There’s a huge swath of totally valid collections that I think are being missed… the current designations are all based on a specific recipient, a holiday/event or a particular single product… It completely leaves out collections for things like home canning/farm stand - which might include various types of products - labels and gift tags, signs. It leaves collections of home goods out in the cold too… A collection of nursery furniture items based on a theme would have no home except “Other” in the current scheme. Business and event collections that don’t necessarily need invitations appear to be left out too… Like collections for Pride Month - an event or business may want give aways, favors, shirts, buttons - but not invites…
Collection types I believe desperately need to be added:
Cross-Sell - Business Suite
Gift Theme - Not Recipient/Event Based… not every design that makes a great gift has to be for someone or someday in particular… some things are great for anyone and any occasion… This is like the thus far unrecognized plea for a unisex category in clothing… not everything has to be for a particular person…
Cross Sell - sports suite - for things like baseball cards, sports themed gifts not aimed at a particular person, patches, awards etc.
Cross Sell - hobby suite - for things like knitting tags, home canning, recipes, kitchen gifts not aimed at any particular person
Cross Sell - home decor suite - for collections of matching/complimentary home goods
I’m sure there’s probably a lot more… but these are things I could think off right off the top.
With all the missing categories, I’m hoping Zazzle will make repairs. With that in mind, I won’t going near my collections for a while. I don’t want to be stuck trying to redo what I’ve already redone.
Also, I mentioned the collection changes to a designer I knew wouldn’t be aware of it yet, and she took a look at her collections. Hers are the same as they’ve always been with no sign of the folderol we’re all seeing. Is it possible this hasn’t been rolled out to everyone as of yet?
Agree with the above plus a few others missing that quickly come to mind: reunions, electronics, anything pet related, car accessories, luggage, etc. - the Home and Living type is too vague at this point.
Copy/pasting from one of the many other threads, since this one seems to be gaining the most traction:
I have mostly collections which are themed around holidays/parties. Think matching paper plates, cups, tablecloths, confetti, favor bags, etc.
I’ve selected “cross-sell/event suite” as the type of collection.
When I do this, it gives me a list of “recommended products” that don’t match up with what I have in the collection, or even make sense for an event collection (why would I put a mug or a throw pillow or a magnet in a collection of table settings and party decorations?) 90% of my actual collection is relegated to the “bonus products” section, with a message that this isn’t the “preferred collection” for these products.
I can select “other” for the collection type instead, but then I get a message that this type is not recommended and is not eligible for onsite experiences.
I’ll also add that I hate the idea of “mandatory” products in a collection. If I choose “cross-sell/event suite” for my party collections, it says a greeting card is mandatory. Why? I could see the logic behind a mandatory invitation, perhaps, but I have collections for things like dinner parties – are people really giving all of their guests a greeting card? So weird.
Add to that that not everyone designs every product. I have some greeting cards but they’re not something that sells well for me, so I don’t spend a lot of time on them. Do I now have to go back and design a bunch of “mandatory” products just to make my collections visible?
I’d rather see more flexibility within the collection. Or, just give the “other” collection type the same status as all of the rest, for those of us whose existing collections (or products) don’t fit within these specific niches.
I don’t think there’s any logic behind ANY mandatory items… I have collections that I would certainly call “event suites” - like a couple of collections I have for Pride month - not something for which either a greeting card or invitation is all that likely to be purchased… Geeze, give the designers some credit for knowing what audience they are after…
Oh I agree, I don’t think any items should be mandatory. But at least there would be some logic behind invitations in an event collection…I have no idea why they’d decide that the one mandatory item is a greeting card. Are there really that many events where people are buying a matching greeting card to coordinate with the plates and napkins? I don’t think I’ve ever done that in my life.
I’m really frustrated Zazzle has come up with a new way to make our life’s harder, I’d much rather be creating products than worrying about whether my collections will be seen in the MP.
At least half of my collections are same design/artwork on different products. None of those migrated anywhere so I have to figure out what to do with those- except that I don’t quite understand how this all works right now.
Agree, especially on “Gift Theme - Not Recipient/Event Based… not every design that makes a great gift has to be for someone or someday in particular… some things are great for anyone and any occasion… This is like the thus far unrecognized plea for a unisex category in clothing… not everything has to be for a particular person…”
So many of my items are gift items or home decor (that could be a gift item) for no particular person or event. This is very much needed.
If you find it exciting, I’ll gladly pay you to do mine! I’m so burned out with doing cover photos for products, I can’t even THINK about all the work needed for the collection covers!
You CAN choose Cross-sell for the Business/ Corporate category. Not sure if it works for Home & Living, as I haven’t tried that yet. I haven’t even attempted anything sports-related, either.
I agree as well, but I don´t even understand why do they need to make such separate topics/themes for collection types? Like why it cannot just be functional types such as “Cross-sell” for ALL possible products, meaning that any collection of products that are complementary to each other and are usually purchased together could be classified as “cross-sell” with corresponding marketing functions… Why would they make it so unnecessary complicated and purposely “exclusive”?
Hmmm - this may have changed? Or at least it needs a better explanation. Not sure I would have even thought about looking for “Business/Corporate” as an event..
Zazzle Moderators really need to read these threads and see how frustrated and aggravated designers/creators are. It squelches our creativity when more is added to our existing workloads just to be visible in the Zazzle marketplace alone. Furthermore this “OTHER - NO CLEAR INTENT” type couldn’t be further from the truth. Most of what I hope to sell in my shop would be classified or labelled as other. Yet when you see my art, logos, poetry the intent and the purpose of them is quite obvious and very clear. Yet there are no categories or types listed with in the collections tool that accurately or appropriately describe my designs or the products they were intentionally designed for. Most designers are quite aware of what product suites are and the importance of them from a marketing and branding standpoint. Zazzle really needs to consider adding: Awareness, Art and Fashion *(I myself design for women’s fashion and gifts), Poetry *(I myself write original rhyming socially and politically conscious poetry that works in tandem with some of my logos and will be featured in a few product lines). There are no categories or types for any of the aforementioned with in the collections design tool. I am NOT posting this to be critical of Zazzle. However the workload for designers and creatives is heavy enough. We have to write product descriptions, compile tag lists, create mockups for products and collections, create collections banners etc. This has proven to be very daunting and time consuming when one has hundreds or even thousands of products that need to be organised into collections that are cohesive and curated. Collections are buggy and infuriating as it is. Please do read and know that what’s been stated with in these threads is NOT meant to be a personal attack on Zazzle. Thanks for listening and reading our threads. Will keep my posts shorter and more succinct going forward.
Let me just add to what I stated by suggesting that there be a feature that will encompass a wider and broader range of types or categories as it were. Someone suggested that instead of OTHER perhaps a more appropriate type might be “FOR ANYONE”. Niching everything down to baby showers, weddings and the like is just making the process of creating cohesive and curated collections next to impossible. Not all of Zazzle’s designers/creators design for the same products, occasions, seasons, themes, niches what have you. You obviously get what I am saying. My store is multi niche. I myself have now been forced to halt creating collections because I DO NOT have the time or desire to try this new collections feature out. Again know your designers and what their needs are. Also please give us more detailed and less surface information about these new features. Please include step by step instructions on how to actually use these features. Collections can and will determine the success or failure of a Zazzle storefront. Thanks.
Very insulting, indeed! I am not happy having to put most of my products under “Other” because that is NOT what they are! I design with mostly home décor in mind, so where do I put them? I came to the forums hoping to find that there’s a category suitable for most everything that I missed somehow. Zazzle really missed the boat on this one. This feels like quite a slap in the face.