The "Most Popular Patterns" list is incorrect

Hi Alexander, could you please update the list? It doesn't match the current sales figures.
Thank you :-)

Hi Johanna, do you mean this list? https://www.crazypatterns.net/de/bestseller

Yes, that’s exactly the one

When I was showing a friend some items yesterday that I particularly like, I noticed, for example, that the crocheted owl bag isn’t at the top of the list, even though it has far more sales than others on the first page.

Hi Johanna,

I don’t know how I could thank you enough. There actually was a small error in it. It shows the most popular patterns of the month, i.e. the patterns that have been purchased the most over the last month.

Best regards
Alexander

I just saw it—great, the others will be pleased too :-)

Now you just need to fix the error on the homepage; it says “newest,” but the newest ones aren’t shown there

Best regards, Johanna

Do you mean patterns that have sold more than 5 times?

I guess so—it says “newest,” but these aren’t the newest patterns

Oh, I got that mixed up. No, I mean the homepage—it says “Latest Patterns,” but they’re not actually the most recent ones. Today, for example, NI.Ko uploaded some patterns that don’t appear there under “Latest Patterns.” Neither do mine, for that matter :-)

They are the newest among those that have sold more than five times. Nevertheless, “Newest Patterns” is incorrect and misleading and really needs to be changed.

There is still no usable alternative. Probably not all new patterns will ever be displayed on the homepage. So a new label should be considered. Or we could let people book the spots on the homepage for symbolic amounts. However, I personally don't think this idea is very good. The list should be democratic / not commercial, but also earned. The best of the new.

Hi Alexander, you said it yourself :-) “The best of the new.” What more is there to say?

I don’t understand the logic. You’re supposed to earn a spot on the homepage through sales. And I thought the homepage was meant to drive sales. So those who haven’t been here very long—and therefore haven’t managed to generate as many sales “on their own”—don’t stand a chance of making it to the homepage. Sorry, but this is 1. very clearly commercial (make sure you’re selling, and then we’ll promote you on the homepage so that you—who’s already selling on your own—can get even more sales) and 2. anything but democratic. Sellers who are already successful have many regular customers, end up on the homepage faster and more often, and become even more successful. Everyone else is left out in the cold.

But what am I saying (writing)? All of this has been brought up so many times before, and nothing has changed. And I probably won’t get a response now either, since criticism is ignored in the vast majority of cases anyway.

I also think it would be better if the “Newest Patterns” section actually featured the newest ones—perhaps even broken down by category (crochet, knitting, sewing, etc.)
I understand that as the number of sellers increases, you quickly disappear from this homepage—but it would still be better than applying an additional filter (sales > x).

Hi MOsMaschen,

we still haven’t found a compromise or an acceptable solution. We’ve read and taken note of your suggestions, but we won’t necessarily implement them. The main page is used (almost everywhere) to showcase the best products, and we don’t want to deviate from that. Please accept that as well. We’d love to hear more suggestions.

Best regards
Alexander

Hi Alexander,

I can accept that, but then please don’t claim that the list on the homepage is supposed to be democratic and non-commercial. Under the conditions you’ve set, that’s simply impossible. And if the headline is incorrect and misleading, perhaps it would be better not to have a headline at all.
I won’t be able to tell whether my comments are being taken into account until I read some feedback. Until then, I have to assume they’re being ignored.
Even things that were supposedly going to be implemented haven’t been. I still have reviews on products that haven’t sold. So it seems that even positive feedback doesn’t necessarily lead to changes. I’ll draw my own conclusions from this.

How about making sure the “Newest Patterns” on the homepage are actually the newest ones—as many sellers have already requested—but adding an extra button for that (is that what you call a button? Please excuse me if I’m using the wrong terms—I’m not very familiar with this), right next to “Pattern Recommendations” and “Shop Introduction,” and then call it “Best of New” or something similar, and use the current homepage layout for it—meaning all the new patterns that have already sold more than 5 times and are worth special mention.
  Personally, I’d also like it if all the latest patterns simply appeared chronologically on the homepage, so that everyone—including new sellers and those who don’t sell much—would have a chance to be featured there. And if you happen to catch a bad time when a lot of new patterns are being uploaded, well, that’s just bad luck.
Just because it’s handled differently almost everywhere else doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the best solution. We could also stand out from the crowd and do things differently :-)
And if you’re running out of space, I don’t think the shop introduction is absolutely necessary. I have no idea if the others feel the same way.  
 

BeritsLadl: Great suggestion—I totally agree with you.
It’s really hard to get sales going when items only appear in the categories and get pushed to the back there, and otherwise have no chance of showing up on the main page and are hardly ever promoted on Facebook.
How are we supposed to stand out?
And it’s certainly also in the best interest of crazypatterns if everyone has the chance to generate more sales—more commission—and more repeat customers—regular sales.
Shop Spotlight: Who gets featured there, and based on what criteria?

Let me quote (from the help page “Selling Patterns”, section “Your Benefits at a Glance”, point eight):

“You don’t need to worry about promoting your products — Crazypatterns takes care of that for you, too. Our extensive promotional efforts ensure good sales and many pattern sales.”

This sentence urgently needs to be adapted to reality: Once you’ve managed to generate plenty of sales by your own efforts, you no longer need to worry about promoting your sales — then Crazypatterns takes that task off your hands. Our extensive promotional efforts ensure even better sales and even more pattern sales. You have to make the initial breakthrough yourself; once success is there, we make sure it becomes even greater.

Sorry, this may sound cynical, but it had to be said. Nothing will change anyway.

What confuses me here is that when I click on “All Patterns,” the homepage also appears. It’s only at the very bottom of that page that I can access all the patterns.
I think the homepage with the “currently popular products” is fine.
What I see as a major problem here is that the products just keep sliding further and further down the list without any chance of reappearing at the top. This is certainly handled better on other platforms. There, I reappear at the top after a sale, though without the “New” label.

Another point for me is the large section on the homepage dedicated to free products. People specifically looking for free patterns would be able to find a small button too :). Then you could use that space (if technically possible) to showcase new products, for example, with a sort of carousel.

Right now, there are only about 70 shops listed (when I joined in mid-February, there were about 60). The site is becoming more and more well-known, and when I think about how many shops there could be, something really needs to happen with the site. Otherwise, the “old-timers” who got this site off the ground are really at a disadvantage. After all, crazypatterns can’t possibly provide that much promotion for each individual shop anymore.

My suggestion:

Home page: Show the latest patterns without a ranking, so that even frequent shoppers can see what’s actually been added. Otherwise, they might leave because they’re already familiar with everything on the site. That’s definitely what I’d do.

The “Shop Presentations” button could now be renamed “Best of New”; that’s where what is currently on the homepage could then appear.

That way, everyone would be happy—both customers and sellers—at least as far as this point is concerned ;-)

Hello, dear sellers,

The section on the homepage has been renamed to “Best of What’s New.” A general update is underway, but you’ll need to be patient. I estimate it will take a few months before anything changes there, since it’s not a high priority.

I wish you all a wonderful Sunday and lots of creative ideas for new projects!

Best regards
Alexander