Too much discounts kill the discounts...

Definitively true. I would prefer to have less discount periods. Also 65% is indisputable. This is the perfect way to ruin the market.

Rather than sales sales sales give us the opportunity to add value to a purchase, e.g. something like buy products for at least X $ and receive this for free.

i agree this is over the top an what is spring sale or summer sale or winter sale autumn sale weekend sale on this way customers are waiting for the nexst ' weekend sale '?? its not a problem to do some discount but lets say easter / xmas and some others
but no to much

and i think 50% is the max

I agree, it's nice to have sales.. but man.. this is too much.. I know we agree to participate in discounts but this is over the line

I agree, these constant sales are a joke. And when there are not any sales there are loyalty discounts which is just another name for 30% sale. 30% sale 365 days a year is not a sale it is a marketing fail.

Yesterday they were giving 100$ loyalty credits to new buyers. Why is it called loyalty when it is given to people who register with new account?

Biggest advantage of CGT are higher royalties. Sellers can set prices lower(30-40%) than on TS which makes CGT cheaper market. But then comes CGT with 30% sale so I have to set prices to TS level to compensate it. Makes no sense.

I request a feature: I will set a price for my product and CGT will automatically add 30% to it so I will get the money I actually want.

Calm down guys, you will not gonna be robbed. I just made a sale and although model was sold with 44% discount, i did get usual amount (i.e. as it would be sold with 30% discount) - apparently CGT just gives you 100% royalties on this sale.

Nevertheless, i agree with you on that fact that sales are too often here. I think CGT are shooting themselves in the leg. Buyers get so used to sales, that they're not even consider to buy something without discount anymore. On the other hand, nobody forces us to participate in engadgement program. Everyone is free to opt out or opt in whenever they want without any penalties, so if you feel that sales are too often, you can opt out and see if your revenue will be bigger that way.

@CGPitbull, when we agreed to participate in buyers engadgement program, CGT said that at any discount we get no less than 70% of regular price. So far they keep their promise - i made 2 sales with 44% discount today and in both cases i got usual price and CGT got $0 from my sales. As for 65%, i don't know where did you get that info, biggest discont i've seen so far was 49%.

I don't agree, I think the sales system is awesome! Having said that I think that people who are already doing really well in sales should not opt into the sales thing. If you already have a steady income on Cgtrader and many return buyers who know you and just buy products from you this is a good time to opt out.

This kind of sales incentive system is perfect for sellers who are struggling with sales and getting views rather than established artists who people will go to anyway because they are famous or are already killing it with the cash in the market.

Maybe Cgtrader should only allow people who are making less than 1 sale per 3 to 5 months range join the sales program. Everyone else who is making steady sales like 1 model per day or 1 model per week should not be part of the sales program.

I agree the discounts are too much for the high trending content like tanks, weapons, interior and exterior design products that already sell so well! Imagine if LV suddenly suddenly offered 70 percent discount... would people ever buy any other products?

This kind of discounts across the entire site devalues the higher quality models as well as the very reliable designers with high positive rates.

Bad for business!!

Hi CGPitbull, Guys,

That's a fair question. And I would like to calm everyone down. As limonadinis noticed, we are not giving away more than 30% of your share. On the contrary, we decided to boost sales by giving CGTrader's commission on top to the customers. This way we managed to increase discounts up to 50%.

This is an experiment to see price elasticity of demand for 3D models. In other words, we want to see if we can activate much greater market for 3D models with lower prices. However we aware of your concerns regarding frequent discounts lately, that's why we decided to compensate by giving our commissions away. In this case sellers and buyers will gain: buyers will get to taste best prices ever, and sellers will get a boost in sales without sacrificing royalties that much.

As for 65% we have a few sellers who wanted themselves to have a 50% discount, that combined with our commission made 65% discount possible. And of course we used that as a marketing message to increase the impact. We are running direct sales and marketing campaigns to promote this offer.

I encourage everyone to participate in this initiative and experiment with prices (you can easily do that with pricing tools in My Product section). There is no doubt, discounts increase conversion and buyer retention a lot. On the other hand 3D models are not physical goods that need to be replenished after a sale. But they do age with time (software updates, new workflows, etc). Therefore your goal is to maximize your revenue in the shortest time possible, not per fact of give sale.

I'm sorry if we didn't communicate well about this deal. We've send newsletter to all the sellers about it, but apparently not all of you got it in your inboxes. If anyone have other questions regarding this matter, please let us know.

Best,
Marius

Dear Marius! Thank you guys for doing all this for us! I am behind you guys all the way especially with my models. Promote them any way you think will help me make the most sale.

