Merchants: Why Your Sales Are Down

1) Peeves me off no end. I completely stopped buying from a favorite of mine when all the clothes I paid full price for went on sale permenently at $L100 in her outlet store.

Gosh, sounds like a lot of people are saying "If you're not making sales, it's because you're stuff is crap, you're giving away too many freebies, you're not giving away too many freebies, you're having sales, you're not having sales, the economy is bad, the economy is great". I do have some stuff on sale in my shop, but most of it, originally, was only 125L at Max, and it's not worth that, in my opinion..it's my newbie designer stuff.

The one fact that everyone is overlooking is it is as hard as HECK to "break into" the fashion world. I know I'm not offering "crap" (can't say I'm selling anything these days really). I'm sending things to bloggers, I'm giving away free stuff with LM's. I joined Fashcon to increase word of mouth

I think it's a combo of things, and I'm trying hard not to let it beat me down. It gets discouraging though, day after day not making sales. The market is flooded for clothing, I think, and everyone and his aunty agness has a prim skirt builder. I"m trying to find a way to make my things stand out, and thanks to some help in this forum, I found some suggestions I could use. [/size]

As many have said, there is no clear cut answer as to why, but if you go back through this thread, and tally the reasons, for every vote against an 'action' by a designer, there is an equal vote for it

so, I have a solution. Just come shop in my store! Something for everyone

ha

Even for doggies?

This seems to mostly about fashion, which is hard for people to break into anyway, it seems. I do have human alts - there are so many nice free clothes available that I've had to spent next to nothing to make them look good. I imagine lots of new folks and alts are doing the same thing.

As far as non-fashion things go, there was that thread this morning asking where to get works by Starax, who has been gone from SL for years now (though reborn as Light Waves). Some things never go out of style. There are always new people coming in for whom your old items look brand new. Quality counts.

[/size]

you are not alone
I was talking to a well known hair designer and she said that even her traffic is down, which floored me, as I would not have expected it

I also have found things are slumping, and I do try to get out new stuff as often as I can
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the subscribe o matic system....
I give an exclusive color of the newly released item to the members of my list each time I release something, that only they get, it will remain available for a limited time then poof gone...
I dunno if via word of mouth or what, but the subscriber list has increased lately (which is a good thing to me hehe)
and that list is easily tripled or more the amount of members as to what my in game SL group had.

I love being able to show folks what I have to offer, without the crap of the SL groups.. (I so wish more stores used the subscribe o matic) If you are a designer and have a store, (heck even clubs and such could use this) I invite you over to my store to grab yourself a trial copy so you can try it out and see how this thing works.

I am stumped as to why the slump in sales, it is probably a mix of all the things mentioned, although I do not think my stuff is crap, so don't think that adds to my slump

I used to do photosourcing for outfits, but now I have decided to do things completely by hand, to give that little edge I might need... (here's hoping)

As an affiliate, I'm dependent on the designers I carry to update their lines. Some are good about it, some are not. But I always try to pick up the new stuff as it comes out and money permits.

My biggest reason for drop in sales was moving the shops to my own sim and losing the foot traffic my former location enjoyed.

Honeybear, you're not missing anything, the sim where you were is d-e-a-d- dead. Foot traffic? HA haha.. where?!?!?


and by Honeybear, I mean Ms. Lilliehook who posted above me, I'm not using a tearm of endearment to the whole readerbase of the forum hah

Sure, Puppet, even doggies! What you need? I can try my hand at collars. I'm sure some nice doggie costumes, are you the quadrapedal dog, or the more common bi-pedal Slmammle? Tell me what you want, and promise to buy it, and I'll design it within reason of course...I don't do prim nasty-bits or anything involving blood

I paid the money for it, set it up in my shop, and after a week, I have 3 subscribers......

Me...

My partner....

and one very wonderful customer who joined it yesterday.

In order for it to be successful, people need to subscribe to it.

Trying to stay encouraged.

wow within a few hours I had at least 15 subscribers... strange

I love using it as a retailer and as a consumer...

