Redirecting hard disabled items to nearest category

You might have noticed that at times when you are looking for an item you will get a page that says ‘Item No Longer Available’. This usually happens when the item you are looking for is no longer available for sale or was disabled by our staff.

Our hard disabled items pass a 404 header response and looks like this.
item not available

We are running a test, to see we see a positive impact on sales by sending visitors to the nearest category. With this test, you will not be seeing the ‘Item No Longer Available’ page. We will redirect you to the nearest category / sub-category.

eg: If we hard disabled an item belonging to the WordPress >> Creative >> Portfolio category. We will redirect users to the WordPress Portfolio subcategory. Please note that we will also redirect the related URLs for that item eg /comments , /support , /faq , /screenshots/ , /full_screen_preview/, etc.

We will also show a warning message to users, telling them why we are redirecting them to the category page.
redirect

Here is a live example : http://themeforest.net/item/garden-multipurpose-wordpress-theme/12139087

FAQ:

Q) Should authors do something for this change?
A) Nope, we handle this internally.

Q) Will all disabled item work this way?
A) Nope, this only happens if your item is hard disabled.

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Good one, but that message should definitely contain a better explanation of possible reasons why it is not available. Ideally with link to author profile so the buyer can send him a PM.

Imagine the buyer who bookmarked an item for later purchase. A major bug will be found in that item so it gets temporarily disabled while author fix it. Meanwhile, buyer wants to finally purchase the item, but he gets this message about item not being available. Lost sale for author.

Please add link to the author, I strongly believe it can help a lot of buyers.

2 Likes

Hi LSVRthemes

Thanks for the feedback. :thumbsup:

I will pass it on to the team and investigate if we can include an option for potential buyers to contact the author.

Entirely agree with LSVRthemes above…

As a buyer who purchased on day 1 only for it to be removed the very next day I really need info on why it was removed and if it is to be re-released.

I have been waiting for ages for the right theme and this is very frustrating. The redirect to category suggestion may help with sales but is not the best answer for those who have already purchased, or intended to.

This now leaves me with two major questions:

  1. Is the theme faulty?
  2. Are there copyright issues (and therefore am I licensed)?

Edit: After a bit more searching I seem to have found some answers here (https://help.market.envato.com/hc/en-us/articles/202500244-The-Item-Has-Been-Removed), however, it would be REALLY useful if the reason is listed, that is all - thanks

1 Like