Can anyone recommend a current video for first-time shoppers/buyers (NOT sellers) on Zazzle? I’m looking for something that takes a total newbie from landing on the home page, finding an item, personalizing it in the new design tool, to checking out, with advice about whom to contact whenever. TIA.
I don’t have any recommendations for you, but I think it would be a fantastic idea if Zazzle made something like this themselves. I can’t count the number of chat messages I’ve received from customers that are really just requests for help navigating the site.
I know the rule of thumb for web design these days is to not provide instructions and instead aim to make things “discoverable.” I just don’t think that works for all users depending on their age/device/familiarity with using online tools etc.
Thanks @Saints_Aplenty for that suggestion, I have passed that onto the team for you. Joanna
Thanks for the support, Cat. I too think Zazzle should make something like this themselves. People no longer read–let alone follow directions–but they might just watch a video. Of all the videos out there for Zazzle, I found only one geared to buyers, and it was badly dated.
And, thanks,. @Joanna for passing the idea along to the PTB.
Good suggestion and honestly, it would be great if Zazzle added a short “Welcome to Zazzle” video right on the homepage for all customers. Something simple that explains how everything here is created by independent artists, how products aren’t mass produced, and how personalization works in the new design tool. A quick intro like that would help first time shoppers understand the whole process from browsing → customizing → checking out, and also clarify when to contact Zazzle vs. when to reach out to a creator for artwork or personalization help.
Exactly! I think that would be money well spent!
Further thoughts…
While Zazzle should do its own video, I would have two reservations about them doing one for first-time customers instead of a savvy YouTuber: 1) The system would need to be stable. It’s not currently, and hasn’t been for some time. The constant changes to layouts, glitches, A/B tests, etc. are too chaotic for both designers and customers. 2) Zazzle would probably emphasize weddings to the detriment of everything else it has to offer. An amateur would spend less, could offer a wider perspective, and re-edit or redo the video as platform changes warranted.
P.S. In another thread, @doggenhaus gives actual customer feedback rhat points up why a video would be helpful.
Are we really living in the video age now? Where people need a video for every single little thing?
I don’t know—from a designer’s perspective, an interface just feels broken if you have to explain it in a video. I stand by it: for most products, any end user should be able to get by completely without one.
Sure, for special use cases like “weddings & invitations”—with tons of details and custom content—the rules are different. Those customers spend more money, so it makes total sense to take them by the hand and guide them through the system, even more thoroughly than ever before. That would actually make sense, and it feels missing here.
But fundamentally, anyone just buying a regular product should run into an intuitive interface. Other platforms manage to do that just fine, so why shouldn’t this one?
On the other hand, I do think official video content directly from Zazzle would make a lot of sense. The social media campaigns I keep seeing aren’t really that great. It would be such an easy win to showcase how simple it is to personalize a design with your own photos—no need for Canva or anything else. It honestly baffles me that they don’t see the value in marketing themselves that way without reinventing the wheel. But maybe my expectations are just too high; thinking holistically and tackling these issues from a broader perspective doesn’t seem to be in style anymore.
International business is another story entirely. In foreign markets, you probably do need videos—or at the very least, since nobody really wants to read much text these days, it would simply be great to have them.
That’s the whole “discoverable design” playbook, and it works really well for most customers. But (and this is a pretty big but) there are plenty of customers (like the ones who contact me regularly for help navigating the site) for whom it obviously does not work. You can chalk some of that up to design issues, but some of it is just that some folks (for whatever reason) are not comfortable messing around until they figure it out.
Here’s a list of questions I’ve received over the past few weeks:
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When will it arrive? - this is the number one question. Obviously, people both don’t understand that I don’t produce the physical products and/or they don’t see or understand the “arrives by” link on the page
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Can you change the background color/font/wording for me? - if it’s so intuitive, why are they going to all the trouble of finding the link to me and messaging me for help?
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How thick is the paper? How many stickers are there per sheet? Does this stand up without a frame? - clearly, people aren’t finding the product description information
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Can I get this in a different size, different paper, different options? - obviously, they couldn’t figure out how to change that themselves.
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How do I order a download? - once again, this tells me that they can’t find the download option on the site.
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Please make the following changes to my existing order. - This is another biggie. They don’t understand the whole POD model
I know it’s all supposed to be intuitive, but some folks obviously just don’t “intuit” like others! I’m not saying that we need a complete library of video help files for every situation, but what would be super helpful is an overall explanation of the POD model along with a very basic walkthrough of the website layout/ordering process. I’m thinking something less than a minute or two in length.
