WTH with Zazzle arbitrarily "optimizing" items and then removing them if you don't choose to optimiz

[pichick712]

IT SHOULD BE MY DECISION TO REMOVE AN ITEM NOT ZAZZLE'S. I get messages about having to "optimize" items and suppose I don't think they need optimizing, I am screwed because Zazzle will take the item down. What gives them the right to do that?

[Mark]

Hi @pichick712,

You can learn more about Marketplace Optimization here.

[pichick712]

I know what it is but you have no right to do it. 99.9% of my items have never sold and so YOU are going to decide to delete them? HOW ABOUT U SPEND THOUSANDS OF HOURS CREATING THEM, MARKETING THEM TO THE BEST OF YOU ABIULITY only to have some stranger take them down! 

[Malissa]

Zazzle doesn't delete products that need optimization.  They just get hidden from public view, but are still in your back end.  You don't have to optimize them if you don't think they need it, just make them public again using the drop downs and open the product page to give them a view for good measure to "reset the clock".

[pichick712]

do u know how much time that would take? why are they doing it in the first place? 

[Baylee]

I have over 30K products in my stores and it takes me about 5 minutes to check all my stores and do a bulk action to unhide all the items that have been hidden. (nothing is deleted) 

[Angelandspot]

That's what I do bulk unhide.  Sometimes I might change a title or a tag but with so many products it's just easier to unhide them.  It's something Zazzle does which annoys me as hidden products can't sell and break links.  Sometimes they even sell shortly after I made them public again without changing a thing.

[DBCartoons]

Wow over 30K products?  I thought Zazzle only allowed us to have no more than 10K. At least that's what I read somewhere here in the community pages.  Again, I find out that I shouldn't believe everything I read on the internet. 

[KeegansCreation]

100K is the upper limit allowed. I have about 3K. 

[DBCartoons]

Did you mean write 10K?  100K is short for 100,000.

[KeegansCreation]

I do indeed mean 100K as in 100,000. Zazzle allows a designer one hundred thousand products. I don't know if anybody has actually reached that limit.

[Barbara]

Some time ago, there was a person talking about having reached the limit and having to deal with it. I can't imagine ever getting to even 10,000. I'm currently at a touch over 3,400 after 9 years. At that pace and at my age, I'll never reach the limit. 🙂

Colorwash's Home

[CrazyMermaid]

Without Quick Create, far fewer Zazzlers will reach 100,000 products. I don't think it will be possible, unless they hire workers to add products to their store. 

[igiftcenter]

Honestly: I really don't think anyone needs 100,000 products. I know there are stores that have that many products I can tell you there are stores on this site with far less than 100k products that are making a pretty decent living. (myself not necessarily included lol) 

It's all about quality, appeal, and marketability not quantity IMO.

Edit: well after posting this I just scrolled down to find you yourself posted you've made gold with far fewer than 100k products. That's exactly my point.

[Wildart]

i just calculated that half of my products have sold. my zazz rank is 5..hmm does that relate to % sold? I do wonder...

[CrazyMermaid]

Don't overthink Z rank. I am sure the formula incorporates so many factors that it isn't possible. You may in fact hurt yourself by guessing wrong and wasting time. Focus on making marketable products with the correct titles and tags - and these days a spiffy cover photo. That's kind of what Zazzle has advised for years. I have never worried about it and have a consistent 9 on my store. 

[CrazyMermaid]

I think marketability is the most important factor, followed by titles and tags. I keep meaning to promote, I forget. I don't pin to pinterest much. I currently have only 8 Editor's Choice products. I don't think I have ever had more. Very rarely do I get promoted by Zazzle.  I love Insta and was being pretty consistent - for a few months. Then cover photos came along and I got distracted.

I basically make the most marketable products I can every day. That I never get distracted from. Then I keep an eye on them and fiddle when necessary. That's why I don't get why people get so upset over optimizing products. Keyword strategies change - blush pink to dusty pink. etc. Missing one important keyword can kill a product.

[WBartworks]

Wow!  100,000.  Then stores that have less than 10,000 products posted, definitely have little chance of getting noticed.

[Barbara]

@WBartworks: My 3,000+ products have been noticed and have sold and the same is true of many others like me. Don't despair.

Colorwash's Home

[CrazyMermaid]

I made Pro Gold with less than 10,000 products...... 

[Digitalbcon]

Yeah, me too.  It can be done.

[angelafuller729]

Over the years, I've had over 40 Editor Picks, from stores that had less than 5k items - none of the picks were for invites BTW.  Picks include: tote bag, compact mirror, acrylic tumbler, coffee mug, shot glass, house flag, ornament....it can be done.

[pjwuebker]

Was at 100,000+ once. Back in the day when quantity was king and there was no limit. Since then, deleted down to 30,000. Most of them were crap anyway.

