Merchants: Why Your Sales Are Down

We've done a lot of speculating here about whether there's a sales slump, and if so, whether it's caused by the gambling ban, the banking ban, SL instability, or the real world economy.

I want to suggest that it's none of those things. It's your Stuff. Even for those of you who make Good Stuff, mostly it's the Same Old Stuff.

In the real world, merchants are contstantly putting out new products. New clothes for the season, new lines, new styles. Most of y'all don't do enough of that.

The stuff we buy doesn't wear out. You have got to do more to promote planned obsolescence!

I went around to a dozen or so of my favorite stores this past weekend to see what was new. In the majority of cases the answer was, "not much".

There are reasons why someone wouldn't buy all the things they want from you on their first visit...maybe they were limited by funds. Maybe they weren't in the market that day for some of your things. But most of your shoppers are going to get everything they want the first time they see your store. If you want them to return, you have to keep turning over your Stuff.

We pay for your creativity. You can't rest on your laurels...you have to keep creating, or we are going to stop buying.

LL could do more to help out, too...if the world had seasons, it'd be easier for merchants to match that with their fall line, their winter fashions, and so on. Many do, especially for winter...but that leaves all of the Australian players out of sync. SL ought to have its own seasons! (There would be another advantage...if LL changed terrain and vegetation textures to match the seasons, there wouldn't be all that lag-inducing fall leaf litter and snowfalls all over the place.) SL's last "winter" wasn't cold, but there were lots of times my avatar froze.

I didn't buy much this weekend either, but it was because I was too busy fishing at 7Seas. I have roughly 8,000 fishy pets now, including some tiny scuba divers who swim round and round my head.

Oh! I did find some hair I want to marry at Magika though.

There is also the quality of existing pieces. If I buy something that doesn't look as advertised, I don't then spend money on another piece by the same designer.

Perhaps those who complain about flagging sales need to spend more time honing their skills. People look for nice detail on their clothes, prims that end up where they're supposed to and actually match the rest of the piece, nice patterns, edges that match up front to back, seam accents, and pieces that are available in serveral layers.
Slapping a texture on something camisole-shaped just won't cut it

My sales aren't down at all, they have been consistant across the board for the past 3 months.

I've definitely got to agree... the last couple days, I went shopping to find some clothes that I liked, and..well..ended up with some of the same stuff I had on Oki, because it was the best I could find, and the shops didn't have any new outfits, at all. I've gone neko now, and went back to a place I haven't been to in 5 or 6 months, to see if their ears, or anything else were better than all the others I'd found, and absolutely every single item was the same as before. No new additions, not even a change in layout for the stuff. I bought jammies....that's it. (They were cute so I had to XD)

I see plenty of places that have tons of designs, be it furniture, clothes, skins... but everywhere that I've been before seems to just have the same stuff, maybe a couple different things... but that's it.

I think the best experience with 'new' I had was Nomine (Think it was Nomine)... I noticed a bunch of skins labeled 'Windlight' (For the change in graphics did hurt some skins, even though I still don't notice it lol), plenty of new styles, and a ton of variety in general. I don't know when all of it was added, but I do know it wasn't there the last time... and one of my good friends, who is there sorta often noticed that the layout itself was changed, as well, if only a little.

If you want recurring customers, you need to keep your designs coming, in every market it's the same. If you don't keep things coming, there is absolutely no reason to come back.

The only stores I go back to, that I already know don't have new outfits, is for a specific item, or some hair places because I didn't have time to try them all or something. I'm going to be done with your current stock in 2 to 3 visits, almost every time, and then if nothing new is there the next time.. I just won't drop by again.

ETA:: The seasons would help a tad, but there are sims decorated as different seasons anyhow, so it wouldn't help on a large enough scale to really change all that much I don't think.

You have very good points there Lindal...both about the 'new products' and the 'seasons'...

I like the idea of the changing seasons....I think it would be wonderful but I doubt that LL will implement that any time soon...

Regarding new products..... I can only speak for myself, and while I'm not a big player in the SL business or fashion world, I do try to make something new at least once a week....it's not that I think I'm going to make my fortune.....because I know I'm not but I really really enjoy the process....burying myself in Photoshop and trying to come up with something a little different...I've actually learned so much about Photoshop since joining SL, much more I think that if I'd actually gone to RL classes..lol

I'm sure that there are a lot of merchants that try to created new stuff on a regular basis but I agree with you that in a lot of places, the same items are there again and again without anything new being added.

I have to agree, there are some shops out there with very little new products. I kept going back to my favorites but nothing new .....now I have new favorites.

As for the seasons, I come to SL to get away from Canadian winters. I sure as heck don't want to be in snow here.

Very good observation.

I've got in the habit now of checking the new products forum for that very reason.....I love finding new cool stuff....and I often wont go back to the same fave. shops cause I know what they have already......and if I wanted it...I'd have bought it. Occasionally I'll go back because I think of something I do want for a costume or look I'm trying to acheive....but you are very right on about this issue.

