Feedback for Collection Videos!

[James]

Hi Creators, 

Have you seen the next revoloution for your Collections? See the news, here. 

Thanks, 

[WHS_Designs]

I've put together my first video in a collection. I can see it in my Media Manager, but how do I share it with a potential client? Using the conventional share collection feature doesn't show the video.

[sm]

Maybe it's just me but I find them incredibly annoying and all they do is motivate me to exit out of a page. They also 'cheapen' the Zazzle site. They are up there with running nails down a chalkboard. I would love to know how the majority of your customers feel about them.  That's the feedback we all need.

Although it's tempting to bow to every one of Zazzle's whims, I won't do it at the expense of customers' experience. I know there are people like me out there that detest them. A decent video here and there on the site is okay. Videos all over products and now collections... that may be a shopping deal breaker for many. It would absolutely be a deal breaker for me.  

Videos can be useful for promoting but all over the site? Is it that necessary? What if you allow the customers (and designers) to be able to turn off videos in their settings and somehow make it obvious that they can, before they run away? 

[Connie]

I wholeheartedly agree!

[Cat]

Question: Does it work like it does with product media where you have to have a cover image before you can upload a video? Or can you have a collection video without having a collection cover image?

[ColsCreations]

??? Of the four products I have added a video for, three do not have a cover image and the vid is the first/top thumbnail. The 4th product has a cover and also happens to be one that has two Zazzle vids. The thumb order on that one is Zazzle vids, my product vid, my product cover image, then the z-provided images.

It sounds like if you do a collection vid, that will be the first/top thumb. So following above you'd have
collection vid, zazzle product vid, your product vid, your cover image, zazzle images. Eeek! Zazzle, please bring back labels for the product page thumbs.

[Cat]

Hmmmm... Perhaps I'm confused. In the Media Manager Guidelines section of this document: Learn About Media Manager (zazzle.com) (near the bottom) it says: 

• Videos cannot be the “primary” product image

Maybe I took that statement too much to heart? I took that to mean that it wouldn't work if you just uploaded a video without a cover image, but clearly nothing explodes if you do that since you've done it! 😁 So on those products, what shows up in the marketplace when you search for the product? Is it the video or is it the standard Zazzle preview?

[KeegansCreation]

If you upload a video without first uploading a cover photo, the product page will default to whatever Zazzle photo is at the top of the left sidebar. If you had previously chosen a different Zazzle photo, you will have to re-choose it after uploading the video.

I learned this with a table runner.

[Connie]

My feedback is- please FIX video upload so it actually WORKS! I tried ONE video for a product, and after 20-30 attempts at random times of the day and night, all i ever get is a "Server error." I tried different browsers and everything, and I have very fast internet. It's only an 8 second mp4 video, about 6mb.

[Pixelan]

Not sure where but I think I read somewhere that the minimum length is 10 seconds, which might be the problem. You could try that.

[WHS_Designs]

@Pixelan unfortunately, the length is not the issue. I've uploaded 18-second and 25-second 720p quality clips and run into the dreaded server error problem (it usually resolves itself within 2-3 attempts, not the 20-30 times that @Connie has experienced, though).

when successfully uploaded, it still does take a fair time to process, so I get an email from Zazzle (and in-store notification) when the video is ready to be put into the media manager of my colection.

[Cat]

@Connie I think you should try this and see if it works. My clips are all between 12 & 16 seconds and while I've had the same sort of upload issues that @WHS_Designs is reporting - I've never had one that wouldn't upload at all like the problem you're describing.

[Pixelan]

Did all my videos in 9:16 format since all the examples that were given in the first video announcement were in that format, wish I knew 1:1 was the preferred one. Will continue new ones in square format. Don't have that many uploaded yet so not a big issue.

I don't really see atm how slideshows of products are going to create more sales, but I'm not a marketing expert so will try with my new collections. Also have made a few for collections and products that show the real product by ordering a few cards. Hoping the hard work, time and investments will pay off this Christmas 🙂 Thanks.

[Ms_Jade]

The video addition is a nice feature. It will make the shopping experience a little more interesting for the customer that usually likes to see things in video format. I have one suggestion.

To make it a little better for the customer, I would want to be able to choose a cover picture for the video. The one that was chosen (pulled from one of the parts in my video) wouldn’t inspire the customer to click on the video to play it.

I tested this feature for one of the collections and also tested it for one of the individual products. In each case, a cover was chosen that didn’t look very appealing, so I had to delete the video. I may try to edit my video, but I’m not sure which part of it will get picked to display as a cover.

[Jadendreamer13]

I used to love Instagram until it switched from a photo-based platform to a video-based platform in an attempt to become another YouTube or TicToc. If I want to watch product videos, I will do that on YouTube, not on Zazzle, Instagram, TicToc, or X. Who has time to dip into all the social media platforms? It’s just too much.

[BKMuir]

I finally have to chime in with my thoughts:

Why video? Too much bandwidth on server ... too much time to create ... too much confusion on the user interface (I get nauseous when viewing some of them).

The new collections (still not seeing the product page changes on most of my collections) seems overpowering. A link to the collection that would open a nice visual page would be better in my opinion.

I have not done much to "update" my collections. Tried out a few. I guess My sales will suffer, but I won't be biting my nails over doing covers and videos.

