Has the allowed method to keep items from falling off of the marketplace changed?

[Mistica]

I have quite a few products (12K + ) and I remember way back that if an item was not viewed for a while (max was 12 mos?) we were encouraged to view it to keep it alive.

It is my understanding that  presently a view via the creator no longer gets counted as a view...so I am guessing that there is no way to save a product from being dropped from the marketplace anymore?

[Barbara]

If you go to the product and choose "Edit Details," you can spruce up your tags or, actually, nothing at all, and set it back to "Public." This gets it back in the marketplace.

Colorwash's Home

[Mistica]

Thank you. So you need to manipulate that way.
Am I right that simply clicking it will not do the trick any more?

Also.. how can one easily tell what is and is not on the market place? 

[Baylee]

On the back-end products page you'll see a filter for 'optimization needed' listed under 'product visibility'. These are the items that have been hidden due to lack of views or sales within the ( I think it's 15 month) time period.

[Barbara]

There's no truly easy way to see if a product is in the marketplace other than running a search for it, which is somewhat easier if your tags/titles are unique.

Colorwash's Home

[Baylee]

If the product is hidden in your backend as 'optimization needed' then wouldn't that mean that it's not in the marketplace? 

[Barbara]

Though I can't vouch for any of it at this point, "optimization needed" originally meant "be warned, the product is closing in on 15 months, so fix it now, not waiting until it becomes hidden." So, if it hasn't been hidden, it should still be in the marketplace. However, I've noticed of late that there's little difference, given that optimization-needed seems to show up at the same time as hidden and is, therefore, a useless step.

Colorwash's Home

[Sara_H]

@Barbara  I agree. Those I've checked just after I've got the "optimization needed" notification - they're already hidden. So really the notifications should renamed 'removed from marketplace now hidden waiting for you to optimize' (too wordy I know 😂)

[Mistica]

Where and how do I find this "optimization needed" message? Is there a mass way to expose them at once...and then use the select all and edit details en masse?
I have lots of products and I sure hate to lose them...just like many of you.

[Sara_H]

@Mistica 

normally those notifications appear under the bell icon as they happen. For older ones check in your backend stats.

You can select upto 204 products at a time

In the store back end statistics - select 'optimization needed' and it will list all those that need to be optimized.

then in bulk actions select all non discontinued

then in actions - make public

then that will remove the red notice

However you'll see need to update tags/description/add a promo etc to freshen up those listings.

You can bulk edit tags this way but ideally, titles/descriptions need to be unique

[Barbara]

I agree with you about using the bulk method not being the best way. I did it once because I'd not been paying attention, and tackling the lengthy list damaged any good will I had at the moment. However, I noticed while I was doing this that there were plenty of products in need of love. They hadn't been viewed for good reason. Currently, they've come back bit by bit to haunt me, so I'm reviving them one by one, which is easier to do because of keeping up with them.

Something I do when I can't think of anything better to do is to list my products by "Last Viewed," go to the very last page, and work my way forward through the ones that haven't been viewed in 13 or 14 months. It lightens the load.

Colorwash's Home

[Sara_H]

@Barbara  I do one by one too and give each one the love they deserve. Slow and steady wins the race 🐌

[Mistica]

I just found a few and edited them. Shouldn't they show up on pg 1 or 2ish  of "Last Viewed"? it's been a few days. 

[Barbara]

After editing a product, I've found it may show up 2 days later...or more. I have a few weird ones that haven't supposedly been viewed in one or more years and that I've edited to try to refresh them, but though the actual edits stick, the last-viewed date remains the same. Someday, I'll delete the useless idiots or remake them. Editing should do it, but it doesn't.

Colorwash's Home

[Mistica]

Darn. I was afraid so. So our designs are doomed. Gosh.. designs I made way back ....around 2018 have just started to gain traction. They were finally viewed enough to see the light of day.
It's not a matter of ugly or nice...but just an issue of activity...which, sadly, this "view"  technology is not incrementing/adjusting the tally when the viewed software is not functioning properly. It has been broken for a long time now. I wish they would fix it. 

[Barbara]

@Mistica 

It's only 3 or 4 products where the views refuse to update, so don't freak out. All the rest are refreshed. Only a small handful of bad apples.

Colorwash's Home

[Sara_H]

@Mistica  which browser are you using to view them? I found using vivaldi (chrome based browser/windows) never registered a view. Probably sometime to do with ad block or another extension.

I moved over to firefox(windows) - and now my views count. (It can take a couple of days if the indexing is running slow)

[Mistica]

I use Brave as my browser.
You are saying with fire fox my tickling the old ones will actually bring then to "last viewed" page 1? That would be great. A million thank you's..
Does it also count  as a view if I check out a brand new published item?
I always click to look at it immediately after "publish".

[Sara_H]

@MisticaYou could try creating it in firefox. Do some testing and see

[Mistica]

Thanks again Sara. I certainly will. I sure hope the problem fix is that simple.

[ColsCreations]

I remember someone else having the same issue but different browser (Brave) and that is indeed what it turned out to be for her.

Our "views" not resetting the clock on newly optimized product 

I was surprised there are blockers/extensions that can actually prevent your visit from registering as a view on a site but I guess they can.

[Sara_H]

@ColsCreations  it could be the 'chrome-ious' of a browser that stops the views (or an ad blocker) but I know when I switched to firefox - my views started to count and reset the view counter

[Barbara]

Over my years here, I've noticed more people having trouble with Chrome than any of the other popular browsers, so you're probably correct.

Colorwash's Home

[Mistica]

Thank you Sara for taking the time to show me how to begin to get a grasp on things.

[Anne]

"a view via the creator no longer gets counted as a view" ?
I wonder if the more frequent and longer periods of the last views not being updated could have to do with that.
If the view counter is broken, your own views of products will not count either. Or do they catch up later when the counter starts working again?

[Mistica]

Yes. Something has been up for a very very long time. I typically "view" a newly published item just to be double sure it is error free.. and it is also nice to see that first "view" of 1.
That stopped long ago. I even had relatives with other homes and ip's etc click items. I even visited my brother 1 hour away and used their internet Nada. Very depressing after all that work. You now don't know if a design concept is worth repeating or not. 

[Mistica]

I just noticed that my views on a t- shirt, for example, says 14 views using the insights, but has been stuck at 7 in the back end.

[Sara_H]

@Mistica 

Don't worry about the discrepancies with insights/ views - they're broke (imho) and don't correlate with each other.

Pretty sure somewhere (can't find the thread) a mod says one is impressions (insights - i.e it was shown on a page in search but wasn't clicked on) and the other is views (ie somebody clicked and viewed) - though i could be 100% wrong

Use your precious energy elsewhere or you'll go insane (I know I have 🙃)

[Mistica]

Thanks Sara. You are the voice of reason for sure 🙂