New Trending Designation in Listing

[Saints_Aplenty]

Just saw (or noticed) something new on some of my listing pages:

It seems to be on the listing pages of the first 24 products that appear in the "Popularity" sort in my store's back end.  

Questions:

1) Who sees this?  Just the store owner or anyone who looks at the listing in the marketplace?

2) How is popularity calculated?  By views all time?  (Doesn't seem to apply in my case.)  Recent views?  By views in the last week? Month?  What?

3) Is 24 products the same limit for everyone across the board?

In short, what does this new thingie mean?  🤔

[Saints_Aplenty]

Actually, I can now answer my Question 1 myself.  I'm seeing the designation and number of views on other designers' products.  Not sure I like those stats being public.  

Thoughts, other designers?

[Zee]

Yeah it seems any product that's been around for a long time and racked up the views is going to look "more popular" than a newer design that may be getting more recent views but just can't compete on total with older listings.  

[KeegansCreation · Accepted solution]

1) Anyone sees it. I went to the landing page and clicked on one of today's promos- stickers. A sticker picked at random had this visible along with the view count. So did the next. And the next. These were all by different people.

2)When I sort by popularity in the back end of my own store it's a mix of things that sold recently and things that sold well but not recently. As I clicked through 15 pages of stickers in the MP (picking from the middle of each page) I finally came to one that was trending with only 39 views (compared to the hundreds and thousands of views of the ones on the front page). That tells me that recent sales play a part as well as overall sales. Guessing from my own back page which has popular legacy products combined with recent sellers, the algorithm must be the same for the MP at large.  There may also be a sales/ views ratio in effect.  I have a postcard with this new designation that has 38 views. But 11 of those turned into sales. So 1/4 of the people who see it, buy it. That's a good ratio.  So I went to my other postcards and found one that's been viewed 30 times and sold once. A terrible 1/30 ratio. But still "trending". So I sorted by Last Viewed and found a postcard with a 1/10 sales ratio. A far better ratio but not trending. The difference? The one with a 1/30 ratio sold months ago but the one with the 1/10 ratio sold 2 years ago and not since. So recency is part of the algorithm.

3) 24 is not the limit. It will just seem that way if you have your back end pages set to show 24 at a time. The program doesn't let a popularity sort go beyond one page (it's defaulted to Newest First, at least mine is. I can't remember if I chose that or not). Set your page to show 96 and you will see 96 trending products. Out in the MP I had to drill down through layers of filters before I got to the non-trending ones. 

What does it mean? Not much. The net for what is Trending is cast pretty wide so most things a customer clicks on will be Trending unless they go for something super specific and niche that few people buy or look at. An exclusive club, the non-trending is.

[Saints_Aplenty]

Thanks!  Great analysis!  I didn't go as deeply into it as you did...  I'll have to go back in now and see what turns up at 96 pages, etc.

[Windy]

Very impressed with your analysis, particularly item number three. I am not sure I ever would have figured that out!

[ColsCreations]

I don't see it on anything,  not even trending items from the top level of the MP so must be another A/B test.

Gott'a say though, I don't like it all.

[Zee]

Hmmm, I can see it on my phone, but not on my pc.

[PAZP]

Same for me. 

[Windy]

I've been able to see it on my phone for many months now. 

[Saints_Aplenty]

Really?  I don't use my phone for anything Zazzle connected.  I guess I should check out exactly what customers are seeing.

[Windy]

Yes. I browsed with phone, out of boredom one night, and then realized, that as customers are very often using their phones, I should spend some time looking there! 

[Saints_Aplenty]

There's another thread here relevant to it.  

I don't mind having the total number of my public products showing on my store icon in the "Stores You Might Like" pod on the new homepages.  I don't think many customers will actually see it, but if they do, it may encourage them to browse.  But, if as KeeganCreation notes this "Trending" designation is on a great many products with the number of our views made public, then I don't like it either.

And, for the record, I think it'll not only give designers heartburn but Zazzle too.  I did a sample search and I foresee the questions coming:  "I did a search.  So-and-so's greeting card only has 15 views and it's trending and on the first page.  My greeting card has 85 views and it's nowhere to be found."

I'd like Zazzle to weigh in and explain what they hope to achieve with this.

[plumb4me]

I saw the trending last night, in my 3 shops on my PC. Now this morning I see nothing on any of my shops.

[Saints_Aplenty]

I just checked and I've still got the designation.  Perhaps as ColsCreations notes it's an A/B test.  

There's another thread here relevant to it.

[JerryLambert]

I was seeing it and now it's gone. Anyone else still see it? I'm wondering if they abandoned it. 

[Windy]

Not seeing on desktop or iPad. I never saw it except on my android.

[PAZP]

I'm not seeing it on my desktop Brave Browser anymore but it's still on my Brave browser on iPhone. 

[Windy]

@LegnaArt