How Zazzle Marketplace Channels Work with Collection Cover Images

[Heather]

Hi Creators - Let us know if you have any thoughts, feedback or questions about how Zazzle Marketplace Channels work with Collection Cover Images.

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/creator-news/how-collection-cover-photos-work-with-marketplace-chann...

Thank you!

The Creator Team 

[Sara_H]

@Heather you forgot to link the news https://community.zazzle.com/t5/creator-news/how-collection-cover-photos-work-with-marketplace-chann...

[Scott]

I've fixed the original post. Thanks for mentioning it.

[SwissVillage]

Thank you for the effort to explain this.  Let me preface this by saying that I love the new collection features and you've made a big effort to explain them and make them easier.  

That said, to be honest, this is still all really confusing.  It is also frustrating that we've all been making a big effort to make our collections the best they can be, and now it seems we need to go back and make a second tour through things in order to add "Real Views" or create multi product images.  This requires an additional time effort for all of us.  I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering whether to make this effort again this while the interface seems to still be in evolution.

It seems this latest change was necessitated by adding that little key collection image in the sidebar of our product listings. I completely agree when it is a single product it is confusing for customers.  Perhaps adding the primary media image to the sidebar was just NOT a good idea to begin with.  So many of us already chose single image products as our primary collection image - both because that was easier, and since they look great in the shop this collection module. 

But putting them in the side bar doesn't make sense.  And even the multi product images are going to be hard to make out when they are that small.

Isn't there a better way of achieving the end of making people aware there is a collection?  Like not adding the image to the sidebar and just adding the "Shop this collection (or suite)" right up directly under the first product.  The display in that widget makes it perfectly clear that these are additional products.  Or even simply putting a generic "See the collection button" that links directly to the collection in the sidebar (without a tiny multi-product image that is going to be hard to make out).

Since you've been incredibly responsive to our feedback, here are a few additional things that I think would make the new collections features more convenient for sellers.

1. Give designers a way to access the backend collection interface directly from the "shop this suite" widget on our product pages.  That way the minute we see something that doesn't look right we can get right in there and try to fix it or make it better.  As it is now it's a whole complicated navigation process to get back to those collections.

2. Please give us the ability to enlarge the "Real VIews" so we can see them better before we choose to use them.  Also the fact that they take so long to activate leaves us unsure what we've actually done to our listings and whether we like the look.  I've enabled a few, but I can't even see them yet, so that adds to the difficulty of understanding how this all works.

3.  Improve and diversify the "Real Views" so that a wider range of products can be featured instead of the standards - for example how about an invitation, a paper cup and a napkin... or something like that.  Please mix it up a bit. 

I've still got dozens of questions, including whether using our own multi-product images is considered as good, whether videos can also be used as the primary image still....  etc. 

Again, I'm really excited about all these changes, and really deeply appreciate how much effort has been put in, and how responsive Zazzle has been to feedback. There is just no other platform out there that is this attentive to their sellers.  Thank you for listening, and for giving us this forum for exchange.

[CrazyMermaid]

Thank you for putting words to my thoughts. You must be psychic. 

[Heather]

Thank you so much for your feedback and ideas! I have passed this on to our product team and we will see what changes we can add to make this a better experience for Creators. 

[CrazyMermaid]

It is kind of hard to know what to think with all the changes and a/b testing going on. I have been trying to figure out how closely the cover photo and individual product photos should match or coordinate. When it was just one product per photo, I tried to make sure that cover photos in the same collection didn't clash or look jarring together. But now with multiple products in a collection, some of the single product backgrounds are way to busy for a collection photo of say 5 items. 

It was a bit of a surprise when I started to see my products replaced with the collection photo. But I love the way zazzle added the note to shop the collection etc. So I am not worried eventually I will be able to brand my work very effectively. Now I feel it is a little hit or miss. 

[Connie]

So far I've found it extremely confusing when the collection cover image replaces the product image. On a search page, it looks like the wrong products are coming up in the search results. If I'm confused, when I know about all these changes, I can only imagine how confused the customers are! And they probably will just overlook those listings altogether, rather than try to figure out why all these other products are showing up in the search results for the one they are looking for! I don't think it's necessary to show the customer that there's a matching collection on the search page, until they actually click on a product. The way collections are showcased on the product pages is very clear. But we really NEED to be able to click on the whole collection when we are on the product page!

[Heather]

Thank you for your feedback Connie! We have recorded your feedback. We're constantly testing the customer experience and we give the Creators to option to replace the cover collection image in search if they choose to. 

[SwissVillage]

“We give the Creators to option to replace the cover collection image in search if they choose to. “. Can you please explain this again. Honestly, this is all becoming completely confusing. Do you mean the real views or something else. Meanwhile I still have not been able to see the couple of real views I activated, which makes it even harder to understand how they are being used.

[Heather]

Hi there - Creators can enable their primary collection image to show in search rather than the single product image if they choose to do so by enabling under Zazzle Marketplace "Search Pages". You can see this visually in the video we recently created. 

The Realviews are still in AB testing so you may not see your RealViews show up on the product page right now if you are not part of the test. We are looking to enable access to all users soon. Apologies for the confusion here! I will update the article.  

