RE: Zazzle Store Categories and Zazzle Store Collections

[TAngelone]

I have a couple of rather loaded questions regarding store categories which the Zazzle Categories Help article does NOT cover and questions regarding Zazzle Collections which the Zazzle Collections Help article does NOT cover. I have searched exhaustively on this topic and have NOT been able to get detailed information regarding best practises if any. 

Zazzle Store Categories

• How many Zazzle categories and subcategories should a Zazzle store have ideally?
• Is there a set number of categories and subcategories?
• Which categories and subcategories should be made VISIBLE for customers to see and click on and which categories and subcategories should be kept HIDDEN?
• Do Categories and Subcategories affect GOOGLE SEO and SERP (search engine optimization and search engine page results)?
• When naming store categories should product and design names be used in the category and subcategory titles? 
• How do the Zazzle Department Tree and Zazzle Categories relate?

Zazzle Collections 

How many products should one add to a Zazzle collection ideally? I have art and designs that I have created that I am hoping to start selling on apparel, accessories, home and office decor, car interior and exterior products that have the same design art and themes. Said designs are also interchangeable and match a number of different products. 

My question is should a Zazzle product collection contain all of the aforementioned products in one huge collection?

Or should collections be created by product type, apparel and accessories collection, home and office decor collection, car interior and exterior products collection? 

I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback anyone on this forum can provide. There are some kind and knowledgeable people on this forum. I sincerely hope my questions are helpful to others who may be wondering about Zazzle Store Category and Collection Set Up. 

[KeegansCreation · Accepted solution]

My answers in red

Zazzle Store Categories 

• How many Zazzle categories and subcategories should a Zazzle store have ideally? The purpose of categories is for the convenience of people who visit your store. They aren't mandatory and some people don't have any. There isn't an ideal but since they are set up for people who visit your store, there should be few enough that people don't have to scroll forever. I don't know how many fit on a page but typical is 4-8. Typical doesn't mean ideal. It's just what a lot of people do.
• Is there a set number of categories and subcategories? I don't know what the upper limit is. 
• Which categories and subcategories should be made VISIBLE for customers to see and click on and which categories and subcategories should be kept HIDDEN? The purpose of categories is for the convenience of customers visiting your store. I would keep them all visible. I don't know if it's even possible to hide them but it would be pointless to do so.
• Do Categories and Subcategories affect GOOGLE SEO and SERP (search engine optimization and search engine page results)? I don't know. Maybe somebody else does.
• When naming store categories should product and design names be used in the category and subcategory titles? This depends entirely on what you are selling mainly. Look at how other store owners set up their store categories and you will see a wide range of doing things based on what is being sold. For example, people who are focused on parties will have categories by occasion, "Birthdays", "Baby Shower" etc.  Some people divide by different themes rather than occasions. I do the latter, having a category for "Vintage" and one for "Holidays" and so on. 
• How do the Zazzle Department Tree and Zazzle Categories relate? They don't. They are completely independent. Some people mirror the department tree in their categories but that's really not necessary given that customers can do a department drill down from inside your category or your store products in general.

Zazzle Collections 

How many products should one add to a Zazzle collection ideally? I have art and designs that I have created that I am hoping to start selling on apparel, accessories, home and office decor, car interior and exterior products that have the same design art and themes. Said designs are also interchangeable and match a number of different products.  Collections are for sharing your products outside your store although some people use them on the landing page of their store instead of categories. They can be shared on social media (unlike categories). They also show in a scroll on the product page which makes them ideal for showing people matching products. The minimum for them to show in that scroll is 7. The maximum allowed in one collection (if I recall correctly) is 300. But people are unlikely to scroll through that much so I'd advise a lot fewer. If you find yourself ballooning past 100 for a collection, consider breaking it into 3 or 4 collections.