I also have a suggestion not sure if it a good one or not. Lots of people complained about you guys giving new customers 100 credits. To be fair that can't be called a loyalty thing it is more like an incentive to start buying.

What if instead you guys gave a few credits to the artists and buyers who have put in at least 50 dollars or more into our community.

Those kind of credits would not actually be valued as money but you could use them to give shout outs to fellow Artists who for instance do not have many positive ratings but as an artist who has worked personally with them you know their models are good so you can help them add some positive feedback or help them.

I for one have at least 15 to 20 artists I would love to give shout outs and positive ratings to regarding their great work etc... I just don't have the money to go and buy a bunch of their models at the moment but something like this could help me spread some joy around!

I'm sorry but I feel like this is getting out of hands. It seems that our work as artists is getting devaluated too fast. Ok, for this time we are getting 100% of the royalties but I'm sure this won't happen all the time, and what is next??? 80% off??? When? Next week??? This is over the line, because now a buyer won't buy a product for the original price NEVER AGAIN, because they know there will be always a sale time and very soon.

By the way, Marius, I'm very very worried about this phrase of yours: "In other words, we want to see if we can activate much greater market for 3D models with lower prices."

I'm sorry for my language but I'm very pissed off right now.

i hope this make any sense?
I am convince it has nothing to do with price

I am running my own webshop now I think before CGT even exist and did al the experiments with price

conclusion; If you need it you will buy it , if the price is fair. I don,t speak for all the people
who crab everything for free (students etc).
But the profs will buy. I have a render studio to..... and sometimes I need something special (true story)
for example cars because wan of my client say they are out of date (me to-:)
Well if you know that. I made around 2000,- for a render job somthime more and sometimes less.

Its very simple in this case I buy a cd from dosch design I think it was €120,- for 13 cars
I mean its totally crazy to purchase 1 car €100,- for my render work.
If i have to make a commercial about Audi i needed the best and i am prepare to pay 300.- or more
and maybe sometimes someone needed that car but I think not many.(they will ask for a custom model)

problem is there are a lot of car model because more Men as Woman working in the 3d world.
Offer is greater than demand (boy's like cars)

I did a lot of experiments 1 model for 1 euro sold 2 in a week ….. 1 euro for a collection of sofa's
LC complete for 1 euro no sale that week

Plants 120 trees and srubst etc for 60 Euro no sale...... the week after I sell for more than 200,- euro
of plants.

Every sales specialist can tell you the same

client has to needed you model (i mean profs)

1 ; price /quality much important
example an architect don,t care about the exact botanic name or shape
he needed some nice plant for decorate his presentation.(building)(street)

2; if i am working on a project and i needed something i wil buy it.... if the price/qualety is oke !

I see a lot off stuff for movie ore other productions like games.
These are big player the wan to pay for a good model.
If you need ship for a sea battle for a movie its no problem to pay 200,- or more for a good detialed

ship. or plane etc

the reason we are complain about making money is because al the cheap sometimes good models
are also on the market Second there are a lot of good web sites like Evermotion /Xfrog/TS/Daz
etc.(3d ware house)and many more
In the beginning Design connected did not to much on marketing and discounts (at least in mine experience
now they are doing the same it say something about there sale's Xfrog is doing this the hole year giving 50% discount
the effect of it is zero i get every week e new newsletter with the discounts at last you don,t read it any more

and don,t forgot the piratesites where you can get free downloads !!

so srew up the selling has to do with making a website easy as possible not with to much discount
example; i had a chat with CGT about a sub category i am missing plants sub category tree that's what i am missing the guy (i don,t who anymore)
say use leave i try to explain its totally something else at the end i told him because we where disagree that i am 62 and now i learn that
trees are leave-:) and he ask me are you sarcastic (no i told him i only joking )

make a sub forum where you can discus thing with lets say 20 seller (Big and small) not public (and not me) to improve the site
collect all the information you get and take it serious.... a leaf is not a tree!! and a lot of people will search on tree not on leave

i am convinced it will work after more than 20 years working in this field.
I am not an example of doing thing good!!! (the reason why i am here-:)

Second i am screw up my price already (on my own website)and it has no impact on my sale's!!!
i think trust...... and making the best working site will do the job and a few time's a year doing a discount no problem with that

greetings and sorry for the bath English

Peter112 I have been ranting on multiple websites about what you just said for many years. In a way I have always thought that the experts sales people such as yourself and others who know how to make continuous sales should be in charge of setting the bench marks for quality and pricing.

