Urgent: Search Issues Hitting Sales Hard!

[kills]

I hope this message finds the Zazzle team well. I'm writing to bring some critical issues to your attention regarding product search functionality, which appear to be significantly impacting designer visibility and, consequently, sales.

I've identified several search terms that are either not yielding accurate results, showing incorrect products, or completely omitting relevant designs. This directly hinders customers from finding our products, which, as you can imagine, leads to a significant drop in sales for designers.

Here's a detailed list of the specific search problems I've encountered:

• Dartboard: Some of my dartboard designs are appearing, but my own sold items are mysteriously absent from the search results.
• Hitch Cover: Only two results are displayed, and none of my designs for this product type are visible.
• Cupboard Knobs: The search returns 261 results, but there seems to be an underlying issue affecting the discoverability of these items.
• Pocket Watch: Despite a high number of results (9,782), none of them are actual pocket watches; the search is consistently showing unrelated items.
• Necklace Photo Watch: Similarly, 18 results appear, but none are relevant "Necklace Photo Watch" items.
• Puzzles: Out of 66,468 results for "puzzles," none of the actual puzzle designs are appearing; everything else is showing up instead.
• Wireless Charger: With 1,221 results, the search is pulling up everything but actual wireless chargers.
• Wood Pictures: While there are 111,765 results, only a handful are genuine "Wood Pictures," with the majority being irrelevant.
• Wrist Watch : nothing can not find one

These inconsistencies suggest potential issues with your recent updates, possibly due to insufficient beta testing or a lack of robust data backups. If data backups were in place, it would allow for a swift rollback of updates that cause such widespread issues, saving designers from significant headaches and lost revenue. Many of us have been advocating for more thorough testing and backup procedures for months.

I kindly urge the Zazzle team to investigate these search indexing problems with the utmost urgency. Rectifying these issues is crucial for ensuring that customers can find the products they're looking for and that designers' hard work is properly showcased.

Thank you for your immediate attention to these pressing matters.

Please add to the list if you find search problems thank you

[Scott]

I appreciate the detailed post.

As we've requested in the past, we'd prefer to keep bug reports like this one focused on the issue at hand. It's significantly easier for our mod team and staff to read through these discussions when they're focused on sharing examples and observations. If Creators are simply chit chatting then it can be more difficult to locate examples or observations that have been shared.

[kills]

Scott you said We don't show products in a marketplace search if they're sold out. So does that mean because there are some styles of watches sold out that all the style get turned off. Is that why we can not fine the watches that are not sold out.. Because they are turned off. If not please look into this as it may be a fast fix just to turn them on again Thank you 

[kills]

A Critical Call to Action!

If you're reading this, it's time for a crucial self-assessment. Have your Zazzle sales plummeted in the last two months? There's a very strong possibility that your products aren't showing up in Zazzle's search results. If customers can't find your designs, they can't buy them – it's as simple as that, and it's directly impacting your income.

This isn't optional; it's a must-do priority for the health of your business and your Store your creating. You absolutely must dedicate time to this immediately.

Here's what you need to do, and it requires your immediate attention:

1. Go to your Zazzle store right now. If more then 1 do them all.
2. Search for every single product you sell.
3. As you search, identify any products that are not appearing in the search results – particularly those similar to issues other designers have already noted.
4. Add these missing products to the shared list. To keep our efforts efficient, please do not add a product if another designer has already listed the same missing design. We need a concise, clear list to address this effectively.

This is a vital community effort, and your participation is up to you. Every missing searchable product in your store directly translates to lost sales for you. We can only fix this collectively. As Zazzle has thousands of products

Thank you for your urgent and essential participation. Let's get your products found and your sales soaring again!

[kills]

The Ceramic Ball Ornament needs immediate attention and must be added to our list for review. It appears there's a significant issue: one particular store has approximately 100 designs for this product, all featuring a plain black background.

This is concerning because these designs are dominating the initial pages of the "Ceramic Ball Ornament" search results. We need to determine if this is a glitch in the system or an intentional delivery method that's disproportionately filling the search. Either way, it's impacting visibility for other designers and requires investigation.

[kills]

We've found that the following products are not only completely sold out but also unsearchable, 

• Bath Towel Set
• Chocolate Covered Oreo

[Scott]

This is expected. We don't show products in a marketplace search if they're sold out. I don't remember exactly why this is. They'll still show up in your store's backend, and you can still find them in the CYO section of the website: https://www.zazzle.com/custom/search/bath%20towels

[kills]

thank you 

[ColsCreations]

Manually searching while signed into my account, Firefox browser, Windows computer. 

[dartboard]  = 32,341 results
https://www.zazzle.com/s/dartboard

[hitch cover] = 33,141 results
https://www.zazzle.com/s/hitch+cover

[wireless charger] = 1,228 results
https://www.zazzle.com/s/wireless+charger
These results are indeed a random assortment of products. However, I looked at the first 36 and all of them but 3 are there because they are improperly tagged and/or titled with 'wireless charger' and sometimes just 'charger'. The other 3, there is nothing in the tags or title to explain why they come up for this search.
However, if you choose Wireless Chargers from the Site Map, that takes you to the C version of the link wherein there are 11,574 results,  and at least the first three pages (all I scrolled) were indeed wireless charger. 
https://www.zazzle.com/c/wireless+chargers

[puzzles] = 457,888 results
https://www.zazzle.com/s/puzzles
A quick scroll all the way through page 10 and I didn't see anything that appeared to be anything but an actual puzzle.