My question is should a Zazzle product collection contain all of the aforementioned products in one huge collection? No. Customers are unlikely to scroll through a huge collection. They also can't drill down by department the way they can in categories so this is a good place to divide your mega collection by department as you have described; for the car, apparel etc.

Or should collections be created by product type, apparel and accessories collection, home and office decor collection, car interior and exterior products collection? Yes, I would break up your theoretical mega collection that way.

I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback anyone on this forum can provide. There are some kind and knowledgeable people on this forum. I sincerely hope my questions are helpful to others who may be wondering about Zazzle Store Category and Collection Set Up. 

[TAngelone]

Thank you for your thorough response to my questions regarding Categories and Collections. I do appreciate you taking the time to respond and post. I do hope that others will benefit from this thread. Being armed with this information will make it easier for myself and others to set up and manage their Zazzle shops. Thanks. I accepted this post as a solution. 

[Baylee]

That's a very thorough and helpful summary @KeegansCreation.

The only thing I would add is that I do use a couple of hidden categories that help me keep things organized. I have one for 'Direct Only' that house all the custom products I create for customers that I don't want available to the public. I have another for 'Old Sold' products. When I want to take something out of the market place but don't want to delete it, I change it to hidden and shove it in this file. Other people might find other uses for hidden categories but it's whatever works for you.

[Cat]

Great response! The only thing I would add is in terms of the number of items in a collection. It used to be that you needed 7 for it to show up below the product, but I think that number has been reduced. I can't remember for sure but I'm thinking it's 3 of 4 now? Sorry, but I'm too lazy to experiment to find out for sure.

The other thing is about big collections. I agree that customers aren't likely to keep scrolling if they're simply browsing for something they might like to buy, but I think the exception would be wedding collections where you really want to group all of the matching designs so customers can find everything they need without having to search for a different collection. You could break them up into stuff related to invitations vs. day-of-event items, but there's plenty of gray area there, so I generally keep them all together in one collection even though some of them do get quite big. 

[LG]

Is there a specific help desk for those of us opening stores?  Though the service folks at the help number try - they often have to refer to their supervisor or creative leader who don't seem to be able to come to the phone directly.   I have to wait days for a follow up email and it is never quite the answer I needed.

[Windy]

There is not. But there are help pages, and anything not answered in the help pages will be quickly answered in these forums, by other users, if you title your post in a way that let's people know what the topic is. Also, many of the problems newbies seem to have, are the result of the fact that it takes hours or days for the Zazzle system to update. So patience is a useful virtue here.

[Windy]

Good advice given above regarding maximum collection size. People are not interested in scrolling indefinitely. Remember the minimum is 7 products if you want that collection to show up on the product page.

[TAngelone]

Thanks Windy for your response to my questions as well. This is great advice. 

[LG]

Also, I tried to add a canvas basic ball cap to my shop with an embroidered logo - it was rejected for size or something.  I have now idea how to correct it so it can be added to the store. 

Also, I have a polo shirt in the store - it says "unavailable" at this time - or out of stock.  Zazzle has no polo shirts available?  I find this hard to believe.

[PacifierCity]

as for collections... 4 is the magic number for the collection to show up publicly in your store.  If it has a banner and description, they tend to show under products with 4 as well, though the direction we have been given to ensure this will happen is 7.  (this bit is for it to show up under a product found in that collection on a products product page.)

PC

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[our-porch]

I would like to add a question here if I can. Thank You.

If you have 100+ products made and only add less than 100 to the collection, how would they find your other products? If they use the transfer option would your already made product be offered? To me I would rather have products made, or is it more to have more designs made with less products? I have come across the new collections, it looks great, although not utilized if the product is not in the collection. Another thing I used a lot was "design on other products" feature by your name and the design on the product description page. that feature has now been taken away, I guess replaced by the new collections. I enjoyed using that feature if I wanted the design on a different product. Any thoughts?

Thank you much for letting me jump in, I was looking for my answers here and felt, asking here instead of starting a new thread.