Collections and other misery (sorry, rant ahead)

[Anne]

Ever since the announcement of "upgrading" the collections, I've been seeing developments that are actually a "downgrade". I have yet to come across a collection that is performing better. An improvement in collections would need them to become visible, not down below on the page, under "other products you may like".
This has been mentioned like, at least 30 times by other designers. How come Zazzle missed that?
Probably as a result of not being seen, the "recommended" setting for collections results in Christmas products and old products still being the first to display. And it's next to impossible to drag products to another location within the collection (regardless of recommended or other setting). They keep flying all over the place and despite requests to fix this, it is not fixed. So of course with having the Christmas products on full display, they will not get any views any more either.
The tags for collections being messed up ... (not fixed)

In combination with the views not being registered, sales tanking, store rank declining, latest products not being indexed and not appearing in the marketplace ... 

It also doesn't help that Zazzle is going woke. The famous expression "GO WOKE, GO BROKE" is not just an imaginary thing. And why is Zazzle still associated with Disney? I think this would be the FIRST thing to fix.

When I first joined Zazzle, very long ago, it was about launching an opportunity for individual designers and users of the site to launch their creativity. Now it's all "editor's picks" with pages and pages of almost identical designs (especially in the wedding department). Many designers have repeatedly suggested excellent solutions to all of the current problems (that are not new unfortunately). Only to be ignored.

Sorry for the rant. I am at a complete loss on how to proceed at this point. 

[Cat]

Gosh, I'm actually seeing just the opposite. I've seen a big uptick in sales of matching products. Maybe it's that I mostly do wedding stuff, and most of the new collection features have been focused on the weddings niche. But where I used to see people buying only one item at a time, now it's commonplace to have a customer buy 5-6 items from the same collection. I'm pretty sure they're far from finished in terms of rolling out the new features, so hopefully other types of collections will start reaping the benefits soon.

[Connie]

Me too!

[JB]

What does "going woke" even mean? What does that have to do with your issues with collections? I do have issues with moving products within collections not working the way it used to. I like some of the new features of collections, but some are wonky and rigid specifications are a little bit frustrating. I never paid a ton of attention to collections and how they help or don't help with sales, because they used to be so far down the customer page, I wasn't sure most customers even saw them. I think the new way they work is a lot better and I hope to see it help convert customer to purchasing more matching items, as I flesh them out. I don't know if they are hurting anything yet as I haven't compared them to prior experience in collections. We will see if they help tho.

[Marcia]

I agreed with everything you said in your rant until "go woke" appeared. Why does this need to be political?

[DM]

Zazzle is going to do whatever it thinks will increase sales for Zazzle. I have been here for 16 years, and Zazzle has changed tremendously in that time. Every change, large or small, has been for Zazzle and Zazzle alone. My point is: if Zazzle is causing you that much stress, you should step back and focus your efforts at another POD. Wishing for Zazzle, or any company, to do what you want them to do will only drive you mad. Take a break. 

[Perelandrian]

The Disney thing baffles me too. Totally agree on the woke comment, most companies are assimilating to avoid villification and accusations of -isms if they don't comply.

[Connie]

I don't know what it has to do with collections, but I think Zazzle was always "woke." Most companies nowadays are. I don't like the fact that they censor certain things, history especially, but I doubt it affect their sales. The "non-woke" people mostly don't "put their money where their mouth is."

Anyway, the cross-sell collections for weddings and Christmas are MUCH more prominent and visible than they used to be! I've noticed a big increase in sales in my Christmas section, and as I improve my wedding collections, I've been getting more traffic there as well (I haven't done enough to definitively measure an increase in wedding sales, though). Other categories haven't changed, they are still under the "Other Designs" like they always were.

[Scott]

We're always interested in hearing your opinions on newly released features, but we'd prefer to see this feedback be focused on site features rather than on politics. The term "woke", as adopted by politicians, is not something we'd like to see discussed on our forums. You're welcome to discuss this topic on another website. Thanks in advance.

[Frances-Creates]

FYI - The term "Woke" is an adjective that originated in the African-American culture meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.  Politicians have hijacked this word and turned it into something derogatory for their own purposes.