Try Before Buy

Allow users to preview outfits or attachments such as hair before buying...

THANK YOU JESSE!

I myself would just as soon have a mannequin that I could temporarily drop my av into to see how something would look, but this would be ok too. The two ideas would probably be of similar difficulty from a "temporary ownership" standpoint, but mannequins could allow for scripted NPC avs, which I'd like.

neko

You could do this now if the vendor rezzed a copy that's set to be temporary on rez.. so it would disappear after 80 secs or so. That might not be enough time I don't know. If not you could rez a copy with a timer in it to self destruct after x seconds. Unless I'm missing something??

I don't think clothing can be temp-on-rez... can it?

neko

This works if it is just an attachment.. but if you are trying to sell a t-shirt, since it is not really an object, but a glorified texture, you can't script it to detach its self and die since there is nothing to script.

No idea how you can do it, but if you can do it then I'm all for it, because I sure as hell wouldn't have bought half the crap I've bought on the strength of the advertising or picture because they have, quite literally, been crap.

It's amazing how good people manage to make really really poor quality stuff look in a picture!

HOT DAMN!

Yus please. My main problem at the moment is that the model on the box often looks different proportions than me (apparently I have an oddly-shaped head), so stuff -- especially HAIR -- doesn't look good when I actually buy it and put it on. I'll give a very quick example... I'm a big fan of Lost Thereian's hair and am wearing a particular style now, but there are some styles of his which just didn't work out well for me, nevermind the fact that base hair recoloring is currently a pain with the Appearance sliders that don't allow you to darken it (to a deeper shade of green or pink, in my case). ARGHHH!!!

So I had to look at the box and buy and there are some do's I will likely never wear for this reason -- I mean, I enjoy supporting such a great artist and it's no biggie for me, but I would rather have something I can use, and it'd help in any case. (No need to IM me about this Lost!)

Rent-o-matics in There worked fab, I feel. Very simple, you get the idea for a few hours, have fun, go to a masquerade ball, whateva -- then *poof*.

It's intuitive and it makes sense, and to not do it would be counterproductive in a world where we can fly unassisted.

From Cory's town hall:

Laura Ingersoll: You guys at LL don't *really* find "try-before-buy" an important feature possibility, do you? I mean honestly.

Cory Linden: actually, that's been a major internal discussion for the last few days.
Cory Linden: If it were easy, we'd have done it already, so now we're trying to figure out how to add it without adding a bunch of bugs.
Cory Linden: but the fact that it is near the top of the vote page has everyone talking about it. We didn't realize how important it was to you.

Thanks, Kex, for posting the town hall transcript

neko

The thing that gets me about this feature is that it's quite possible to do this in the worl right now. Not perfect, but it works: just create a "demo" version of your article of clothing. Paste the word DEMO all over it in conspicuous places. If it's an attachment, spew particles saying "DEMO" (or just script it to die after a certain trial period is up). The point is, no one's going to want to actually keep and use this thing if it clearly was just a demo piece. Buy the real thing and you get one without "DMEO" all over it.

If more people used this technique, buyers would be happier (I think? Is this an acceptable method?) and then LL would be able to spend more time on things that don't have any kind of workaround or alternative method available.

That would kinda ruin the point of try before you buy...can't see the outfit if its covered in the word DEMO

Wouldn't the easiest way be to allow textures you do not own to be dragged into the appearance window, but to be removed when you left it ?

This would seem to keep them isolated into a special situation, and make it easier to remove them. On leaving "appearance" all textures are checked for permissions, and those without them go blank.

I know it would only meet part of the need because you couldn't watch yourself walk about, and you are standing in a slightly silly posture, but you can look from every direction.

Better than nothing, and easy to do, perhaps ?

I do that with my 5k skins, but am I going to do it for a $100 shirt? Not a chance. For those of us that prefer to sell from boxes rather than vendors it would mean having to use scripts or doubling the number of prims for display boxes. I have around 400 items for sale. It's just not gonna happen. If they can figure out a way to do try before you buy I'll rejoice.

Hmmm.. on reflection my suggestion helps a bit, but it isn't easy is it? You can currently only drag textures anywhere from inventory, and you cant have these things in inventory unless they're yours. It would mean having things in your inventory with a "no use" property. Draggable to appearances, but nowhere else.

Might be as easy to make a "5 mins and die" property. Damn difficult and maybe far too big a job to consider. Lets hope they can solve it.

How about this:

A new inventory type, it renders in it's own subwindow. Much like the animation & texture preview windows. We will call it a "Sales Wrapper".

Mockup Image

<name> = Name of this item (this is an inventory object all to itself)
<owner> = Where the money goes (it can be a group)
<price> = price of everything

Definition:
Purchased. When the "Buy..." button is pressed and the price is payed.

The attachment edit box (not shown) would be a standard edit box. Only an owner with the base permission Modify, could effect permanent changes to the objects (via scaling, inventory changes, etc). If the owner does not have the modify permission changes would not be permanent. An owner on closing the box, would be asked (if they made changes) if they wanted to save any changes.

Permissions: (accessed via the properties button)

1. Modify: When set this allows the owner of this item to modify it and become the recipient of funds from it.
   
2. Copy: This would allow the owner to copy this item. (inherited)
   
3. Transfer: This would allow the owner to give this item or a copy (with the copy permission) to another agent. (inherited)
   
4. Allow Anyone To Copy: This would allow anyone to take a copy of this asset (base permissions permitting of course). They would still have to buy the item to get at it's inventory.
   

