’t seem like a good fit.
Perhaps the owners aren’t handcrafters and aren’t aware of the differences? Instructions for crafting a project by hand are very different from drag-and-drop assets (graphics, fonts, cut files, etc)…
At first I thought it was a confusing move too. But if you think about it most crafters are multi crafters. I have a cricket but I also knit and I also sew. Many of my crafty friends are the same. We can’t pick just one! I think creative fabrica is trying to target these kinds of people buy also bringing in fiber arts patterns.
I was about to sign up when I saw that I’m giving the rights for commercial use with no additional compensation for that. I’m not ok with that. If they change that policy I may consider joining.
I thought about this aspect as well, Patricia. I’ve had an online shop for almost nine years now and regardless of my terms of use/commercial use license there are always the dishonest people who totally ignore them. They purchase with a standard license and resell the items anyway, even on the same platform on which I sell, blatant theft at the end of the day. My designs are all over the show and I’ve all but given up hunting these people down because it’s a total waste of time and I can do without the negativity involved. At the end of the day, no matter on which platform you sell or how stringent your terms of use, someone will always take advantage and run their business at the expense of others. Sorry to sound so negative but that is just the way it is these days. I’ve adopted the attitude that any income is better than no income and I won’t stop putting my designs out there or let anyone steal my mojo. I choose to believe that there are more honest than dishonest people in this world 🙂
Hmm, I don’t know about more .but they do exist .
Thanks Abby, a great article. I hadn’t heard of Creative Fabrica and enjoyed reading the unbiased review and insights from someone using it.
Keep up the great work!
Glad it was helpful to you!
Lisa Congdon just posted to her Instagram stories (6/2/2022) that an Etsy seller bought a license for one of her designs from Creative Fabrica which Lisa never consented to.
Thanks for pointing this out. I see it there.
I wonder if they can sell more digital products and patterns than makerist, who ist the market leader by far in Germany, Austria and France. Also fees are lower on makerist.
That’s a good question for you, Axel, since you’re the founder of Makerist 🙂
Yes 😀
I tried them with some of my sewing patterns, but their terms for the files are so strict that it was nearly impossible to comply. They don’t allow any ‘marketing’ in the downloads so you can’t link to or mention your own website they told me. Plus my sewing pattern usually includes links to helpful tutorials that expand upon the pattern instructions if someone needs extra help – that’s not allowed because you can’t have links in your file. My sewing patterns also come with video tutorials and I couldn’t even include those because again, links aren’t allowed – even to the pattern video. And lastly, I wasn’t able to include a section about where to go for help if the buyer had a question, if they needed help with the sewing instructions. I wasn’t allowed to include a support email. That was some months ago now so perhaps they have reviewed their terms, but they didn’t seem to realise the difference in expectations between someone buying what could be a complicated sewing pattern compared to downloading a simple SVG file.
Hey Deby,
I’m a seller on Creative Fabrica and one thing that you could possibly do if you want your buyers to know more about you is to include a PDF in your zip file giving them your email, website address or sign up for a newsletter. You can’t openly market your store on your product thumbnails or banner, that’s true, but I haven’t read anywhere on CF where you can include an extra page into your zip file! Just a thought!
I am considering selling my digital templates on Creativefabrica, and it does bother me how much creatives actually make. The $1 subscription triggers me for some reason. It’s a great place to find resources, but, I don’t know if I would want to risk selling on the platform.
Hey Onome,
You can see my video here about the $1 subscription that Creative Fabrica has. It clarifies how it actually works for the seller.
https://youtu.be/O2zZCTZkm2Y
Creative Fabrica doesn’t endorse or sponsor me. My YT channel, CF Sellers, is entirely my own opinion and experiences. Perhaps you’ll find some value it them.
I know that some of the licenses require a buyer to continue their subscription in order to continue using the licensed file in their business. That seems to be a terrible thing for the artists. Creative Fabrica benefits from the renewed subscription, but the artist is not compensated for continued use of their file. What’s up with that?
Thanks for this article, great timing! Very happy to know more about this site and its owners.
Good afternoon, I have a query about a designer account, I applied for a designer account a while back and was refused, the elements that I used was from Canva and due to me having a pro account, all elements that I used were free to use commercially.
The reason for refusal to my understanding was that I had used Canva elements which were not my designs.
Please can you clarify this.
To my understanding you can use Canva Pro images but you must included with other images with it. You cannot use them as they are.
Go here to their license page and read it carefully. If you still have questions I would reach out to Canva and ask them directly. https://www.canva.com/help/licenses-copyright-legal-commercial-use/
I am a subscriber to Creative Fabrica and I’ve noticed some things that are bit of a problem. And I just wrote the people I create a fabric about it with no response. I guess what we consider someone being the designer of the products that are being download, people are getting designs from Canva and submitting it to creative Fabrica for download as if “THEY” designed it. I only know this because I also use Canva and I had downloaded some design elements from creative Fabrica and out of curiosity went onto Canva to see what the had and found all of the designs I just downloaded on there.
Not only was that a problem, then I did a search on google for mid century modern and found that those designs came from a stock agency. Which I was under the impression that both companies had artist designing elements for people to use in their own designs. That’s why I started using these companies to begin with just to help me start my Etsy shop so my store wasn’t sitting empty until I got more of my own work/drawings and designs finished. And I didn’t mind paying a fee knowing these artists were getting paid!
If I wanted Stock work I would go to a stock agency! Which also is Not free for commercial use at every agency, which in turn could get me/my shop on Etsy shut down. If you all don’t know Etsy updated handmade terms policy, which includes no stock images December 1, 2022. I am new to Etsy, I just open my shop in October 2022. But I also read which I don’t think anybody does this is if you’re partnering with another company for your designing you have to report that to Etsy, on each design listing if I used Creative Fabrica or Canva from what I understand. I’m finding a lot of the rules confusing.
Canva also updated their terms of use from what it seems to me people can’t be using their templates as printable downloads for sale on Etsy. People all over YouTube say that you can do this. I’m also very shocked at how much intellectual property, and copy written work, and public domain work is sold on Etsy. I’m feeling very overwhelmed and out of sorts seeing it all just trying to do research.
Have you tried contacting Canva help to tell them your concerns? You can use Canva’s templates as long as you change them to what you want them to be. You must alter them. You can’t use them as is. Even with Canvas images, you have to change them somehow to something new.
When I create something on Canva to sell, I make sure either I’m only using their ‘Free’ images, or I’m changing the image so much so that it’s new. But I would try reaching out to Canva.
The article is good and very useful. Thank You
if someone of creative fabrica buyers subscribe on a free trial and he download an item Will this count as a sale?
You would be best to ask someone at Creative Fabrica this question. Thank you.
I would confirm that question with Creative Fabrica directly. hi@creativefabrica.com
For purchasing materials to CREATE WITH Creative Fabrica, feels very hobby and low rent. Creative Markets assets are much higher quality. In my opinion
Hi I have signed up as an affiliate marketer, but I am also interested in opening a shop of my own doing print on demand, is this possible? And would I have to open a shopify or Etsy shop? I see you mentioned opening a shop with creative Fabrica, could you please tell me more about that? And if you have POD available toox
This article is all about selling on Creative Fabrica so that should be helpful in answering part of your question.
When selling on Creative Fabrics, is it necessary to put copyright notice on my patterns?