Collection updates on the horizon

[Scott]

Hey everyone, we wanted to let you know about something exciting that you'll be seeing real soon. We posted an article in the News section (link), but figured that we'd start a discussion here so that everyone was aware. When we have more information we'll be sure to share it!

Edit July 24th: We've opened a new discussion forum for conversation relating to Collections Types: https://community.zazzle.com/t5/new-collection-types-information/bd-p/collections

[Barbara]

Appetite whetted. I hope it doesn't involve a complete renovation of our collections, that we can expand on what we already have.

Colorwash's Home

[ColsCreations]

@Fiorenzo  noticed last month that the minimum size for covers for Collections had increased quite a bit (thread here) and I wondered

Why do we need to make them so large when they are only being displayed at around 300 x 300? Now I am suspicious that some big change is coming to Collections that necessitates providing such huge covers for them.

 Curiouser and curiouser.

[Fiorenzo]

I guess, we got our answer why, huh? 🙂  Will probably (hopefully) also solve the pricing problem.

[PAZP]

Thanks for the heads-up, Scott. 

[KeegansCreation]

Exciting! When Downloads/Media Manager broke I was hoping that it was because something large and intricate was being worked on. (Maybe they aren't connected, but still...). I can only envision a handful of different use cases and am trying to envision how these would be presented differently to customers depending on use case.

1. A collection of things that would be bought together, party supplies or matching decor for a room.
2. A collection of things for a particular holiday/occasion that don't necessarily match.
3. A collection of things for a niche that a person would only buy one of as a gift for somebody "in" that niche (or for themselves).
4. A collection of things that are connected by style or design.
5. A collection of things that are related by product type (which a customer would see if going into our stores but the odds of them scrolling through a collection are higher than that).

I know you can't get into details so I'll just have to be in suspense. 🤔

[Fiorenzo]

Sounds great. There is a reason I chose Zazzle, and I'm glad, it was the right one (even with the little flaws every now and then). Now that the tools are almost perfect, I have to get rid of my artistic laziness. Can't wait.

[Connie]

I'm kind of apprehensive about this! I hope it doesn't end up making a lot more work for us, like having to make cover photos for collections, or jump through a bunch of hoops to get seen in the parketplace. I've still got a couple thousand covers to make for my products, and now with the Downloads being broke, I can't even work on that!

[Fiorenzo]

Probably yes, but if this means that we have the opportunity to improve our showcase & shop, the ones liking the boutique style will love it. Now I'm glad, I didn't have time (or the mood) to work on my website, so I can re-evaluate what to move there and what to handle directly on Zazzle. 

There is the good old way to get your product pics, not as sharp as the official downloads but has other positive aspects: the possibility to temporarily edit content to show on your covers, something you can't do with the downloads because the option is greyed out as soon as you change something. I'll tell you in chat after I'm back from walk.

[Connie]

Got it, Thank you very much!

[Barbara]

---

@Fiorenzo wrote:

...but if this means that we have the opportunity to improve our showcase & shop, the ones liking the boutique style will love it.

---

You appear to believe we'll have the ability to create stores that customers might fancy visiting. I'm not sure why, but I don't think this is their intent, but we'll see.

Colorwash's Home

[Fiorenzo]

Nah, I'm not going that far. A nice banner, description plus a good organization with perhaps sections and subcollections is all I expect to see. Don't need more. Just to get things a bit more organized.

[Barbara]

Yes, it would be nice if our stores could be fancied up a bit, but my my one true hope is that collections will gain the spotlight.

The only way I'll ever get organized at this point is by hiring a secretary and an efficiency expert.

Colorwash's Home

[igiftcenter]

as history reminds me: bringing customers to the storefront was never really a realistic way to promote our stores. The most effective way to getting customers directly to our product area or the landing page of relevant content directly as opposed to bringing a customer to a store landing page and forcing the customer to drill down to find what they came looking for.

I'm hoping this new "thing" will allow us to promote collections as if they are almost stand alone web pages (albeit within a store). Giving us the opportunity for more effective promotion on social media pages, on the web, etc. 

I'm just guessing of course 🙂

[Laura]

Looks like this is starting to roll out... One question so far regarding product recommendations, I have a can cooler in the bonus section yet it is being recommended in the recommended products section - ? Also seeing the same with envelopes.