Advantages:
With "Allow Anyone To Copy" permission a product can easily be distributed while staying secure. It can be given away and generate revenue.
If the wrapper is "No Copy" then on purchase, it self destructs.
When a wrapper is purchased the inventory goes into a folder of the name of the wrapper. This folder is placed in the folder that the wrapper was currently in. If it is coming in from an inventory transfer this new folder would appear in as a second level folder in "Inventory".

Preview modes:

1. Avatar: This would allow for the objects to be attached and previewed. The base av for this would be the owners av. The avatars animation could be synced with the owner. Animations could also be previewed in this mode.
   
2. Object: (not shown) This would show the selected object from the inventory individually.
   
3. Image: (not shown) Shows image (overlayed with annoying image to deter piracy)
   
4. Notecard: (not shown) Shows notecard text
   
5. Sound: (not shown) Nice graph, start, stop and pause buttons.
   

Senario:

1. Say I'm a noob, and I have no money. I see this hot item I just have to have (an avatar, a skin, a car, etc). Since I have no money I can't afford it. The vender gives me a copy of it in a "Sales Wrapper". Now three weeks later when I finaly get the money for it, I just look for the "Sales Wrapper" in my inventory and purchase it then.
   
2. Say I'm a new mall owner. My mall has no content. I setup a batch of venders that give out wrappers on request. These could be wrappers I've aquired from other malls. Instant content.
   

Problems:
Spam: Venders will spam people with wrappers.
Solution: Transfering a copy of wrapper costs 1$L. That is, when giving a wrapper from one to a person, when the wrapper does not cease to exist in the inventory of what is giving the wrapper, a 1$L fee will be incured. (or maybe the fee should be 10$) This fee would charged to the owner giving the wrapper. Any object that is to be giving wrappers would need the PERMISSION_DEBIT. This money could be in turn given away on a weekly basis as a free raffle.

well you can have a test set of clothing that has test wrote all over it so ppl cant just take it like the test skins that have demo on it

Strifes idea was how I was imaging this would work. Treating them like a special version of normal objects would probably be messy and leave some potential for abuse. It should be much more intergrated like he suggests, a special mix of the appearance and animation preview windows to keep things nice and tidy and more importantly out of the regular inventory system.

they have had try before you buy in There for about a year or so. I am sure is There can do it, Second Life can do it too.

This can be implemented by the merchants if they so choose right now leave up it to the merchants to deside how they want to run there businesses.

I like this option, but why not use something like the new DVD rental systems.

IE

Allow you ( the creator ) to set an expiry date for an object (be it object, skin, clothes, script etc)

Then as soon as the expiry date is reached the object either returns to the creator or kills itself ( possibly they could be a checkbox options )
To limit database searches for expired objects the expiry date would only be enforced when the object is "touched" - either examined, attempted to rez etc.

This would therefore mean that you could set up demo boxes whose contents expire after 1day - for example - so people can try stuff out on there different avatars and see if they like it - then either delete it - let it delete itself - or buy the complete version.
Also to make life easier for vendors another checkbox / option would be to have an expiry date activation option ( eg When leaving its owner- a box , Absolute from creation time ).

Lastly to prevent devious vendors setting expiry dates to a month or so ( so that it dissapears from a buyers inv after a month ) you should see a warning when taking an object that has an expiry date, and objects with expiry dates should not be allowed to have "for sale" attributes.

Absolutely final point - only the creator should be allowed to change the expiry date, to prevent people taking a modifiable object - changing it - resetting the expiry date and selling the object on. ( Probably not strictly necessary - but we all sometimes set the permissions wrong allowng people to make lindon out of our hard work).

Well thats my idea anyway
(apologies if it has alreday been mentioned here - but i didnt read thru ALL of the discussion threads)

for clothing, wouldnt it be pretty simple to just make a right click option, something like 'preview,' and have it open up that same window you see before you upload a texture? (the one with the drop down window "display as..."

for example: someone could see a shirt they wanted in a vendor, right click, open the 'content' tab, find the appropriate article of clothing, right click and select 'preview' they would see a generic body shape wearing that shirt...

or maybe even their current "body" shape? It seems like it wouldnt be that hard, but i'm no programmer

[edited for clarity... omfg.]

I was in another 3D world...we had the option to try for 2 mintues before you buy something. This was a great feature. I can't count the times I have purchased hair and clothes only to delete them as they were not made well. I have wasted countless time and money buying things that just did not look right or were poorly made. PLEASE pass this feature as it is a good one

Instead of using a timer what about letting the clothes stay on as long as you are in the shop. If you leave you go back to what you were wearing before you tried things on.

New Option.

Temp on attach.

Can only be attached/worn for 1 min. then never again...

whats the latest on this?

for the record, i would love to see this feature implemented. being able to see an item only in a vendor image is limiting. it would be wonderful to give customers the ability to confirm if an item is right for them before they spend thier money on it.

perhaps it could force them into appearance mode, and display the items available in the vendors in their respective layers. it would be extra cool if mod permissions would still apply, so for the duration of the demo the usual slider options would be available as well. once they exit the appearance menu, they revert back to the clothing they had on.
just an idea.

Try before you buy is very valuable, but I don't know that it should be something done by LL. You want to buy a sex animation and LL has try-before-you-buy for 5 minutes, so you just try it for free, get on with it, and leave without paying for the product. That's no good.

This is a problem for sellers like me to solve. Yes, it's more work, but it means we can control how we do it. I see the future is one where most successful vendors will offer free demos. There's nothing outside this realm, I think. A skin can have "Demo" plastered all over it. A plane can stop running after 10 minutes. A pose can keep squaking "This is a demo version" and make you do a chicken dance every 10 seconds

Yes, it's work, but this is about money. People will take their money to whomever provides the best services

SL rocks! You all rock!

-Lavanya Hartnell