Update on sales slump.

There has been discussion of the downward trend of sales in SL and I have recently refocused my efforts as things that used to sell just stopped selling altogether.

I reduced the prices drastically on my things, which were not expensive in the first place, but still I have only sold one item. The other day I made a freebie barrel with an assortment about 20 items of older stock of mine. Only one person has 'bought' the freebie barrel (for L$ 0, I hasten to add) and that was a guy who was talking to me while I filled the barrel! I get quite a lot off passing traffic by my place, many of them Spanish and Portuguese newbies who've been visiting a sex-shop on the land next to my home!

Erm, was there a question?

I think the question was -- "WTF?"

Yes its very strange, the online numbers have returned to pre gambling ban levels but everything seems....stagnant.
Ive seen several explanations for this...

RL recession
Newbies from the end of 2006 learning to make thier own things/have enough of what they need
Inventory loss making ppl wary of buying
Paypal and credit card info being so difficult to verify that ppl cant buy Lindens with their cash.
Gambling ban (and the camping that went with it) reducing the amount of Lindens ppl have to spend.
The 'bank' crash.
The VAT increases hitting the amount of free cash Europeans have to spend.

I dont know for sure if its any or all of these Id be interested to hear what others think...because yes Conifer

its weird.

For me it's mostly the VAT fiasco, for months I lived from what money my SIM and my other jobs provided, the day when I didn't need to put RL money into SL anymore was one of my happiest. I don't plan on stepping back to the old days when I *had* to put RL money into SL, so for now I have like 20k L$ less to spend per month (less income from my SIM *and* less sales of the stuff I create because others are very much in the same situation I am). So my shopping went down by I guess 75 percent, and before I buy something I nowadays check if I can't make it myself.

Sorry I stopped shopping. I learned to build and that consumed all my time. Running around socializing (which requires a new outfit once in a while - new animations and scripts sometimes) pales compared to the challenges of building.

I do sometimes need to buy things to spruce up my land and builds, but searching for them in world is so frustrating. I get sick of TP’ing to several different vendors, only to find the exact same ubiquitous crap at each of them. I need to use SL Exchange, I guess, to find the unique and creative items.

Also, if I go to a boutique and see someone mopping the floor, I turn around and leave. I don’t want to be reminded of menial labor in SL and the whole idea of camping depresses me. I do not support vendors who use it to try to get their classifieds higher in the all but unusable search feature – unless they are the only ones I’ve found that have an item I really, really need. Have you folks run any numbers lately to see if camping still helps sales?

As a shopper, albeit not as avid as I used to be, I would love to see an alternate in world classified – something like the web’s Craig’s List, but I have no idea how that could be done. -- KC

Am thinking it's a little like RL financial wobbles.
All SL users are in effect investors in the market. If we all get the jitters and stop spending there's a lot less money in circulation and threads like this one pop up, people start lowering the prices of their goods in order to sell something. Some pull out of selling because they can't afford the shop rentals etc...
If we just finally think "f it" and go on a shopping spree to update our gadgets / wardrobe / buildings / av's etc ... then money goes back between sellers and buyers and the market picks up again.
Am getting the feeling most of these "why are sales down" threads involve people who themselves are not spending any money in world and the whole thing perpetuates.
Just a theory.

This is an interesting thing to note, and probably very true.. I know it certainly is for me. I don't spend anywhere near what I used to in-world. I think that's natural to some degree, as one develops skills, and focus begins to shift from consumer to creator.. It's a factor worth some amount of consideration in the overall picture.

my reasons for not spending lindens in sl are that im hoping a better game comes out soon and i dont feel good investing anything in this world that i dont have to. i dont see longevity in sl and i feel any money i spend im throwing away. Same thing with my talents. its not just money im being cautious about. Between the griefing, grid attacks, bugs and craptastic Linden policies i dont see what other choice i have. That may not having anything to do with this slump, but those are my personal reasons anyway.

similar to my feelings.
i dont have a lot of faith in ll or sls longevity. i dont trust ll not to make some friday night announcement of a broad-sweeping new policy that undermines me in some manner, so i am far less likely to invest $ or effort in sl anymore.

I just find there is less to buy. I mostly have all the stuff I need. I used to buy Lindens in 10K blocks at leat 3 times a month. Now, once usually to pay tier, maybe twice a month.

I think one of the main reasons is new user sign ups have dropped significantly. We were getting around 500,000 to 750,000 a month for most of the year up till a few months ago. It has dropped to around 100,000 a month and a lot of those are not "new members".

People that have been in game for a while already have the stuff they want or are holding out for other reasons mentioned above. SL has deteriorated to the point no one can play it smoothly also. One of the reasons I hardly log on anymore.

Does this make the beginings of a SL Depression?

/me has flashback to reading Grapes of Wrath

Iti s past the beginning. It began with land sales slumping and now moving into businesses.

Or another outlook is things are just settling down to a normal pace. The boom was not going to last forever and I think LL was of the opinion everyone wants to play SL. Most of the people I show SL are like "WTF?" Why would I want to do that?

Have found always the econmics of SL mirrors RL, more often than not. Factor in av's not making a few windfalls at gambling to go on a shopping spree, the reasons can be obvious. In RL, recent drastic fall of the stock market, the high expense of getting college kids situated for the start of the fall semester, Christmas coming upon us in just a couple months, and it spells a huge slow down in spending.

Having a business in SL for a couple years now, i have seen this trend happen about this time, until the weather gets bad enough for most americans to have to stay inside for the bulk of their entertainment. Once the college kids get situated and well into the semester and somewhat bored in the dorm, they start playing alot more also. So chin up everyone, i see the snow in the mountains, it won't be long now...

sl is a global economy you realise

Yes but i also realize 80% of the spenders are North American continent players, and the US economy affects 100% of all economies, SL included.

Hiya all,

There's definitely a slump in sales in-world, due to all the reasons already mentioned. I personally don't really go shopping in-world, as I often find it too difficult to even move while on the ground, and often it's the same old crap.... As for camping outside the stores, I've absolutely nothing against that...I mean people have got to get a little cash somewhere and I know from my own experience, that when I first started in SL in May, I used camping to get myself essential items such as prim hair, etc. People, after all, are camping to get money to SPEND, and surely that's a good thing for all business owners.

As for myself, I have some stores and sales are definitely slow in-world, but great on sites such as OnRez...... I plan to do a great deal of shopping once I get my new computer....yahooooooo!!! So maybe the SL economy will take a turn for the better

i obviously need to reread the metrics then hey.

I think many people assume USA people just mindlessly spend more money than anyone else in the world. Going by our government practices I can see why. However I think that has very little to do with spending in SL.

According the key metric USA makes up only 29% of the total "active" population. So I think it would be more accurate to say that USA makes up 29% of the total spending. They don't have a "who spends the most" page though.

That's for me to know and you to work out LOL

well if you want to know how much a very nice target audience knows about SL here goes my story.

I'm an IT student for bussiness programming and design. I brought up second life to a second year class. out of that class of 20 only two people heard/remembered (about) it from somewhere, and one of those was laughing about it(even though he's never had it installed.

There can be a distiction between total active biggest spending. I think i saw that the US has the biggest percentage of premium members, and while this alone doesn't necessarily say anything, it's possible Anericans make up the higher portion of spending in world. In anycase I'm gonna make some popcorn and watch this develop into another Us vs Them catfight.

There is no sales slump. Try revamping your lineup of products.

That is a good point. I went into some of the places I bought the most from in the early days recently, and nothing new. Sooner or later the market will be saturated and you have to have something new.