I have another thought on this issue too tho....which I think is so often ignored when folks discuss the SL economy. First of all......here in the US.....we're going into a possible recession.... people have to curb their spending across the board to to maintain a lifestyle. SL.....for the vast majority of the residents....is a luxery....it's a source of entertainment....it's not a necessary expense. The money spent in world is, basically, money pissed away. Unless you ARE one of the few who make some kind of income via SL..... you're just not gonna be able to thro cash at pixel goodies when you have to gas up your real vehicle and put food on the table and braces on your kids.

I feel for the people who are relying on SL for an income...because the fact of the matter is.....unless the ENTIRE SL community is making their living in-world.....you just aren't gonna have a sustainable economy because those that are just in it for the luxery....will pull back to accomidate RL. This leaves a huge gap in the spending market and it cannot be reasonably recovered because again, we're not all in SL to make a living. If we were.....it would indeed function just like the real world in that everyone would have to produce and earn and spend in order to sustain.... It just doesn't work like that in SL.....and for me personally...it isn't even worth any angst. It's not 'real' for everyone....therefore it cannot sustain any kind of stable market. The potential does exist to make real $$$ in SL.....but to my way of thinking...it's a very very risky market.

my sales are down from say the end of 2006 ..

But after dropping quite a bit through 2007 they leveled out.

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I am sure my sales are down overall due to a Massive increase in competition that is not offset by a corresponding rise in the number of customers spending money.


I do know some of my competition engages in fairly shady business activities, such as spamming OTHER stores customers with notecards .. including stores that sell the same type product! But I don't think this is as large an impact as the 1st reason.

And of course theres the visibility thing with camp/campbot/trafficbots - but I never played the traffic game at all so I don't think this much of an impact.

Milla - one thing that I think you might have forgotten: it isn't possible for everyone in SL to make their living there. This is because, unlike a real country, SL depends on its relationship with another country's currency to give its own any value - due to the need for tier to be paid in US$. This means that it can't be the case that everyone makes their living in SL; if they did, there would be L$ circulating like crazy in the economy, but no US$ coming in, so nobody would be making tier. (And the Lindens couldn't accept tier in L$ in this case, because they need US$ to pay their real world costs.)

Regarding the new products I think this is a double edged sword in a lot of senses. Certainly I have found that when I put out new products, some people will come back, but the majority won't. This is probably tied to the observed fact that most buyers of L$ are new users - which makes it likely that what's happening is that users are coming in, buying a lump sum of L$ to set themselves up with an avatar and some starting things, and then avoid any more purchases as far as they can. There are some people who buy L$ regularly but the figures suggest they are relatively few.

The other problems are the usual ones, high marketing costs and high quality barriers.

Same here.

I agree with everything Lindal stated. I have noticed that if I get lazy and don't update my items that my sales gradually slow down. I've joked around with friends that my customers know I'm being lazy and don't come back. When I do put new items out, my sales pick up and a lot of it is from repeat customers (including non group members who would not have gotten a notice) who have purchased things in the past...it shows me they do come back and check for new items.

When I'm working on something new I always clear a spot in my store where I am going to put it, and stick an attractive advertisement for the new item with a "coming soon" banner. Right under that I put a sign to join the group for announcements of new items, free gifts and other goodies.

I'm not sure I buy this. I can't possibly be the only shoppaholic around! Just listen to group chat when the asset server goes down to hear the withdrawal symptoms quite clearly articulated.
While I'm certain that there are a fair number of people who buy a few key items and call it even in terms of wardrobe, many many more people simply enjoy going shopping and continue to do so as long as there is good stuff to be found.

High marketing costs? Word of mouth is free and, if your stuff is good, also very plentiful. Its others' recommendations that have brought me to all my favourite shops.

High quality barriers?? I don't even know what that means. Learn Photoshop, take a class, produce high quality.

Like Colette said, there is an awful lot of competition out there from people who are new or just mucking about. It's up to the 'serious' merchant to rise above the crowd by supplying good quality items, accessible stores, and hassle-free service.

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It's probably just my own unrealistic expectations, but there are a few stores I stopped frequenting out of principle:

1) sales: I don't mean to keep anyone from finding bargains but when I pay L$300-600 for something, I really don't want to see it go on "permanent sale" for L$50-100 a few months later. Nothing ruins a favourite outfit for me than seeing ruth newbies wearing it (yes, I'm vain ).
On that note, I really did like PixelDoll's sale where items were reduced in price, but only available in limited quantity (an outfit would go on sale, but after the vendor sold 50 copies, it would be gone).

2) re-releasing "limited edition" items: a few stores rereleased LE items as either a "permanent sale" item or a freebie. I certainly don't mind paying a premium for something I like that's either limited in amount or time, but then the creator should actually honour that.

3) variation on the first (mass sale every 3, 4 or 6 months): there's really no incentive to go buy things as they are released since I know that in a relatively short time I'll be able to buy it all at a fraction of the new price.

Yes, that adds to my philosophy. It cannot be done...therefore it cannot exist as in insular self sustaining economy. It's great for the few that have capitalized on it.....but it just isn't the goal for everyone. Most users have got their priorities stacked IRL and when money is tight...SL is gonna be one of the places where spending is curbed.

