One of the thing that I heard the most from people around me is "Buying from Society is not possible if you live in India" Rest assured that it is VERY possible to do so. I live in India, and I bought a number of things from Society6 over the years and the process even got easier in the past few years alone. Don't let the fact that Society6 is based in the US stop you, sure the prices are mentioned in dollars and you need to factor in the shipping, but I'm here to let you in on the process once and for all and give you a few tips to do so.
The first time I ordered anything was in 2018, a few months shy of completing 1 year as an artist selling with them. I bought the carry-all pouch in the picture above because there was a free shipping offer going on and I really wanted to see how my artwork looked in person. At the time they were shipping only from the US and they weren't accepting Indian cards, so I had to pay via PayPal. Both those things have changed now!
indian cards are accepted
This past weekend a friend of mine who had a crush on my phone case decided to order one for herself and reported having no issues paying with her Indian card. It's a pleasant change from 2018 I couldn't confirm until now since I got into the habit of paying via PayPal as my default method.
Things no longer ship from the us as a default
Society6 worked toward having production hubs around the world and the Apple watch band in the picture above along with the water bottle I both ordered last year, were shipped from Korea, and the phone cases I ordered last November shipped from Australia. Since both those countries have some trade agreements with India, there were no custom duty fees to pay. Something that is now a bit of an issue with anything shipping from the US it seems. Back in 2018 it wasn't an issue to have things ship from the US though and I never paid duty fees back then either, but it could be now, and it's nice to see that Society6 has found a way around it.
shipping is quite fast and done via registered post
Each and every time I bought something on Society6 it took between 10-15 days to reach me in Mumbai. The fastest being the phone cases who were in my hands 10 days after ordering them. Those shipped via Australia post and I got updated along the way, I know they spent 2 days at the custom office before being dispatched to my home. A lot depends on the production time, the phone cases were quick to print and ship, I think the package was shipped less than 24 hours after I place the order, it took 2-3 days for the other items to be printed, packed and shipped. Society6 put an estimate of around 20 - 30 days to ship to India to cover themselves against disgruntled customers. So if you are buying something as a gift, I would say give yourself 30-35 days and don't cut it too tight, you never know.
don't let the prices in dollars stop you
Sure the prices are in dollars, and some items have a higher price tag, even for the US market. BUT!!!!!
Society6 runs promotions very regularly and there is always items that are discounted between 40% and 20% with 30% being the most common discount. These promotions change every week, so if you have a specific item in mind, and don't mind waiting a bit, check the website every week so see what's going on with the prices. On small items, the discount could recoup the shipping cost and still give you a tiny bit of a discount. On bigger items, it will alleviate the shipping costs a bit. And of course if you wait for the Cyber Week / Black Friday sale that comes every November around Thanksgiving, you get the biggest discounts of all.
Not to mention that the quality of the products Society6 sell is really worth the price, especially when it comes to phone cases, you won't find that kind of quality in India...period. Plus, you pay an artist, each and every time you buy something from Society6.
if you are an artist, you get more of a discount in your own shop
Society6 will deduct your royalty markup from the final price at checkout if you are buying from your own artist shop, so for me, it's 20% off extra since I put my markup at that percentage. If you didn't change the default markup it's 10% off the retail price that you get deducted. This is a good incentive to order products with your own designs as you can use them in your own original social media pictures and show your audience how the actual printed product looks like. I'll go as far as saying that you are better off buying your products and use them in your pictures over spending money on an expensive ad campaign on Instagram and Facebook, these campaigns won't get you anywhere, showing and using your products will give you more authenticity and will look good for several years.