It’s all good and well to say that people “shouldn’t” need that. But some of them obviously do, and we end up having to fill the gap for those who can’t figure it out on their own. And I found your comment about foreign markets needing videos because they don’t want to read the text to be somewhat amusing… do you really think Americans read the text? 
Edited to Add… I just re-read my comment and it sounds a tad bit snarky. I just want to clarify that I’m not snarky with you - I’m just soooo tired of having to hold customers’ hands through the purchasing process instead of being able to focus my energies on designing. I mean, at this point I just tell customers to use Zee - but I feel like I shouldn’t have to do that - it’s a waste of my time, and it makes customers feel like they’re getting the run around. Zazzle should take responsibility for making sure that their customers can find their way around without relying on an unpaid customer support team (us) to do it for them.
Thanks @doggenhaus and @Cat_Ritchie for weighing in. Yes,@doggenhaus, unfortunately, I think we’re living in a video (and images instead of words) age. Ten years ago, when I was still teaching, American college students didn’t want to crack a book. Now? I shudder to think… And helicopter parenting in the USA has resulted in a generation or more of individuals who do have to be led by the hand to accomplish every little thing. Just ask employers, for instance.
Perhaps we actually need two short videos: 1) a Welcome video for explaining the POD model and navigating the site; and 2) a how-to-customize and what-to-personalize video.
Zazzle’s key demographic obviously isn’t reading the information that is already readily available on the listing page (as @Cat_Ritchie indicates). So there does seem to be a need to point out the various spots in the listing where it can be found. And, it needs to be stated clearly that that’s that. The designer can provide no additional insight on specs, options, manufacturing, shipping, or customer service. Contact Zee.
As to using the design tool… (Don’t get me started on the current design tool….) @doggenhaus , you’re quite right: The average end user shouldn’t need a video, but obviously, from the comments you posted from your friends and family, they do! Stripping out the annotations many designers used to provide in the previous design tool was a huge mistake. But the burden shouldn’t be on designers to begin with: it’s the platform’s responsibility to provide a hassle-free customer experience. Right now, Zazzle isn’t providing one. Zazzle’s so busy “reinventing the wheel,” chasing every off-the-wall idea, and implementing every here-today-gone-tomorrow trend in fear of being left behind in the POD world that they are falling behind in the POD world, if our slumping sales are any indication. Sure, discretionary spending is down especially in summer, but I suspect many customers are hitting snags and leaving the site before completing a sale. Google Analytics seem robust. So people are looking. But anecdotally, conversions appear way down across the board. I’d really like to see Zazzle take a deep breath, fix the things designers have been yammering about for ages, and regroup, concentrating on what it once did best. And market themselves anew to the public as such.
Apologies in advance—this is going to be a long reply. Whenever I try to keep it brief, things end up even more open to misunderstanding.
Of course I know how the modern world works, and how reluctant people are nowadays to read or spend time trying to understand things. My previous comment had a heavy dose of irony in it.
Still, I stand by my core point: there are countless products on this site that any everyday shopper should be able to buy without breaking a sweat. My guess is we are dealing with multiple conflicting realities here: things that seem obvious and simple from our perspective as designers, but look completely different to Zazzle because their corporate priorities don’t align with ours.
Take wedding invitations, for instance. That’s a complex category that can never be a true “one-click” purchase. But there are direct competitors out there who specialize exclusively in stationery and hold the customer’s hand through every single step. On top of that, look at platforms like Etsy: sellers there are so terrified of bad reviews that they jump through hoops and micro-manage every tiny edit for the buyer. In a way, the industry has trained customers to expect excessive hand-holding, even when it shouldn’t be necessary.
Which brings me to what I see as the real underlying issue. As a company, Zazzle feels like an awkward hybrid between a free-market corporation and a family business. I haven’t done an exhaustive deep dive, but watching some of these platform decisions reminds me strongly of my former company. When family members or insiders push for an idea, it gets built—no matter how flawed it is. When a major investor demands something, leadership has to deliver. And in that process, the wheels fall off and strategic focus goes out the window.
Maybe simple, one-click designs should just be treated—and sold—as simple one-click designs. And maybe Zazzle needs to finally make a clear choice between heavily committing to a mobile app or perfecting the web browser experience. It’s frustrating that here in Germany, we can’t even use the app. And that opens up the next big strategic question: Where is Zee actually competing? Is it strictly the US, or is it truly global? If you look at global demographics, how will they handle markets like India and China going forward? You don’t just ignore a quarter of the world’s population.
Given their resources, producing clear, targeted instructional videos should honestly be the easiest thing in the world for them. They certainly have the capability!
