 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 3/9/2013 Posts: 5,063 Location: Seattle
|
There seems to be a whole lot of products that are missing color or style options, from t-shirts to tote bags. I know things run out occasionally, but it seems there is currently an unusually large percentage of options missing. What's going on?
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 6/2/2015 Posts: 77 Location: Shallow Lake
|
Yes I have noticed this too, wish - when something was out of stock - It would be hidden by the Zazzle team so people do not try to purchase, I personally lost a large sale - then to find it was out of stock, and then a couple hours later it was back in stock. (disappointing for a customer to click because they like it, and find out it is out of stock) There maybe a way when any product is out of stock - it can be magically hidden by zazzle - and soon as that product is available again-- Zazzle make it magically appear again!
|
|

 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 7/21/2009 Posts: 5,322
|
SueChisholm wrote:Yes I have noticed this too, wish - when something was out of stock - It would be hidden by the Zazzle team so people do not try to purchase, I personally lost a large sale - then to find it was out of stock, and then a couple hours later it was back in stock. (disappointing for a customer to click because they like it, and find out it is out of stock) There maybe a way when any product is out of stock - it can be magically hidden by zazzle - and soon as that product is available again-- Zazzle make it magically appear again! That would be awful for customer coming from our websites, blogs and social media feeds. Imagine someone in a webpage who clicks through to an out of stock item and gets a blank page? Even if the page was a zazzle marketplace page I can imagine the customer being ticked off.
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 4/12/2015 Posts: 3,291 Location: El Reno
|
LM Gildersleeve wrote:SueChisholm wrote:Yes I have noticed this too, wish - when something was out of stock - It would be hidden by the Zazzle team so people do not try to purchase, I personally lost a large sale - then to find it was out of stock, and then a couple hours later it was back in stock. (disappointing for a customer to click because they like it, and find out it is out of stock) There maybe a way when any product is out of stock - it can be magically hidden by zazzle - and soon as that product is available again-- Zazzle make it magically appear again! That would be awful for customer coming from our websites, blogs and social media feeds. Imagine someone in a webpage who clicks through to an out of stock item and gets a blank page? Even if the page was a zazzle marketplace page I can imagine the customer being ticked off. Agree! I hate to lose sales at all but I would rather risk one sale lost then hundreds of potential sales by people clicking blank pages and never returning. At least if we can get them to a real page, even if the item is sold out they can see our collections below or still visit our store or even if they go to another item and designer they are more likely to come back again than if they get a blank page or an error and think the whole site is broken.
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 3/9/2013 Posts: 5,063 Location: Seattle
|
SueChisholm wrote:Yes I have noticed this too, wish - when something was out of stock - It would be hidden by the Zazzle team so people do not try to purchase Well I'm not sure I'd want that. It could be just the color or style you put the design on is out of stock and the customer could choose another option. Or they might put it in their cart to save for when it comes back in stock. What I'd rather see is a way for us to see in the back end which products are out of stock. For example, I've discovered that black scarves are out of stock. I had put many designs on black. Had I seen them flagged on the back end I could have changed the option to white right away so the customer wouldn't assume all options are out of stock.
|
|

 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 12/30/2011 Posts: 1,363
|
SueChisholm wrote: ... wish - when something was out of stock - It would be hidden by the Zazzle team so people do not try to purchase... Presumably you are referring to products that people find by coming from a link outside Zazzle? Because this is exactly what Zazzle do within the MarketPlace, they make "invisible" any item that is out of stock. So if someone is searching in the MarketPlace, they will not see your product if you posted it on an out of stock option. Say, for example, someone is looking for a t-shirt to buy. Your design has been posted on a size Medium t-shirt, but that particular size is out of stock, so your design will not appear in the MarketPlace. Say too that the shopper wants to buy a size Small, and that size is in stock. Yet the shopper will not have the opportunity to buy your design on a Small t-shirt, because your design is invisible. I think it would be much more helpful if Zazzle would leave out of stock items as "visible", and add an "Email me when back in stock" option for shoppers as many other websites do.
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 3/9/2013 Posts: 5,063 Location: Seattle
|
Wow, I'm finding more and more stuff out of stock ... things that were some of my best sellers like backpacks, wallet cases, and cutting boards. Many of those have been out of stock for a while but now even more stuff is going out of stock. This is making me nervous. What's going on? Will these things ever be back in stock?
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 2/14/2014 Posts: 548 Location: Roanoke
|
I'm worried too.
I'm also thinking, it might not be the best time to promote... With so many products out of stock and more going out almost Daily!
|
|

