Back in 2022 I created a third Zazzle Store,
PixelPatterns, an offshoot of my older
PatternPie store and a new home for my blocky 'pixel art' style patterns. They stood apart from the other designs in their style, and they performed better, so it seemed logical to give those designs their own focus.
I added more products to the range for Christmas, Halloween and Valentine's Day. It was like starting from scratch but with some of the discipline I'd lacked in the scramble to get started.
It all made sense at the time. Two years on, I have an underperforming store which recently slumped back down to zRank 4, and needs some love.
There are a host of possible reasons, here are a few in no particular order, just a brain dump:
Not Enough Products
My earlier stores had more products, and if you throw enough stuff at the wall (trying hard not to compare my designs to mud here), some of it will stick. I'm certainly not recommending some of the shameless spamming I've seen on Zazzle (page after page of the same greeting card but with 'To My Uncle', 'To My Sister', 'To My Second Cousin Twice Removed'). Nor am I saying that you *must* have thousands of products, I just think it helps.
Small Repeat Patterns
The stock product images don't make the best adverts for small repeat patterns like these. As an example,check out the pens on this page; you can't see the motif. This can be addressed with a front cover showing a close up.
All Change at Zazzle
Zazzle introduces new features to try and stay ahead of the search engine trends, and boosts the products which follow their advice up the rankings. Video promotion was a recent addition. I'm still lagging behind making the odd static front cover.
All Change Beyond Zazzle
Sales are suffering beyond this one store (see the regular 'no sales' complaints on the Zazzle forum). Luxury spending might be getting squuezed out by economic worries. There's also an inevitable flood of AI designs hitting the marketplace. Leeches making quick designs (and money) from other people's art using AI.
Once through to the Zazzle website, use "Personalize this template" to change the text if desired. Text changes are reflected on both sides where applicable.
