Are sales bad for everyone right now?

As a shopper I'll tell you why I don't buy very much any more. When I first started to figure out how to change my clothes I was buying everything I could get my little hands on everything that looked cool. Then one day I walked into a free shop and found almost everything that I had purchased was already free. Now I will no longer buy unless I'm going to a themed party at a club or having one myself and I can't find a free one.

I'm personally opening up a night club for the fun of it and for business. I realize there will be nights where no one shows and there will be other nights there it's crazy as sin. Then again, I will have a niche adult market that's different from the typical porn clubs and night clubs, at least I hope so. Whether or not it will happen the way I want it to and those who are looking for my kind of *stuff* will come, I have no clue but I'm going to just treat it like a game and not a big business. I can't bank on an idea that might not make it, but I can sure as hell have fun.

Another thing, it's way too hard to find things sometimes. I can go find something in the search menu and then search like crazy for one little hole in the grid store and come up with nothing because almost every store looks the same. I usually end up going somewhere else. I wish I could just search like a browser, find the exact item I'm looking for and teleport to that exact location, but I can't. I get dropped in the middle of nowhere and have to look through haystacks.

Don't get me started on the no fly zones. Walking is such a PITA in a virtual world.

Just having 40,000 active people on one huge grid with saturated markets is not enough for a good economy, at least that's my opinion.

I hear what you're saying Danielle. It's nice to get "recommendations", however the majority of which that have been mentioned, you already do. I.E. - SLX/New Release/Fashcon etc....

To answer the question, YES, I have experienced a slow in sales in the month of February. I was shocked when I did my end-of-month. I have experienced a steady growth of 4% - 9% each month. For February, I still had growth but let me tell you, all my "satellite" locations (which it seems we both share several same locations) were all down. I am constantly implementing the famous R's & P's of marketing (:}) and have really not changed much that would cause a downfall. I have still yet to figure out why sales were soo yucky. Bah, just could be a cycle, a phase, maybe peeps are right when they say that horrible word "recession"....

Anyhoo...stay strong Danielle! Keep designing imo.

I think you have to like what your doing and have fun doing it firstly.
Myself, I'm fairly new and started making jewelry that I wanted and also for my friends.
My sales have been steady lately, nothing killer but I'm building my 'second wave' of product so hopefully people will like what they see. =]
A niche market definately helps, along with some of the other suggestiions already posted.

I was shocked to see how much some people spend on advertising, o_O
(Do they really make it all back and with profit?)
Instead of going crazy with that, I spent some money renting in malls that are themed to the kind of stufff I make and it seems to have a fair success rate.
I give any new place I set up shop about 2 weeks or so before I decide if I stay, which really depends on the traffic into my shop.

A difinitive guide to the 'Secrets of the SL search' would make a great manual, I'd buy one. ;]

Again, I don't think you should sweat about MAKING MONEY, although it's nice, you shouldn't get obsessed about it cause if your really looking for that extra income, a second RL job would be the way to go.

Good luck with your business Danielle, hopefully things will get rolling.

Oh, I do enjoy designing stuff...I really love most of the things I make. I do have a folder in my inv of things the public will never see, I call it my "Gee, I musta been into the wine that day" folder...my personal blooper reel.

I guess my problem is I see sales as a barometer of how much people like my stuff...and I want everyone to love it as much as I do....I'm sure you all understand that feeling... These clothes, they're like my babies, each one special to me..and like a proud and doting parent, I assume everyone else will find them as wonderful as I do

Now, realistically? I know that isn't the case, and thank goodness it isn't. Personal taste in clothing is one thing that makes us all different.

But still..the mommy in me...well, those of you who have kids know what I mean.....

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement I do appreciate the feedback, I hope I didnt sound ungrateful earlier.

And Desi, I got your back anytime, sugar

I do have another question, though, but it's totally off topic.

How does one get rated by Trout, and is it really a good thing?

Have a good night y'all

from what I have seen and gathered from comments, you send him a pic and he rates you

as far as is it a good thing... do you wish to be rated as a slut??

I know I don't....

I would not be very proud to be rated as a slut....

now if someone had a girl next door, lovely lady, classy lass, or anything non sexual, and non degrading I "might" be open to a rating.

To me (and this is merely just my opinion, so please I beg those who read this, there is no need to defend yourself or take my comments as a personal attack on anyone), to me, being rated as a slut is degrading... not my cup of tea.

