Zibbet relaunch has been a not pleasant surprise
I have had a free zibbet.com account since October 2013. At some point it even seemed that zibbet could become a good alternative to etsy.com and I seriously considered to go premium after my first sale. Today I received a mail on zibbet relaunch and of course I was very eager to check out the new version. It turned out to be a major disappointment. Starting with the looks of the site.
The first thing which struck me was picture quality. Just compare these two pictures: the one on the left is from the new zibbet shop, the one on the right – from etsy.com.
There was exactly the same picture uploaded to both shops and both pics are shown in the comparable size here.
The zibbet photo looks (as described by other zibbet sellers) “grainy” and “pixelated”. Everyone who has ever tried photo editing will tell you that the “grainy” effect comes from increasing the image resolution beyond its original pixels. This is why upsizing of the resolution must be done very carefully. Zibbet just did it – automatically – in one go – for everyone.
There was more unpleasant surprise. Most of the functions under my free account version were just gone. This is the new shop settings page- looks pretty basic without much choice left:
Many free available options were gone
Proceeding to the item management I discovered that many – previously free available – options need an upgrade to unlock. The free account has been stripped pretty much of everything:
1. number of images reduced from 4 to 1
2. number of free items reduced from 50 to 10
3. no shop stats are shown
In order to get access to these previously free features a Starter package of 4$ a month must be chosen. The “real” premium account now costs 96$ a year (on annual basis) or 120$ (on a monthly basis). And it is not possible for a Seller to pay the subscription using PayPal. Though the revenue from sales comes mainly onto a PayPal account, you still need a Credit or a Debit Card to pay the cost of running your shop. Does not make much economical sense.
Another feature which is advertised as an “improvement” is the possibility to meet the Seller. That means that my real name is now made public and there is no way to block it. To me it looks more as violation of my privacy.
There are more issues. The font which gives serious eye strain. I found no way to upload a new banner (the old one is completely misshapen) nor my shop policies. Probably need to upgrade to unlock those as well. Loading pages takes ages. The link to the community was gone. These could be start-up hiccups…let’s hope that they are probably going to be fixed by the admins. However the main issue remains: you get much less for more money.
According to posts on etsy and zibbet forums quite a few sellers have closed their zibbet account following zibbet relaunch or are going to do it. I will probably do the same. Not a single sale in 9 months – I am not going to miss zibbet.com. If love is without joy, separation will be without sorrow … (I will probably miss my fellow zibbeters but there will be other ways to stay in touch).
Heather Leavers
oh wow – the difference between your photos is staggering. There is not as much luster in the zibbet version, it is nowhere near as appealing. My free-for-life premium shop has been empty for ages, doesn’t look as if I shall need to rush to fill it!
Eva Tetsman
Heather, I wonder what will happen to a free-for-life premium subscription after the rebuild? Will it be automatically continued as a … what.. premium? starter? Actually I lose nothing, but maybe other folks do?
Heather Leavers
I’ve just reactivated a couple of items, my shop is still badged as premium. I also don’t appear to have the bottom row of “other items you might like from random competitors” so maybe my shop is still as it was. however, 0% commission on 0 is still 0!
Angela Hobbs
Very good read, I so agree!
I will also be writing an article on my blog and website about this, to the fullest extent!
I want to invite anyone who is distraught, frustrated, or simply over it, to join my newest community http://zazzle-stars.com
Here we promote, and discuss all store platforms, not just Zazzle, and it is an awesome ground full of features to use to promote ALL your shop and store platforms. I am a webmaster, and I partially build websites as a living, as well as for fun, and this one was built mostly to bring all kinds of shop owners and artists together. Unlike the Zibbet community which sits on another greedy platform (NING) you will find everything you need at Zazzle Stars, to promote your posts etc, on auto pilot, and all from one place.
Please join, I would love to have you!