Trying to understand how/why the collection cover image is used

[Lea]

I noticed today that most of my collections suddenly "need attention" because I don't have a cover image on them. Well, I don't want to be penalized so I try adding a few.
Here's where Zazzle is losing me, though, and I'd like to know if this is how things are going to work from now on or if we're in a glitchy phase - I searched for "Christmas wrapping paper." And people who have cards as their collection cover photo that the wrapping paper is in - it shows the cards. Not the wrapping paper.
So what's my best play here? Do I keep the cover photo and try to show the 20 required products or do I forget it altogether so the actual product shows? When we have a collection that requires card and tag and calendar and giftwrap it doesn't seem like we should have to choose ONE image to represent all those products. 

I'm not trying to dog Zazzle here and the collections - I genuinely want to understand. It seems like we're in a moment of transition and I can't keep up!

[Lea]

And to be clear - love collections, love creating cohesive collections and adding fun stuff. I get it from a sales point of view too - it's great to show what other matching/coordinating items there are. But the cover image stuff is what feels unnecessary. And just speaking for myself - it feels like instead of focusing on producing good products, I have to take time away to create these images that are getting sloppier and less effective/nice/special just to not be penalized.

[Cat]

I don't know for sure, but I have a theory. In the collection management screen under the Marketplace channel, there's a section called search, which is pretty much disabled until you add a collection cover. Once you add a cover, it gives you the option to choose 10 products that will show the collection cover instead of the product cover in marketplace search results. I've only added 2 collection covers but when I did, it automatically chose the first ten products in the collection and set them to show the collection cover instead of the product cover. I unchecked them all and tested it to be sure that products in those collections show the product images in search and not the collection cover - so I think you can control it that way.

But I'm really confused about all this for two reasons. First, the text in that section indicates that this feature is "coming soon" which would imply that it isn't active yet. Secondly, the forum mods have repeatedly said that they don't know anything about this feature and that the collection cover will just display as one of the images on your product page, but not the primary image, and that it won't replace your product image in search results. 

So I don't know what to think about all that, but clearly when you search for "Christmas wrapping paper" as you did, there are a number of products that are showing the collection cover instead of the product cover.  At the moment collection covers have been pretty far down on my Zazzle priority list, and I'm not seeing the "needs attention" flag on collections that don't have them - but maybe they just haven't flagged mine yet? That's all I know.

[Lea]

Thanks for your insight, Cat!
I'll tinker around a little bit. And I'm removing the collection cover photos I threw on. It seems like the red alert isn't coming back when I pull them off so we'll see how that plays out.

I am trying to play along with some of the advancements and changes here without devoting too much creative energy - trying to strike the right balance. But today just felt like suddenly we were playing a new game and no one told me the rules or what I needed and everything I tried was wrong.

I hope Zazzle can communicate more clearly the changes - and the hopes and goals - going forward.

[Lea]

Ugh. It may have just been a big glitch that got me worked up. All my "needs attention" red collections aren't anymore. They're showing as Active now.

But it still doesn't explain the cover photos of cards showing up in a search for wrapping paper.

[Scott]

In some cases, we're showing the collection cover photo in the search results. It's not happening for everyone, but we're looking at what impact this might have with customers.

[Lea]

Thanks for the info, Scott. I guess I'll be a little more deliberate about cover photos knowing that could be the case. I don't want to be penalized for not having one, but I definitely want to represent my products as best I can.

[Cat]

Does the designer have any control over which products might be included in this test? Like is it related to the settings in the search section of the Marketplace channel? Many of my collections have WAY more products than could possibly be presented in a cover photo, and I really don't want the cover photo used if the product in question doesn't appear anywhere in it.

[Hamoudi]

Yes, that is exactly correct. At least in the search results page.

