What's going on with search?

[Anne]

When I do a search for something, say for instance a beach wedding, many of my own products come up first. (huh?)
So apparently that has been connected to either login or previous views or both. (not helpful at all).
But what I don't get, is that NEW products are not coming up in the order they were published. I see (again) my own products, but some products that were published months ago as newer than the ones published last week.
Is anyone else seeing this?
If this is what customers are seeing, there is no chance my (or anyone else's, when not a bestseller) products will ever be found as they won't even appear in the new products. Wondering how this affects referrals, as nobody will be able to see these new products?

[Sara_H]

@Anne 

They've change something in the matrix where your own products appear in searches first (not sure when this happened - end of last year maybe?)

Customers will see something completely different - and mostly for what they've searched on before and served up (probably with the help of AI) new things based on their likes/views/previous searches/purchases.

So each one will be different.

Use an incognito browser - not logged in and you may get a truer indication of what's happening in the marketplace (or not - no guarantees as I really don't know what's happening with search)

[LMGildersleeve]

I have never seen this before. So you are saying when looking at the MP at a searched termed page that your products whether they have sold or not appear on the first page at the top? And this is true of Popular and Newest pages?

[Sara_H]

@LMGildersleeve 

It's happened to me logged in search 'lipstick leggings'

logged in popular - the top two are mine

not logged in - incognito browser popular - the top two are not mine

It happens with newest when logged in - top one mine (and not new - 2022)

[LMGildersleeve]

Strange indeed. 🤔

[Anne]

Exactly, @LMGildersleeve 
The newest products showing mainly my own products is very strange. Especially since they show in another order than published.

[LMGildersleeve]

While strange I suppose to Zazzle whose objective is to sell more products, you are not their target audience. I totally get your confusion though. It's kind of a pain to garner how your own products are viewed in their MP.

I suppose if the customer is viewing they are seeing products they may have clicked on before or similar styles. It's basically what was changed on the Home page of Zazzle with all the different feeds they push in front of the customer. Their Home page is a total mess when your logged in. Very unprofessional IMO.

I'm still not seeing this myself so I'm betting it's another A/B test?

[Zorinda]

This happened to me several weeks ago. Then it magically righted itself. Now it’s happening again. It’s pretty annoying.  It doesn’t matter which browser I use (Safari, Firefox,Chrome).  I wish it would stop.

[LMGildersleeve]

They are testing the view. It's not a glitch. Some of us will see it and others will not.

[Barbara]

I've disliked the catering to a designer's products and activity since they first started doing this. I mean, why do we go to their home page if not to see how we're doing as opposed to seeing what we've been up to lately? We can figure this out all on our own. And now they're showing our own products when we certainly have no need?

They must be fiddling around with things. It's all I can figure since, otherwise, it makes no sense.

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[Connie]

I think it's just that their algorithms try to show you what you would be interested in, based on your activity, so they end up picking your own stuff to show you. The AI is NOT at all intelligent, so it can't differentiate between your own products and someone else's.

[Barbara]

So maybe return customers with an account will see just what we see, which is a welcome with their name plus stuff they previously searched for. Amazon has gone heavily into this, and I tend to ignore it because I'm now searching for something entirely different. Regardless of Zazzle's intent, I think you're right that the algorithm doesn't work terrifically well.

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