Sales plumeting?

Of course, your other suggestion of changing the exchange rate would make those sims cost the business's on them twice as much since they are paying for those in US$, not Linden. The rents of many other business's would go up as well since many are on private estates, and the sim owners would have to adjust to make their tier.

Also, don't underestimate "fluff". I'm not saying you need to go overboard, but a nice ambiance is more conducive to pulling in a shopper than a place that looks like a warehouse. Unless, of course the vibe you want to give off is that of a bargain basement. I know I'm willing to spend more on things at Macy's than Walmart.

Rental stalls and malls never entered my head either. I used the phrase "parcel businesses" to mean people who own a parcel of land (not a whole sim) and run a business on it. I'd guess that the large majority of businesses are like that. Some of them add mall spots, but they are still parcel businesses. For that reason, it's not surprising that the idea of removing fluff prims etc. went down like a lead balloon.

I agree with that completely. My store is along the lines of a warehouse, but I do like stores that 'display' their wares much better than I do, and that means fluff prims. Even little things like going up a step with banisters between the levels adds to the feel of the store enormously, imo. There are many things that can make a store feel better, including the display of items in pseudo-situ. I do think that such things can add a positive feel in the minds of shoppers, to the extent that they could actually *want* to buy in that particular place.

In response to:






That gave me a much-needed laugh for my morning!

/me adds Ralektra to my list of "who owes me a new monitor"

WARNING: Reading RA posts while drinking beverages could be harmful to your monitor

avawyn...how do you have your store set up? just curious to know if you go the bare bones route like i do or have a bit of fluff.

QFT!

I love the "off the beaten track" small, quaint type shops...kind of with the comfy "book store" feel (regardless of what is being sold) types of shops.

Many "fluff" items are only 1 prim apiece but yet can add a wonderful sense of ambiance.

I don't think that most people who are complaining about sales and tier are those with full sim shops.

Well, it's my SL experience that slows my buying these days. I've TP'ed to new shops I've seen in someone's profile or from searching, and when I land, I'm floating in mid-air because the prims have not rezzed yet. After a few minutes some of the floors and walls will appear as gray panels. Then I can finally see where for-sale items are displayed, again as gray, un-rezzed textures. I have waited five or more minutes for textures to rez. I have cleared my cache and re-launched my viewer and returned to the store with no improvement. I once spent 45 minutes dancing at a club with gray avatars! SL wasn't this slow rezzing a few months ago. It's frustrating as a player/buyer. As time goes by I'm spending less time in-world. I joined SL 13 months ago and I've already bought one computer for the sole purpose of bettering my SL experience. And lately my SL experience is as frustrating as those first two months with a computer that was "below-spec". My inventory is at the 16,000+ level and I don't see it increasing much in the near future.

And what the heck is BIAB? ?? In A Box?

business in a box

usually consists of ripped full perm items

No, I don't have a store but I have been researching on SL for about two weeks. And if I'm in a store, I'm looking for clothes and shoes and looking at the photographs to see if I want to buy that item or not. I study the photographs a lot to try to get a really good idea of how the item will fit because of the basic no refund policy on SL and my bad experiences with many items not as advertised via a photograph whether wrong color or didn't show the backside and the backside fit is awful or the whole 3D fit is awful!

I'm doing some research as I'm interested in finding some of the best of the SL. The excellence in product, value and creativity so I have been to a lot of sims recently.

I've bought products, excellent five stars products from sims with no prim fluff whatsoever. Store still had a nice atmosphere. I am very happy with those purchases! FIVE STARS! And I've been to sims with far too many fancy prims and the prices were way to high for the product. So, if I were running a magazine on the Excellence of SL, I'd have to rate that super fluffy prim store with the high prices THREE STARS. And so I got to thinking of what they could do better and have merely presented some ideas here, along with trying to think of WHY some designers have such a higher mark up as compared to others.

The Macy's comment above makes me think I was right all along. The 3 star store with the high prices, high prim fluff had no better products than the one I'd give five stars. This is just some of my research. There is more, and still more to be done.

Another thought: If someone could make 3D dress forms for the clothing, I'd probably be more inclined to purchase. Demos for shoes please too!

I think that finally I am starting to get the gist of this...

people who run full sim stores sometimes have products that are not any better than people who run stores on a parcel, but they price their product much higher.

for the most part, if someone can support a whole sim to sell their product, then they are at least somewhat successful/well known. They command high prices for their product because they can, even though you have now discovered that there are many designers who, while smaller or not as well known (and therefore not as able to command a high price for their product) make things that are just as good if not better than some of the former. That being said, those designers (I believe you are saying) should get rid of the 'fluff', and downsize tier to cut overhead.

like Phil said, the people who are running full sim shops aren't really the ones complaining. It's the 'little' designers who are still trying to scratch their way up the ladder of success.

