Hi Creators - Let us know if you have any thoughts, feedback or questions about how Zazzle Marketplace Channels work with Collection Cover Images.
Thank you!
The Creator Team
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@Heather you forgot to link the news https://community.zazzle.com/t5/creator-news/how-collection-cover-photos-work-with-marketplace-channels/ba-p/114011
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I’ve fixed the original post. Thanks for mentioning it.
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Thank you for the effort to explain this. Let me preface this by saying that I love the new collection features and you’ve made a big effort to explain them and make them easier.
That said, to be honest, this is still all really confusing. It is also frustrating that we’ve all been making a big effort to make our collections the best they can be, and now it seems we need to go back and make a second tour through things in order to add “Real Views” or create multi product images. This requires an additional time effort for all of us. I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering whether to make this effort again this while the interface seems to still be in evolution.
It seems this latest change was necessitated by adding that little key collection image in the sidebar of our product listings. I completely agree when it is a single product it is confusing for customers. Perhaps adding the primary media image to the sidebar was just NOT a good idea to begin with. So many of us already chose single image products as our primary collection image - both because that was easier, and since they look great in the shop this collection module.
But putting them in the side bar doesn’t make sense. And even the multi product images are going to be hard to make out when they are that small.
Isn’t there a better way of achieving the end of making people aware there is a collection? Like not adding the image to the sidebar and just adding the “Shop this collection (or suite)” right up directly under the first product. The display in that widget makes it perfectly clear that these are additional products. Or even simply putting a generic “See the collection button” that links directly to the collection in the sidebar (without a tiny multi-product image that is going to be hard to make out).
Since you’ve been incredibly responsive to our feedback, here are a few additional things that I think would make the new collections features more convenient for sellers.
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Give designers a way to access the backend collection interface directly from the “shop this suite” widget on our product pages. That way the minute we see something that doesn’t look right we can get right in there and try to fix it or make it better. As it is now it’s a whole complicated navigation process to get back to those collections.
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Please give us the ability to enlarge the “Real VIews” so we can see them better before we choose to use them. Also the fact that they take so long to activate leaves us unsure what we’ve actually done to our listings and whether we like the look. I’ve enabled a few, but I can’t even see them yet, so that adds to the difficulty of understanding how this all works.
3. Improve and diversify the “Real Views” so that a wider range of products can be featured instead of the standards - for example how about an invitation, a paper cup and a napkin… or something like that. Please mix it up a bit.
I’ve still got dozens of questions, including whether using our own multi-product images is considered as good, whether videos can also be used as the primary image still… etc.
Again, I’m really excited about all these changes, and really deeply appreciate how much effort has been put in, and how responsive Zazzle has been to feedback. There is just no other platform out there that is this attentive to their sellers. Thank you for listening, and for giving us this forum for exchange.
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It is kind of hard to know what to think with all the changes and a/b testing going on. I have been trying to figure out how closely the cover photo and individual product photos should match or coordinate. When it was just one product per photo, I tried to make sure that cover photos in the same collection didn’t clash or look jarring together. But now with multiple products in a collection, some of the single product backgrounds are way to busy for a collection photo of say 5 items.
It was a bit of a surprise when I started to see my products replaced with the collection photo. But I love the way zazzle added the note to shop the collection etc. So I am not worried eventually I will be able to brand my work very effectively. Now I feel it is a little hit or miss.
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Thank you for putting words to my thoughts. You must be psychic.
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So far I’ve found it extremely confusing when the collection cover image replaces the product image. On a search page, it looks like the wrong products are coming up in the search results. If I’m confused, when I know about all these changes, I can only imagine how confused the customers are! And they probably will just overlook those listings altogether, rather than try to figure out why all these other products are showing up in the search results for the one they are looking for! I don’t think it’s necessary to show the customer that there’s a matching collection on the search page, until they actually click on a product. The way collections are showcased on the product pages is very clear. But we really NEED to be able to click on the whole collection when we are on the product page!
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Thank you so much for your feedback and ideas! I have passed this on to our product team and we will see what changes we can add to make this a better experience for Creators.
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Thank you for your feedback Connie! We have recorded your feedback. We’re constantly testing the customer experience and we give the Creators to option to replace the cover collection image in search if they choose to.
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“We give the Creators to option to replace the cover collection image in search if they choose to. “. Can you please explain this again. Honestly, this is all becoming completely confusing. Do you mean the real views or something else. Meanwhile I still have not been able to see the couple of real views I activated, which makes it even harder to understand how they are being used.
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Hi there - Creators can enable their primary collection image to show in search rather than the single product image if they choose to do so by enabling under Zazzle Marketplace “Search Pages”. You can see this visually in the video we recently created.
The Realviews are still in AB testing so you may not see your RealViews show up on the product page right now if you are not part of the test. We are looking to enable access to all users soon. Apologies for the confusion here! I will update the article.
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I don’t know if I am the only one guilty of using the wrong paper types for enclosures or other invites - but back before we had the big paper break out.. we used what fit - there could be 3 or 4 various paper types that would work for say save the dates, rsvps, details etc.. but now with this new feature even though we “thought” we had, say for instance, enclosures in the correct design placement to fill the needed slot in the new real view templates IF you do not have the correct paper type.. it will not fill in - So the only choice we have is to completely remake the card using the designated paper type so it will then fill in the spot - so for those of us with hundreds of possibly wrong paper types created in the past.. on the right size paper And using the proper drop down for the correct marketplace department, they still do not fill in the template for the real views.. will we now have to completely replace each one of them starting with a new product.. ? I imagine we would lose MP placement.. ? Is there not an easier way to Redesignate the paper type without losing placement or needing to completely recreate the products?
When you hone down in on a search with extra keywords, sometimes the the same collection cover show up on the same page multiple times when they are selected as part of the 10 representative products. For example invitations and labels that come up in the same search both show the collection cover as the product page. That is very confusing to customers.
Personally, I would like Zazzle to show the actual product in searches and if the product is added to a collection, the collection cover appears when the customer hovers their mouse over the thumbnail. Either that or a little icon appears in the corner of the image where they can toggle between the product image and the collection cover image.
Also on the top of the page next to the search field, I would love it if Zazzle added two search buttons, one called “search products” and one called “search collections” so that the customer can search either one.
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Thank you so very much for making a video explaining this new feature! I really found it very helpful! 
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Nevermind all of the above.. the products are totally different.. My mistake..
@Heather I don’t know why it was so hard for me to see at first pass through that it was possible to turn of the images in the marketplace. Perhaps it’s because all these options are split up in different areas. But now I understand that I can turn off the primary collection image in search pages and have done so. If anyone else is having this issue and wants to turn it off, you have to first click on this:
And then at the bottom of that page (see image below) you uncheck all the boxes. I had accidentally checked some of these because I didn’t really understand the instructions or what the purpose of this interface was.
It’s just all a lot to absorb, and some things are in one place (media) and then in other places, like under marketplace. I guess that makes sense once you wrap your mind around it.
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Thanks so much for your feedback! I have passed this onto our team and we will look to see what we can do to make this part of the feature easier to understand.
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Thank you so much for your feedback! I will be sharing with our team. We will be continuing to test out new ways to surface collections to customers.
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Thanks so much for your feedback! I’m happy the video helped explain the feature and that you found it helpful.
Thanks so much Deb. Maybe the design transfer feature can be added to collections to help with get the right products published to fill the slots.. I will explore with our team.
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