Feedback for new Home Feed Beta

[James]

Hi Creators, 

If you have experienced our new Home Feed, please feel free to share your thoughts here. We'd really appreciate it.😁

You can tell if you're viewing the new Home Feed because there will be a feed of posts rather than a series of personalized product grids. See screenshot below!

Thanks,

The Creator Team.

Announced, here. 

[randysgrandma]

It will take some getting used to. My first reaction was,  "Am I on the right site? This looks weird."

[Jhase-and-Jmonz]

Catching up since a combined two decades have elaspsed, this Reply, a post- Covid19, reply.

It concludes our participation in Zazzle's AB Test for this screen.

Ours covered Creator Stores like rhis, their default Feed layour, and which of two we preferred.

We chose this one! As we were more impressed with it than one of our own.

We look forward to finishinf our store so we can all get back to yummy Pizza, dancing and music!

Hip Hop Hooray . Oh! & aha!

-Jhase (a made-up dungeons & dragons charactor) and Jmomz (a made-up-phrase signifying that the typists for these comments may sometimes be several persons whom share access ro these sentennces) thanks you _ Mike W.

[buxmontweb]

Sorry - I don't like it. It looks like a social media site, and I think it will be confusing for customers who come here to shop. I also don't like the predominantly gray background with just content in the one column and too much text. I like the old site better with its color and artistic display. I see that the "Shop" link points to the regular site, but I missed it at first and wonder if customers might also.

[BKMuir]

I don't think I have this. I am assuming it is the main page for Zazzle.com ?

[Graphika]

I like the real life pictures of products but to me the general layout feels similar to Instagram. I am on a tablet, so maybe that's why. It would be nice to know how it's perceived by people who actually go to Zazzle to shop.

[shellifitz]

Thankfully I am not seeing it, but I am giving feedback based on your screenshot.   Please do not turn Zazzle into a Social media site!  I am not interested in another Instagram or Twitter.   Please let Zazzle be a shopping marketplace and not a feed based image by image with likes and follows.  It seems like you are losing your focus trying to be everything to everybody.  You used to have a niche focus but now you are trying to look like everybody else and you can't be Canva and Instagram and Minted and Facebook and whoever else... Can't you just be Zazzle? 

I felt the need to say also, that while I am just one person with one opinion I am representative of a certain percentage of your customer and designer base.  I am not sure exactly what the % would be but I can tell you that I am not alone in my reaction. 

[tamirazdesigns]

Please Zazzle don't change your marketplace layout to look like a scrolling mess of social media.  I have no interest in Instagram, FB, tweeting, whatever!  That is not shopping.  Leave it like it is.  I go to Zazzle or any brand name retail website to browse something I'm looking for and to shop!  People want to do the same thing and hopefully they'll add those items they see with their description to their shopping carts!  Fast and easy shopping.  No scrolling down big boring images or bothering with likes or comments or follows.  That's not real shopping!  Please don't change to look anything like a social media website.  You're a shopping website that we designer's design our images etc. for making it a great and unique marketplace full of wonderful designer stores!  Please don't change Zazzle!

[tamirazdesigns]

100% agree with Shelli too!

[MasterpieceCafe]

Exactly. If Zazzle needs to copy someone maybe it should be Amazon and not a social site. CP tried to become a more "social" site, CP is literally the textbook of what to never do when it comes to PODs.

[PlayfulPixel]

I couldn't agree more with Shelli.
I'm a relative newcomer to Zazzle but for me I would prefer you to do the basics really well. Make sure the site loads fast, tags show up relevant designs when searched for and so on (and that's without listing the things that could be done better from the creator's viewpoint).

I think you should have the confidence as a company to focus on what you started out doing and do it better. Not try and emulate other PODs.

[shellifitz]

Okay I found how to see it by opening the main page in a private window (incognito) .  It is like landing straight into Instagram.  This is what the general public who are either logged out or have no account yet see as the main Zazzle.com landing page.  sigh!   Zazzle has just become a carbon copy of a social media site and narrowed the chances for us sks to be seen from the front page even more than before.  Do customers really want to scroll down an endless feed of posts trying to find something to buy?   I can't imagine it.   I am sorry but I hope this beta proves this is not the way forward for Z. 

[shellifitz]

 The second time I tried the private window I got a different view so if you are trying to see it that way you may have to try more than once. 

[Fiorenzo]

Not that my opinion matters, but TBH, when entering Zazzle I expect to see an inviting store frontpage that showcases lovely featured items, nice sales, actual gift ideas, and an easy entrance to the Zazzle universe full of beautiful stuff to buy as-is and/or to design myself. In other words, more or less what we already have. And always remember, the 40% of the visitors still browsing on desktops with lovely widescreens and/or on laptops are able to look at more than one single image per page.

