The Sales Monitor 2

Envato Authors Video Authors
250

Hi Mustafa

Thanks for your patience. Will here…

I am not sure if you have seen the latest on this Category page experiment update & new Category page design for WordPress

The results for these tests are now in. For ThemeForest, GraphicRiver, VideoHive and CodeCanyon the best selling sort filter increased conversion by over 5% on average. On some categories the difference was much larger, for example on ThemeForest, the WordPress category saw conversion increase by over 50% for the best selling sort filter.

As a result of these positive changes, over the next week, the default sort for these markets will be switching to best selling.

I appreciate that this subject is a tough one and from the onset, I personally wish there was more I can do for you.

I understand the recent category change is unwelcome one. I feel the pain of the wider-author community and have been following the threads in the forums around this topic.

Working with many authors, I understand that the way our ecosystem is setup, new items are the quickest way to gain exposure and sales for author items and that by making these changes we are having a negative impact for those authors who are accustomed to this type of workflow.

But in short, these will not be reversed and so authors will need to reframe and adapt to this wider-platform change going forward.

The team have launched a brand new category page design to try and balance the ecosystem to give new authors and new items an opportunity to be seen while also giving trending items and best selling items an opportunity to be presented to customers. This is only in WordPress at the moment but if this is a success then we will look to move this to other marketplaces.

These are challenging decisions, changes and discussions, but are to be expected when selling across a marketplace.

I am sorry this does not give you want you want but hope it affirms things and clarifies your next options as an author with us. I hope to see more of your items with us

Thanks

Will Bishop
Author Support

251

Hopefully we will get a new category page design soon. They did not really say that we will get it shortly after the now running Wordpress-Category-Page experiment is over, could still be months or even years until they have found their recipe of Category Page that they want to introduce on all marketplaces.

Only thing that seems to be sure for now is: no turn back to default sort of newest items first. And I still think simply going back to newest items would be the best decision for the whole marketplace looking at the years to come.

In the meantime, they are enjoying 5% higher conversions. (I do think it would have been wiser to not tell us this number, as 5% does seem extremely low when someone takes into perspective the implications this has on authors without items with big sales.)

I guess they swallow everything as long as the bottom line is correct. And I see higher implications on turnover with the sorting change than I could see with Elements and any other decision in the recent years.
New authors with new items came to this market and enjoyed good exposure and sales for their new released items. If this changes, they will not stay here, at least not exclusively.

Elements, the banner etc were all things that will most probably affect the average author in a few months and years, slowly. This will not start a sudden outbreak of authors leaving.

Not earning anything near the amounts someone was used to here with new files from one day to another, may do.

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Very low sales these days … And I do not know if it’s time to upload a new project now! :thinking:

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Ofc, we don’t know when exactly it will be implemented. But I fully understand why they are doing this - their goal is to have lower overall number of items, but quality ones.

Until this new design isn’t alive I will focus on Elements. (And here is the place where quantity matters)

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I don’t think that is true. It is the job of reviewers to exactly determine what quality and how many items are approved. It would be much easier to let them reject more works than to take away all exposure from new items.

And new high quality items will sell better than new lower quality items (obviously), but with lower exposure comes less sales, so high quality items are just as driven away now as those with average quality.

Overall, sales of new items are down for both high and low quality items. For low quality items this may just mean 0 sales.

Also, another fact contradicting your theory is that the marketplace with the greatest overflow of submissions, audiojungle, is still showing newest items. If they wanted to reduce the number of items, they would do it there as well.

3 Likes
255

Let’s this is part of their goal. Overall goal is rebalance eco-system and it will affect new items in any case even with new design page I guess.

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…if it will be implemented. You all forgot that small detail. If they do not see increase in earnings, they will not implement new category design.

@Creattive I agree with you. I use Elements just as an example. Personally I like that subscription model.
Sorting change is different. It’s absolut death for new items. But as I see only few authors are going to do something with it, others are waiting, hoping and ask for “answers”. They do exactly the same thing when previously they do with Elements “problem”. And as practice shows such actions will not help change a situation.

“Best decision”? Is it a spelling mistake?

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This was very bad wording from me: What I meant was: Going back to newest item would be the best decision when having sustainability in mind.

Sure, some will see if this is really definitive, and if the sales will stay as low or not.
But if people do not earn enough here, they will not stay here.

In the case of elements it just never came to the point of no sales on market anymore (yet), that many people were afraid of. That is why there never was the big outlash. Just the people warning everyone about the day that happens. And maybe one day they will be right.

The sorting change is immediately effective, I can see that drastically in the pageview numbers, and also in the sales of my recently approved items.

If envato will not provide a (monetary) good enough option for authors anymore, they will leave. Either to other marketplaces or just to another job, not selling stock anymore. They will have no other choices if they do not earn enough here.

It is all about the bottom line. For envato and for authors.

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That’s the main case! I like to work here. And I don’t want to see this market dead. And if authors do not show Envato how big their mistake is, there will be no Envato in future.
Ideal variant would be if authors stop upload any items for one month. Or something else, something noticeable. But the problem is that we are not connected.

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259

I like it here, too, but if the marketplace is becoming something that I cannot like anymore as it robs me the basis of what I am here for (earning a living), and it is becoming this willingly and decidedly, then this place is maybe not what it once has been and it is time to move on to other options, that maybe let me relive the good old days.

I’m willing to bet that the whole data shows a big decline in new item sales. Envato sees this, knows this, and is accepting it.

Is it really our job to go on a strike so they acknowledge how bad that decision is? If a strike is needed to show them how unsustainable this decision is right now, then I find it hard to say “I like to work here”.

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260

Perhaps I misunderstood something, but if you go to “WordPress” now, the new design just increased the product window.
Where is the promised attention to new products?
And what is the meaning of this design?

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There is an A/B test going on, only 50% is seeing the new category page. Here is what the new page looks like:

category (1).jpg1000×2798 966 KB

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262

Thank you for the information

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Good news, at least the new category shows 50% of the new items which means encouraging the users to click on “browse new” if they want to check new stuff, the buyers have many options to go through. that makes sense to me.

Thanks for sharing @Creattive :+1:

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I think, it still not good enough. Before this design new items had separate page , now we have to compete with best sellers & trending tab.

If they implementing this design permanently, Overall exposure of new items will not be what it is used to be.

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265

Yes, I think authors should get used to that fact. I doubt we will ever see a page that is clearly, easily accessible that features only new items. Not as long as the same people in envato make the decisions.

Right now it is just about not having new items nowhere at all.

And many authors may say “thank you” in the end, for basically having a quarter of the old category page back…

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266

For sure it’s not like before, there is nothing we can do about that right now, Envato trying to make space for everything, trending items, best sellers and new items. We cannot judge the new category now unless we try it, let’s wait and see, Envato has all the statics, wish if they share it with us

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Right now the Market is very saturated, new item doesn’t stay on first page for more than day. If they implement this design it will further decline page views of new items.

This sorting method afteced my old items as well.

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268

I hope sales will pick up next month

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Worst month (

1 Like