[KeegansCreation]

I can't see it yet. Can you detail a bit what is different? For example, what's a bonus section? I know I'll eventually see this too but I am in suspense.

[KeegansCreation]

Never mind. I can see the changes now.

[Leeze]

Thank you for the heads-up, I was attempting to sort through and freshen up my Collections this morning and came upon it. I can't figure out if we can still organize products within a Collection, as I see that option is gone from the page? I read through the Unveiling post in Creator News but I'm still not understanding exactly how this works. A breakdown in plain terms would be nice, if possible. 

[Laura]

Depending on the type of collection you've indicated, you can organize the order of the products under the products section in edit mode (unless you've chosen a wedding collection for example, then the recommended products can't be organized unless you manually click the icon next to add products where you can do a custom sort) - hope this makes sense

[BevStuff]

I was updating my Collections with the new tool today---but here's a problem: why does only my Wrapping Paper Collection have "email enabled?"  No other Collection does. Nor could I find any setting anywhere to choose to have every Collection enabled with an email message I can customize that will "highlight the rest of the collection." I would definitely like to have that enabled on EVERY Collection! How can I do that?

[LemicheStudio]

I am also very confused so far with this new collection tools update and I also read every instruction&info provided.

As I went to edit a collection today, a new pop-up window came up asking me to select the collection "Occasion & Type", which I think is a great idea and improvement overall...However, at the bottom it says "Note: this setting cannot be changed after the collection has been created" and every setting I selected has a greyed out check mark next to it. Additionally, all products are said to be classified as "Bonus products" and I don´t see any way to change this categorization or to re-order the products. So now my new products are now at the very bottom of the collection for some reason and I have no way to bring them on top to be visible first.

Does it mean that these new settings/categories cannot be used for our existing collection and we will have to re-make every collection from scratch again?

I really hope it is not the case... and I would appreciate if some more explanation would be provided on how to use this new tool(s) as the info provided so far does not match what I see on my dashboard and is very confusing.


To further clarify, for example, next to "Bonus products" the help text says:

"This section shows all the bonus products you have added to this collection that do not have a corresponding "slot" in the recommended section. This is a great place to showcase your creativity by adding products that cater to use cases in more novel or unique ways. These products will be displayed beneath any products from the recommended section above.
Tip: If there are products in this section that you would expect to show up in the "Recommended" section above, make sure that they are published into the correct department for that slot otherwise they will not be matched. You can view which departments a slot is matching against by clicking on it and viewing the department(s) listed at the top. "

But what is the "correct department" and what "slots" are meant here? We don´t have any option to choose any "department" or "slot" when we publish products, right? or maybe I am missing something here entirely?
So far I´m very confused about how to use this new feature...

[Laura]

"department" is referring to the Marketplace Department when you publish (or edit) the product. I found in one case, a table card wasn't under the correct department, after I corrected the department it showed up under table cards in the recommended products (and no longer in the bonus) section of my wedding collection (type).

[LemicheStudio]

Thanks for the help! It seems then this new feature is quite useless for my product collections, as I don´t even see the recommended products section for any of my collections... I guess because I make something other than event supplies - it seems that Zazzle so far only makes categories/types for event supplies and all other products are being categorized as "Other", which then makes this new collections feature useless. 😞

[Kate3]

Yes, that's true. 🙂 But I have a problem. I can't find the right department for favors.
It requires:
''Matching results from: Home & Living > Food & Drink > Candy & Favors''
But there is nothing like that under Home & Living. I don't have Food & Drink there.
Is anyone having the same problem or is it just me?

[LemicheStudio]

I have just figured out that I can re-organize the products by just drag-and-drop method within the new collection dashboard (which is NOT intuitive at all as before we had to click a separate button first), but it does not explain why now newly created products are landing at the bottom of the collections.... ?

And also, my collections are all fit to the type of "Cross-Sell" as I make small business packaging and supplies, so naturally customers would buy matching designs labels, packaging, business cards, etc. ... But I see that Zazzle talks ONLY about events and holidays items in this category...  It is even called as "Cross-Sell / Event Suite".
Is this why all my products are "not recognized" and put into "bonus" category instead?
And does it mean that this category (and others for that matter) is exclusive for only invites and party supplies? 
That would be such a huge disappointment if it is the case....

