to SL merchants: What about sales ?

Hi All !

In my shop (a whole sim) I've 3 counters:

visitors
convertions
convertion rate (1 for each X visitors)

On the latest days the conversion rate is the same as usuall.But the visitors is about 15 to 20% less then usuall.I've a very good traffic because my shop appear in second or 3rd when someone type some word that's matter my business.

Also, I've the habit to check the "OnLine Users Now" number every sunday at 02:00pm SL time.

So this number usually is almost the same of the latest 4 weeks.It means that probally the community is not growing anymore.

If my convertion rate is the same, but the number of visitors is less then usual it means that maybe the market of my business is downsizing.And maybe others market is downsizing too.

But I cannot use myself or my business as the only source.I need more inputs because I'd like to know about the economic and the health of Second Life.

tyvm !

It's the end of the summer holidays Henry, people will have been out and about, if things don't pick up in the next month or two then you'll be in a better position to suggest that growth is flat.

Oh ! Thanx ! I am not US citizen For me is the end of the winter LOL

But u gave me a idea...I will compare with the reports of the last year Maybe u r right

The last 4+ months, my sales rates have been in the gutter. Less than half of what they were this past Winter and before. I think in my case it is largely because my building textures and sim building services are not in as much demand as usual, because people are holding off on building until the Adult Content changes settle out. Why build an Adult club or business, when it has to move immediately to land that you can not yet purchase? Why build a non-Adult venue, when in a few months you may be able to buy abandoned Mainland at fire sale rates? I think a lot of people are playing "wait and see". And businesses like mine are starving to death.

Also, the RL economy is hurting in many countries, and people faced with a decision of paying the rent in RL, or buying and developing a sim in SL, don't have a very hard decision to make. RL needs come first, I should hope.

I checked my reports of the last year
Yes, That's right ! September of 2008 had 15.8 % less sales then August of 2008

My sales went into the tank about 15 months ago and have steadily gotten worse. I took drastic measures and cut my prices between 60-90% on everything I sell and even started doing hetero animation sets. That seems to have helped my numbers, but my income is no where what is used to be. A year and a half ago I would have been disappointed with a L$50,000 month. Now I dream of having one of those. I'm estatic if I go over L$15,000 a month. I think it's wide spread. The one in-world mall I have a store in recently lowered the rate to L$100 a month, the previous 2+ years I was paying L$400 a month and lucky to have the space at all. Now, the mall is about 1/3 empty. I wander around lots of malls just watching trends... definately more and more empty stalls in "popular" malls, where a year or so ago you would have to get on a waiting list and pay whatever they decided to ask.

I don't think SL is dying, but it's definately in a financial funk.

Incroyable, how can this be since Second Life economy is up by 94% ???????

You must be doing something very wrong Henry !!!!!!!!!, Second Life economy is doing better than ever. 94% growth compared to 2008. It's you Henry, you must work harder more than 100% harder to make up for your 15.8% loss.

There's also the fact that all the basic categories of product are now fully supplied. There are many people doing animations, textures, sculpts, clothing, etc., etc. There are quality variables, of course, but market share for any participant in a category is getting smaller. There will be success for ideas perceived as new and different, like chicken husbandry, but finding those is becoming as difficult in SL as it is in RL.

Secret? SL 1.0 is dying.

http://www.slideshare.net/guest8541d3b1/slcc-keynote-presentation

(slide pic 97)

And SL 2.0 is just a wet dream of the Master himself.

(slide pic 97 again)

"Your World. Your Imagination" is gone too. (Not longer to find on the website)

Conclusion: Spirit dead. Trust dead. Sales dead. Bread-dry boredom in front.

Y'know, Wynochee; I confess, I am worried.

Seems a bit of a bad time to put new seeds in the ground. I found out at the builder's competition recently that there are already a lot of people doing what I want to do and not only doing it better, but that everyone has been there, done that and gotten the T shirt with the hand on it.

I think there needs to be something in SL that is as serious about mentoring intermediate-experience residents as NCI was about mentoring new residents.

That second step is a doozy.

My sales have been growing steady from the start, survived a couple of moves, and expanded with a second line of business, and a third. Now I am on a homestead sim plus some Zindra parcels, and thinking about expanding to either a second HS sim, or a mainland sim (if they only were affordable...). July was my best month ever, August was less but still good enough to cash out a nice amount.