And, please, fellow designers, don't mention socials. I just entered FB after a little break of perhaps one week or so, and I fell off my chair. They already started time ago by making their layout uglier and uglier, but the newest one with these blown-up images and vertical images in square boxes with ugly solid colors on the sides, and that whole thing stretched over the full width of my widescreen, is the absolute eye-killer. Looking at a smartphone makes me feel claustrophobic, now I have the same feeling on my large screen. I know, Gen. Z+ is used to browsing the socials and perhaps shopping on Ali's China store while sitting on the toilet, but there is still that little thing called responsive design for the more old-fashioned people among the web users who like to see more than one pic and 3 lines of text per page.

[JerryLambert]

Integration with social media an accessory, not an e-commerce home page. 

[alissag]

I guess take this with a grain of salt since I'm no spring chicken, but the new style is not for me. As others have said its very reminiscent of Instagram. This is not Zazzle-related, but there's an online store I have shopped at before and whose Instagram account I follow. I clicked on a "shop now" button on one of their recent Instagram posts and it was nearly impossible to navigate. I took the time of going on my computer and going to their site directly to place an order, but that's because I was a pretty determined shopper. I feel like pushing social media style shopping is going to turn off customers.

[SandyMDesigns]

It reminds me of when I first joined Zazzle. I added my social writing site within the descriptions. Later on, I said to myself, "What was I thinking." 

When I want to buy something online, I don't care to read about someone's life on social media or socialize. Zazzle is an e-commerce site and should stay that way.

I feel like you are asking us to jump through more hoops again. Besides, I agree that it looks too much like a social media site and can be too confusing for the customer looking to buy a product.

[GabiwArt]

I don`t like it.

[LMGildersleeve]

I've just seen this on Chrome. Its grayscale presentation "gray, white and black" leaves me flat. There is no "glorious feed of" anything happening on my end. @James it's hard to determine if the new Zazzle look is a site where you buy things. I'm afraid it's just kind of ... boring. Sorry.

[JLynnW]

So sorry, I don't care for it, but understand why Z may be trying it out.  Being of an older generation, I asked the next younger generation, 30's and 40's in age, in my family to take a look, they were confused at first questioning if it was truly an e-commerce site.

[northwestphotos]

Oh, no!! Please don't! I can't even find my own stuff! Where do I look? All I can find are other featured designers. What happened to the name of my store?? I think this new appearance spells doom for all us designers with niches. Everyone's designs will be lost among all the other millions of designs. I know the latest trend is for big splash pages that seem to scroll on forever, but I simply can't stand them. Those of us who have been here for many years have worked so hard to make their front store page look pleasing and inviting, showcasing their particular niche. I would be willing to compromise with a cookie-cutter image on the very top of the homepage that every store would see. But please leave everything else alone the way it was with our own categories with images and breakdown categories. Please give us the ability to distinguish our stores from other stores!

[Fiorenzo]

Unfortunately, I can't get the new layout to work on any of my browsers. Does this affect also our personal store home page you enter with zazzle.com/store/storename? If it only affects Zazzle's main page I don't care much in the end, but if our store entry pages are affected this way, especially with third-party stuff, it gets pretty annoying. I already hate FB's new awful look, I don't wanna hate Zazzle, too. At least not my own store page.

[Zob1]

I don't know if this request for feedback includes glitches.

I go to the page, open the login window and start typing, and the window closes before I can finish; I get the impression that the page beneath hasn't finished loading, and is closing the login window when it completes.

[whimsywhim]

It looks like a social media site.  It's not inviting or fun anymore.  It looks sterile.  The previous home feed was rich, colorful and very inviting.  Perhaps there is a better alternative.

[KeegansCreation]

Now I have it. I did not before so the A/B test must be moving around.

It looks like Instagram with influencers using affiliate links. It looks like what Zazzle is hoping affiliates will do when they are not on Zazzle rather than looking like Zazzle proper. It looks like a social media site rather than an e-commerce site.

That said, I think one simple change would do it a world of good. There are two tabs, Explore and Shop. Instead of having Zazzle default to Explore as the landing page, have it default to Shop (the traditional landing page). This makes it obvious that the potential customer has landed on an e-commerce site rather than a social media site. Then they can flip over to the Explore tab if they wish. That makes it obvious they are going into the curated sub-section of an e-commerce site rather than thinking they have landed on a social media site that somehow only has affiliate links to one place.