Me thinks time to visit your store and see what you have (and yep click that sign)

and yes I pay for mine too, tried the trial, and immediately wanted it

I did find not being able to see what the different kiosks looked like before rezzing them was annoying, so I created a composite of the kiosks along with the prim count, sent it to them, they said they would add it to the trial pack. I checked last night and it is still not in the package.

anywho if anyone uses subscribe o matic and wants the texture I made, just send me an im (or pm in here) and I will drop it on you
(comes in very handy)

edited to add....

danielle, I finally found your store... maybe put a direct link in your sig here for those of us who like the one click dealie thing. (I followed your link to the blog, then from the blog I had to use your name in world do a search, check picks to find your store) I was thinking the blog would be quick LOL but did not see any slurls there either...

just a suggestion to maybe get some quick forum traffic over there

edited to add again... I have been to your store before, heh I remember it now, much nicer with the things not blocking the middle of the floor...

cool!

editing again LOL

Danielle I can not find the subscribe o matic sign to subscribe.... did you remove it?

I find this thread very interesting. I started my business just after Christmas, rather by accident! Not being able to find the style of bags and hats that I wanted I started making them myself. Friends liked them and there were a few 'you should open a shop' comments. At the time I had a freebie shop so I opened a tiny little hat and bag shop opposite. Then people wanted shoes. How hard could it be I thought?
Now I have an update group who get a brand new group only freeb every week, I have regular limited edition giveaways, I run hunts, I have competitions, I have 2 lucky chairs and I send stuff to FreeStyle and Fabulously Free. I post weekly to FashCon and I am very accessible to my customers. I have no alts, so I am often around and about in SL as me, and I frequently bump into my customers and group members because I enjoy shopping and bargain hunting as much as they do. My business is thriving, and I bring out at least one new product every week. On top of this I work full time in RL, and have a husband (who is also my SL partner) teenage children, 3 dogs and 2 chickens!
My point is that you have to LOVE what you do in SL, because otherwise there's no point. It will rarely make you a fortune - I am impressed beyond words with what Sarah and Desmond have achieved, but all I aim for is a sufficient profit to cover my membership and tier and allow me some play money.
Oh, a little voice has just reminded me that we also have a guinea pig!
If I had to offer advice to other store owners it would be, don't put freebie stuff in your lucky chairs and do reward loyalty with special goodies. It's not that hard to make a bag or pair of shoes or frock or sofa even! in a special group only colour or finish.
Good luck to all of you, and remember that you are a big part of why people stay in SL.

We need more new features, things like sculpties, flexiprims etc, damn if cars worked they could become fashionable, if we had less lag, combat games might entice more spending gamers to SL too. Some combat orientated viewers perhaps might be good. 1.8million players in World of Warcraft spending $20 per month on it and getting bored of it and SL doesn't want a piece of the action?
Yeah, we break some old content bringing in new, but who wants to wear stuff made in 2004 anyway?
If SL is to truely become a global platform, we can't limit ourselves to camping, landbaroning, skirt, hair and boot sales.......

my sales are not down and have tqlked to several other who are accually improving so i have no clue as to what your talking about

I just finished my best sales month in over a year.

So it's a complicated issue with lots of contributing factors. I've added new items recently that aren't readily available elsewhere, I've increased my advertising, and I've worked very hard at optimizing my search results.

Just yesterday I went looking for shoes and was surprised that some of my favorites didn't even show up on the first few pages. I TP'd to Jeepers Creepers, for instance, and saw a number of ways in which search results for the store could have been improved. I wonder if that's typical for many established stores that don't realize how poorly they're set up for the new search logarithms.

On the other hand, I suspect the decreasing retention rates for SL is hitting us all in ways we may not be able to measure. After all, I might be doing even better than I am now if numbers were up and more newbies were out shopping.

