Where's the listing for Z products?

[Barbara]

A short time ago, apparently as a fleeting test, Zazzle placed a dropdown on the landing page where a customer could quickly choose the type of product they were searching for, be it invitations, mugs, throw pillows, whatever. When I saw it, I thought "Hallelujah!" Wanting to run a search just now, I looked for the dropdown but the home page is back to pushing "events" and "gifts" and nothing more, narrowing the perceived choices rather than broadening them.

Am I the only one who thought the dropdown was a huge leap ahead for customers?

Colorwash's Home    Colorwash on Benable   Benable invite link

[Jadendreamer13]

Maybe it was a test to see if it would improve sales. Based on my own shop results, it didn’t work. 😞 But I’m just a small fish in a big pond.

[Anne]

You need to click on the hamburger menu and then the first line says "shop by category". Not sure if any customer would ever find that. Also, it may be different from wherever you access the site, which browser you use, etc. 
I just spent too much time trying to explain to a customer how to access the transfer a design option (digging through about 200 "products and designs you might also like". Finally discovered it was not available across all browsers. I think in general the search options have room for massive improvements. Even if you type in the exact type of product you are looking for, it is not uncommon to find all sorts of other products. 

[Zorinda]

Ah… the elusive hamburger.  I remember the first time someone mentioned that term. I searched and searched, but for the life of me never saw one.  Someone was kind enough to post an image showing the location.  Unfortunately, I still couldn’t find it.  It seems like those of us who work on an iPad didn’t / don’t have the ability to see the hamburger.  Even when I got the newest ipad several months ago with their fancy new pencil that has magically uncovered functions I couldn’t previously see, the hamburger was still missing. 

[Barbara]

@Anne  Am I possibly in a tiny minority of people who have never quite latched onto symbols replacing words? I can do forward and rewind and that's pretty much it. Pathetic, right? You ought to see me trying to navigate my phone. Anyway, thank you for reminding me of where I tripped across that menu. Come to think of it, perhaps Zazzle would do well to remember that customers may not be up on all this stuff. Sad to say, Zazzle is possibly the worst site I've ever encountered when it comes to searching. I had one customer who wanted to find a design of mine, and when I helped her do it and after she bought it, she told me she'd never return to Zazzle because it was far too hard to find anything specific.

@Jadendreamer13  Something has gone terribly wrong with sales, and now we're headed into the summer drought when sales are traditionally low. (Big sigh.)

Colorwash's Home    Colorwash on Benable   Benable invite link

[Jadendreamer13]

I agree. I’m glad that I don’t need Zazzle income to pay my bills. At this point, with sales so low and Zazzle taking half of my royalties, I’m starting to assess whether Zazzle is a viable platform for me. This situation is very disheartening, disappointing, and frustrating. I feel like I’ve wasted several years of serious effort on Zazzle.

[Barbara]

Things started looking wobbly with the covid lockdowns. At the time, I thought it was because all of Z's employees had to work from home. When lockdowns ended, I thought all would go back to normal, but they didn't. We can only wait and see while looking around just in case we need a replacement. We're always vulnerable when we depend on another company. Even companies have that same vulnerability.

Your time hasn't been wasted. You've likely learned a lot of things you otherwise wouldn't have. If necessary, you'll find something else. Me? I'll be turning eighty this summer and am thinking of sliding into old-lady mode, though what kind of fun is that?

Colorwash's Home    Colorwash on Benable   Benable invite link

[Barbara]

Given that I never click on those hamburger thingies, and given that my memory of the dropdown was something clicked on a menu bar at the top of the page and that the dropdown was a page-wide box, is it possible I arrived at a time when they were shifting things around? Granted, we all have flawed memories, but still...

Colorwash's Home    Colorwash on Benable   Benable invite link