I know this has been brought up before. But I’m just wondering if it could be suggested that they don’t have the top row of 5 competing products with the heading: “Other designs you might like” - If a user clicked on something they liked, why present them with 5 alternatives above the product they want to see? I would find that super annoying and spammy if I were shopping.
Then below that there are 60 more competing products under the heading “Other designs from this category” - I know this is standard on pretty much any platform, but could the thumbnails of those competing products at least be smaller like they are on Etsy instead of in the users face? And 65 competing products on a product page that we brought the customer to? So not cool : (
If you disregard the fact that this is super insulting to the designer (and all of the effort we put into putting links out there), it is really busy and spammy looking (I think anyway). It seems kind of desperate. I think one line that scrolls to the right with much smaller thumbnails for the competing products would look a lot cleaner and still show that Zazzle cares about and values creators and our efforts to put all of our links out there.
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Okay, foot in mouth moment. After I went off an a whole rant about this, I think this must only happen when the user has never been to Zazzle before, so that’s kind of good. I used an incognito window and put my link in. The first time I do it, it shows 65 other competing products like I was talking about. When I put another link in after that, it’s just the main product at the top.
So I’m assuming they are trying to hook brand new users into browsing around more. But still, I wonder if they could not have a row above the main product and do smaller thumbnails in a right scrolling row under so it’s not so crazy busy. It really does seem spammy to me (trying to think of how I would see it as a buyer), and I might actually not trust a site that has a huge mess of other products in large thumbnails surrounding the one I clicked on.
Maybe they’re already working on A/B testing for this. If not, hopefully someone will see this and consider it.
Rant over lol!
The first time I do it, it shows 65 other competing products like I was talking about. When I put another link in after that, it’s just the main product at the top.
Correct. One you click on something else, you get the normal view & shopping experience. It’s only the view on that first click in that gets you the “landing page” with all those other products.
This practice has been around since at least fall of 2022 so despite umpteen objectionable threads about it since, I don’t see Z ever going back on this. Whatever reasons they have for doing it are working for them if not for the individual designers.
This practice has been around since at least fall of 2022 so despite umpteen objectionable threads about it since, I don’t see Z ever going back on this. Whatever reasons they have for doing it are working for them if not for the individual designers.
Oh, I guess I’m late to the party ha! I thought it was kind of new in the last year-ish. I wish they would get rid of that top row above the main product. It kind of says to the customer “yes, you clicked on that link, but these are better, so look at these first” - I think.
Etsy does have quite a few competing products under the product listing too, but they are smaller. I know they experiment all the time, though, so things shift around. I was really hoping Zazzle was just testing this, but I guess not.
I would never do this on my own website - even with only my own products. A visitor clicked on something and they want to learn more about it. Why provide them with 5 reasons why they shouldn’t right above it? : (
@KarmaKay It’s gone through many different incarnations since it first was implemented. I don’t like it any more than the next person but have accepted that since it’s still a thing, it must be good for Zazzle’s overall bottom line even though it stinks for individual Designers.
@ColsCreations Maybe, just maybe, they’ll update it at some point. Maybe it’s on a to-do list somewhere there lol! I suppose if it is profitable, it’s probably not at the top of the list of things to change. On the bright side, at least they don’t have big flashing “best seller” badges on the top row above the main product ha! It could always be worse. But it could definitely be better.
@ColsCreations I was scrolling through the forum and I see a lot of threads on this now. I can say that in June, these are my linkovers vs self referrals (and the some of the self referrals are actually 1 order, so that number is smaller):
June Linkovers: 25,149
June Self-referrals: 77
There is just no way to know for sure if the landing pages have anything to do with the low percentage or not. A lot of it is probably the “3rd party” referral thing. I get that it’s just how it is, but, well, there is nothing to do about it anyway, I suppose. I honestly don’t know how Zazzle makes any money when we get self referrals. It seems to me that they probably lose money on those unless they have really good contracts. I’ve used some of the same “makers” on my own, and they must have really really good contracts with them to be able to even do 35-50% referral payments. They’re so hard to get that it feels like a lottery win when you do.
First, @KarmaKay — I’ve been meaning to say this for a while: congratulations. Since I’ve been around here, one of your products was the first I saw surpassing 100k views. That’s genuinely impressive. At the same time, I find it a bit surprising that you’re still at “Gold” status — something about that doesn’t quite add up to me.
Second, I honestly find it disappointing how Zazzle has handled landing pages from different traffic sources over the years.
Very few customers browse extensively on their own — especially not on small mobile screens. The current logic feels counterintuitive: I share a link from Pinterest that leads to my shop, but my product doesn’t actually appear within my shop environment. Instead, it lands on a marketplace-style page — and right there, prominently placed, is a row of competing products from other sellers.
It’s confusing, and it doesn’t feel particularly fair. Especially since many people naturally replicate successful designs with stronger product placement. If the compensation model were more balanced — for example, if every lead that resulted in a sale were rewarded — there would be much more incentive to actively promote products through affiliate-style marketing. In its current form, though, it’s simply frustrating.
Another point that bothers me is the visual flow and user guidance on these pages. Has this ever really been tested with actual users? Wouldn’t it make sense for Zazzle to collaborate with universities — for example, letting design students analyze the platform, develop user journeys, or explore alternative concepts? Or even invite designers from within the community to contribute ideas?
This kind of work is regularly done in academic settings: research-driven, structured, and often more open-minded than traditional corporate approaches. And within this community, there are also many experienced professionals who could likely provide deeper and more practical insights than any internal team alone.
@doggenhaus Awww it was? Thank you! I didn’t even realize I had a product with that many views. Well, I will tell you that I really just let Zazzle sit for years and hardly touched it. I sporadically would come back and add things, but I just got so frustrated at how long it would take to be seen in the marketplace, so I moved to Etsy where I became insanely overloaded with orders for the same item types I listed here. And very quickly. Z just sat in the background and usually covered my rent payment before the marketing claw back thing. I think the reason my earnings are so low for how long I’ve been here is that I didn’t really start getting serious about it until maybe around 2017-18 and then didn’t really keep up with it. Another reason is because I focused on super low earning products like table numbers and seating chart cards (where I earn 9 cents per sale). I didn’t complete collections and didn’t do a lot of research (shout out to Jen & Elke Clarke - if only I had listened ha!) - didn’t focus on what was selling and build out those collections, etc. I still have quite a mess of unfinished collections. Long story short. I needed income, so I switched to Etsy. I definitely got income, but I also got no sleep because the orders, proofing, stacks of tracking numbers, questions and custom requests were overwhelming. So. Back to Zazzle (there are other reasons too).
I am beginning to realize that I will have to make at least 100x the products I had on Etsy to be able to even come close the income I had there, though. What keeps me going is knowing others have done it, so it is possible, And the 100% amazing thing here is that once a sale is made, it’s done. No stress.
I very much agree with everything you’re saying. Especially the visual flow. The product landing page from a first time link kind of reminds me of the really old websites that would have ads all over and false “download” links etc. It doesn’t say “confident, trustworthy, high quality” to me. At first glance, it also reminds me of an Amazon page where the item you clicked on is no longer there (with the “this item is no longer available - view these similar items” at the top.
I really hope testing variations of this landing page is one of the things they’ll be working on with all of the other great changes they’ve made.