My sales went down noticeably when gambling was banned and have never really gone back up, although some days are pretty good. I don't do much to advertise. I have all my items for sale at SLX but don't sell much there. I also have several small shops that I rent and they all more than pay for the rent, but for some reason most of my sales are at my main shop and it more than pays for my tier. I think maybe people flying by just stop in... I don't know.
Actually I make more money from doing custom graphics than from my shops.

From a newbie perspective,I have to agree that there are way too many free things around.
Heck tonight,I was at a full hall with only free things.
I mean,why so many free things?
There is a huge number difference between the free items available and what is to buy.Cutting the free side,I think would provide for the much needed injection of funds

I can see it now... "sorry dear, we're not going on that cruise next year because I have to buy more virtual clothing for my avatar, and I need more land so I can add more plants and a virtual hot tub..."

DOH!

But seriously, its all in people's priorities. My guess is people making $ in SL will stay involved (of course). There will be new people who do the typical month and don't find their niche only to drop out. Then there are those that are finding good value out of it that will probably keep it a priority. I can't see most others keeping SL on top of the priority list, especially if its something only one person in a family is involved in. My wife benefits 0 by the pool I once bought in SL but never actually used. (and I'm actually ashamed I bought it now) I'm quickly realizing that shiny new toys in SL are just that, but things in RL like movies, eating out and other possible cuts at least have some benefit to both of us.

Sales have decreased steadily over the last year.

The faltering SL economy is even showing up in the questionable economic statistics that LL publishes.

The number of unique users with a positive monthly cash flow decreased in Feb.
http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php

The number of premium accounts also decreased in Feb.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pxbDc4B2FH96NzYTkCnb-SA&gid=6

The amount of Lindens sold decreased in Jan, no data provided for Feb. yet.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pxbDc4B2FH96NzYTkCnb-SA&gid=4

It was scary enough for this number to stay flat as population (and concurrency) shot up and up.

Umm not sure really.. Just started selling items about a month ago..BUT!! I will be happy to report back next month .. However, of hearing the slump everyone appears to be having I'm worried.
I wish the best to you tho... and in hopes sales perk up for you

Hi Brad, I stopped by your furniture store the other day and bought some poolside furniture for our pool. Nice stuff! Claire and I will get good use out of it and host many a party by the pool, also word of mouth to anyone asking where we got such lovely deck furniture!

It looks like it's a mixed bag on the SL economy for many different reasons, & I have been debating on getting my feet wet as a vendor. I may just let re-sellers market my creations. In the mean time I am busy enjoying Claire's company, and letting someone else have the head ache of running a business. I don’t even want to think about it at the moment...having too much fun!

I decided to go have a look and the tp link took me to the I guess main TP point of the sim, which is annoying but I am guessing out of your control

well I followed the beacon and it was in the road so I had to look around to find your place. If there were a search for a specific item I would have already left, I dislike having to search out a shop

I would replace the fashcon poster with one of the items you have for sale, let your stuff be the first thing they see.

Put the fashcon as a smaller poster kinda at the entrance opposite the new resident resource kit

maybe put a table in the center of the room, where the big fashcon poster is now, and reduce the size of those boxes on the floor and place then on the table (the two freebie item in the center of a table with a larger box or poster on each end showcasing the mens and womens designer pick or something like that)

other than those ideas (which I might implement into my own store LOL) I like your stuff, I am not a guy so not much in the guys stuff I would buy hehe, but the women's stuff looks good, still browsing though)

I tend to shop on a whim, if I see something I like I buy it then and there hehe

Ahh, the landing point at one time was in the entryway of my shop! I"ll have to look into that for sure!

And yes, the table in the center is a great suggestion, it is a bit of an obstacle course now, isn't it.

Thanks, Rhaorth, for your feedback Have a great day!!!

hehe yep trying to navigate around the boxes in this lag was horrid

you are welcome, I just hope that it helps, you do have nice stuff

no. simply acknowledging why some stores don't get 'sales'.

Okay, I really hate when commercial sims with more than one store have a telehub enabled. It truly sucks for someone who's visiting a store for the first time. Often (but not always) these sims will have teleporters to the different shops at the landing point, but if it's a really busy or prim-heavy sim you have to wait 3 minutes or more for the teleporters to rez so you know where you're going. That's 3 minutes too long for me. I go somewhere else.

If you follow a landmark to a store on a telehub-enabled sim, you'll get a beacon to the actual store. This is fine for people like me who know what the hell a beacon is, but I doubt most newbies have any idea what it's for.

Also, I have found that if I use New Search to look up a shop on a telehub-enabled sim there will be NO beacon when I get there, and it's up to me to fly around the sim and find the store. Sorry folks, I just don't have time to hunt down your damn clothing store when you've got 1,000 competent competitors whose shops I can teleport directly into.

