Product search or store browsing

[SilverSeas]

Is there data to determine whether shoppers use either organic searches or store browsing more?

I read that titles and tags are important for searches.

And I read that the attractive look and efficient organization of our store is important for sales.

So what does the data say?

All of the Zazzle tasks to get a product before a shopper take a lot of thought, skill, creativity, perseverance, and time.

Might the data show that either searching or an attractive store is by far more important than the other and that is what I should concentrate my effort on?

Thanks, Steven

[KeegansCreation]

This was discussed much in the previous incarnation of the forum but those archives are not accessible so I can't link to those discussions. The consensus was that store beautification was most important for those who were personally driving customers to Zazzle through their store because they had a website of their own and their store was linked to it. And that this website already had meaningful traffic of its' own before the Zazzle store was set up.

For the rest of us (myself included), search is more important because a customer actually visiting our store is infrequent. Collections are really the best vehicle for sharing on social media like Pintrest so that even if you drive a customer to Zazzle via social media, they could easily come here and buy one of your products without ever setting foot in your store.

It's still good to have a nice banner, some nice category thumbnails and a bio in your about section. But once that's set up it's something you might only tweak once or twice a year. But the tags and titles are an ongoing project and probably the way you'll be found. Also Collections. Collections are the perfect vehicle for offsite sharing and they let a customer see 6 other related products (that you have chosen) in a scroll below each product that's in a collection. They are wonderful for things like matching party supplies to invitations, matching pillow cases to duvet covers, matching bath mats to shower curtains and bath towels and so on.

[SilverSeas]

Thank you Keegan,

I value your opinion and I will share your response with the rest of our team.

For the future my guess is that we will have very few visitors from social media referrals. I do use Collections for Pinterest and will keep doing that.

Titles and Tags have been a challenge for me and I am a long ways from getting them right. I will stay diligent on that task.

I do want to bring up "data" again. You said in the previous discussion of this issue "search is more important because a customer actually visiting our store is infrequent." I ask: How can we find the data to support that opinion? Is this available in Google data we can access? Does Zazzle have the data that we can see or make a special request for? Can it contain data summaries for all product views as well as drilling down to just one store?

I have always been a data geek so the lack of data on our Zazzle store has me feeling like I am fumbling along in the dark. Maybe something I do is good, maybe it is not. If the only way to tell that our management is good is that we make some sales, well, that is not good enough for me.

Steven in Duluth

[KeegansCreation · Accepted solution]

You can enable Google Analytics in your store's settings under advanced settings. 

https://help.zazzle.com/hc/en-us/articles/219860787-Zazzle-Store-Integration-with-Google-Analytics 

When you say "management" and "team" it makes me think that you are a bit different from a lot of designers here- self employed artists working out of their own home- in which case your company already has a website that your Zazzle store could be linked to. If that is the case, and if you have customers coming to your website, then beautifying your store is important because you may be actually driving customers to Zazzle through your website and then your store rather than relying on social media and search terms.

[ElifritzArt]

Keegan

Well,  I think you are taking my vocabulary a bit further than it deserves.  Four people do make a team, one is briefly hired for promotion, one is an observer and part time social work consultant in our meeting, one is an artist and I fumble with the laptop keys while sitting on my couch.  Someday we may have a website for us, but a Wordpress site I tried to set up was just one of 5 failed attempts to do so.  It will be awhile before I try again.  Perhaps my granddaughter could make it happen. 

Thanks for your contributions to the forum

Steven