Idea: A Fair Rotation System to Give All Creators Visibility

[Susang6]

If visibility is the key to sales, then the system should give every creator at least a moment in the spotlight.

Lately there’s been a lot of discussion about saturation in the Marketplace and how hard it’s become for creators to get any visibility. Between mass‑upload strategies, repeated designs, and the same shops holding the top spots for months or even years, the site doesn’t feel as balanced or dynamic as it used to. Customers end up seeing the same listings over and over, and creators who are actually making fresh, original work often never get a chance to be seen at all. That’s what got me thinking about how other platforms handle this problem and why Zazzle might benefit from a similar approach.

Rotation of products on the first four pages of every main category

I actually got this idea from watching how other platforms deal with saturation and visibility. A lot of sites rotate their front pages or their featured sections on a schedule so new creators, smaller shops, and fresh designs all get a chance to be seen. It keeps things moving and prevents the same handful of listings from sitting in the top spots forever. When I saw how well that worked elsewhere, it made me think about how it could help Zazzle too, especially now that the marketplace is so crowded.

What I’m imagining is a rotating marketplace where the first few pages the ones customers actually shop refresh every few days. Not in a way that hides bestsellers, but in a way that gives everyone a fair shot at visibility. New products, new creators, and different niches would all cycle through. It would make the marketplace feel more alive instead of stuck with the same listings month after month. And it would rotate across every main category like Stationery, Home Décor, Office Supplies, Clothing, Electronics, and so on. Not the subcategories, just the main ones where the traffic is.

As a personal note, during COVID a few of my face masks became top sellers, and for a short time I was featured on the home page. It was the first and last time that happened, but it proved something important  when people see a product, they buy it. Visibility really does make all the difference. That’s why I believe every creator should have a fair chance at getting their products seen. A rotation system would be a good way to make that happen, giving everyone at least a small window of exposure instead of the same listings staying in front forever.

Along with that, I think Zazzle could bring back a small Top 10 sellers feature on the home page. Just ten. Not a huge list. Ten is manageable, motivating, and gives recognition without overwhelming the page. It also gives creators something to strive for, and it acknowledges the people who have put in the work to create top‑producing products. I always liked seeing that years ago because it made the site feel more connected and inspiring.

Then the rotation could happen on the category pages. So in those main categories, the featured creators at the top would rotate every few days. Customers would see fresh shops and fresh designs, and creators who normally never get visibility would finally have a chance to be seen. It keeps the marketplace moving instead of letting the same shops sit in the same positions forever.

This kind of system works on other platforms, and that’s where the idea came from. Etsy rotates featured shops. Society6 rotates trending artists. Amazon rotates featured brands in every department. It keeps things fair and keeps the site feeling alive. Zazzle could benefit from the same approach, especially now that the marketplace is so saturated with repeated designs and mass‑upload strategies.

A small Top 10 on the home page for recognition, and rotating creators on the category pages for visibility, feels like a balanced way to support both established shops and newer ones. It gives everyone a chance without taking anything away from the people who are already doing well. And it would make the marketplace feel more balanced, more dynamic, and more enjoyable for both creators and customers.

That brief moment of visibility during COVID showed me what’s possible when the system gives everyone a turn. It wasn’t luck it was simply that people could finally see the products. I think every creator deserves that same chance, and a rotation system feels like a fair, realistic way to make it happen. .

For anyone who wants background, here’s the_earlier discussion_ that led me to think more deeply about visibility and fairness in the marketplace

[Jo_P]

If they want to add shop features back on the homepage, sure that’s up to them. Maybe they could even make a shop feature page if customers wanted to see ‘top’, ‘new’, ‘featured this month’, or whatever they want.  But the algorithm already gives everyone the same opportunity to be seen.  Otherwise it would be impossible to go from Pro or Bronze to Silver, Gold, etc. By showing everyone just to be ‘fair’, you would be having a similar issue to the one you are trying to fight on other posts. You risk having a bunch of poor quality or unrelated designs at the top of the search results just because it’s ‘their turn’.  Which will not only cost Zazzle money, but leave a bad taste in customers mouths. The algorithm should feed the customer what they are looking for, and most likely to buy. Your masks hit because they hit the right search and customer, through titles, tags, timing, need, design, etc. And that is something all of us already have the same opportunity to do every day, year round.  And if customers want ‘fresh’ they can always use the recently created view.

[Connie]

Very well stated!

