Customers stopped finding collections?

[SBS]

I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the Collection update, but I've started receiving messages from customers inquiring about matching products. It seems like they're having trouble locating the collection on the product page or perhaps they aren't scrolling down far enough. Is it possible that some product pages don't display any collections at all due to A/B testing? I haven't noticed any problems myself, but others might see different page layouts. It would be confusing for them if I were to respond with "just scroll down, you'll find it" and they can't see any collection on their end.

[DancingPelican]

It may be that different internet browsers display collections in a different way. Not really sure, just a guess. Until Zazzle mods can respond (they don't typically work on weekends), what I would recommend is when you receive a message from a customer inquiring about matching products, send them the link to that collection so they will have all the matching products available to view. You could also add a comment in your message that the collection with matching products can be found by scrolling down below the product info. That way, you have taught them how to find collections, plus sent them directly to the collection in your link. 

[SBS]

Yes, it could work when they send a link, but sometimes I'm not certain which product they are referring to. So, it seemed more convenient to guide them in finding it themselves. I'm curious about how many customers might not even ask and instead assume that there are no matching items available.

[almdrs]

All the effort I put into creating collections has brought me ZERO sales.

I don't know if the search engines are still indexing them. Anyway I haven't sold any thing that I added to the collections.

[Pixelan]

About that, some time ago I found that search engines like Google probably do not index collection pages. According to Zazzle's robot.txt file those links are disallowed to be indexed.

Public link: https://www.zazzle.com/robots.txt

Disallow: /collections/

So a collection page like this https://www.zazzle.com/collections/119848720544152618

Does not get indexed because the search engine is being told not to indexed it. Of course product pages and a whole bunch of others are being indexed. 

This is from my knowledge and what I see but I could be wrong. It might be on purpose to avoid duplicate links, I don't know for sure.

Still, the main reason IMO for creating these new collections and cover images + video is to show them to the customers on the product (and search?) pages, not for search engines.

[almdrs]

Thanks for the info, I had no idea it was like that.

So, If the customers are not finding the collections in the marketplace and Google is not indexing them, what's the purpose of having collections?

[1234Shine]

Customers may or may not see all the products in a collection "right away" now.  For example, this is one of my Halloween cards and I also have a matching banner with this design:

https://www.zazzle.com/happy_halloween_gothic_creepy_bats_full_moon_blood_postcard-25618280729772883...

But when customers scroll down to "Shop this collection", they won't see that particular banner; they would only see ONE thumbnail like this for ALL my 8 banners in this collection:

There are 7 other banners in this collection "hidden" behind this thumbnail.  To see them, customers need to click the thumbnail, go to another page, scroll down just a bit, then click again.

If anyone knows how to "unhide" them, so all 8 banners can show up one by one individually when customers scrolling down to "Shop this collection" , please please please let me know.

[Sara_H]

@1234Shine 

May have something to do with the ungrouped product setting or the one in the Marketplace (top right)

 

though I don't really know as I haven't swayed away from the recommended settings https://www.zazzle.com/creators/playbook/collection+types#collection-sorting 

Do some testing for yourself and see what happens

[Anne]

Exactly @SBS 
I also got an email from a customer who could not see the collection. I have now set my cross sell collections to regular collection, as it seems to be wreaking havoc with views and sales. It's so bad that my store dropped in Z-rank. All my best sellers stopped selling abruptly. Not sure what exactly is going on here.