[cupboard knobs]  = 261 results
https://www.zazzle.com/s/cupboard+knobs
Of the results I checked, they show up because they thought to use 'cupboard knob' as a keyword. 
[cabinet knobs] = 3,312 results. 
https://www.zazzle.com/s/cabinet+knobs
cabinet vs cupboard is a whole interesting language discussion but outside the scope of this thread.
If I search instead for [ceramic knob] which is the actual product type name, I get 39,441 results. 
https://www.zazzle.com/s/ceramic+knob

[wood pictures] = 111,710 results of random products
https://www.zazzle.com/s/wood+pictures
Because that's not a product type. You're getting all kinds of things with 'wood' and/or 'picture' as keyword. (And inexplicably, a bunch of newly published bookmarks with neither keyword.) 
Search instead for the actual product type I think you mean
[wood wall art] = 178,068 results where at least the first couple pages I scrolled through were that product type. 
https://www.zazzle.com/s/wood+wall+art

Manual searches for watches, regardless of what type I searched for (watches, pocket watch, wrist watch, mens watch) did not pull up any watches. However, like with wireless chargers, if you go to them via the Site Map, that takes you to the C version of the link which produces 87,210 results where all 16 pages you can scroll down are indeed actual watches. 
https://www.zazzle.com/s/watches = bad
https://www.zazzle.com/c/watches = good

[kills]

Thank you, For starting this list. It's incredibly helpful, and my hope is that as more of you check your own stores and add what's missing, we'll truly understand the scope of what we're facing.

 

[ModernvVintage]

I was trying to check to see if products are missing but I have a lot so It’s hard to remember all I have. Is there an easy way to check ? 

[kills]

I don't know about "easy," but I do know one thing for certain: I can't afford to miss a single product my stores sell. That's why I've been slogging through the painstaking task of checking each item one at a time, starting with my first store. With 15 stores to get through, it's going to be a long haul.

I also don't understand what "via the Site Map, that takes you to the C version" means. Customers don't use site maps; they use the Zazzle search bar. If they can't find what they're looking for there, they're not going to try another method. They're just going to move on to Etsy or Amazon to make their purchase. This is precisely why we need this fixed, and fixed properly.

[kills]

Scott, stated, "We don't show products in a marketplace search if they're sold out."

Does this imply that if some styles of watches are sold out, all styles of watches—even those that aren't sold out—are then hidden from marketplace search? Is that why we're unable to find the watches that are still available? Because they've been inadvertently "turned off" from search results?

If this isn't the case, I urge them to investigate this possibility. If it is indeed what's happening, simply "turning them on again" could be a very quick solution for the tech team. Thank you for looking into this. This is precisely why I'm asking: if anyone searches for a product and find it's missing, please check to see if it has a discontinued or sold-out variation.

[Scott]

Not the case.

[kills]

well it has been 1 month and watches are not searchable what is the case then ?

[ColsCreations]

I also don't understand what "via the Site Map, that takes you to the C version" means. Customers don't use site maps; they use the Zazzle search bar.

We don't know how customers navigate the site. They could be manually searching or using any of the nav menu links or suggestions. The menu that now drops down from the top of the page, those all go to the C link versions, or they direct to the Shop Now page which in turn directs to the C link versions. The Site Map also links to the C versions.  If manually searching you get the S version.

https://www.zazzle.com/s/watches = bad
https://www.zazzle.com/c/watches = good

I don't expect customers to have any idea about the S or C links, my post was for the Tech team. 

* I wasn't starting a list, just checking the broad search terms you said were problematic. They all worked as expected for me, except watches & wireless chargers - the two where the C version makes a huge difference. 

[kills]

Ok just updating this NOW IT HAS BEEN 5 weeks and still can not search for watches and the others. ZAZZLE did you stop selling them because not able to search form them is the same thing as not selling them Zazzle is losing customers to Esty and amazon because they cant find a darn watch in the zazzle search this has gone on far to long will do something about this. You keep keep updating the server with out fixing all the fixes first. before moving on remember BATA test would have and will protect Zazzle from all this headaches .

[Fiona]

@kills Reporting this to engineering now! Thanks!

[kills]

still nothing

[kills]

i see a couple of watches but nothing I search for maybe 1 watch to 300 other useless designs. fix this please

[kills]

UPDAT AS I LOOKED BACK AT THIS THE WATCH I SAW WAS A POSTER WITH A WATCH ON IT SO THERE ARE NONE..

[kills]

This is no longer just an inconvenience; it's become a critical emergency for my business, and for Zazzle as a whole. I am profoundly distressed and genuinely concerned about the future, as I've now had multiple long-standing, regular customers inform me they are abandoning Zazzle entirely.

They are explicitly stating they will be taking their business to Amazon, eBay, and Etsy from now on, simply because they cannot find the products they are consistently searching for here.

How many loyal customers, and how much collective revenue, do we and Zazzle have to lose before the severity of this search functionality breakdown truly registers? What could possibly be more important than ensuring customers can find what they want to buy? It feels as though resources are being poured into design tools when the fundamental ability for customers to shop is crumbling.

This "last so-called update fix" over a month ago has been nothing short of a disaster, only exacerbating the problem. Please, I implore you, beta test, beta test, beta test these updates before they go live!

We are bleeding customers because of this critical flaw.

Please, please, please, please, please, please FIX THE SEARCH! Our livelihoods depend on it.

[Anne]

Still not in the marketplace:
https://www.zazzle.com/kitty_snoozing_on_the_beach_always_summer_watch-256404971505540750
Created: 6/12/2025

It's also just ridiculous to have to select "refine by category" to be able to see anything at all.
Obviously any potential customer is long gone before even discovering that the system does not recognize their search term.
Just venting, sorry, as usual, it probably won't be fixed.