Questions about the correct use of cover images/videos in Collections outreach

[James]

Hi Creators, 

I'm creating this thread so we can help with any questions from the outreach for correct/intended use of cover images/videos in a collections media manager. This way, we can collaborate and help each other resolve any questions. 

The email highlighted the misuse of single product images in a Collections Media Manager, which might cause confusion in line with intended use in the Marketplace and Search. 

Please only comment in this thread with questions regarding this subject directly. We all love a chit chat but this can sometimes drown out the genuine concerns of a topic. 😊

Thank you so much

James H. 

[Connie]

We have to stop comparing Zazzle to Etsy. They are totally different marketplaces with different target audiences. and the product offerings are different as well. On Etsy, they have whole suites as one product, so of course those cover photos show a suite instead of a single product. The Etsy homepage isn't exactly ideal, anyway, but they do have bigger thumbnails than Zazzle, so it's a bit easier to see what's actually being sold. And their search algorithms are different, so you don't end up seeing multiple images of the same listing when 3 or 4 of the products from the same collection show up on the first page. And each individual seller on Etsy chooses what to show for their listing images- Etsy doesn't substitute another image for the one the designer has picked. So if designers want to show a whole suite, they can, and if they want to showcase just the invitation, they can do that too.

[CreativeLeahG]

I wasn't comparing them in any way other than to say 'collection' images are the norm as are multi media images. The two sites are apples and oranges otherwise as you note, especially in execution! 

[shoshannahscrib]

I thought it was originally not allowed to add any text to your mockup/cover photos? Did this change?

[CreativeLeahG]

There was no such guideline when covers were first introduced a couple years ago now.

[Gsallicat]

I agree!  Easier for us and easy for customers

[Connie]

@Jadendreamer13 Thank you very much!

[VivianD117]

I just thought of something that could really be a solution — and almost too easy — why doesn’t Zazzle  include — in the download selections — a grouping of the top 4 products in the collection.  Either it can be used as the multi-product cover the way it downloads or it can be brought into photoshop or Canva or whatever and  “spiced up” a bit.  It would save a tremendous amount of time and yet there would be a representative selection from the collection.   Would that have some potential?

[Gsallicat]

Also helpful would be if they would have the downloads be a png with a transparent background so we don’t have to constantly remove the background in alot of these 

[Sea-Change]

+1000% This is a long-requested feature, and it would be great if Zazzle was able to deliver it amongt all its changes.

[HeatherB]

A version with a transparent background would be so helpful!

[VivianD117]

To refine this a bit further.  The programming already exists  since we can market collections and they come with a selection of pre-defined alternatives.   Then, in the editing part of the collection, there would be a choice as to whether the creator wanted to use that option or not.   And if they said “yes” initially and later wanted to do something different they  would just make the change in Media Manager and everyone would have a great burden lifted off their shoulders.  

[starstreamdesig]

I've been killing myself trying to create these collection images and I'm wondering if it really is worth it. I've deleted some collections because I really couldn't be bothered and they're not selling anyway and I have little hope these collections help at all. I've had shops at Zazzle way to long to put my faith in any "new ideas"
ANYWAY, I've been having issues because the collection management categories are still not well rounded enough. For example, I have a going away/retirement collection. There's no "moving" or even "new home" option in the collection categories so I have to put "retirement". As opposed to the product's marketplace department (in this instance a retirement party invitation). So I have to put "moving" because there's no "retirement" category under invitations. Again, the image that I created doesn't populate the listing. All these categories need to work with each other for both the collections and the marketplace and let us choose the same categories. 

[wpl]

When we use share button on collection page there is this link sign when we click it we see many options at the bottom ,portrait, square, landscape 1, landscape 2, if we can have it here can't zazzle by default make the square one our cover image for every collection? it will save so much work

[VivianD117]

I have just suggested the same thing below before seeing your post — yes, they already have the solution — if you look a bit further down you’ll see my expanding thoughts on this idea. 

[wpl]

great minds think alike 😉 hope they consider this!

[Amanda23]

Hello!
I have just learned about this email today, and as I search, I cannot seem to locate it. Is there somewhere I can see the language of the email so I know what I need to do? I'm thinking maybe this only went out to sellers of a certain level and I'm not there yet. lol

 I would like to fix regardless, so official info in one spot would be really helpful. There are too many replies here for me to synthesize all of the info. 😅

Thank you for putting this thread together. 

Amanda

[Cat]

@Amanda23 I didn't get the email either, and I'm pretty sure that means that we don't have anything that needs to be corrected. But @Deb posted the text of the email in this thread if you want to read it: Boost Your Zazzle Collections: Important Update ne... - Zazzle

[Amanda23]

Thank you. I wonder if it only applies to the "cross-sell" collections currently? I don't have anything of that type. I know they've been rolling out different things for those for awhile. 

I tried clicking on the link you shared while still in my email and it said "Access Denied," but I'm going to try again from here on the community forum. 

