"Optimization may be needed" goes nowhere

[Barbara]

Whenever I receive a Notification about one product or another that may need optimizing, I'll click on it. It goes into the list of products needing optimization, which is blank, and checking the hidden list, I find it's not there either. It can often be difficult finding the original product because all that's seen is a thumbnail of the design without product type. Poster? Napkin? Card? What?

It would be far more helpful if there were a link to the actual product if it hasn't been moved to either the optimization-needed or hidden lists.

Colorwash's Home

[Mark]

Hey @Barbara,

Sorry to hear about this issue. Would you be able to send on a screenshot please?

[Barbara]

Mark, the little thumbnail in the Notifications dropdown is no different from any of the other thumbs such as when a sale has been made except that clicking on a sale thumb leads to Royalty History and the other leads to the Optimization Needed page that appears when a person chooses to see only those products. The issue is that we're notified that optimization is needed but the product isn't in the Optimization Needed list. If you saw a screenshot, you'd see the latest such thumb I received. If I showed you what it leads to, you'd see the optimization page with no products shown and the message, "Sorry, no products found." By the way, with a lot of searching, I finally found the product in question and saw that, indeed, it needed optimization of some kind, but it was never sent to the Optimization Needed list. I'll send whichever screenshot you want, but I don't think it will reveal anything.

Colorwash's Home

[Scott]

I see the issue. Thanks for reporting.

[Scott]

So, the Automatic Product Optimization notification is helpful in that it lets you know that a product needs to be optimized (and, as such, is not visible in the marketplace). We can handle this in two ways:

1. We link directly to the product. This would allow you immediate access to this product page so that you can fix the issue. The downside of this is that it would necessitate multiple notifications, one for each product. So if you have 100 products that need optimization then your notifications will be filled up with this same notification type, and you may miss other notifications as a result.

2. We group similar APO notifications together and then link to the store backend view to show you the products that need optimization. This is what we currently do. This is easier when there's multiple products that require optimization as it sort of consolidates many similar notifications into one. For Creators with large stores this may be preferred as it'll simply link to the store backend and they can view/update products as they wish.

Unsure how things will look with notifications in the long term (there may be some adjustments to come), but it sounds like the issue wasn't the notification at all. After all, it does sound like the notification was sent properly.

It sounds like the issue may be that the product needing optimization was not actually included in the respective section of your store. Is that correct? It also sounds like you've updated this product, which means that we may not be able to do much at this point.

If you see this happen again please let us know (and give us some time to review the situation before you fix the issue on your end).

[Barbara]

Thanks, Scott. Yes, I don't mind even hit-or-miss notifications as long as the product in question is sent to the Optimization list accompanied by others I wouldn't have known about otherwise. In the meantime, I'll keep a lookout for when/if it happens again so I can report it.

Colorwash's Home

[Barbara]

@Scott  I now have 4 or 5 products in notifications that may need optimizing. None of them is in either Optimization Needed or Hidden. I made sure to not update any of them. Is it possible that it can take a day or more for them to be indexed into those divisions?

Colorwash's Home

[Scott · Accepted solution]

Yeah, we've been noticing that some notifications are being sent before the indexing has finished. Not very ideal. It's also not exactly clear what the best resolution will be, but it's being discussed internally.

Given that we have a better understanding of the situation, you're welcome to proceed with updating the products as you wish. Thanks for the help here.

[Barbara]

Thanks for letting us know. In the meantime, I'll simply go back to the way I used to do it, checking both Optimization and Hidden categories, and looking periodically to see if the Notifications are in sync.

Colorwash's Home

[migned]

Same with me, the items it suggests in the thumbnail for optimization, are not there in hidden items.

[catinarezi]

I guess some products of mine that no one has seen in a while are showing this "optimization needed" because when I click to see what optimization (I thought it could be resolution problems, but I was confused because I'm always so careful about it) was that, nothing happens. I'm just hiding them... Will create some new ones...

[BKMuir]

@catinarezi  If an item has not been viewed in 15 months (I think), it automatically gets the "optimization needed" label. I have a system where I review the item carefully, making necessary changes, and mark the royalty up 0.01.

If an item with the current "Highest" rate then comes up for optimization in the next round, I just check the "Make Public". This makes my review of items fairly quick.

[migned]

Same issue again, the items it suggests in the thumbnail for optimization, are not there in hidden items 🙁

[migned]

Same issue again 😕

[migned]

Same issue again 🙁

[migned]

Same issue again, the items it suggests in the thumbnail for optimization, are not there in hidden items.