[KeegansCreation]

If you change the type to Similar Style/Theme you get a different bunch of options and one of them is Business.

[LemicheStudio]

Thank you, but the definition of the "Similar Style / Theme" does not fit my product collection. It says it should have

• All products should share a similar design aesthetic
• All products should use the same, or similar product type

My products are different categories/types and have exact same matching design. So it fits exactly to "Cross-sell" type.

[KeegansCreation]

Okey dokey I have started the project of sorting my collections into types.  Will these different collection types present differently to the customer or is it a way for Zazzle to quickly gather specific types of collections e.g. "Here are Zazzle's Father's Day collections".

[DancingPelican]

With these new collections changes, I notice each collection must be assigned to 1 store only and it cannot be changed. I have many collections that contain products from across several of my stores in the same collection as they are related. It looks like these collections are automatically assigned the last store that a product was added from. Does this mean these collections will no longer be visible in the other stores from which products were pulled?

[SwissVillage]

I also thought that one store only was the case, and was going to come here and express concern about that, but in fact you can still have it appear in multiple stores.   On the upper right, you just have to click on the green button next to "Your Stores" and you will bet the option to add additional stores.

[DancingPelican]

Thanks @SwissVillage. I will try that.

[SwissVillage]

Thank you Zazzle for this cool new upgrade on the Collections.
I have a question about the Product Sort Order option. What does "Recommended" vs "Custom Ungrouped" mean?

[Pixelan]

It's in their guide: https://www.zazzle.com/creators/playbook/collection+types

"Sorting Your Collection

We’ve added exciting new ways to sort your products for Cross-Sell / Event Suite Collection Types. Whether you automatically migrate your collections or manually opt in, your Cross-Sell / Event Suite Collection will be set to “Recommended” for your Product Sort Order, and it’s what you will see on your collection page to start with. With this method, Zazzle takes charge of optimizing the display order for your collection grouping your product “slots” according to customer insights. And when those insights are updated, your Product Sort Order in your collections will automatically update too!
Customers will still see every single product in your collection, just in an optimized order! “Slots” are for your eyes only, and just a way to help organize your collections more efficiently."

It's all a big update, I will have to read that again and make adjustments to my collections where necessary.

[Pixelan]

Sounds exciting, interesting to see what the update is. If it could drive more sales I won't mind changing some collections or adding more information.

[Barbara]

I do a lot of hobbies/avocations/vocations, but they tend to be mostly one-offs, not suited to the types of collections it appears Zazzle is seeking, the types they can feature. It looks, at first glance anyway, that nothing will change for me in the way of collections. If they're taken off our product pages, I'll be doomed.

I hope they do a long treatise on exactly what we should do, how we should do it, and what we should be seeking to accomplish. Besides this feeling of doom, I'm utterly lost in the verbiage.

Colorwash's Home

[Sara_H]

@Barbara May I share your feeling of doom please

[KeegansCreation]

For those situations I'm putting them under Similar Style/Theme or Gifts, whichever is less wrong. It isn't a perfect fit to their examples but I think close enough.

[LemicheStudio]

Ì´m joining you as well in sharing the feeling of doom.... 😞

[Pixelan]

Some products in my collection have this orange warning icon, but they do not belong to multiple collection just a single one. So setting a preferred collection should not be needed, I think..

"If you notice an orange icon on the management page of your collection, it indicates that the product currently belongs to a different preferred collection. To modify this, simply click on the option menu and select "Make Preferred Collection." By default, the first cross-sell collection to which you add a product becomes its preferred collection."

[GraphicAllusion]

Same for me. I've found the orange 'i' on all of my products in one particular collection that is the ONLY collection they're in. So scratching my head over that, too. I'm hoping it's just some kind of temporary glitch? And for the life of me can't find the 'option menu' where we can even select Make Preferred Collection? Also, I don't have those little white squares on the top left like you do? Or are the wedding/event type of collections set out differently? However, on the positive side I've worked out how to take the products from the 'Bonus' section underneath and add them to recommended (by going in and editing the product's category tree). I think this may be Zazzle's way of telling us we need to make sure our products are under the right categories in the first place to be seen by more people - which isn't a bad thing at all. Looks like I have a lot of work in front of me though, lol. 🙈  Also, I love the new email feature. I tried it out of curiosity and was very impressed with what I got!