You guys should get together with the Cgtrader staff and be the ones to set the pricing for the models. When the site let's newbies or people who don't really understand the market price models that is when the (......) hits the fan and we are seeing it or at least I have.

I have had my models up on Cgtrader for a really long time... everyone who knows me and has seen my models over the years has tried to help me with their experience etc... but the true fact is that my products are nitch type products that don't really sell especially some of them that are geared towards movies.

On top of that not being good at the tagging and pricing aspect means that very few people see my models and when they do they may notice that the price is not suitable for their budget or market value.

You can't have everyone set their own prices it just does not work very well for the overall community. It is better to have some kind of consistency overall where the experts put down prices that make sense for quality, type of model etc... Some models will be worth more because they are more in demand, others even if of good quality won't be priced as high because there is no demand for them..

We do not participate in any of the sales activities anymore. We have first expressed our concerns that the sales are getting out of hand directly at CGTrader, but it seems it has fallen on deaf ears.

We agree, from our own experience, with Peter112. We believe building a brand and a excellent product will be the markers for the long run to built a sustainable business. Activities such as has been happening recently at CGTrader can only harm the business in the long run and we urge everyone who has the same concerns about this to pull out of the sales. Sales should only be there to raise awareness to your product, it should not be a consistent part of your business model.

About discounts, i think it's too much. All days discount. Weekend discount, ... discounts... discounts, and discounts.
I know buyers like discount. But now i think about cgt it is discount marketplace.
When we think about freelancers, than that is OK. But when we think about companies, web site with 24/7 discount is kind of suspicious. Why so much discount, is there problems with sales or models? IDK ...
I know last year TS have made his move, about overpaid royalties, and lot of people are forced to leave other marketplaces. So CGT make their move. (and this "great" analytic we have right now, was not not for us, but to CGT can keep models for year on their website)
So i think i will cancel all discount stuff, because it is too much. I agree there must bee discounts, but not always.
I understand CGT, it is his business, but there must be some boundary.
What i really like in CGT, that is this workers. All time is friendly, all time helps out. Gold medal for them (Edurdas and Justas) they are great fellows that keep CGT on a flow.

I agree with HQ3DMOD the continuous discounts should be dedicated only for account that are struggling with sales. I think it is fair to say that everyone who is doing well should opt out of the program.

Perhaps it's an idea, to make a schedule
For a year so we can decide if we want to join or not.
We can then arrange this with opt in or out.
Perhaps this scheme should only be accessible to vendors?
Everyone satisfied I think

Are there any programming experts here? How difficult would it be to setup an auto pricing system on the Cgtrader website? A tool for all those people who either don't know how to price their models or who don't have time to go through all the models they have every week to make sure they are priced properly?

A basic tool that works with the options Cgtrader already has in place. So based on the tags, product information such as product type, (is it a car, chair set) Poly count, U.V Mapped, Textured etc... plus it's market value as in is it something people buy regularly or not then the algorithm will set the price for the model... Of course people who don't want that can manually change their prices or opt out of the program same as the sales program

Miaomiao3D is completely wrong.
Discounts need to be applied equally, non sense to distinguish between people that make sales and people that do not ot they seldom do it.

Law is law,

Speaking as a customer, I can tell you that I have purchased 500% more models here than I would have without the sales.

If I may elaborate...
I am a free lance artist. If I need to do an image I usually need many models to fill it out.

You make a model sofa and think, "gee... this is a f***ing awesome sofa, it's worth $65.00!"

But I think, "I have 25 models to buy to fill out this scene, I can't afford to drop $65.00 on a sofa!"

I could be wrong, but I think volume of sales is the key to the 3d market now and in the future.

Dear jeffgalloway, unfortunately I have to agree with you that that is where the market has gone... It would seem that all digital media from a buyer's perspective have lost value. Most people seem to think that a 3D model is only worth about 5 to 10 bucks unless they are desperately looking for something they can't find anywhere else for free so they get someone to build it from scratch.

I think that however Cgtrader is doing a good job of trying to create value and put it back into 3D so that hopefully in future the market will change.

It is an uphill battle no doubt!

Dear jeffgalloway, I also have to point out that not all buyers are like you. Some buyers are high end buyers who buy models for high paying game companies. In that case they can afford to pay market price.

That is one of the big problems for sellers. Sellers are willing to lower prices for people like you who can't afford to pay the premium however they still need to make money so if also the High end buyers go cheap just because everyone else is then sellers go out of business.

You need to see both sides of the problem.

That is why in my opinion the prices should be auto set to the market value by CGTrader. Then if people can't afford them they can use the make an offer button to see if the seller is willing to negotiate.

