COLLECTIONS . . . What??

Discussion Forums Collections
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AM I WRONG?  IS THERE SOMETHING I AM MISSING?

Hello.  I am a Silver Pro seller;  I have been selling here since 2009; I have 18 various Shops on Zazzle featuring mainly my Portraits of Dogs and Dogs in Seasonal designs, including all of the major US Holidays.

My designs on product are offered in specific Categories (the website’s pre-set terminology) within the individual Dog Breed Shops.

When I first heard of Zazzle’s idea to group designs within our Shops into “COLLECTIONS” , I felt that having each of my Shops dedicated to a specific dog breed with individual artworks presented in a Category (again, website’s pre-set terminology) containing multiple products each featuring that one design was already a “Collection” of products - - - all built around ONE subject, only difference was that word used in the initial upload sequence where one chooses to “set up a new Category” .  You may as well say:  “set up a new Collection” .

Sure, I understand the concept for Weddings and for Birthday Parties where one may interest an undecided customer in other products related to your lovely placement of written words; and yes, I have observed the mobs of protesters on the 6:00PM NEWS all wearing similar tee shirts. . . however, I cannot grasp dividing my already carefully Categorized (the website’s pre-set terminology) specific artwork down even further into COLLECTIONS as the only things one could possibly “collect” in my instance would be: product types such as Clothing, Office, Household, etc. already offered on the dropdown of Product Types offered at the upper left corner of the page.

Since this concept of COLLECTIONS seems to be an important prerequisite to marketplace placement and “Shop Completion RANK” I looked through the HELP and How-To . . . postings in the “Sell With Zazzle” areas of this website to determine how to break my Shops down into yet another layer of “Clicks” for the potential customer to perform before viewing the available products (!) - - - and I really did not find an explanation of COLLECTING one’s products beyond the CATEGORY into which one placed them when first uploading the design and placing it on the Products.

Thank you for any enlightenment (or re-direction) one may offer!

Ann Kallal (Maggie Ross Dogs, Maggie Ross Dance, etc.)

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@MaggieRossDogs  

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You have started your collection journey - but ideally collections should have a title rather than be made of just numbers eg - Pekingese Dogs rather than 22652. and have a cover photo.

https://www.zazzle.com/creators/playbook/collection+types#:~:text=various%20marketing%20channels.-,What,-are%20Preferred%20Collections

You can create Gift theme collections where they are collections of giftable products for someone who loves Pekingese Dogs or Similar Style/Different Style collections (which are all the same product type - eg all can coolers)

https://help.zazzle.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000289534-How-Collections-Work

“Collections make it easier for shoppers to discover and browse products that align with their interests or specific needs.”

“collections centered around a particular interest or hobby, such as sports, animals, or fashion”

So if you title your collections and add appropriate tags, they can be found in collection search easier

https://www.zazzle.com/collections

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Each of your stores need 10 collections as part of the setting up a store and these can be quickly and easily done by creating “similar style” type of collections per dog store - eg - Pekingese Dog Can Coolers or you can mix and match all your can coolers from all your stores into one collection “Toy Dog Can Coolers” and then attached that one collection to all of your dog stores.

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In edit collection - go to the left hand side “Your Stores” and click a check box next to the stores - the scroll down and save. That will attached one collection to many stores.

Then when you are comfortable with creating collections with one type of product or one piece of artwork - jump into the Cross Sell collections where they are ready made slots for you to add products to.

You can create a Back to School cross sell for someone who loves Pekingese Dogs

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Then just work your way through the slots, adding what you already have in your store and then create any product to add to your collection.

Side note - you can’t add westies to your cross sell if you have created that collection for your Pekingese Dog store, cross sell collections are per store only but you can add westies to a gift type collection (mix and match)

Hope I’ve not confused you.

We’re here to help you dive in to collections!

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THANK YOU, SARA_H !!!  Yes, that is me shouting :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

The link to “How Collections Work” is exactly what I searched all over for, and never found.  I guess my 83-year-old speech patterns are “foreign” to today’s patterns, as I rephrased my inquiry a number of times without ever receiving that response.  Your other examples are wonderfully helpful as well !     

I will definitely delve into this Tool.

Regards, Ann Kallal (Maggie Ross Pekingese, etc.)

1 Like