I am one of the consumers that creaters love...I love to shop...I buy for fun.....I love to explore...I come up with new ideas and am always looking for unique things to add to my ever expanding inventory. But.... that is only because right now in my life I can afford the luxery of spending time & money in SL. That is subject to change without notice...in fact it WILL change when I relocate IRL. I will not be able to goof off in SL the way I have been.....and it will likely take some time before my life re-settles to the point where I can justify SL again. So..... case in point. I add to the economy only because I 'can' at the moment..... when I have to walk away...oh well. It isn't hurting me any.... but there's probably a LOT of folks running around in SL like me.....who are just simply gonna cease to exist as consumers in world when RL demands their full attention.

You cannot really adjust a market for that kind of reality. Nor can you predict it. When I log off SL.... I am not the least worried about it's economy or my contribution to it. It's just a luxery.... it can be eliminated if need be. (not that I want to of course lol)

You're not. I tend to watch the fashion blogs for items I like...although, if every other one is showing the same outfit in a given week, I'm probably not going to rush out to buy it.

I think this is a statistics problem - there are many people who just buy a few items then leave it, but they are less visible than the shopaholics. (In reality, the vast majority of people never buy any L$ at all!) But it could be that my mileage is different there because I don't sell clothes/accessories and I know they are the most popular items.



What I mean by high marketing costs and quality barriers is that it's much easier to develop word of mouth, and skill, in a single limited area of products than it is to spread out. Part of the problem with the many different sizes of business on SL is that if you make products A, B, C, D and E, you are not just in competition with other businesses making A, B, C, D and E; you are also in competition with the combination of businesses who make nothing but A, businesses who make nothing but B, businesses who make nothing but C, etc. and because they devote themselves entirely to one product, can spend more time marketing it and refining it.

I think there are other barriers too...
Shops in laggy sims, shops who cram so many aisles in that you have a hard time camming around. I like to shop with friends, there are some shops three of us can't stand and look together. Shops that you use search for and the tp puts you at a central spot in the mall.....I don't want to be searching for the shop, I already used the search lol.

That's actually a technical limitation - usually the whole mall needs to be a single land parcel to allow uneven prim distribution; but since it's only one land parcel it can only have one landing point.

Why does it need a landing point at all? Allow landmarks to be made, without a landing point, and problem solved.

I agree that the same old, same old is not going to garnish many vendors a tremendous amount of sales-dollars. But there's another problem I notice that prevents considerable sales for some vendors: the merchandising of their products.

Here's a good way of doing it, i think: A China-themed site I frequent has all their stuff for sale in nice, neat, large "gazebos." Each gazebo holds a particular category of merchandise. Prices are not shown on anything; thus, ugly "sale" signs are not posted everywhere like a demented Wal-Mart. Instead, you simply click on an item to see its price. This setup sounds simple, but almost no other vendor does it this way (at least not that I've seen). The "no sale sign" method makes the store appear a thousand times more attractive and "clean" for the shopper.

More importantly, everything is easy to find. I can't tell you the number of times I've searched for an item through SL, found a vendor, TPed to the vendor, and not only could I not see the item for sale, the vendor did not have a "map" or other device available to help me out. At this point in SL, I waste almost no time searching for stuff at vendors.

A successful SL or Real Life retail business requires quality merchandise (lots of detail, realism), fair pricing (I'll pay a lot more for quality merchandise), a clean, neat, and organized store, a store devoid of countless signs at every turn, and again, new stuff that grabs our attention. The store must also provide complete product information that simply tells us what we need to know--whether we are a newbie or an SL veteran. Please take the time to proof your information text--it looks so bad when its full of misspellings or fragmented sentences.

Really? Wouldn't it be like a residential parcel? I can set up tp to several points on my land. Or is it the search that makes it one central tp destination?

You can't put landmarks in Search, though.

Another possible reason that's just been suggested to me by a colleague (and this may not be reasonable!) is competition from unviable businesses. The argument goes that because the initial investments in SL are so low, you don't generally need to present a business plan to anyone to get started and thus a broken business can start up. Now you would think that this would not be a problem, the broken business will just fail, but it isn't as simple as that. For example, imagine that a supermarket opened which gave away food for free. It didn't use any clever business tricks to be able to do that, it just gave it away for free and lost the money. Of course it would go out of business very quickly - but what would happen to the other supermarkets in the meantime? And how about if it was run by an (eccentric) multi-millionaire and could stay open and losing money for 2 or 3 years? (SL businesses aren't run by eccentric multimillionaires but you don't need to be a multimillionaire to keep an unviable business alive in SL, since it can cost as little as US$75/month!)

You can set as many LANDMARKS as you want. However, if a single parcel of land is set to only be able to be teleported to a landing point, only one can be used, and all non-owners will have landmarks lead there.

I'm curious, do most shop owners actively look through the list of who shops at their store? Can you tell who your regulars are? Wouldn't that be difficult if you have many customers?

If they do, I can't help but wonder what one owner must think of me. I think I've bought one of everything at her store. I've even mentioned who my alt is because of a mix up. I keep going back hoping to see new stuff, (I hope she doesn't think I'm some kind of stalker )