Every now and then, I buy some of my artwork on Society6 products to check the quality and use them in my everyday life. A few months ago I reviewed their water bottle. Back on the old blog I did review their Apple watch band, carry-all pouch and cutting board (don't worry they will be reviewed again here...soon) This time around, I bought two of my designs as iPhone though cases taking advantage of one for the biggest cyber week flash sale deal they had which made them shipping to India worth it. Back then they were 60% off but quite frankly, this is one of their product I would buy even at full price because so far I don't think I ever had a phone case that high in quality...EVER!
I place the order on November 17th and it was marked as printed and shipped on November 18th with an Australia Post tracking number as they have a production partner there that probably cater to the whole Asia pacific region. For India this is also good news as usually parcels from Australia aren't subjected to custom fees the way even tiny items of low value from the US are. Past experience told me that the delivery would take 10-15 days to my home in Mumbai. Since this time around it was shipped from Australia, I got regular emails from Australia Post about my order, one of which was that it landed in Mumbai and was waiting custom clearance, that was exactly a week after placing the order, on November 24th and the parcel was dropped in the lobby of my building on November 26th by the India Post officer assigned to my area, and was told by email later that same day it got delivered. Which I knew already as I picked it up on my way out to the dentist.
It arrived neatly packaged in a cardboard box and each phone case was wrapped in a protective pouch as shown in the picture above.
I ordered two iPhone 11 cases and opted for the "though" variant rather than the slim case. I'm the least prone to dropping phones in our family but there have been a few instance of my cat sending all electronics devices off the furniture or my dog knocking my phone off my hands so I ALWAYS opt for cases with some sort of cushioning and raised edges, better safe than sorry. Choosing which designs to get on my new cases was the hardest quite frankly in the end I opted for the "Blush pink and navy floral fishes" and "Mint and gold spring floral pattern" (both links are affiliate links by the way). Those cases have a glossy finish which I LOVE, because all the cases I managed to get printed in India over the years had a matte finish I didn't quite like. Matte cases pick up all the dirt and just scratch the same way as any cases. Since I went with the "Tough" case, they come with a silicone sleeve liner that fit snuggly around the phone and in the case. The black silicone sleeve is what give the raised edge and protect your phone's screen if you place your phone face down.
The print quality is as usual superb, Society6 can really be trusted in that department, all the colors are very close to the on screen version of the artwork, which in this case is also a digital design. It's a known fact that there will be a tiny difference in colors between the on screen file and the print version, but some companies, like Society6, are able to make that difference near to unnoticeable.
If I really wanted to nitpick at this point, and for the sake of an honest review I will, I'd say that the navy blue on the fish phone case is quite darker than my original on screen color, but again, that kind of thing is expected to happen, especially with dark blues that are close to black in the first place.
Over the years I dealt with enough bad phone case printing in India (muddy colors and all) that the fact a Navy blue background looks closer to black than navy is really not a problem at all.
On top of them being printed perfectly, and having a glossy finish, I really LOVE the fact they fit on my phone very snuggly with no chances of them popping off during a potential fall. In fact swapping cases is proving to be a tiny bit hard as they fit too well, so be prepared to have to do a bit of pushing and pulling when you want to swap cases. Another thing I really appreciated is that the case has no sharp edges and bits poking. I have that problem when my designs were sold with Cupick, Paintcollar and Colorpur in India, as well as with independent printing services that all used the same super cheap, matte polycarbonate cases. I scratched myself a few too many times on those cheapo cases and it's good to know that there are quality printing companies in other part of the world that care about giving you a quality product that is worth the money you paid for it.
Ordering on society6 from india
I have several products bought over the years that prove once and for all, that ordering from India IS possible with Society6. They even got better at it over the years. Back in 2018 the cutting board and pouch I ordered were both shipped from the US. The Apple watch band and bottle I ordered earlier this year were shipped from Korea and the phone cases, as mentioned above were shipped from Australia. Both South Korea and Australia have trade agreements with India which means small items of low value do not attract the duty fees that are now plaguing parcels coming from the US. Back in 2018 it is worth to note I never paid custom duty either, but this has changed recently it seems. So Society6 having trusted production partners in the Asia Pacific region is great news. The US Dollar / Rupees currency exchange rate is not really in the favour of Indian shoppers though, but just the same, several of their products are actually worth the expense and aren't even that insanely costly when you compare it to some brands sold in India, minus the perk of having a unique design, and the fact you genuinely pay an artist with each purchase. The key is to wait for a sale or promotion on a specfic product, they have new promo every week and I post them on this website's home page. So if you have a specific item in mind, simply wait until it gets an attractive deal, usually there is always something going on at 30% off. Shipping comes on top of it, and it's dictated by the weight of the product, I paid 8$ on shipping for these two cases and it's pretty much the kind of shipping I paid on each orders I placed in the past. In this case, ordering one or two cases didn't affect the shipping at all, it was 8$ so I ordered 2 right away.
If you are an artist with them, they will also deduct your royalty markup from the final price, so as a designer, you get your items at an additional discount nobody else has, making it extra sweet.
Back in 2018 I found out that it wasn't possible to pay with an Indian credit or debit card on their payment gateway, but you can do so via PayPal. Designers selling on Society6 have a PayPal account by default, so for me it was never a problem and I never tried using a credit card again since that first time in 2018. I have no idea if as of 2022 they changed their card policy to allow Indian cards to be processed through their payment gateway.