Other designs from this category is Hurting Sales

[Susang6]

Why is it necessary to have Other designs from this category directly under our products?  58 products are viewed in Other designs from this category before the customer can see my collection or learn more about my product design.

Other designs from this category are a method to take the customer away from the product link that brought them in the first place.  So many designs from other designers populating directly under the product have the potential of hurting the designer's sales.

I work at promoting my products 7 days a week for a minimum of 8 hours and do not like the other designs from this category on my product page...you are taking my customer away, its like saying "you might like this pillow better" 

You can only see Other designs from this category when you are signed out of your store.

[Connie]

I agree!

[JerryLambert]

I'm not seeing that on any products. It might be a test. I agree that it is excessive and also disproportionate. I don't necessarily welcome all of the leaks currently on the product pages but this is overkill and should certainly be underneath collections. 

But are you sure that is the product page? Because I don't see the 'View product details' button either and the 'Personalize' button is missing. Is that on mobile Z? 

I honestly don't mind the 'Other designs you might like' area because if the designs, tags etc. are unique enough to your other products, you can get many of your own products to show there. But I have mentioned before that they should be underneath collections. 

I'm not sure if this is still true, perhaps Scott or someone could chime in, but it used to be that if a customer clicked on one of your affiliate links, the 'Other designs you might like' didn't appear at all on the product page. Hopefully it is still that way and also true with the 'from this category' section as well. If not, it 100% should be. 

[Susang6]

Jerry, it could be a beta, a test, or something else I agree with you as I do not see it all the time, but today while listing products I did see this a few times when I was signed out. And it bugs me because customers who are not members and not signed in will see this too

Yes it was my product page there were 58 other designs in this category and all of them did not fit into the screenshot. Beneath all of these other design products was the product description along with my spring pillow collection.

I agree I do not mind the other designs you might like but Other designs from this category is too much.

[Susang6]

@JerryLambert  do you think this occurred because my browser needed to be cleared? and is it a glitch?   I don't know.

what if it was a customer that came to look at my pillow and saw all of those other pillows...they may want to check it out and forget about my pillow.  just saying.

[Susang6]

Okay Jerry I clicked a product of mine that I found in the google search and it opened to the "other designs from this category"  populating underneath my product.  (go find one of your products in google search and see if this is what you get)   Let me know your findings. 

[Scott · Accepted solution]

It's in our best interest to keep users on our website. If someone clicks on a listing ad on Google (or wherever) and they close it 10 seconds later and end up purchasing from a competitor then we've failed (we've failed you and ourselves). We don't want that. So, in certain situations we'll be showing a different sort of page with the intention of keeping users on our website so that they'll (hopefully) purchase a product from one of our Creators here. This is not a test, but the page content may be updated at any time based on performance.

[Susang6]

I can understand the importance of keeping the customer on the website in hope that they buy something. But I wonder why you assume that the customer isn't interested in viewing the creator's products.   

The customer liked the creator's product that they found in the google search and they clicked on the link...wouldn't it be best to show the customer more product designs by the creator rather than taking them away to view other designers in this category? 

I hope you understand   

[minix267]

I agree. at least show my collections or other designs by this creator before showing them -other items in this category. that is really unfair.  If my link brought them there I want my items to be what they see first and the most of ... Not 50 other items in the category... 

[Shakenbake]

Not to mention, its really hard for customers to find the matching items in a collection, when they often want to create suites or complimentary products to decorate with etc, and then they go asking for things that already exist but cannot find them! Then they may or may not continue with a design they really wanted because the collections is SO FAR DOWN THE PAGE in relation to the item they actually liked. Its not about good customer service if they dont even know that their needs are being met. Just like the confusion with the chat box on our pages that we can't opt out of, or turn off when we aren't actively on Zazzle it just leaves customers hanging in an abyss and takes away the job of a w-2 paid customer service agent hired by Zazzle to give service. I don't want to confuse customers MORE. I want them to get better care and find what they actually came for. 

[Connie]

This is patently unfair to anyone who sends most of their traffic to their products. It's fine to want to keep them on Zazzle no matter what, but 56 products from other designers is excessive. The usually one line of "Other Products you might like" below the image is fine.

[JerryLambert]

This is the search for one of my USB drives...

The first link, #1, is a Zazzle sponsored link. It has Z's referral code in the URL. Sometimes those show as the first search link. When I click on that I get this...

This page does have the 'Other designs from this category' section. But it is a Zazzle ad landing page, not the product page. You have to click on 'View Product Details' to get to the actual product page. 

When I click on link 2, which is a google search result, not a sponsored link, I get this.

This page does not have the 'Other designs from this category' section. This is the product page.

So, from what I have gathered, the 'category' section doesn't show on product pages, only sponsored links. 

[Susang6]

Jerry the thing is we take the time to figure this out and to learn how to get to the product page...will our customers do that? probably not, they will click the sponsored links on google and get the other designs from this category section. Will they click view details or will they scroll down? 

Will Zazzle amend this category by other designers so it's in favor of the creator of the product? probably not. I think it would be best to show the creator's products all of them in the collection rather than other designers' products in this category.  Now that would definately help the creator, but that is my opinion. (the subtitle would read as other product designs by this creator that you may like) best to keep them on the creator's page since their artwork is what attracted the customer in the first place. What do you think?

[JerryLambert]

Collections should certainly have priority over 'other products'.  I have said that for years. It is just one line. It is only fair imho. Yet giving the customer options isn't a bad thing. 

Placement is key. Take Amazon for example, even inside their own MP they show other products that match the product on the product page. I have actually found that useful when another seller is selling the exact same product for $5 less. That isn't necessarily the situation here and it creates a different sort of competition.  Also, Amazon places those products beneath the fold. 