[ColsCreations]

I'm not a customer per se so I know it's not my feedback you're measuring, but I ran into a Collection cover as product image in the MP listings last night and it really threw me for a loop. I was looking at throw pillows by navigating to them via the menu (I wasn't keyword searching and using search filters), so I should have been seeing nothing but throw pillows. But near the bottom of the first page was a thumbnail that I thought was for wrapping paper as it showed three wrapped presents. Then I noticed one present had a gift tag on it so I thought maybe it was for gift tags. Because long titles are cut-off in the MP thumb grid, there was no way just by looking at it to know what the product actually was. I know I can mouse-over the product thumb and see the full URL of where the link goes and that the product type is contained in that URL, so from that I could tell it was a pillow. So my first thought was that the designer accidentally added the wrong cover to their pillow. But visiting the product page I could see that the wrapped presents image was the Collection cover and the product was actually a pillow. It was confusing and off-putting even though I'm a Zazzler following all these behind-the-scenes things so I can't imagine random shoppers encountering this as it feels sort of like a bait & switch, showing one thing in the thumb but then the product being something else when you click to view it. More importantly, I think it will be lost sales for such products. If you're browsing specifically for a pillow you're going to skip right over a listing that appears to be for wrapping paper. It may have been the perfect pillow for you but you'll never know that. The Creator may have made a beautiful unique design, provided great covers, maybe even a vid, worked up great tags to get it up there in results, created lots of coordinated products .. but it's all for naught if shoppers aren't even looking at it because the thumb shows it as a product type that is not what they are looking for.

(Also, since I can now see the new collections pods in my regular browser, looking at this pillow made me notice an oddity I'm going to post about separately as it has nothing to do with this thread.)

[Cat]

You've pretty much echoed my thoughts on the subject. If the product in question happened to be depicted in the collection cover then maybe it would make sense, otherwise it seems like a great way to lose out on sales. 

[Connie]

I agree! I sure hope Zazzle decides to ditch this idea! I've seen it in the marketplace myself, and it is very confusing; it looks like the search algorithm is broken or something. And if someone is looking for a pillow, and they see wrapping paper, they aren't even going to click on it to see what is actually being sold!

[Scott · Accepted solution]

Some users will see the test, and other users will not. Those that see it will see it for all products. The users selected is done at random. Hopefully that helps explain the behavior. By sharing this I'm not suggesting that you (anyone reading this) should alter your current habits. If we decide to change display behavior in the long term we will let you know.

You may feel like things are not in a perfect place, or weird things are happening, or whatever, but all of the changes that we're making, and all the changes that we're testing, are geared towards improving your sales. In time we hope things will land in a better spot for all. We hope to continue testing up until the holiday rush really kicks in, then resume again in the new year. Our most recent test was just announced in the General forum (here).

The test mentioned above is being done to see if we can bring more attention to the fact that the product is included in a collection. Similarly, we're also testing whether showing a badge on certain products will help generate interest. Noted here). These things may be helpful if a customer comes to our site looking to order a suite of products with the same theme. If they're on the search results page and they see a product that they like AND they see that it's in a collection then they may be more drawn to it than before. But I have no idea how well this would work in the real world. Only one way to find out, right?

A lot going on these days. There's a really cool feature coming soon that should help save you some time. Stay tuned...

[Lea]

Thanks, Scott. There really is a lot of exciting new stuff and I really do try not to be a downer about it! I think just the rate at which some of this is happening makes it hard to keep up, and today I felt like I was staring down a huge setback. Wanting to adjust and spruce up old stuff but also create new stuff for this time of year - it's a lot to keep track of, especially when it is continually evolving (which, yes, is a good thing... as is seeing what resonates best with customers!). I appreciate you taking the time to share the insight, the what, the why, the random. Looking forward to more good stuff.

[Connie]

So if we don't want to risk confusing our customers, and missing out on product views/ sales because the customer doing the search sees wrapping paper instead of a pillow, is the only solution to not have collection covers?

[ColsCreations]

I believe @Cat has said before that having the collection cover displayed as product thumb in the MP is an option that is on by default for certain collection types but that you can turn it off. I hope that's the case as to my shock and dismay I just, on pure accident, found one of my own products that is displaying a Collection cover as a MP thumb. And it's not even something I designed to be one of these new collection covers showing multiple products, it's an old cover that just shows the design theme as all my covers do. Since you can't read the full product title, there is NO clue as to what the product actually is. Ikes! I guess tomorrow I will checking out this collection and looking for that option I think Cat said exists.

[Cat]

I'm still unclear about that setting and whether you can turn it off or not. Scott's reply made it sound like it's a test and we don't have any control over it. For the moment, I'm just not creating any collection covers until this gets sorted out.