What your research has shown you (some designers sell 'not wonderful' products at very high prices and some sell 'wonderful' products at lower prices) is pretty much what all of us learn as we begin to acclimatize to SL. It isn't new, really.

DUH!

Yes, for example, the 3-Star high fluff higher priced store charged on average 800 linden for a pair of shoes with no demo. While I know another haute coutour designer who sells really creative and sexy yet way different style shoes just as cool at the 800 Linden ones but sells hers for an average of 340-380 Linden for a pair of really nice haute coutour shoes. That's a very nice savings for a product just as special. The price says nothing about special. To make a painting cost very little money for instance... but the finished product... kiss the moon...

It's been a beautiful full moon here in California and tonight we might experience snow. Hoping my kitty gets in safe or someone has taken him in for the night. RL kitty, come home...

Oh, and it would be a first me for to experience any kind of snow at Christmas. But it just suddenly got way too cold and too cold for kitty! It was in the 80's last week. We are now almost below freezing. It's dropped nearly 50 degrees in less than 48 hours!

So what made you give the products of one store 5 stars and only 3 stars to the products of the store that "had no better products than the one I'd give five stars". Something isn't quite right there. If the 3 star products are inferior then ok, but what you wrote indicates they are not. Is it the prices that make the difference? Even then, equal qualities should have equal stars, shouldn't they?

Earlier in the thread, someone said that you are applying RL business considerations to SL businesses, and now I see it. You've jumped to a wrong conclusion about SL stores and prices. Store owners in SL don't tend to price their products according to their overheads (tier). They price them according to the competition, or according to what they think they can sell them for, or at prices that will increase the quantity of sales. In other words, product prices are not set at levels to meet the overheads (tier), and thereby push the prices up - they are set for other reasons than that, and meeting the tier is accomplished by the quantity of items sold rather than the prices of them.

There are 3D dress forms for clothing, but I thought you wanted us to cut down on prims.... Putting out a bunch of flexi skirts on dress forms isn't gonna do that.

In my mind, putting out what you call "fluff" prims shows that you put effort into how your product is being presented. One would hope the seller put at least equal effort into the actual product. Not that just because a seller doesn't put out extra decorations means they have a bad product. I just wouldn't assume that extra decor in the store means they are trying to fool you into thinking they have a quality product.

And um...no way do Macy's and Walmart have an equal quality product in most cases. Certainly not in their clothing. ETA: But that is getting into RL, which doesn't really equate that well to SL anyway, so I shouldn't have used it as an example to start with.

My research right now involves three basic things: Quality, value, creativity.

These are my three, and stars get added for taken away according to each category whether quality, value, creativity.

Low prim 3D dress forms. If say a dress form is about 12 prims one could very easily replace those 12 prim tables that do nothing to get me to spend. I'm not sure if a 3D dress form is more prims or less prims than a live 3D model? I have almost 300 prims in my hair alone! But if the prims are to high, at least have a few 3D forms for your new and/or "in season" or demand items.

You are barking up the wrong tree with the prim thing. You may not care for what you call fluff prims, but I think it's safe to say that people in general prefer stores with excellent displays.

Yes, Mr. Prim Saver

lol

It's not the dress forms that are so bad... it's the prim attachments you'd have to put on them. There have been debates about live models in stores too...some love them and some hate them. We just can't win.

I am beginning to see what you are getting at somewhat. Yes, there are stores in SL that I agree are more hype and marketing than being amazingly more wonderful than others. But those aren't likely to be the ones feeling the pinch...

/me wishes I was a marketing genius. Not that I'd describe my sales as plummeting, but they are down a bit from last year.

agreed

Give me a landmark to what you sell, but only if it's clothes, shoes or jewelry. This is fashion research I am doing and I'll give you my rating.

The three things you will be rated on are: Quality (fit, very close or better than photo), value (comparison to others with similar), and creativity.

One applicant only. My time is not free. One star is worst, 5 is best. So, you'd get rated 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 stars. Five stars being best! Winner for quality, value, creativity plus as overall report of what I think you could improve.

Quality, value and creativity are subjective really. And they mostly only measure what we think and what we like. Which doesnt always translate into what the customers like or even want sometimes.

So can I suggest another star as part of your research? Customer participation. Spend time watching what people click on in stores, and when they dont click on anything at all. Then measure what they do against what they do in similar stores. Compare like against like ya. You get a more accurate picture then and a better insight into SL customer behaviour I think.

I sell clothes and shoes and jewelry, I would be interested to see how you would rate my store
(I am not a sim owner, just mainland plot store owner)

small time seller as it were.... so.. I will look you up and drop the lm on you....