[chuamishael]

30K items!! are all of them being sold or view? or at least half of them ?

[tiffjamaica]

It doesn't take a lot of time to check in on products that need optimization and do a bulk "make public" if you wish.  Personally, I see it as a favor. If my design hasn't been viewed or bought in that long, then I absolutely NEED to change something - titles, tags, descriptions, categories, or remake the design to be more appealing.  I have lots of products... if Zazzle didn't tell me I needed to optimize some, I'd forget all about them. And the thousands of hours would truly be wasted.   By hiding them and giving us a chance to improve them (which, lets face it, everything can be improved somehow), it allows us to make our stores and the marketplace better and better.   

[KeegansCreation]

Sometimes all that needs changing is the style/color of the product. When something goes out of stock, Zazzle hides it. So of course it doesn't get any views. In those cases (which happen often enough) the fix is just to choose a different style/color. I had it happen today with a gift box that sank to the end of store pages when I sorted by Last Viewed. It was a Mahogany gift box but that was out of stock (and thus hidden) so I changed it to Golden Oak and that takes care of that.

[pichick712]

how many hours r wasted "optimizing"? I WILL DO IT ON MY TIMEFRAME, NOT THEIRS. 

[tiffjamaica]

---

@pichick712 wrote:

how many hours r wasted "optimizing"? I WILL DO IT ON MY TIMEFRAME, NOT THEIRS. 

---

the time isn't wasted if your product ends up selling 🙂   I consider it part of the running of my business here. It's a daily to-do task.

[Deb]

I hear your frustration.. and I’ve been there.. I did a very quick look at your store.. what stuck out to me is you have very little invested in tags.. descriptions and titles.. and BELIEVE ME. I absolutely HATE doing them as well.. but if you want to get noticed and have more sales.. these things need to be addressed.. I am Still guilty of having repeating titles and tags.. it is without a doubt my most  hated thing to do.. I looked at your nautical folders and your vintage tote bags.. other than a word they are all the same.. add more words.. and add much more in the way of tags.. change up the title names.. and zazzle has made this SO easy now to do with the edit details option..   that’s my advice.  But do it.. whether it’s your timeframe or theirs..  I’m terrible at marketing.. so it’s not like I can help you with that.. I do know however that without good tags they will not be seen.. other than minimal $$from other pods.. the bulk of my income is zazzle.. and this is my only income I have to pay all my bills and run my  farm on.. so I get it.. just do say 10 or 20 a day..  pretty soon you will have them all done..  suck it up buttercup and git’er done… 🤪.  (Said to lighten the moood) 

[Krysanthe]

Of course they have the right.  It's Zazzle's playground, they just let you play in it. 

[Jadendreamer13]

Zazzle is free of charge for creators, and that’s everything.

[pichick712]

so that gives Zazzle the right to take down our creations simply because they didn't get enough views? 

[KeegansCreation]

Yes, because it's their website.

[pichick712]

BECAUSE THEY "CAN" DOES NOT MEAN THEY "SHOULD" 

[tiffjamaica]

https://help.zazzle.com/hc/en-us/articles/223160488-Marketplace-Optimization  This might be something for you to read about it.  They hide products that are not selling, which is good for the SEO of the site overall.  It's up to you to fix them if you wish (which you should if you want them to sell).  Like @igiftcenter said, Its to the benefit of everyone that this platform succeeds. 

[igiftcenter]

Its to the benefit of everyone that this platform succeeds. If the way to success and continued success means hiding designs that are not getting traction based on the parameters set then I'm all for it, even when it's some of my own designs that are being hidden.

A website has a better chance of success when it is active and displays the best it has to offer to visitors coming here to shop. It makes sense.

In no way am I trying to discourage you from speaking your mind but just keeping on keeping on saying they have no right is not going to get them to change their policy... even if you say it over and over again 🙂

Once again I wish you success or future success

[PenguinPower]

Whoa.. chill pill... they haven't been deleted, just hidden. You can easily unhide them, and it doesn't take much time at all... You can view all of your hidden items, do a select all, and do a bulk action to unhide the items. That means you can do up to 204 items at a time. 

[pichick712]

why should I have to in the first place? If I plan to make NO CHANGES, then I just wasted my time going through this exercise because of zazzle. 

[waterart]

I think it would be fairer if zazzle removed them only from the marketplace and not hide them so that the person promoting them doesn't end up with broken links. You might think so what if it doesn't sell anyway, but a website with broken links doesn't leave a good impression. For this reason I now think twice before I decide to promote a Z product on my website, I rather promote my products from another POD and know my links continue to work

[Sara_H]

I agree - maybe perhaps set them as direct only so links won't be broken (pinterest comes to mind)