Need More Clarification & Answers On Collections Before I Can Continue Working On Them

[klstock]

There are too many things that need clarification, and too many unanswered questions. It makes no sense for me to do any further work on the collections until things are made more clear such as collection types. 

One example would be - Will there be a "General" birthday category that encompasses adult and kid's birthday? I have many birthday designs that could be for adult and kids and would make no sense to make two different collections, and repeat all the same products, and do all the extra work of cover photos and banners when the customer can use the template to add whatever age birthday they want. 

Another example would be for showers. Will there be a "Couples Shower" category? I have most of my shower invitations set up as couple's shower and non-specific whether it is a baby shower or wedding shower. I just put the template field as "join us for a shower in honor of" and leave it for the customer to personalize it. I get lots of sales on these. If there were a specific category for this it would save needlessly dividing the collecting and essentially making duplicate designs across all the same products and another set of cover photos, banner, etc. 

Another example is - will there be a general "Party/Celebration" category? There should be because not every party is a birthday party. Where would you put Tiki party or Luau - that is not specific to a birthday or holiday? 

There are tons of threads full of questions which are unanswered. I will work on something else until things are clearer!

[klstock]

What to do with Pet Birthday Party? Under Event, there is no option for Pet Birthday or Dog Birthday. It won't work for kid's birthday as it doesn't accept the invitation and relegates it to a bonus item and says an invitation is still required, even though there is an invitation. Will there be a Pet Party option added for Event/Occasion? 

[TMGEE]

I'm facing the same issues. I have created dog birthday party invitations but there's not even "Pets" mentioned in the Events list... Also, I have created an invitation in a collection for a party suite products that doesn't even show as "Required" and that I can't even move to the "Recommended" products (despite their explanation given on how to do it that... doesn't explain anything at all). The real question then is: does Zazzle really care about products/events related to pets? If the answer is no, should we stop creating products for pets??? I'm just trying to follow a logic here considering the new system and how to work with it, instead of working against it... (sent many comments and screenshots to Zazzle about this and other issues).

[klstock]

I can't edit the original message anymore, but in the 3rd paragraph I meant to say COLLECTION not collecting.

It should read: If there were a specific category for this it would save needlessly dividing the collection and essentially making duplicate designs across all the same products and another set of cover photos, banner, etc. 

[Wildart]

seems to me it would be easier to have a broad collection category,e.g. birthday, which is them broken down further into sub categories.

[carulcards]

Also, isn't it strange that there is no birthday slot for birthday greeting cards? To me that is the most important product when it comes to birthdays...

[klstock]

it should definitely be included there, that is a great point!

[Barbara]

As Zazzle often does, I think they put out this new version of collections, knowing full well it wasn't, as they say, ready for prime time. I can't imagine they haven't thought of all the categories missing, but by getting feedback, they'll know what to include and how to include it. This is what we're running into and this is why I've chosen to wait.

Colorwash's Home

[TMGEE]

But they are not "Categories" they are called "Events". So Zazzle has their own "Departments", "Categories", and now "Events", and us, Creators, we have our "Categories" and "Collections". The question is: how is adding an "Events" list help Creators if it's so limited, but still so important for our products to be shown in the 3 channels, especially as "Recommended" products? Maybe it's limited on purpose? If this is the "Events" Zazzle really want to focus on, then it reduces the scope of products to create on our end. But, I'm just asking questions here...

[KittyValentine]

I second the idea of a category for "Wedding Shower" in general because some couples do like to celebrate a joint wedding shower!

[klstock]

Back to School collection as the "Event/Occasion and "Cross Sell/Event" Type relegates the items to "bonus" items. Such as 3 ring binder, notebook, ruler, lunch box, water bottle, stickers. https://www.zazzle.com/pd/editcollection?id=119084462334010952

[Marcia]

I've also noticed that. And not just "back to school". For me, there're business cards/supplies collections as well as collections with a single design that works across binders, business cards, electronics, notebooks, mugs, etc. As well as collections that I don't understand why all the products are put under "bonus" – graduation, bar/bat mitzvah, hanukkah, new year, to name a few. It's rather infuriating to see this happen & I would love an answer. All of these aforementioned collections have invites, labels, announcements, stickers, banners, foam boards, food, table confetti & the like. It just doesn't make any sense.

[TMGEE]

Agreed! This "Required" product in a collection, and the "Recommended" and "Bonus" sections are not working at all! Nothing makes sense, and we can't correct things ourselves, which is highly frustrating. The justified fear we all have here is whether or not the products we put a lot of work to create (and their cover photos!) be shown on Zazzle Marketplace properly or end up... nowhere?

[TMGEE]

I think we should be able to decide what is "Recommended" in our collections and what should be in the "Bonus" section. But I guess we won't have this power.

[Caprice]

One wonders if Z consults designers BEFORE they create a new 'thing' ???  Seems like it would save work, time and trouble?