I live in Massachusetts, home of Jordan's Furniture. This giant furniture store has an Imax theater in its interior (showing the standard blockbusters). To get to the theater, you must walk through several furniture departments. This makes it obvious you are in a furniture store that also has a movie theater rather than in a movie theater that also sells furniture. It's a meaningful difference. Hopefully Zazzle will also A/B test having Shop be the default with the Explore tab having to be chosen.

[tamirazdesigns]

That is the strangest thing I've ever heard a giant movie theater basically sitting in the middle of a furniture store, both entering and existing the theater there's furniture everywhere to walk past sounds like!  I like our movie theaters better either in a big parking lot by itself, or as an annex to a big shopping mall with it's own big movie main entrance!  When I go to the big malls to shop I don't go to the movie door annex outside door entrance to walk through the movie concession area to the doors opening up to the inside of the mall corridors.  I park my car and go to the mall door nearest the stores I want to shop at and I leave from the same door.  Rarely is store browsing/shopping done before or after a movie at the mall.  Unless you have alot of extra time on your hands!  Hope Zazzle doesn't change it's shopping e-commerce layout platform!  I'm turned off by big scrolling images, likes and comments, stories or whatever.  So boring and hard on the eyes, and too time consuming!  Why can't it stay as it is with those designers that like using Instagram, Facebook or whatever to have their Zazzle store links to those sites, should any customer's ever visiting their Zazzle store care to click on them to see what they have there?  I have no desire to be involved with anything like that, especially when shopping!  I don't like how some other companies are changing their store websites to look like big boring social media sites with big scrolling images upon images just to try and shop for something!  Zazzle's site was great as it was!  

[tamirazdesigns]

both entering and *exiting* it should say above, for my analogy of the strange furniture movie store, and Zazzle e-commerce social media marketplace!

Sidenote:  Still not fond of this new forum layout either; and wish we could Edit our typos/comments like before!  Noticed I wasn't able to fix a typo.  😞

[EBG-Design]

PLEASE make it a sidebar, or an option, NOT the entire home page.

[shellifitz]

So now only the social media divas will have a chance to be featured on the front page?  And then it will probably only be 2 or 3 a day since I can't imagine people like scrolling any more than they like paginating.  Thanks alot for excluding those of us who don't use Instagram or Facebook from having a chance to be seen on the landing page.  

[Gail_K]

After finding this on the home page today I think this is not a good idea have it on the landing page. Some of the links take customers away from Zazzle and potentially delay their shopping. I clicked on one link in the feed that took me to YouTube. A customer may decide to stay on YouTube and view other videos, click on other links/ads etc. rather than come back to Zazzle. Same goes for links to Instagram. There are quite a few of those. It's a distraction! This looks great for creators who have a social media presence and make it into the feed. I can see the benefits when it links to their collection or store. If you must have this then please don't make it front and center as the default. The old shop home page is much more enticing, fun and better at showcasing the wide variety of amazing products from numerous creators at once rather than the single product/post scrolling of this new social feed.

[whimsywhim]

Totally agree.  The previous homepage was very inviting, fun, rich in colors and went directly to shopping which is the point.  This homepage is the complete opposite and detracts from shopping.  My cousin who is very no-nonsense and blunt called it - drab, dull and confusing then loudly exclaimed, "How do I get to shopping?" 

I strongly urge Zazzle to return to the previous homepage layout.  If you want to keep it, PLEASE use it as a sidebar or option as others have suggested.    

[PacifierCity]

I finally had the new format load and I was confused.  If I had not looked at the news post a few days back, I would have thought I landed on the wrong site or that Zazzle got hacked of something.  I took a little time to look at a bunch of stuff.  Right now, the posts seems to be coming from the same handful of people.  But I can't click the user name or see a way to see who they are.  Most of the likes seems to be coming from the same group of people.  So it is Z staff or interns or something driving this right now.  I wonder a lot of things really.

The posts don't say to me, hey you can buy this.  The one image that seemed it might lead to products was for the new Thor movie.  So is that a link to products, a review, a preview?? 

After a moment or two I did see the shop button.  But if I did not know what Zazzle is about, I would not know what I would find when I clicked shop.  There is nothing here that screams we sell custom made goods, or designer made goods, or one of a kind goods.

The overall feel is very bland.  I do get the social media feel... is that what Zazzle is really going for?  I thought I was participating in a place where I could design and sell art and products.  Not a place where I would come a hang out or like this or that and then move on.  The links on the feeds don't even lead to Zazzle pages all the time.  That one does not make sense to me at all.  Is the focus on selling products moving to the back burner.  Is it that Zazzle is making more selling ad space or something?  I don't get it... 

I do wonder if I hashtag my products with the "trending" hashtags, if they could be found right away... after indexing.  I did check out the #Father's Day page and it basically brought up a search for father's day gifts.  At least that makes sense.  But I did think that #'s were all one word and on the landing page it is two words... interesting.