Why do I tell this? To show you that the sky is not falling, and businesses can still be successful. But it does take a lot of effort to get out there and to keep selling, marketing and search rankings are still very important.

When I look into the total amount of visitors on my sim, I see that August had 2 bad weeks compared to other months, but not even that bad. The fact that not every visitor purchased at least 1 item, makes me think I need to build more and more and more, so each person can find something to their likings

Finally about the adult move: I already do have sales from Zindra, though I have a feeling that my full perm erotic animations sell less well from there then from my old mainland parcel. Whether that has to do what the August slump or with the fact that I moved to Zindra remains to be seen. My intentions are to expand my Zindra part of the business, as I see a future there.

Yeah, sales are a bit off, but they usually are this time of year.

People are pretty much broke after the whole "Back to School" business. I know I am until next payday. It usually stays kind of down until mid-September and then picks up back in October.

I just set my sole item for sale up in slapt too. It's got a fair bit of stuff w/o all the xstreet litter.

Excuse me....What a hell SL 2.0 means ?? Do u have some link with more info about it ?

There's one I hadn't heard before. So now we have just about the whole year covered. If we can get the October-November and February months covered we'll have a reason sales are down the whole year.

Seriously, I don't buy any of these seasonal reasons. There's always a reason. Are people that reluctant to admit SL isn't vibrant anymore? Is it optimism or delusion that things are always just about to pick back up?

I hardly sell a thing actually.... never really have. Somewhat new at it also.
Not too worried thou as its for my fun and I made things anyway figured may as well put them up and do a store. I did go ahead and do a decent store didnt just throw things down and go there ita a store. Oh well.... would be nice thou after the effort to see ppl appreciate things w/a purchase.

Anya, party I agree and party I disagree with your posting

I agree that in general the time of the year does not matter, but the holiday season sure does. At least in Europe, many people simply go on holidays in July/August. Without access to SL. And Europeans do make up a big chunk of the SL population

On the other hand, SL is still as vibrant in many ways. And still full of possibilities. But it changes, evolves. Not always in good ways, probably, but not always in bad ways either. Different, not worse
For some sales will go down, and not come back. For others, sales will rise. A good friend of mine sells very well, after she put effort in the commercial part, and found a good niche product. Within a year I grew from a small parcel towards a full sim (well, HS sim) plus a couple of mainland parcels, and managed to cash out a nice amount monthly. And still only growing. But then again, I do put a lot of time in the commercial part of having a store as well.

Whether things will pick up for others, I am not sure about. But for those who manage to grow/change along with the changes in SL, there is still a bright future.

My normal traffic is 20-30 visitors per day. A day with only 5 is nothing to worry about until it happens every day for a couple weeks. This has happened several times this year. Once I think it was because the landing point for the parcel was reset so people were arriving on bare ground and not finding the store. Once I fixed that the traffic returned to normal, but that may have been coincidental timing. The other times I never did figure out what happened but things eventually returned to normal, anyway.

I'm half convinced that most of my traffic is Linden bots visiting and occasionally buying things to keep me thinking there are still humans in the game, and that this mechanism fails like everything else occasionally. Despite drastic swings in visitors and sales, my total sales are remarkably consistent month-to-month. I'm always 10K short of making tier. Except for two months when last-minute sales pushed me over the top.

Maybe it's a seasonal reason...the theory have consistence.

But maybe you are right too ! Just October will tell us

See the new SL Web Site ?? It's cute ! But why instead improve the Web Site LL don't improve the Inworld environment ? or Improve his own products ? Sometimes I need to rebuild my structures because there is a sort of floating point issue that's make the prims loose the perfect alignment.

Lindex Service today is a joke ! I just abandoned after use for 2 years because it's taking a eternity to delivery.

Also...Zindra was created with the consern to promote RL enterprises Inworld.

Sometimes I believe that the focus is no longer on the residents.Who said "Your world , your imagination ?" This slogan does not make sense to me anymore.

However, i would add that I think much has to do with the items you put out there. There are so many clothing stores, and so many clothing textures for sell out there now that anyone and everyone is making clothing. It kills the market. Prim scripted items and certain specialty niches are the way to go I think for now. Many still dont know how to script, and you have to just find a specialty you do well at. I found a niche, and am comfortable with it...and turn out decent items...which sell very well. Advertising also is a bonus, if folks dont know of your shop...they wont come to buy. Good luck all!