@Caprice wrote:

I admit this is disheartening...especially if the person has landed on your product by browsing thru Zazzle.  

---

I don't think that page shows when shopping inside of Zazzle, only when clicking on outside sponsored links. Someone correct me if I am wrong. 

[Caprice]

Happened here.  Not logged in - used the search bar to find one of my products - and other people's products are shown below as "other designs you might like'.  😟

[JerryLambert]

Yeah, 'other designs you might like' has been there for a long time. The 'Other designs from this category' is what I was referring to. Also, I see all of this stuff whether I am logged in or not. 

[Susang6]

Agree, it's now occurring when you are logged in or not logged in. Also occurs when you are at Zazzle and not coming from a Google link.  

[Susang6]

"Other designs that you may like"are fine it is one line under the product, but this discussion is NOT about that. This discussion points out the "other designers' products in the CATEGORY" and this is populating 56 products under the creator's product. 

This product category is also pushing the creator's collection and about to the bottom of the page.  

[Susang6]

agree to give customers options with "other designs like this" but in order to keep customers at Zazzle website populate underneath with the "Other designs like this" showing all of their product designs that are by the creator, an example I have a whole lot of spring tulip and daffodils pillows that customers may like...my product design brought customers to the website in the first place show them my products in other designs in this category NOT other designers.  the sponsored links are disheartening... 

[Caprice]

I admit this is disheartening...especially if the person has landed on your product by browsing thru Zazzle. They've already seen competing designs...but they clicked on yours!  It's like the system is saying, "Psst!  Not that one - look here!"  😝😝

[ColsCreations]

Check out this thread from Sept 2022 discussing this same thing. I wrote then

 I only get the above shown page with the long "other products in this cat" section if it's my first entry into Zazzle from a "clean" browser and I got there from an individual product page link.

That was 6 months ago. If things have changed and it's occurring under more circumstances now I haven't noticed yet.

[TheDesignerVib1]

That "other designs from this catagory does seem unfair because they are only putting TOP & BEST selling, not giving other smaller Zazzlers a chance to grow, I think what they should do if they want to keep it like that, they should put Designs from creators that are at the same level, also i haven't seen that yet so it might be beta for now but they shouldn't be putting the top sellers first next to someone who doesn't make that much sales, I think much of the smaller creators just leave the platform if they do it like that.

[ColsCreations]

If I go to this tissue paper of mine under conditions that produce the "other designs from this category" section, the products I see are the same ones you get if you navigate to tissue paper and leave the sort on the default of Popular.
https://www.zazzle.com/c/tissue+paper 

product I clicked onsuggested "other designs from this category"

Someone who likes the left design enough to click on it for a closer look is almost guaranteed not to be someone interested in the type of designs shown on the right. So I have zero concerns about this section being there. On the other hand, if you are in a popular heavily saturated market and thus your designs are indeed similar to the type of designs on the category landing page, then yeah, people may click-away from your product page to look at another suggested design. But they're probably going to do that anyway. How many people buy the first thing they click on without looking at any other options first?
From a business standpoint (Zazzle doesn't care whose products a shopper buys as long as they buy something) it would make more sense for Zazzle to use the "other designs from this category" section as an expansion of the "other designs you may like" scroll that's always under products. Because those designs are actually similar to what you're already looking at and would be of more interest to the shopper. People complain that that scroll leads shoppers away from their product, but that goes both ways. If you go to one of those products, YOUR product is right there on THEIR scroll. It's like a second-chance. Maybe they didn't notice your design scrolling search results, but hey, there it is now on that scroll under the product they did click on. I may be in the minority but I think the "other designs you may like" scroll benefits everyone. The "other designs in this category" section strikes me as pretty useless though when as in my example above, it shows things completely unrelated to the style/taste that got the shopper to click in in the first place.

[Susang6]

I agree with you.  It does seem unfair to keep adding top-selling products in the other products in this category"  But I think the algorithm is populating the designers and the products, due to the popularity of the product.  

I doubt Zazzle will go back to the way things were, where all links opened to the product home page rather than the view details page / view other designers' products and other products in this category.

It would be best to add the creator's products such as "other products by the creator" If Zazzle did that I think everyone would be happy. 

All of the other designer's products under the creator's product are such a distraction.  

I'm sure many designers are not happy because they all work so hard to drive customers to their products.  If we would get paid if our referral link generated a sale would be one thing, but it's so hard to get that referral sale, considering most customers do not clean their browsers when shopping online. 

Thank you for your comment

[Photocrazy6]

I totally agree about the view product details page. If someone refers them to their product why do they have to click another but to see it?

[GraphicAllusion]

I agree 100%. If they must have it on your product page, it should come under the Collection it's in, AND the Transfer to another product option. Yes, I know it's always been there in some form or other but now it's even more in your face. Why is it shown so prominently like that? Sales are hard enough to come by lately as it is. It should be BELOW your own collection the rest of the matching products are in (if any) and also below the transfer option.

[Barbara]

I searched with DuckDuckGo for one of my business cards that does fairly well. What I found in Shopping was the lesser of two possible cards, the one that has never sold as opposed to the one that has sold multiple times. If a customer clicks on this lesser card and lands on its Zazzle page, they're very likely to be lured away from the card that sells, which is in the collection down at the bottom of other people's products. (At least the selling card is shown multiple times on Pinterest.)

I assume it's Zazzle that advertises in Shopping, so my question is why they'd show the card that doesn't sell as opposed to the one that does. It must be some kind of algorithm, and it's choosing the "wrong" card. Adding insult to injury.

Colorwash's Home