 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 12/18/2008 Posts: 1,044
|
ForestWildlifeArt wrote:Wow, I'm finding more and more stuff out of stock ... things that were some of my best sellers like backpacks, wallet cases, and cutting boards. Many of those have been out of stock for a while but now even more stuff is going out of stock. This is making me nervous. What's going on? Will these things ever be back in stock? ...And it sure is affecting sales...It's hard enough in such a competitive marketplace, out of stock really weighs things down.
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 3/9/2013 Posts: 5,063 Location: Seattle
|
Digitalbcon wrote:ForestWildlifeArt wrote:Wow, I'm finding more and more stuff out of stock ... things that were some of my best sellers like backpacks, wallet cases, and cutting boards. Many of those have been out of stock for a while but now even more stuff is going out of stock. This is making me nervous. What's going on? Will these things ever be back in stock? ...And it sure is affecting sales...It's hard enough in such a competitive marketplace, out of stock really weighs things down. It also looks bad to customers. If I was shopping on a site that had a huge percentage of products "temporarily" out of stock for months on end, I'd quit coming back to check. I'd either think they're going out of business or they are unprofessional and just don't keep their site up to date. It's not giving Zazzle a good image.
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 4/12/2015 Posts: 3,291 Location: El Reno
|
ForestWildlifeArt wrote:Digitalbcon wrote:ForestWildlifeArt wrote:Wow, I'm finding more and more stuff out of stock ... things that were some of my best sellers like backpacks, wallet cases, and cutting boards. Many of those have been out of stock for a while but now even more stuff is going out of stock. This is making me nervous. What's going on? Will these things ever be back in stock? ...And it sure is affecting sales...It's hard enough in such a competitive marketplace, out of stock really weighs things down. It also looks bad to customers. If I was shopping on a site that had a huge percentage of products "temporarily" out of stock for months on end, I'd quit coming back to check. I'd either think they're going out of business or they are unprofessional and just don't keep their site up to date. It's not giving Zazzle a good image. I think they should take their own advice and Hide the OOS products from the marketplace and only unhide them when they are available.
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 7/9/2016 Posts: 4,562
|
Shellibean_on_zazzle wrote:I think they should take their own advice and Hide that OOS products from the marketplace and only unhide them when they are available. Food for thought - - Affiliates who use feed tools may end up with broken pages (not just empty pages) if they use RSS Feeds and Zazzle hides everything that's out of stock. - I've seen where out of stock products don't appear in the MP (Cheese Boards). I think they have to go through un-indexing for that to happen? Unsure if they're actually hidden or just not in the MP. "Not in MP," IMO, is better than "Hidden" due to above. - If they hide them all, then it would be helpful for Z to also unhide them all when they're back in stock. I couldn't get very excited about having to go find everything hidden in multiple stores, especially when we're not notified of status. There are multiple things going on here - affiliate sites, promoting (sometimes automated, so a product going out of stock may not be noticed), customers shopping on Zazzle, etc. Some might argue that affiliate sites aren't Zazzle's problem, but Zazzle encourages affiliates, so I think how this affects our sites should be considered too. My vote is always to improve communication. Just that would help a ton.
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 4/12/2015 Posts: 3,291 Location: El Reno
|
RoyK_is_a_She wrote:Shellibean_on_zazzle wrote:I think they should take their own advice and Hide that OOS products from the marketplace and only unhide them when they are available. Food for thought - - Affiliates who use feed tools may end up with broken pages (not just empty pages) if they use RSS Feeds and Zazzle hides everything that's out of stock. - I've seen where out of stock products don't appear in the MP (Cheese Boards). I think they have to go through un-indexing for that to happen? Unsure if they're actually hidden or just not in the MP. "Not in MP," IMO, is better than "Hidden" due to above. - If they hide them all, then it would be helpful for Z to also unhide them all when they're back in stock. I couldn't get very excited about having to go find everything hidden in multiple stores, especially when we're not notified of status. There are multiple things going on here - affiliate sites, promoting (sometimes automated, so a product going out of stock may not be noticed), customers shopping on Zazzle, etc. Some might argue that affiliate sites aren't Zazzle's problem, but Zazzle encourages affiliates, so I think how this affects our sites should be considered too. My vote is always to improve communication. Just that would help a ton. Thanks Roy!  A case of uninformed opinion on my part... I never thought about that and it would be like shooting myself in the foot because I just built an affiliate site that uses live nifty grids to pull from collections that are RSS feed dependent, so disregard the last mindless statement I made that I thought was a good idea but isn't...
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 7/9/2016 Posts: 4,562
|
I'm pretty sure you know, without my saying so, that I didn't post that to void your opinion in any way - but just in case: I didn't mean to void your opinion.  I happen to be knee deep in code this weekend and am reminded of the domino effect of hidden/unavailable products. Not all affiliate site pages would break; some may break. I have two sites that'd be... I can't even think about that!
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 4/12/2015 Posts: 3,291 Location: El Reno
|
No worries, I needed to be corrected on that point because with the live grids I am using it would affect my new site for sure. I would have to go in and change them all to static and even then they still pull from collection feeds. I never thought you were voiding my opinion😉 Totally agree that a line of communication would be the least they could do, maybe even create a communications dept just for keeping us in the loop. Forum mods already have a full plate.
|
|

 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 6/26/2015 Posts: 39 Location: Port St. Lucie
|
I thik so much is out of stock could possibly be due to supply issue. American Apparel filed for bankruptcy and was bought out by Gildan. However the sale did not include the brick and mortar stores. Everything that was American Apparel is either going to be rebranded of phased out. American Apparel did a alot from clothing, to backpacks, and more.
Hopefully if the products comeback as Gildan, than our designs carry over and we will not have to re-apply all of our images.
|
|