[Connie]

I don’t pretend to understand Zazzle’s search algorithms, and sometimes the search results don’t make a lot of sense. However, the current system IS set up to give everyone a chance to “shine,” with the right designs on the right products posted at the right time. Yes, there is a measure of luck involved in that process, but a lot of it can be achieved with the right mentality and the right strategies. I know for a fact that most of the people who used to dominate the first few pages, at least in my niches (because that’s where I regularly do searches), have dropped out, and now there are other people dominating. I also know I have a lot more work to do to get there in those niches. The key to success isn’t to rely on Zazzle to change things to benefit you, but rather to figure out how to benefit yourself with a good business plan using the system as it’s already set up.

[Susang6]

 about “lower quality.” What lower quality? I’ve seen absolutely wonderful designs buried past page 20 not because they’re bad, but because they’ve never had a real chance at visibility. That’s really the core issue here. A creator can upload something truly beautiful and high‑quality, and it still gets buried under years of older content that may not even be relevant anymore. So when people assume a rotation system would automatically push “poor quality” work to the top, it overlooks the huge amount of excellent work that simply hasn’t had the chance to be tested by the market yet. I’m not suggesting we hide bestsellers or replace relevance with randomness. I’m saying the current system might be missing out on incredible designs not because they’re low quality, but because they were uploaded after the marketplace reached this level of saturation. A small, timed rotation on the first few pages of the main categories would simply give those unseen designs a moment to be visible, not replace what’s already working. It’s absolutely possible for the algorithm to keep feeding customers what they’re looking for and still give all creators a fair chance to be discovered. Those two things don’t have to be in conflict.

 I want to a add that when Zazzle was on Amazon, they promoted one of my mugs  and I’ll be the first to admit, I thought that mug was ugly and low quality. It wasn’t my best work at all. But guess what? It sold like crazy. Customers loved it. That experience taught me something really important: our customers all have different tastes, and what we think is “ugly” or “not my best” might be exactly what someone else is looking for.

That’s why giving customers a wider variety to actually see is so important. There are so many wonderful designs that never get a chance simply because the system doesn’t surface them. A rotation isn’t about pushing bad work it’s about letting customers discover the full range of styles, tastes, and ideas that exist in the community. Variety is good for customers, and visibility is good for creators. A rotation system supports both.

[JLW_Photography]

This is neither a Pro or Con statement, but I feel it is a truism. Exposure leads to sales and sales lead to more exposure. There is a possible audience and, therefore, buyer for most anything, given the chance.

[Barbara_at_Array_Sto]

What about just adding another selection to the current ‘Sort by’ options in addition to ‘Popular’, etc. and call it something like ‘Surprise Me’… a totally random offering that selects from absolutely everything available in that particular search. I love surprises 😃 The algorithm could be built in such a way that it didn’t draw from products in any sequential order to eliminate having those maddening mass-uploads and repeating designs all showing up at once. 

[Susang6]

You’re absolutely right exposure is the foundation of sales. That’s exactly why I think a rotation system could help. Right now, the same shops dominate the top spots for months or years, which limits exposure for everyone else. A fair rotation would give more creators that initial visibility so their products can actually reach the audience you’re talking about.

[Susang6]

That’s a fun idea, a “Surprise Me” sort option could definitely be a playful feature for customers who enjoy randomness. I can see how that would help. The rotation system I’m suggesting is more about structural visibility, so every creator gets a fair chance on the main category pages.

 A random sort would be optional for customers, while rotation would help balance exposure across the marketplace as a whole. I agree there needs to be a solution to stop  “those maddening mass-uploads and repeating designs all showing up at once.”

Both Surprise and rotation could actually work together in different ways. Thanks for sharing your idea 

[Susang6]

you’ve worked hard to earn your place on the marketplace, that absolutely deserves respect. But the truth is that visibility has become a real issue for everyone: top sellers, mid‑level creators, and brand‑new shops. It’s affecting the whole community. I know top sellers who are suffering, because their bottom-line dropped they are down over half of what they earned before April fools day and the reason of course is visability,

That’s why I did my research. Other platforms and POD sites already use rotation features to keep visibility fair for all creators and fresh for customers. This isn’t new even content sites like eHow used a rotation system when I was there, and so did Associated Content. It was simply a fair way to make sure everyone had a chance to be seen.

And while Etsy doesn’t publicly outline a formal “shop rotation” policy, many sellers and SEO experts have observed that the algorithm cycles distribute listing exposure more evenly. This helps balance visibility between newer shops and established ones.