[PoshPatterns]

TBH with the introduction of Media Manager I did not think custom images would be something I would do because yes with the amount of products I produce on Zazzle it can be grueling. But, if you are looking in the Zazzle storefront your products could get lost in a sea of custom images. I told myself I will give myself 1 year to really see how well I can grow my Zazzle store and to do everything I possibly can to grow a following and sales. And if Zazzle is evolving that means I will have to as well, like it or not. Proof positive, I got my very first editors choice picks with custom previews.
Why video? Video helps conversion. I recently redid my all my product images in my Creative Market store and included video and my almost dormant store is starting to thrive again. So I'm on board with video. You don't have to make "home videos" you can use any of many online video tools to create video quickly and easily. You can even create video in Photoshop or with Windows video. Once of course you learn how to do it. the learning curve can be daunting.
Anyway try not to look at these changes as a con becasue at the end of the day they can only benefit you. You don't need to it for every product or collection but try it with seasonal items or niche items and see if you find it worth your time.

[PoshPatterns]

The video feature allows vertical video? Can they be sized for Pinterest? if so that is excellent news. And if we can add vertical video can we also add vertical images?

[Echo]

What happens if Zazzle runs out of storage space due to the increasing number of images and videos? This may lead to additional costs for acquiring extra space, and I afraid these expenses may ultimately be passed on to the designers.

[PoshPatterns]

The same could be said about allowing new designers, or allowing designers multiple stores, or allowing designers to have as many products as they do. All of these things grow server space. My guess is that server costs are factored into product pricing. Zazzlers set their own commissions so if by chance server costs were trickled down to us you could simply adjust your commission.

[PoshPatterns]

The same could be said about allowing new designers, or allowing designers multiple stores, or allowing designers to have as many products as they do. All of these things grow server space. My guess is that server costs are factored into product pricing. It is free to use Sell here and we don't actually incur expenses to sell here. But sellers set their own commissions so if by chance server costs were trickled down to us you could simply adjust your commission.

[SwissVillage]

@James- I love this feature and have made a first video that was specifically tailored for this usage. You can see it on the page that is linked below.  However it loads and starts to play very slowly.  For a long half minute or so there is nothing but a white space on the screen.  Any customer would have scrolled past by then.

The video was created in CANVA at 1600 x 1600 and the file size is 54 MG.  I tried bringing it into a video editing program (FCPX) and re-exporting in an H.264 format made for streaming at 1080 x 1080 but the file was larger - over 60 MG - and the playtime seemed even worse so I reset it to the original CANVA download.  Do you have any tips on how to make this better?  Will you be introducing - or are you already using - any sort of automated compression mechanism to improve play speeds?

https://www.zazzle.com/day_of_the_dead_sugar_skull_floral_throw_pillow-256695812029837734

[Sara_H]

@SwissVillage try recreating in canva using the Animated Social Media 1080 × 1080 px  blank template - import your videos/promos etc and edit your timeline as needed and exporting as 1080. It could be the 1600 size that's causing issues as it's not a standard video size and Z may be having difficulty in understanding it behind the scenes

[SwissVillage]

Yes, thank you.  I'm not sure why CANVA reverted to this size, but I had used an existing template.  I'm going to leave it as is as now since James has already started an investigation. Also, I did take the video into Final Cut PRo X and reoutput it as a 1080 x 1080 but it didn't improve things.  It actually made it worse.

Ideally Z should be automatically re-rendering uploaded videos to fit their optimized settings (not changing aspect ratios, but coverting the video codec to optimal settings to speed up play times and reduce server space).  

[Sara_H]

@SwissVillage hope James finds out what's wrong with your video

[James]

Thanks for letting us know. I have sent this off to be looked at, now. 

[sm]

Maybe they fixed it but it loaded instantly for me on both Chrome and Brave on my phone. I'm not sure if that is the intended speed, but that slower pace doesn't make me nauseous like the faster ones out there. I'm not hating your video and I loathe most of them, so it must be a good one. 

Is it still not loading fast for you?

[SwissVillage]

Thank you @sm - I'm glad you find my video less nauseating (LOL!).  The slow pace was intended, but by slow, what I meant was that there is a long delay before the thing even appears on the screen starts playing.  For me there was a long gap with nothing - just a white space, before you see anything.   I'm very glad to hear if it started playing rapidly for you!  Thank you for the feedback!

[sm]

Lol your video didn't make me nauseous at all. When I scroll down Pinterest however, where every second or third pin is a video, that makes me feel physically ill. I hope Zazzle keeps the videos off the search pages otherwise, it will be hard to look at it. If they remain this way on the product pages, where you have to click on them to see them, it wouldn't be so bad.  

I see what you mean by the white screen. It happened on Chrome on my laptop but on Brave and Edge, it was fine.  I got sound on my laptop but none on my phone yesterday.

[LauraLacina]

What are the dimensions of the videos?

[Nancy7]

So exactly where does this media show up? I added media to three collections. In one collection I've added two images. The only place the media is showing is on the all collections page. It is not showing when you open the collection. And the second image is not showing at all!  Links

All Collections page https://www.zazzle.com/store/nancyworrelldesigns/collections?pg=2

Specific Collection page https://www.zazzle.com/collections/lemonade_summer-119542235955791711

[Sara_H]

@Nancy7 Videos will show up on the product page of something in the collection but only if the collection type is a cross sell - and you have added it to the collection's media section.

If your collection is one of the other types - similar/different style/gift - they don't show unless you add them to the media section of the product (next to the cover photo for example to highlight that it's in a collection)

[Nancy7]

Thanks -- I only understood it to be the collection.  I found it under the product