I'm certainly not opposed to making the collection name a link so the customer can view the entire list of products, but I think the grouping of products by type is much more of a feature than a bug. If the customer clicks on one invitation, the other styles are shown beneath it. It's sort of like a collection within a collection.
I think for smaller collections like your example, viewing all of the products on one screen makes sense. But for large collections (and many of my wedding collections have well over 200 products in them) having everything grouped by product type is a VAST improvement because it's really difficult for customers to find anything when they have to scroll through such an unwieldy list of products - and it's really easy for them to miss things when they're presented in that format.
As I said, I'm certainly not opposed to making the collection name a link, but my suggestion would be to allow designers a bit more control over how things are displayed. I'd love to be able to create "section covers" to make it clear that if they click on the invitation or save the date or whatever, they're not just seeing that one invitation - they will see all 20 of the invitations/styles in the collection. Or maybe there could be some way to page through the thumbnails for all of the styles for each section without showing them all at once in a list format - something similar to how in our back-end store products view we can click through to the other in situs for each product (hope that makes sense.)
I also think it would be helpful if designers could choose which format (grouped or list) to display the collection both in the collection pod on the product page and when it's opened separately. That way smaller collections could be set to the list view while the larger ones could utilize the grouping feature in either situation.
I suppose as a work-around for the time being, one thing you could try would be to set smaller collections to a different collection type - like "similar style/theme" as opposed to cross-sell. I'm not sure what disadvantages there might be to doing that, but it would allow you to get the functionality that you're looking for.
Yes, that would be fine IF all the products showed up somewhere. But in many of my collections, in fact I think it's in all of the cross-sell ones, whether I have a lot of products or a few, there are many items that don't show up, even with the "styles underneath". I tried to show that in the video. That even when counting the styles that are piled within each other, there are products still missing. So how would a customer ever find those?
Like you suggested, I'm starting to think it is just wiser to stop making cross-sell collection so that some of your products in the collection won't be hidden from the customer. If they could figure out how to group the products once a customer opens the collection, that would be great IF all the products showed up somewhere that the customer could see them.
I just know that two customers have already written me asking me to make matching products for a baby shower and a birthday collection, which were already made, they just couldn't find them. I imagine many just assumed there were not matching products. It's a big loss of money for both us and Zazzle.
Under the video I made, another Zazzler had a really great idea. She said, "they should add a badge or some sort of symbol to let customers know this product is part of a collection." That is a fantastic idea!
Hmmm... perhaps I'm just not understanding. If there are multiple styles of a given product, the collection pod on the product page clearly shows you that there are different styles available (as I said above, I'd prefer if we could use a cover here, or page through the thumbnails somehow, but it does say that there are different styles available.)
Then if you click on one of those thumbnails it opens the first product/style in the group and shows all of the others directly underneath it:
Are you not seeing the other products/styles beneath the product on cross sell collections, or am I just not understanding?
In terms of letting the customer know that the product is part of a collection, I think that the collection cover or realview is supposed to serve that purpose. That's why it shows up as the second thumbnail in the list on the left. I haven't had time to make many of those yet, but when I do, I think I will use both text and pictures to clearly convey that there are many products to choose from, because I'm not sure that just showing a bunch of random products from the collection really conveys that:
If you have it set up to use the collection cover in marketplace searches instead of the individual product image, you do get a badge showing that the product is part of a collection - at least you used to! I just did a few marketplace searches and it doesn't look like they're doing that anymore so maybe they're still testing that feature. Anyhow, I do think a collection badge would be a good idea.
Anyhow, I do think there's room for improvement, but I have to say that I have seen a BIG increase in sales of matching products since the new cross sell collections were introduced. So while they may not be perfect, from my perspective they're really boosting sales of matching products, not hindering them.
Cat, if you watch the video, I show this very thing we are going back and forth about. I literally show in the video that even if I count "the styles" they put underneath, there is still not the right amount of products. I show it in two places in the video. In the middle and at the end, that if you count the products the customer can see, including the styles, it still does not match the amount of products that are really in the collection.
Most people are talking about a decline in sales. Not just me, there are several threads on it in these forums, and in the Zazzle groups. So you may be having luck with this new format, most of us are not.
But anyways, if you watch the video, you will understand what I am saying. The amount of products, even with the number of styles, (as I do in the video) still does not match the products in the collection.
I'm not seeing any missing products. I think the issue is that the collection pod doesn't show the section for the product that you're currently viewing because the customer is already seeing those products up at the top.
Your collection has 21 products in it, and that's what I count:
I'm not saying that there isn't some room for improvement here, and I don't mean to be trying to argue you into the ground or anything, I just think it helps if we're all on the same page with our understanding of how it's supposed to work vs. what might be a bug. Maybe this clarifies it a little bit?
I know lots of folks have seen a drop in sales this year, and that totally sucks. I guess maybe I'm just lucky or something because I've seen the opposite. I don't always agree with the new "features" that Zazzle releases, but this one has been a big plus for me, so I'd hate to see them abandon it. I have to think that they're relying on site-wide numbers as to how things are performing overall in making these sorts of decisions.
So actually, you are right... I am wrong in this. Because the product on the top isn't shown below or the other styles, (like if you have five invitation styles) then it will look like you are missing products, but you're not, they are just showing on the top. I get it. You are right. My other collection looked like it was missing 5 products but it's because they show the original product the customer clicked on, then the different "styles" underneath it on the top under the product, not below in the "other products" area. Everything is just divided up all over the place.
Hmm.. this is so confusing for sellers and customers. I've been on Zazzle for 14 years and it took you arguing me into the ground to figure it out (Just being silly here) so how is a customer going to notice that? But at least they are all there in the long run. I guess that is why my other two customers couldn't find the products, they just didn't see the "styles" listed underneath. I mean how is a customer going to know to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see other products. It would be way more convenient to have a "see the rest of the collection" tab someone on top near the product.
Ok, Im just rambling now but thank you for explaining it to me. I have talked to other sellers so many times about this and no one has figured this out.
I'll have to redo another video and show people what you just showed me here so that they know the products ARE there, just a little tricky to find.
Ha! I think it comes down to this: what's simple & intuitive to one person is practically impossible to understand for another! 😉 I also think that when you're expecting it to work a certain way, and it actually works in a different way, it can be really hard to wrap your brain around it.
I have to think that Zazzle's ultimate goal here is to make it easier for customers to find matching products, not more difficult. I don't know what their reasoning is for not offering a link to open the collection in a separate page. Maybe their internal diagnostics show that people are more likely to see something that's presented on the same page further down vs having to click on another link? Maybe? Either way, I don't see the harm in making the title clickable... unless maybe they're afraid that it takes the customer away from the page where they can actually buy something? I dunno.
All I can say is that I have seen a marked increase in sales of matching products since the cross sell collections were introduced. I do think there's plenty of room for improvement though. I still get messages from customers who can't find things so clearly the system isn't perfect. But what I'm noticing is that even when customers can't find something that already exists, they're usually at least aware that there is a collection of matching products, where before they were often oblivious to that fact - so I think that's a step in the right direction.
Anyhow, glad we at least got on the same page about how it does work. That's a much better starting place for discussions about how it should work! 😁