That’s the kind of fairness we could benefit from here a rotation system that keeps the marketplace fresh and gives every creator a real opportunity to be seen.

I started this discussion  because that’s what the community space is for: talking about these things constructively, sharing and brainstorming Visibility is a shared challenge, and discussing solutions together helps everyone.

[karab]

Etsy actually did try limiting people to one listing on every one of the first 5 pages of search results at one time, and they said that they realized it drove conversions down because it artificially hid things that people would be more likely to buy, so they abandoned that years ago. Then they tried a bunch of other search manipuations to increase GMS, but altering search results artificially has resulted in 2-3 years of decreasing GMS. They’ve now launched what they say is a totally personalized search where it’s based on the customer’s engagement on the platform instead of trying to show sellers “evenly,” for lack of a better term. They’re also prioritizing new listings to a certain extent, because that guarantees that people will see different things when they come to the marketplace. It’s not helping sellers that much. Etsy has really become a platform that you have to drive your own traffic to for a lot of reasons, but manipulating search is a big one.

[VivianD117]

how does one access the recently created view – other than just for a specific product?

[Susan_Frazier]

When you are searching for something in the Zazzle marketplace, you can toggle between Popular and Newest. 

[VivianD117]

Thanks – That I do know, but there isn’t some overall search for new products – I thought I was missing that.

[doggenhaus]

Nice topic!
The only reason the homepage position is so important, in my opinion, is because most customers don’t know what to call what they’re looking for. We’re asking people to talk about images in the language of keywords, and that simply doesn’t work well for everyone. As long as discovery on Zazzle is so heavily text‑driven, it would be both fair and important to know which criteria are used to feature shops and products.

At the same time, this whole debate might already be a bit behind the curve. Platforms like Temu already offer image‑based search in their apps, and that’s probably closer to where things are heading: in a global context you can’t rely on language alone to connect customers with products. More visual discovery and even a bit of “surprise” – surfacing designs based on colors, mood or style instead of just words – would help both creators (who often struggle to describe their work) and customers (who mainly use their eyes, not perfect terminology, when they shop).

Zazzle operates globally, but I feel language barriers and the way different native languages actually work are not taken seriously enough. I honestly have no idea what is “best” from a business perspective or what will generate the most profit, but it’s clear that Zazzle is a profit‑driven company. In the end, their main priority has to be their own revenue, not ours as individual designers, and that’s important to keep in mind when we talk about visibility and features.

[Susang6]

thanks for the update, like I said I did my research from talking to Etsy sellers and SEO experts…no public policy on Etsy on the algorithm rotation.  What I do appreciate is that they are trying to find a way to get more visibility for all creators. 

[Susan_Frazier]

The Zazzle Landing Page has a “New on Zazzle” section about half way down the page that shows the latest new products on Zazzle.

[karab]

But they really aren’t, unfortunately. Their priority is increasing GMS, and they found out that trying to be egalitarian about rotating shops didn’t work. Showing people things that haven’t sold is taking a chance as far as merchandising goes, so their default is to show people things that have sold. Their inventory is large enough that they don’t have to worry about finding things that have sold already, there are plenty of choices. They don’t prioritize helping sellers with visibility. Anyway, I don’t see a good way to increase sales by focusing on the seller side, most of the algorithms now are looking at targeting the buyer and trying to match their activity to show them things they already like.

[Susang6]

I get what you’re saying, and it actually reminds me a lot of how eHow.com operated back when I was publishing there. eHow was a worldwide content platform  millions of articles, honestly maybe billions over time  and visibility worked pretty much like a rotation system whether they ever called it that or not. 

They had this little ticker tape running down the side of the homepage that showed every new article being published. It moved fast, and if you were lucky your article would pop up there for a few seconds before the next one pushed it off. I still remember the excitement in the writer forums… people would post “my article hit the homepage!!” even though it was literally there for like three seconds. It was fun that tiny flash of exposure didn’t magically do the work for you. It just created a l momentum. You still had to promote your content, build your audience, all of it. The ticker tape was luck, not a strategy.

So when I talk about visibility on platforms, it’s coming from past experience and present research. I’ve been on sites where exposure was part timing, part luck, and part working really hard to promote. And honestly… that hasn’t changed much across platforms, even now.

Thanks for sharing more about Etsy I appreciate it.  I have a lot of ideas, I have one of those minds, just put this one out there…to see how it lands, not all of my ideas are good . 

[Marblewave]

Interesting idea. It could be like the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button on Google search.