[SwissVillage]

@HeatherI don't know why it was so hard for me to see at first pass through that it was possible to turn of the images in the marketplace.  Perhaps it's because all these options are split up in different areas.  But now I understand that I can turn off the primary collection image in search pages and have done so.  If anyone else is having this issue and wants to turn it off, you have to first click on this:

And then at the bottom of that page (see image below) you uncheck all the boxes.  I had accidentally checked some of these because I didn't really understand the instructions or what the purpose of this interface was.  

It's just all a lot to absorb, and some things are in one place (media) and then in other places, like under marketplace. I guess that makes sense once you wrap your mind around it. 

[Heather]

Thanks so much for your feedback! I have passed this onto our team and we will look to see what we can do to make this part of the feature easier to understand. 

[Deb]

I don't know if I am the only one guilty of using the wrong paper types for enclosures or other  invites - but  back before we had the big paper break out..  we used what fit - there could be 3 or 4  various paper types  that would work for say  save the dates, rsvps, details etc..  but now  with this new feature even though we "thought" we had,  say for instance,  enclosures in the correct  design placement to fill the needed  slot in the  new  real view  templates IF you do not have the correct paper type.. it will not  fill in - So the only  choice we have is to completely remake the  card  using the designated paper type  so it will then  fill in the spot - so for those of us with  hundreds of possibly wrong paper types created in the past.. on the right size paper And using the proper drop down for the correct marketplace  department,  they still do not fill in the  template for the real views.. will we now have to completely replace each one of them starting with a new  product..  ?   I imagine we would lose MP placement.. ?  Is there not an easier way to Redesignate the paper type without losing placement or needing to completely recreate the  products?  

[Deb]

Nevermind all of the above..  the products are totally different.. My mistake.. 

[Heather]

Thanks so much Deb. Maybe the design transfer feature can be added to collections to help with get the right products published to fill the slots.. I will explore with our team. 

[SwissVillage]

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@Heather wrote:

Thanks so much Deb. Maybe the design transfer feature can be added to collections to help with get the right products published to fill the slots.. I will explore with our team. 

---

Yes please!  This would be so great!

[Deb]

thank you very much!

[sm]

When you hone down in on a search with extra keywords, sometimes the the same collection cover show up on the same page multiple times when they are selected as part of the 10 representative products. For example invitations and labels that come up in the same search both show the collection cover as the product page. That is very confusing to customers.

Personally, I would like Zazzle to show the actual product in searches and if the product is added to a collection, the collection cover appears when the customer hovers their mouse over the thumbnail. Either that or a little icon appears in the corner of the image where they can toggle between the product image and the collection cover image.

Also on the top of the page next to the search field, I would love it if Zazzle added two search buttons, one called "search products" and one called "search collections" so that the customer can search either one.

[Heather]

Thank you so much for your feedback! I will be sharing with our team. We will be continuing to test out new ways to surface collections to customers.

[sm]

Thanks Heather. Here is an example of the duplicates I mentioned in my previous comment. You can see that the collection cover appears three times for labels and invites. I like the collection image showing in the search in place of the product image but the duplicates are a real issue. Perhaps we can go back to only showing invitations when invitations are searched?

Even before we added covers, having to click on invitations on the top of the page when I already searched for invitations, was a little annoying. I see why you guys did that before we were showing collections, but is it necessary with the new format? Only showing one product type when it is searched, will also show less duplicate matching designs on the same page which is better visually for the customer, offering more design varieties at a glance, plus it may give designers a little more exposure.

[Heather]

Hi there - I would suggest to only enable the invitation to show the Collection image since this is a very specific search and you do not want dups showing for both invitation and label. If you only want the invitation to show, then I would suggest not enabling the feature and only use cover photo for your single invitation. This feature is optional and up to the Creator to decide how to best market their products. The benefit of this feature is to showcase a variety of curated products to a customer to potentially cross-sell them to purchase more than an invitation. Example, purchase address label, stamp, sticker, etc. Please let me know if you have any further questions!

[sm]

But it was suggested to add the cover for the products that are in the image. I want it to a appear for the label and all other products that are in the cover image. The issue is that labels are appearing in a search for invitations. But if you ate okay with duplications then I will leave them. It os not just my search. It is all searches that are drilled down to specific keywords.

[ColsCreations]

The issue is that labels are appearing in a search for invitations.

That's because the labels contain one of the keywords you searched for (invitations) in the their tags. If you use the cat filter to narrow it down to just product type invitations, the labels go away. You could also remove "invitation" and variants from your tags for the labels. I've found that when unexpected things come up in a manual search it's almost always because of tags the Creator used.

[sm]

"... Invitation set" is the tag. Back in the day, we never had collections and before that we didnt even have categories when creating invitations, so we used to have to pull out sets to promote them with keywords. Some of us had to use a coding system. But if you searched invitations back then, only invitations came up, regardless of the keywords. The word invitation triggered a search for the product type. 

To change them all again would take forever. I will add it to the list with the other millions of hoops I need to jump through after Zazzle made changes and realistically, never get to them. It  is probably for the best because you can pretty much count on them changing it again.

