Collection Feature Is A Total Mess!

Not sure whose brilliant idea it was to remove our collections without our permission, but I’ve had half of mine now removed.  When I try to set up new ones, the software procedure is confusing, has issues and is just impossible to do. It appears Zazzle now expects our collections to be the “same image” on different products?  And, then all under the same theme, i.e. Christmas, Father’s Day, etc.

Well, I don’t do that.  I make tons of different images for one topic.  For example, Christmas.  I’ll have Santas, elves, reindeer, snowmen, etc.  They’re all mixed up on different products.  I can’t chose one graphic only to feature in a collection.

I know the economy is horrible. I feel it in my sales and this past Christmas I made 50% of what I did the previous year. But, it has nothing to do with how Collections are tagged or created or their contents.  We all have to just ride this out.  Stores are closing, or laying off etc.  Zazzle I’m sure is affected.  But, don’t make more work for us Sellers who have been on here for years.  I can’t go through all my 5,000 + products and re-organize them to suit a new Collection format.  I seriously doubt this will increase sales anyway.  

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Heather from the Creator Team has asked that people contribute their thoughts on search and the new collections here. https://community.zazzle.com/t5/general-zazzle-discussion/cross-sell-cover-collection-images-search-pages-testing/td-p/126847

You can create a cover that states the collection shows a wide variety of themes and select a few items to showcase the different items. Add text that states ‘visit collection to view them all’.

Then if it’s just a cover we need, WHY REMOVE our collections???  All that needed to be done was to make a new cover?  Are the collections you removed able to be put back?

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I haven’t removed any collections? If you recently updated a collection, that might be why it’s currently not showing. It can take a while for them to reappear?

@Brownielocks  Are your collections really gone? None of my collections  were removed, but many of them which were at one time viewable in a shop are now viewable only through my profile page collections tab.

I noticed over the Holiday period that a lot of collections were set to “ready to be migrated” whatever that means. Before they were just visible without issues, so surely something is going on that we don’t know about. The collections involved were mainly business card collections, but apparently the algorithm does not recognize business cards (any more?). (huh?)
But never mind, in my sunnysites store all but one collection are gone (tech supposedly “aware of the issue” for quite some time now). I can find them however, but only on the product pages.
Guess something broke almost the entire site with so many tech issues.

YES!  Poof! Gone.  I have 4 remaining.  I originally had 11.  Remember they required us to have 10 for a Zazzle Rank.  Irritating how they keep changing rules around.  

Really? I didn’t notice. I guess because they weren’t missing I didn’t pay attention to the behind-the-scenes status that was happening.  Funny, you brought up cards.  A few of my collections that got removed were ones about cards such as Ham Radio Christmas Cards, etc.  Different images, but it’s about the same holiday = Christmas.  There were a few others that were card specific also.  But, not weddings, business cards, etc.  I’m not touching Collections right now.  And have no desire to create more. 

Someone removed collections, if it’s not you.  

@Brownielocks  

I believe there was a bug where some collections got disassociated from their store (don’t know how/why but I had a couple that did)

You need to go into edit the collection and check that it has a tick next to the store and that it is enabled. Uncheck it then check it again, press save and it should appear in a day or so once it’s been indexed.

If they still don’t appear in a day or two, give Tech Team a link to the collections that aren’t showing and I’m sure they’ll investigate it for you.

They don’t have to all be the same image in a collection. For example, if you have christmas ornaments (same product type) in a collection - choose different theme as the type and christmas as the event.

If you have different images on different products for christmas in one collection - choose gift theme.

We all had to go through our collections to optimize them for the great changeover from old style to new style and choosing events/types and making sure there were assigned to the correct store was just part of the game (including collection cover images to showcase what’s inside)

https://www.zazzle.com/creators/playbook/collection+types#:~:text=Frequently%20Asked%20Questions

It’s pretty quick to create collections by selecting products in the backend then actions dropdown - add to collection (same as before). You can do it by product type by going in the Departments and breaking it down that way.

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How many collections did you have before?

I see 11 collections on your profile page. 

I can see your Ham Radio Christmas Card collection on your profile page as well as a few other card collections also.

I can see your Thank You Business cards and your Coffee Shop business cards too. A minute ago I could see 270 collections on your profile page but now I can’t replicate that. @Sara_H  gave some info which could very well help solve some of the issue.

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You thought I removed other seller collections? That’s not possible, only Zazzle can do that.

I think we’re getting our messages mixed.  I was responding to your comment, “I haven’t removed any collections.”  So I responded to that.  It’s like you were saying you could.  But, it’s a mute issue. No biggie.  

You do?  I see  5,  I just checked.  I still only see 5 on the store front and also behind in the management of Collections area.  I even refreshed the page.  I only see 5 collections.

You’re kidding?!   I don’t see those collections at all.  Not on the store front. Not inside the manage store area either.  

I had 11.  I now see 5.