Another related point: I recently spent some time looking at Zazzle’s Instagram activities. Are they serious? It feels entirely neglected. Producing short, native, platform-specific video content for everyday trending products would be so straightforward. It honestly puzzles me how weak Zee’s official social media presence is overall. Some of you have pointed out that Z invests heavily in US television commercials instead. Is that really the future? Does that even make sense today? I can’t say for sure since that’s not my area of analysis, but at the end of the day, a company has to be clear about which markets it targets and how.
Ten years ago, Germany wasn’t ready for Zazzle, and Zazzle certainly wasn’t ready for Germany. Today, they would actually be in a prime position to succeed here—if only they communicated clearly, eliminated the atrocious machine translations, and invested in some localized marketing.
And that brings me to the elephant in the room: I hesitate to even call Zazzle a “POD service” anymore. Z has always been different. It’s a hybrid marketplace. You have us—the independent creators, illustrators, and photographers. But the lion’s share of the platform is dominated by major licensed brands and corporate partners. Then there’s the entire “Artisans” program, which could have been a serious competitor to Etsy under different rules, yet it’s neither properly expanded nor actively marketed; nobody seems to know where it’s headed. On top of that, Zazzle acts as a direct retailer itself. So yes, items are made “on demand,” but not in the conventional POD sense. It’s an umbrella platform marketing completely disparate creative services.
You have traditional handcrafts, pure layout services where people invest hours using Zazzle’s tools to build text templates (like photo-free business cards), independent artists selling merchandise, small manufacturing workshops offering customized goods, and global licensed brands printing inventory. That isn’t just POD. It isn’t even just printing. At its core, Z is an online marketplace rather than just a print shop, even though they have manufacturing facilities.
The whole setup reminds me of Amazonia. Az built out massive server capacity for peak sales days, and then realized they could monetize that excess infrastructure year-round by renting it out—which became AWS. But unlike Az, Z seems to have lost the overarching thread and hasn’t thought these different models through to their logical conclusions. AZ mastered both pure digital infrastructure and third-party fulfillment to dominate the market—and whenever a niche gets lucrative enough, they become a fierce competitor to their own third-party sellers.
Zazzle still has a chance to carve out a distinct niche and truly master it. They don’t have to manufacture everything themselves; they can continue relying on their global fulfillment network. But the customer-facing platform simply has to perform better than it does right now. For the end user. If you sell on the platform, having a learning curve is part of the job—we all deal with that. But when a regular shopper encounters slow loading times and feels like they need an engineering degree just to customize a basic t-shirt, something is fundamentally broken.
There are a few well-produced background videos on the site—did they lay off the team that made those? Or is global bandwidth still an excuse not to implement clean, short video guidance on product pages? I believe the Associates department still uses video walkthroughs.
The actual purchase funnel should be straightforward. If a shopper sees an image on Pinterest and clicks through, the path to checkout should be frictionless. Look at TikTok Shop—it’s seamless, regardless of what one might think of the platform itself.
A truly global app is a massive undertaking, but eventually you have to make a choice. “If you try to love everyone, you end up loving no one.” As much as I appreciate generalists, this business requires sharp specialization. If the goal is pure Print-on-Demand, then commit to it. But that’s not what Zazzle currently is. It has become an odd hub for “unusual personalized goods.” Unlike Etsy, we don’t have true vintage goods or one-of-a-kind originals (or inventory warehousing). But imagine if Zazzle’s customization engine were seamlessly integrated with a network like Amazons…
At the end of the day, I can’t shake the feeling that our era as independent designers on Zazzle might be reaching a turning point. Whether platforms will continue to care about individual human creators when customers can simply prompt an AI for whatever visual they want is a genuine question. We may already be in the process of being phased out by the technology, which might make our complaints moot in the long run.
Perhaps we should be having a broader, open conversation about what Zazzle’s ecosystem will even look like in the near future—and whether there is still a place for independent, freelance designers in that model.
No need to apologize. Your reply may be long, but it is well worth the read! And I earnestly hope that the moderators and Powers-That-Be are still reading and paying attention to this thread. You made some of the points I was trying to make much more elegantly and in much greater detail: that Zazzle is trying to be all artsy things to all people and isn’t/can’t be, that it’s spending too much time and energy like a dog chasing its tail in the effort (and we all know how well that works), and, while the platform needs an overhaul, the recent changes not only haven’t helped, they’ve hurt.
I haven’t so much time left that I’ll live to see how this all shakes out. I give myself five years before I’m resident in a niche in a cemetery. But unless I get the boot, I’m here to stay for the duration. 
Your last two paragraphs certainly deserve a thread of their own. I hope you’ll start one.