[ACR]

Thank you so very much for making a video explaining this new feature!  I really found it very helpful!  🙂

[Heather]

Thanks so much for your feedback! I'm happy the video helped explain the feature and that you found it helpful. 

[KDArtStudio]

Under the mobile Search page feature only 1 of a possible 4 cover images is enabled... will the other 3 image placements be enabled in the future?

[SandyMDesigns]

I wish this video had been made earlier. I am one of those who didn't get it, until recently. Leaving many of my product pages confusing for the customer. It is a lot of work for someone who has been with Zazzle through all the changes through the years.

[Happy_People_Pr]

Hi Heather, Thanks for the clear video. Can you give an advice on which of the collection media slots to put a video in?  I have collections with both a video and a collection image and I am confused if I should put the video in the first slot, or just the image and upload the video in all the products media?

[tkgoforth]

So many changes and requirements -- I'm afraid Zazzle isn't for the mom ore retired person looking for a side hustle anymore.  I honestly do not want to keep up with this, and I'm almost a gold.  Unfortunately, my income has decreased by more than 1/2 since the recent changes, and I feel like I am starting over in a lot of ways.  I love you, Zazzle, but I don't know how hard I can work for your love.  I do understand that many of the top sellers are not working "solo" but have hired or need to hire other people to help them to create and market.  I can't do that.  I'm just telling you where I am coming from, and understand I need to change with the times if I want to get ahead.  Not sure that I'm there anymore!  Can someone change my mind?   Whereas Zazzle was helping me to pay bills, now, I am having to just use it as a little bit of spending money.  Not what I foresaw a few years ago.

[Connie]

I hear you! I'm about burned out trying to keep up with everything! (Actually not everything- I balk at videos). It's definitely disheartening when Zazzle changes things faster than we can keep up, and makes your sales dependent on those changes. If Zazzle is only a side hustle and not your full time job, you can take things slowly, and work on fixing up your best sellers and best collections, maybe just an hour a day or something. I don't know everything you sell, but I see you have several stores, so maybe just concentrate on one or 2 of your top selling stores, and try to add as many cover photos as you can, at least to the products that used to be your top sellers? I would also concentrate on collections- making as many as possible Cross-sell collections, as Zazzle seems to concentrate on those the most, and adding at least some of the recommended products. For me, adding cover photos and especially fixing up my collections, has increased my sales a lot. I still have a lot more work to do, and a few thousand more mockups, and I haven't even gotten to collection cover photos for most of my collections!

[tkgoforth]

Thank you, Connie!  Glad I'm not the only one!  I like your suggestions, and will try to get a little more focused.  I've never done well with wedding invites, and I don't really like to create those, or paper products, so I will have to look at other cross sell items.

[Connie]

They allow us now to put the Home & Living and Business categories as Cross-sell also, if the collection is made up of matching products of the same design. They don't recommend particular products, though, and don't showcase the collections the same way on the product pages, but hopefully it'll still give them more traction.

I think it's amazing that you've gotten almost to gold without the paper products! I have such a hard time getting sales for Home Decor, or really anything other than weddings and Christmas.

[Polenth]

I use collection covers to highlight the design in the collection (a flat image of the design) and not the products in the collection (outside of one exception, my covers don't show products). I never want the cover to be used instead of a product image. I only want covers to be used to mark the collection itself. So for me, the change isn't useful and I won't be touching it.

[PlayfulPixel]

I'm sorry but I still don't really understand this, despite the video and the text.
What I seem to be coming away with is that every cover photo that I create has to have more than 1 product in it? Is that correct?
If so, can you suggest ways that I can create these given that mockups only focus on one product...

[Pádraig]

Hi @PlayfulPixel,

That's correct. We suggest to showcase more than one product in Collection Cover Photos so customers can get a glimpse of what is offered in your Collection. We also offer Generated Realviews to help create Collection Cover photos/mockups for wedding and holiday at the moment and plan to expand to more occasions to help you and Creators offer these images soon. For regular product page cover photos/mockups, we suggest showcasing one product or anything else that the Creator feels would be beneficial in helping to sell the product.

I hope that helps. 

Pádraig

[PlayfulPixel]

Hi @Pádraig  - yes, it does help. Thank you.
What with the updates on the updates, I must have missed this.

[NPL]

I am also still very confused, indeed even after watching the video and the text. I was finally catching up a little bit with making some mockup photo's and adding them to media, and understand now that we have to go back to each product because now the wrong product is being showed? How do we even see, which ones to go back to? I believe Zazzle needs to think things over a bit better before making these huge changes, and fast, one after the other. Most of us have thousands of products! The ones with the new mock-ups now all have to be revisited? Making them in the first place is is very time consuming - finding mockups that resemble the Zazzle products and often paying for them. And some changes are very confusing (still not grasping fully how collections that are not wedding collections even work). I the meantime sales have dropped to half of what i sold last year!

I don't even know where to begin now?!

Do I understand it correctly that a cover Collection photo with multiple products can be created with Generated Realviews? Where can we find that? And know how it works?

Sigh, I feel like giving up!