 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 6/26/2015 Posts: 39 Location: Port St. Lucie
|
I thik so much is out of stock could possibly be due to supply issue. American Apparel filed for bankruptcy and was bought out by Gildan. However the sale did not include the brick and mortar stores. Everything that was American Apparel is either going to be rebranded of phased out. American Apparel did a alot from clothing, to backpacks, and more.
Hopefully if the products comeback as Gildan, than our designs carry over and we will not have to re-apply all of our images.
Plus february-April is usually a month of resets in the retail world as companies are resetting for the spring through next Christmas Season. They know not much is going to sell during the first few months of the year.
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 3/9/2013 Posts: 5,063 Location: Seattle
|
Scott Hervieux wrote:I think so much is out of stock could possibly be due to supply issue. American Apparel filed for bankruptcy and was bought out by Gildan. However the sale did not include the brick and mortar stores. Most of what I'm seeing has nothing to do with American Apparel. I'm seeing all different kinds of products from many different companies. Placemats, cutting boards, backpacks, etc. Multiple companies losing product supplies at the same time, and for months on end, is unlikely. This could signal that companies are no longer willing to do business with Z and this is concerning. It would be nice to get some reassurance from Z but so far no response.
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 7/24/2014 Posts: 744
|
Yes, I noticed baby bibs are out of stock. They are a big seller for me, especially this time of year. Let's hope they are restocked soon.
|
|
 Groups: Member, Zazzle Admin, Zazzle Employee
Joined: 6/30/2015 Posts: 4,317
|
ForestWildlifeArt wrote:This could signal that companies are no longer willing to do business with Z and this is concerning. It would be nice to get some reassurance from Z but so far no response. Hi ForestWildlifeArt, Zazzle has a unique ecosystem where we rely on lots of Makers. If those Makers run low on inventory or change out certain products on their end, it trickles down to us. And if it is a new product, then it takes a bit of time to on board it so it can be customized or configured by our customers. Again, this forum needs to be about helping each other. Let's please refrain from negativity and speculation.
|
|

 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 12/18/2008 Posts: 1,044
|
Out of stock products + missing MP products = seriously decreased sales...It's stretching reality a bit to draw something positive out of that.
|
|

 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 6/9/2013 Posts: 150 Location: Inland Northwest
|
It would be really helpful to have some sort of icon on our products on the backend when something is out of stock. I personally hide everything of an item that I notice out of stock for more than a week. I hide them and put them into a category that is also hidden. If I check back and they're still out of stock a month later, I delete them.
I don't want a huge percentage of a category (there were some cute drawstring bags for example) to be out of stock. It results in shopper frustration, and any frustration has the potential to turn away customers, not just from our stores, but the site in general.
So it would be good to know if an item is out of stock so that we are informed. A simple little icon like the hidden one right under each product's stats would do the trick. I don't have affiliated sites yet, so I don't know the logistics of that in regards to hiding products as has been discussed, but I imagine all designers regardless would appreciate being informed. Echoing what has been posted in this thread, good communication can prevent a lot of designer frustration.
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 5/25/2011 Posts: 21 Location: Healdsburg
|
As so many products are out of stock, I wonder if Zazzle is having $$ problems.
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 5/25/2011 Posts: 21 Location: Healdsburg
|
As so many products are out of stock, I wonder if Zazzle is having $$ problems.
|
|

 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 7/25/2015 Posts: 251
|
its too bad all the maternity wear is sold out and the shower curtains.. tends to sell well this time of year
|
|

 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 7/30/2007 Posts: 11,352 Location: Greenville, SC
|
Harmony wrote:its too bad all the maternity wear is sold out and the shower curtains.. tends to sell well this time of year Maybe maternity wear falls in with the shirts that won't be available for the holiday season *shrugs* EDITING TO ADD: I don't see them listed on the list (2nd post in thread) of what will be available (unless my eyes just missed them): Important Apparel UpdateAs for shower curtains, it was stated awhile back that that company was affected by the hurricane: Read This
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 8/9/2013 Posts: 1,116
|
Shower curtains haven't shown out of stock anymore on my end for a few days already.
|
|
 Groups: Member, Zazzle Admin, Zazzle Employee
Joined: 9/25/2017 Posts: 70
|
Yes! The shower curtain, sherpa blanket, and tapestry are now back in stock!
|
|

 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 7/30/2007 Posts: 11,352 Location: Greenville, SC
|
Jon wrote:Yes! The shower curtain, sherpa blanket, and tapestry are now back in stock! Awesome news!!
|
|
 Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 1/25/2015 Posts: 951
|
Jon wrote:Yes! The shower curtain, sherpa blanket, and tapestry are now back in stock! WOW! That company must have really busted their buns to get back up and running. A major relief for both them and their employees I'm sure!!! Fantastic!
|
|
Guest |