One of my friends who is top seller at slexchange said their is maybe 10000 people who buy products on regular basis in SL.
I am not sure if this is true but it it is true then one would imagine if there are lots and lots of place to shop some places would have more sales then others.

I have been selling on SLExchange since I started playing SL. My sales have stayed relatively steady since day one.

I have noticed freebies on SLX go like hotcakes, its amazing how much extra business that seemed to bring in. People see free stuff, then browse the sellers other objects.

As for in world, I have only just opened my store, so I can't really comment on how sales are going there yet. I have made enough to cover the stores rent for the first month, and that keeps me happy.

What is considered a good traffic number? Mine barely gets over 200 lol. I see some places with THOUSANDS! No idea how they do it.

I also have no clue when it comes to advertising. I took out a classified add for 1000L. I was horrified when I saw how much some people pay for a classified add!!

I think the pure amount of genuinely talented texture artists, builders and scripting gurus is pretty high,and it grows everyday so it makes the job of trying to break into the market a tough thing to succeed. Once you do break into it, staying there is the hardest part one would imagine.

Regarding what's a good traffic number: Honestly it doesn't really matter. I am friends with some very successful designers whose stores have traffic in the low hundreds who do fantastic business. Their traffic is real, their shops are physically small and easy to navigate, and most visitors actually buy stuff when they come.

Our skybox shop has traffic that goes from the hundreds to the low thousands, but nearly everyone who visits us buys something. We are an example of a business who benefited from New Search because of the decreased emphasis on traffic.

Regarding classifieds, there IS a point at which you see diminishing returns, but it's different for each category of products. I have friends who spend between $130-300 USD per WEEK on classifieds who say that the ads more than pay for themselves.

However, there are a few shops now that spend over $1,000 USD a week on a single classified ad, and I have some friends who are very successful in the clothing business who wouldn't be able to afford that ad (and make a profit, anyway). That's $52,000 USD a year on a damn classified ad. That exceeds most peoples' real-life salaries. I'm very skeptical that it's worth it, but ya never know.

I know the art market is very intense, there's plenty of good original work out there and a lot of repro out of copyright stuff.
My current gallery is 5,000+ sq metres with another 2,000 or so of grassland/park. My work is modern abstract, and I have different guest artists showing their work.I also sell my art for clothing textures under licence, royalties usually.
Even with advertising things have slowed down in the art market and I know talented people who have left Sl because of it and gone onto other virtual worlds, I have accounts with 2 others and if things get too slow I'll sell up and move on. In fact I've recently had an offer to buy my land at a profit, hmm new career maybe
Taxus Gustafson

I run a furniture store ( IDEA Home Center ) and have been creating for about a year and a half. Sales have steadily picked up over time and I am actually at the point where I am withdrawing money on a monthly basis. At this point, it is not enough to live on, but I love my RL marketing job anyway.

A few suggestions for people who are still trying to cover direct costs:

1) I only put out goods that I feel are of perfect quality. I have a workshop that is full of stuff that I have started and plan to get back to some day, but it is just not ready to sell. Only put stuff out that you will be proud to have your name associated with a year from now.

2) Spend as much time as you can building your collection. I try to introduce a few new items each week. I study my transaction listing on a regular basis (downloaded and saved monthly) to see what colors or styles are more popular so that I can expand on them. Generally, I have noticed that new releases do well and encourage people to return.

3) Reward your customers with little "thank you's". Word of mouth is vital to sustaining your business. Since search is so unreliable and it seems that classifieds are a total waste of money, it is important that each person who visits your store leaves with a positive impression. Always treat customers with utmost respect.

4) Improve improve improve. Always think of ways to improve your storefront, your collection, your marketing verbiage, your search optimization and don't ever assume that just because something was good enough last week, that it will be good enough next week.

Get rid of the freebies. They distract from your "message", which is your products. After much analysis, I've discovered freebies detracted from sales.

Other than that, sales are about what they were 6 months ago...

Big hugs to you and Claire. Thank you and hope you enjoy!



It's one of the first things I've learned working for two different Fortune 500 companies. Under no circumstances do you give things away. If you are providing a product that is worth value then you don't want to diminish your image. You also set an expectation so that your customer base feels they can just wait for more free stuff. I'll never figure out why so many in SL give things away. You never see stores in RL do that.

I frequently give gifts after customers make purchases, but I don't leave things lying around for people to just collect on their freebie sprees.