Policy of making my products disappear every year

[BreathtakingVin]

I had about 10,000 products. Things slowed down a bit, and by the time I came back in a few weeks I had about 8,900. Many of them were products I have sold during the Holidays. They were hidden, and I cannot figure out why you would have this policy. So, every year I have to unhide my holiday products, which are in the thousands. My customers buy holiday all year long, usually. This year has been unusual, I'll admit, but this has been going on for 2 years now. I understand you might think if something hasn't sold in x amount of months that it will never sell. That's just not always the case. Then you dropped my Z rating, for some odd reason. Not exactly my idea of good business practices. Perhaps I'm the only one. Not sure. 

[idraw]

@BreathtakingVin 

Sold products do not go hidden. Other products usually have warning dates 13-14 months ahead before gong hidden at 15 months  so that you have time to check and update your tags and descriptions, also unhide and/or possibly delete products with extreme low views. And, no, you are not the only one experiencing this. It’s part of doing business on zazzle.

[BreathtakingVin]

I didn't mean to say they were sold items. That was not my intention. I've been a seller since 2008 and know how they do things like that. What I meant was: year 1: they don't sell. They hide them after 18 months. Along comes Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas in year two. I wasn't initially aware they were being hidden until I found out about the menu that is not easy to find at first. I find out they are hidden. I unhide them. They sell that year. I add lots more each year, and it's a mishmash each time of checking constantly to make sure they aren't hidden because what doesn't sell this year will often sell next year. Another scenario is that particular product doesn't sell, but it's viewed a lot so that means it could sell on another product. I understand about updating the products to get them to sell. I do that. The fact is that an image I have may be viewed a lot but not sold (pick a new product to put it on) or it didn't sell last year but is selling well this year. Keeping up with products I've created years ago is not a big deal because AI gets better all the time and my images therefore get better. I am able to look at them with a critical eye and say, "Well, scratch that one and make it better." 

I did not completely explain myself, but my opinion on this still stands. Please stop hiding my products. (unless discontinued). It's a constant battle when you have so many. 

I do understand pretty well that it's part of doing business on Zazzle, but I do reserve the right to have my opinion about why it's a nightmare for me when I have customers that buy holiday stuff year 'round. 

[Cat]

I don't think anyone likes having to deal with hidden products, but I do think it's valuable to take a look at the things that haven't sold or even been looked at and try to figure out how you can give them an extra boost. As tedious as it is, I think it's worth the time. I've found products where I had a typo in a crucial word of the title/keywords which explains why it wasn't being found. I've also discovered products that were listed in the wrong department, or that I forgot to promote, or ones that could use better key words etc. Sometimes I look at it and think "yuck! no wonder nobody's looked at it" so I just delete it.

I don't like spending time on that sort of thing, I don't think anyone does. But re-vamping an old product takes less time than creating a new one, and if you can move something from the "never seen" category into the "active sales" category, it's well worth doing. Plus, in a "big picture" sense, it doesn't help any of us to have millions of products that customers aren't interested in clogging up the marketplace.

So as much as it isn't fun, I try to make myself do a little bit each day and whittle away at it - knowing that it's a task that will never be "done." That's my 2 cents!

[BreathtakingVin]

Thanks for your opinion. 
Lynne @iamlookingback