Also factor in that many older people are just shopped out. right now I can't spend much money anywhere, there just isn't anything to buy. You don't have to replace anything, nothing wears out. So getting new people to stay, and spend money is important. It's partly why I'm so leery of RL Companies coming here. They will be here primarily to pimp their RL products, they really won't care about in world sales. I fear many will perhaps sell inworld versions of their items, say clothing, at prices a resident business can't compete with , or worse yet, give it away as advertising, undercutting residents. And especially with the younger crowd, logo branded stuff, especially if it is free is going to be very popular.

Aww, that's sweet! No nasty things or blood for me - I'm a good doggie. I am rather fond of hats, necklaces, and scarves (collars are so, um, cliche).

One thing that gets me is that so many people make things no-mod, and I can't deal with that. Since I am a quad, I have to be able to modify things to fit over my furry neck and pointy ears.

I will have to stop in and peruse your wares when I am home from work.

I would like to add the updating product is very time consuming. I try to do it once a week or more. To the regular shopper who visits my store in February and then comes back in March, they are only going to see 8 new hairstyles. That is it. Yet I spend 20 hours a week on the store. It takes a lot of time and unless you are doing SL fulltime, its going to look like you haven't updated much. Some stores may update more often, but is it quality items or items that took 2 hours to make?
Just some insight from a content creator.

8 New products a month is nothing to sneeze at. That's great output if you ask me, 1 or two a month is acceptable to me. But when no new products have been added for moths or even a year, you really can't complain about lagging sales. yes , content creation takes time, and running an SL business does take an investment of time. But that's what it takes if you want pople to continue to patronize. Give them reasons to come back.

And please when you do release a new product, put it somewhere it can be easily found. I like new products up front when I walk in, but I understand you may want people to walk through the store. So at the very least, mark the product clearly as new. I will only spend so much time scanning walls of stuff I've seen countless times looking for a new item, before I move on.

why don't shops have changing window displays, hell why do a lot of shops not have windows? If it's the old argument about transparency issues, just don't put anything in the window frame. RL shops have window displays that are constantly changing for a reason, although I'm not saying this is a solution to everyones problem.

I'm all outdoors. No roof and all. No doors or windows.

Boy, I'm sorry to hear that, but glad to know that the move wasn't as much of a disaster as I thought!

How do you quadrupeds manage for animations? Can you find the sort of animations you want? Is there likely to be a market opening if I make some?

Well I am pretty new in business, and I see my sales slowly rising. Though last week doesnt quite help selling Still, sales are going up a bit each week

What I do is make sure I have a good spot in search (parcel description), put up some classifieds, and have a great customer service. Like last week I saw 2 people buy a copyable item twice, refunding them for one gives a better result in the end then any classified can. Within a few weeks I might try a more expensive classified that pops up in the banner at Search All, just to try out the effects.

Furthermore I release new items each week, put up announcements in both this and SLX forums, and try to be original. Many people complimented me on the stuff I make, and I ry to come up with new ideas. Because I agree that trying to sell the same stuff month after month will eventually lead to an end of business.

As for copyable/modifiable: My new furniture always is no-copy but modifiable. The scripted items meed to be, as they are configurable through notecards people need to access. Furthermore, sitting animations must be tweakable for avatars with not-average sizes.
They are not copyable, because I want to keep them cheap. Either I want people to buy 4 chairs at a table for a decent price, or I want them to buy one copyable chair at high price. In this case I decided for the low price but no-copy. Older releases are available in both versions.

Most important of all: I do what I like. Creating things. I am pretty sure that any business that just runs for the cash, will not last that long, as they will not have inspiration for new stuff.
Considering the cash I spent to be able to create (textures, animations, sculpt kits, and so on) it will take a long time to earn back But since I do it for fun, I dont really care its costing me money.

Marcel

Wow, I wasnt aware the retention rate was decreasing ..

Thats definitely discouraging,

Especially since with all the bots, it probably means the decrease is even higher than it first appears.

My sales are down. I have not sold anything so far this year.

But then it could be because I don't have a store anymore.

QFT. I went to your store, McGeeb. I wasn't at all sure which were the new items. (By the way, your "Destiny" is still one of my favorite hairstyles, after nearly a year.)