This whole pricing thing is very stressful for sellers and buyers

Why not have indie and studio levels of licensing?

You make a good and valid point Jeffgalloway. If CGTrader would let us use bulk discounts we would use those. On the other hand you also need to look at what has been done with the 3D model. We try to do as much work as we can in order to save time for the artist. If you compare that with a cheaper model you do need to take something like that into consideration as well when you buy your models..

CGtrader, please bring back your sales off! I'm missing it too much and thinking it was really good idea increased sales, and made win-win situation to all of us!

I know probably my opinion is unpopular and uncommon, but I just want to say about my attitude and when time passes after spring sale the figures says the same,comparing last month result (without sales off) and previous.

I was a bit suspicious about the discount. But I must confess that May 2017 was for me the best month since I sold here (January 2012).
Since the beginning of the year I have seen a significant difference compared to the previous year.

So a big thank you and congratulations for the commercial strategy of CGT - Hope this continues for a long time.

more sale please~~

As a Buyer, I must confess that the discounts at CGT are not only a big draw, but it also motivates buyers to make a fast decision on items which you would not have bought otherwise. I just bought a model from CGT and believe me, the pricing for the quality of the product is extremely good. I have plans to pick up 4 more models very soon and much more in the next few weeks. This was not the case with TS and I just picked up only one model there and I am regretting the decision now.
Great job CGT and I think, both the sellers and buyers will definitely benefit out of this.
Rgds
GP

The problem of discount is when you get started, the neighbors are doing it too.(like tubosquit)
Now we have got a prize spiral down which we call concurrency (competition)
greetings Peter

So we have another sales with discounts of up to 50% in the middle of the week for indefinite period (permanent, maybe?). I wonder if CGT team has some long term strategy or are they keep increasing discount size and keep prolonging sales periods untill total devaluation of the market? They're starting to look pretty desperate with their actions, i'm affraid. Turbosquid introduced their discount events too, but so far they're doing it in pretty conservative way, while CGT is carried away by runaway reaction it seems.

Anyway, i'm starting to think about withdrawing from sales off program and maybe keep participating in loyalty discounts program only, if there will be no more "$200 worth credits for everyone" actions, that is.

At least give us opportunity to choose lower discounts. 30-50% range is way too harsh. With 50% discounts, i'd have to rise my prices to ridiculous heights, to have reasonable profit.

I disagree with current CGT policy. With new rules changes almost every week, I can't accommodate my sale strategy to keep my revenue from sales even on same level. I was love much more their "every-weekend" sales off. But them was also not perfect.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your honest thoughts.

Regarding the bigger discounts - it was a feature asked by a number of designers who wanted to try out different marketing techniques. Previously, when we had custom discounts available for everyone, there were also a big number users who had been trying out crazier discounts.

CGTrader is keeping the same policy - we will not set more than 30% discount ourselves - meaning that if we would, the rest of the discounted sum would be covered by CGTrader (like it was a few months ago). So the choice of a 40% or 50% discount is entirely up to the designer's choice.

It's very easy if the sales are going well, why would you give a discount?
I think it's just a very difficult market.
714/5000
From the moment the discounts start, I've only gone back with the sale of my items. This month I have not sold anything at all.
I'm not complaining, it's just fun for me and I earn some money,
But I think CG should wonder if this is the way to sell items.
On the other hand, you'll see it everywhere with design connected they sell top products .... but they also have different discounting actions
Conclude you can say that the objects market is not the most profitable - :)
What I see in my own webshop, but also if I need something for my render work, I would like to buy it, and then I do not care about the price because i have deadlines

If the models over 30$ discount are covered by CG then why did my $26 model just sell for $9, and my cut of that was about $9? Thats a 65% discount without CG not making up the difference.

I decided to opt out of both, "occasional" sales off and "loyalty" discount programs. While initially i liked the idea of buyers engagement program, it seems that my and CGt point of views about that idea are increasingly coming apart. Sales off events are organized way too often and sellers are forced to give way too big discounts and loyalty discounts... well, i see nothing about loyalty in them, at all. No matter what are prices of my models, no matter when sales are made and no matter what buyer buys my models, all of them are sold with permanent 30% discount. It's just so freaking annoying!

Since sales in july are slow anyway, i don't think i'll loose much by not giving any discounts. I think i'll wait till september/october and if sales will stay low, i'll have to admit my defeat and return to participation in those two programs, but i will not be a happy seller again...

3 years old post, but still of actuality. I dont understand the concept, always discount (probably more days in a month of discount, than normal price).
Very, very strange marketing concept...