I am sort of at a loss overall of the direction that this site is heading.  Makes me wonder if I should be investing more of my time elsewhere, actually.  I don't understand how this format is supposed to drive more sales.  And it is a bummer for me as I don't post to Instagram or FB and that seems to be where most of the #zazzlemade products are coming from.

Could someone or Zazzle please post info about using that hashtag?  There was info about it in the old forum.  And I think its is tied into the user agreement somewhere...

Anyway, those are my thoughts.  I assume Z has some sort of data that would support this type of layout.  I can only hope that the models prove true and it results in more sales for all, and not just the #zazzlemade designers.  Off to do some work now.

PC

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[Fiorenzo]

Does the shop homepage look normal? That's all that matters to me, in the end. Being in the promoter program, every link to any Zazzle page that is not one of my own (shop, products, collections, etc) would murder my promoter share. I still can't get it working on any of my browsers, so no idea except the shots I've seen.

[PacifierCity]

Today I got the "original" version and I see a piece of art work and an enticement to explore what Zazzle has to offer with 20% off!

Right off the bat, the pieces line up.  They make sense.  I see a clear picture of what this site is about.  I am here to shop.  Find cool art.  I do think it's a shame that the ability to customize is not featured right there too.  That is a huge perk to Zazzle, although becoming a little more common, so maybe Zazzle feels its not so important... IDK just typing out load here...

@FiorenzoOnce I got to my store everything was as usual.  Though I was logged in and did not check the public view of my store.   If/when it pops up again I'll check the public view and see what happens.

PC

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[Fiorenzo]

I pretty much like the homepage design over the past half-year or so, it is nice to look at, inviting, and gives a good overview. I must say, though, that in the past weeks or months it has more and more lost its focus on products and sales and turned more towards events and occasions. A bit more difficult to browse. This applies also to the sales page. TBH, the homepage of the other POD I'm on is more focusing on the e-commerce aspect, and IMO it's easier to head to the products and start shopping. What I've noticed is, that the (entry) homepages of most POD services have basically become pretty identical in layout and style - they all have become interchangeable. But that's a common issue nowadays - you won't find nicely designed websites anymore - it all has become a cookie-cutter basic responsive design. Often not even the color of the buttons change. Bootstrap clones wherever you go...

But no matter the criticism, it looks nice and as expected for an e-commerce site. The new attempt not so much.

If all looked as usual, I think the public view will look the same. Good. As I wrote before, if you're in the promoter program, you don't wanna send your visitors to any Zazzle page other than yours for referral reasons, so in the end, it doesn't matter that much how Zazzle's homepage looks like.

[PacifierCity]

I got the new page again today and I remembered to go check out my store front before logging in.  Zazzle has put the search bar and advertisement thingy back at the top of the page.  I think that helps a little...

@FiorenzoMy storefront loaded as usual when I got to it while logged out.  At this point in time things will look as you want them too.  Hopefully the store fronts won't change... or at least if they will change, it would be great to have a heads up about it so we can prepare our stores and make the best presentation possible with the new changes in mind.

I'm still not a fan of the new look/feel but do think that adding the search and advertisement bar makes a difference in the right direction.... if you must go in this direction.

PC

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[Fiorenzo]

Thanks for the feedback, good to hear nothing has changed on the personal storefront.

[MasterpieceCafe]

Horrible. It looks like I'm on Twitter? Nothing about this makes me want to stick around and shop. Big thumbs down from me. Sorry.

[Connie]

Using an incognito browser, I was able to see the new homepage. It is a huge NOOOOOOO! You can't even tell it's a shopping site- it looks a lot like Instagram or similar social media site. I understand you want to inspire people with interesting new things, but an e-commerce site should BE an e-commerce site, not a social media site. People are BOMBARDED 24-7 with endless scrolling through social media. They become jaded, and like mindless zombies, just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling........... (And if you look at statistics for these sites, the number of impressions vs the number of actual click-throughs is abysmally low.)

Zazzle has a good thing going with the big banner at the top of the homepage- it highlights the current sale, the current holidays when applicable, and some relevant products. This sets it apart from a lot of other shopping sites like Amazon, which is JUST products, while at the same time still CLEARLY being a shopping site. (It's different, of course, when we are logged in, where the Saved Designs are the focus. But that is a feature for designers more than shoppers anyway.)

[whimsywhim]

I couldn't agree more.  I'm at a loss as to why Zazzle changed from a colorful, rich, inviting, enticing shopping homepage to a dull, drab social media site that discourages and frustrates shopping.  I very much hope they change their minds and go back to what worked.  Why change what worked?