Novo Case Shop review for Zakeke ‑ Customizer 2D 3D
Sept. 22, 2019
Its been a few months since we started using Zakeke and we feel like this review deserves a revision. We have a love-hate relationship with this app, i gotta tell you, this app is very technical (at least for our purpose). If you are a web-developer working for a client (store owner) then be prepared for a challenge! Please don't panic, we still rated this app 5 stars even with all our complains. Lol. First of all, if you have zero "computer" skills and you have no idea how to use Photoshop and you need to search online what is a .OBJ file, please do yourself a favor and stop reading - this review is not meant for you. Hire a web developer and ask him to read this review on your behalf. Ill continue assuming you will understand what ill describe ahead. Zakeke is an intermediary interface designed to allow direct customer interaction (for the purpose of aesthetic modification) before sending a product to the cart. Zakeke will not draw the product from your store inventory, so instead the product have to be created in Zakeke then placed on inventory for your customers to select and customize. Zakeke will automatically embed a "customize" button on your product.liquid so your customers will see the option to customize the product on the product page before sending the product to their cart. When a customer click on the customize button Zakeke will load your presets for that product and take the customer to the customization interface from where they can customize the product and send it to the cart. Sounds good, right? Well... here comes the "challenge" part. The easy way to work with Zakeke is drawing products from CustomCat and/or Printful. Don't worry, there is an option on the Zakeke dashboard to help you do that. Pretty easy - really. But lets say you want to add a product manually, lets say a product not available on CustomCat or Printful, perhaps a product you can source yourself? Well, you will need to take your own pictures > create mask layers on .PNG > then "build" your product on Zakeke. This process has to be done by an expert (on photo editing) otherwise you will end up with a bad looking product on store display or with a mismatch on your product-mask for the customization interface. Zakeke will take and display .OBJ files for mesh rendering but does not includes a 3D editor. You need those files including your textures before using its 3D function. Zakeke does not includes pre-rendered objects or textures. This app has a learning curve and i believe they could have done a better job assembling the UI, however patience can be rewarding with this app. I gotta say this app is pretty unique on Shopify and will open a door of possibilities that your customers will certainly appreciate. Just plan ahead, learn how Zakeke works and take your time asking question to support - they always answer, and that's great because the app does not need to be perfect, it need to be functional and they will help you along the way. I strongly recommend Zakeke and this is my honest review after many months of trial and error. If you would like to see Zakeke in action you are welcome to visit our shop www.novocaseshop.com and try it for yourself. Cheers. --- First review: 3 Stars Just downloaded and installed... and im so confused. This app has a steep learning curve. What is a "side"? I dont know - the app does not explain. How to use 3D models? I dont even know if my plan has those because i dont see the option. Im confused and annoyed. My experience so far is not what i read on reviews :/ There is a video tutorial section - that i must admit is very helpful, but be prepared to spend some time there. Im taking down two stars from my review. Initial impression is not good. UI need a serious overhaul to make this app more user friendly. I will update my review as my experience progress.