Thanks!
Amanda

[Malissa]

@Cat   Is that a higher pro forum and not public? I couldn't access the link.

[Cat]

@Malissa Oops! Sorry about that. I never look at which forum something is posted under. Anyhow, here's the text from the email:

We highly suggest updating your Collection Cover Images/videos in Media Manager to showcase a variety of products within your Collection in the same image or video, rather than just a single product. This will optimize exposure in our marketplace results and ensure accurate representation of your collections to customers. If you do not already know, Zazzle automatically adds your primary/first slot Collection Cover Image or Video to the product page. When uploading content to the Collections Media Manager, you should focus only on images that showcase multiple products within the Collection.

Feel free to make updates by February 29th, 2024. Alternatively, so it’s more convenient for you, Zazzle will automatically remove Collection Media Manager images featuring only one product type on or after March 1st, 2024.

[Amanda23]

That explains why I couldn’t access the post. I figured it had been taken down. 

Thank you for copying here!

Amanda

[Malissa]

@Cat  No worries!   Thanks for adding it here for others.  I got the email so I didn't need to read it,  but I was going to see if there were any extra tidbits of info I hadn't seen. 

(as an aside- the separate forums seem unnecessary and I never really got the point of them)

[tsikona]

Please see the video. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zRdaNSIwCOs

[Amanda23]

I'll take a look. Thank you. 

Amanda

[Amanda23]

THIS VIDEO is EXTREMELY helpful in letting me know what they want. 

THANK YOU! 😀

Amanda

[tsikona]

I have collage type cover photos, but received an email. I still have some questions and hope zazzle with provide full info. According to the video there are basic mockups provided by zazzle. It’s intereating if we have do same, as I have used in collages  professional mockups I think they look better than basic ones. I have used 4 as in 6-8 they are too small. Hope they will answer all questions and after this I am going to change cover photos. 

 

[PlayfulPixel]

It would be even more helpful if they used the Zoom function to zoom in on the details. It's not really that easy to see. Just saying - if you're going to do a video make it crystal clear.

[James]

Hi all, thanks so much for your continued collaboration here.

We can confirm that due to the large amounts of data we were working with, some creators and collections were misidentified for the purpose of this task. We can confirm that all actions have been paused for now and we will be following up via email to everyone. Thanks again for your patience and we regret any confusion caused by this. We appreciate your comments and absolutely have taken away some great feedback from this. 

Thank you. 🙂

[tsikona]

Thank you James, waiting for the updates. 

[wpl]

Thank You James, so we should also pause all actions or should continue making cover images? also is it for cross sell suites only ?

Thank You

[James]

Hi @wpl , you can continue whatever other works you were doing to generate Collection Media, once they contain multiple products. I am referring to any action we call out in the emails until we regroup. But as I said, by all means, continue your efforts to populate your Media manager for Products and Collections. 😊

[Marblewave]

Thank you for updating us, James

[origamiprints]

Thank you so much for the update and for taking our feedback into consideration!

[williacraft]

Thanks, I was confused, as in my email it said some of my collections had been identified as not meeting the requirements for the collection image and that it would list the collections below - but then it didn't list anything. So did not identify the collections this applied to. 

I have nevertheless gone through my collection images - and found a number of my collections did not have an image at all, so have now added one as per the recommendations.

[CreativeUnionDe]

This is really confusing James. 

We've been creating new media images like requested on Feb 16. Now today we receive this message: 

"We're reaching out to inform you about a potential error in the email you received on Friday, February 16, 2024 regarding updating your Cover Collection Images/Videos in Media Manager."

Does this mean we are wasting time creating new Media Images? What is the error? Can you please clarify. Thank you

[Gsallicat]

I just got that email too.  But I did update all my primary covers.  I didn't mess with the secondary single product images. 

[Malissa]

The error was the incorrectly flagged cover photos that met the requirement of using multiple products that were incorrectly flagged as single product collection covers.  If you did not have correct ones that were mistakenly flagged then you are good, but I am assuming they sent the email out to everyone who got it initially.  There is no "new" error.   If you want more detail, a good bit of this thread has been about the incorrect flagging confusion.

[Gsallicat]

I didn’t have any that were incorrectly flagged.  None of my covers had multiple products.  

[Malissa]

Then you are probably good to proceed to correcting your single product collection cover photos without worry. 

This second email was only to clarify for people that were flagged incorrectly that they didn't need to change any that are correct, but ( I am quite sure) went out to everyone who got the first email since I doubt they have a way to tell who specifically had the "mis-flag".

[James]

I understand this is confusing and we thank you all for bearing with us.

We hope to be able to send a follow-up email to correctly identified Creators very soon. The main issue is duplicate images showing up where they shouldn't be. Collection Media Managers should have multi-product images only, and Single-Product Media Managers shouldn't have them (multi-product images) added by the Creators at all, as we intend to do this for applicable collections.