Merchants: Why Your Sales Are Down

...I noticed SL's performance deteriorating for me around the summer of 2007. That's about the time that I started making my own content in earnest ....

However, there is one other option: innovate, and do something that nobody else has yet done. Given that SL allows one to do so much, this is, and will be, a ripe area for newcomers or people wishing to expand their market. Doing something new can be risky, but it's exciting as hell.

It's real obvious why sales are down.

LL can not keep things running long enough for anyone to buy anything.

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!)

I totally agree. I can think of quite a few examples of businesses who are losing all kinds of money (and not because they're philanthropists!), and not sustainable, but pose a problem both because of the short-term competition they pose, and the long-term problem where if they burn customers, they might run people out of SL or make them shy away from other, similar services or purchases.

A lot of people come into this game expecting something for nothing, when LL sure as heck expects a lot for what little we get.

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.

More importantly, they set unrealistic expectations for other businesses regarding pricing - especially the land rentals. When people fail to do the math and price at a ridiculously low rate, they hurt us all because people get the expectation that prices are supposed to be that low, when in reality, it is more difficult and less worth the time to run the business. And when they get fed up at making next to nothing, they will quit the business and set people on edge about renting. A lot of people come into this game expecting something for nothing, when LL sure as heck expects a lot for what little we get.

A girl can never have too many pairs of shoes!

We seem to keep attracting business people & noobs in countries where they can't get credit cards because still barter chickens, but not spenders, seeing graphics & physics performance is so far behind other MMO's we can't attract gamers which with WoW getting stale with 1.8million players spending $20 per month is a pie we should be considering. Lag has to go..........

Hmm, is that like never have too much Tupperware?
As I said to my sister once, "You got $2000 and 4 cupboards of Tupperware here and I can't find a matching lunchbox & lid?"

I would love to buy from shops that people on the forum own. I remember there was once a list would be nice if someone could do that again as we can't post adverts. here on the forum.

ere'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.

What doesn't make sense though, is that my Slex sales are practically non-existent this last week...I mean, I suppose a shotty inventory system inworld will still make people leery about purchasing things on Slex, because they fear they won't receive the item.

The notecard giver may still be up at the hangout - if not, IM me and when I'm in world I'll send along the last version of the notecard with the list of businesses that Claire compiled. It's a couple of months old but still a fun shopping trip (or two, or three - lots to see there!).