SL Sales

I paid $3700 for a hang glider rezzer. It rezzes endless amounts of them and anyone can fly them and they fly beautifully, but paying that was really painful. I could get two 512 meter plots for that!

(shameless plug) That's why my Aero-Putter rezzer only costs L$1495! (/shameless plug)

Back on topic... I needed a nice gown once...found a freebie in Caledon, that was modifyable. I've changed the colour, edited it this way and that, and used it for every formal event since. Best L$0 I ever spent.

-Atashi

I have actually found a lot of nice gowns for under $100L. Some day I will get to wear them.

Well.... I spent 3000L for my custom motorcycle.....but I look at that the way I'd compare buying a bike & clothes IRL.... no way would I spend that much on clothing.....cripes i have way too much in my inventory as it is. I sell my shapes for 400L..... and I give modifiable versions to folks who join the group.... I'll probably change this eventually and just make all the stuff modify/no transfer.... but I have no problem making things modifiable for anyone that asks. I just like to create...I'm not all that nit-picky about permissions.
I decided the rental spaces were a total waste of time....one thing I have noticed is most of my sales come from my main shop.....so it's cheaper to just pay the rent on that one plot of land instead of having 20 vender shops that never sell.... total waste of L's IMO. I try to just rent add boards.... seems to work out best.

As for search.... yup..it's a pain in the arse.... but then again...I only JUST realized you can click on the 'name' bar at the top of search so it sorts by name instead of by traffic.....Doh! lol

Wow you can get a really good single skin for 1000L and that takes a 40 to 80 hours??. I don't see a gown taking that long.

I have found sales going down over the last couple of days, I make lighting and floors and have on quite a few occasions spent a week on one item and on others spent just an evening. I price MY stuff not on market value as if I did the current prices would be DOUBLE but on rather what I see as a good price....but also what IS a good price. The economy in SL is a little odd as you see something for sale for 1000 lindens and say OMG... in reality the person has problem spent days on an item and is selling them for essentially $4. Maybe as there is far less camping places in SL, theres less money about
Most of my competitors have HEAVY camping so I thought maybe that might be what the situation is... i.e gone down in the places list. But I think its just a lull, Ive had some good days and bad days. Allthough there is nothing better to wake up with some sales during the night. Also I find that using the sales money to reinvest into the game to be a good thing, I use my SL money to buy other stuff and over the weekend bought a TON of the "Botanical" trees and some sculpty water to make my area a little more attractive so that was 2k gone in a few seconds, but in my view its worth it and certainly as a contet creator i have NO problems with paying somebody for thier time and hard work.

I think the content creators are the lifeblood of SL, not the elite but I think that supporting them is important. my RL parter Cordelia Cordoso works REALLLLY hard for her Juicee store yet when it comes down to it.... how can you compete with traffic of 90,000 or people paying 50,000 a week for adds. She hopes that making something a little different , being precise and pricing low is enough........

BUT..... I dont rely on profit to pay overheads.....

The problem I see is that I don't want to spend four dollars on clothes for my avatar. I understand that someone worked hard creating it. BUT "I" don't get to use it.It's not a tangible item for "me".

Sure my avatar looks good,but where does that get the real me? Four dollars can buy me some pie in real life. Land sales are different IMO. "I" can do things with that land,possibly make even some money with that land.

Though I did buy a $L1500 dog today. He is a cutie,but I do find myself wondering why I wasted money like that,lol.

like so many things ... it depends on what it is, and the amount of work involved. But cothes are as tangible as land or rather not

L$2k is what I expect to pay for a limited edition dress/outfit from one of the top designers. Noone's work is worth that much for a generally available outfit that will still be up for sale in another 2 years, or will be available for a fraction of the cost at the next clearance sale.

Personally for me (and for clothing and accessories specifically) the rush of constant sales in SL has driven me to the point where I just no longer want to buy things since store owners seem to enjoy devaluing their own work. I know that I could buy something I like now for L$300-500, or I can wait 2-4 months and buy the same thing at the next sale for L$50-100.

PixelDolls' sale was a very nice change away from that (everything was priced at L$100-200, with an imposed limit of 25 sales per item before it went off the market) since it didn't really cheapen what I had bought from them before at full price.

Another big petpeeve for me is the apparantly increasing laziness of "create once, sell forever". Some stores have been selling the same things since before I came to SL, and it's still up for sale today. Whether it's clothing, or furniture, or anims, I don't want to spend money for something 1 million other people have already or will have at some point and will hold out for a store that actively retires its items (semi-)regularly.

No I havent, infact August sales I pulled in over $1.5K USD more than I normally bring in. However, this could have been due to a recent marketing tactic.

I`m not sure whats going on with the "slowdown" but I`m not seeing it on my end. Hopefully things get better for those experiencing slows right now.

Only in SL does a gown sell for more than a house.

Sales have really slumped over the Summer for me. I'm sad enough to keep a store spreadsheet (geek!) and the worst weeks were end of July beginning of August. Looks like things are picking up now *fingers crossed*

Interesting to hear people talking about stores that sell the same stuff FOREVER. I've been revisiting stores I shopped at when I first joined SL and their stock hasn't changed at all. These are big guys obviously making a tonne of cashey money. I guess good luck to them. A month of hard building and then sit back and watch the cash roll in! Doesn't foster customer loyalty though and as less new people sign up their sales will drop imho.

I'm experimenting with my first 'mall' shop in addition to just having one main store. So far no additional sales and if it doesn't pay for itself in the first month it'll be history. I really think that location, location, location is the thing with vendors and malls. Some are great and some suck. With main stores it's all about the search words. Get them right and you're away!

I'm no big success story myself, so my advice may be worth sod all. But I think the trick is to make something that's rare or non-existent in SL and put the name of it in your land description. If you make clothes don't put 'clothes' in the description. Put something unusual that you make or a description of why your stuff is unique. A great example is 'ladies jackets'. So hard to find just by searching.

A lot of the time ... its so hard to get a decent collection together, in my case... Ihave started to look at sales per item... if it hasnt sold any then it will be pulled back into stock to make room for new items.
But... at the same time, you have to have a selection of different products in different styles. e.g. I have seen examples of other shops that sell product X in White, product X in Blue, product X in Green etc. All on display... yeahhh great makes the place look full BUT its rubbish and attempting t fleece the consumer, in my business I provide the product scripted to provide ALL colours... if they buy 3 blue lights .... they could be green , red or yellow but they only have to buy the item .... not the varient. The other way is cheap, lazy and lacks originality.

I still do ok ..... not 1500USD a month like an earlier post, but I hold my own in world
So please BUY MY STUFF!!!!!!!!! *lol* its good...its honest...its british made and it doesnt stink like poo *lol*

now do I hear pie

Im the only person behind my brand, so for me i dont see it possible to release stock, then take it down and release a brand new stock.

In RL thousands are working hard with linked hands to put out real world attire, they can pull it off, I cant. They can put out their line for such and such season, pump out new ones, and exchange the old seasons wear with the new, I find it impossible.

If i get to the point where i can no longer fit products I will begin removing the old items, but for now I try to release weekly, and I will always release as long as people are buying my items

you do?!? ... I got nothing on my surveillance kit? .... ooh rats!!!

biab has had a negative effect i believe. there are too many people selling products, and because of the abundance of resellers selling the same products at varying prices (followed by the discovery of the $100 biab) many people have lost faith in merchants and question their integrity.
summer is often blamed for the slowdown, but sl is more international than ever, and it is not summer where many of the residents reside. furthermore, most students around the world dont take the entire summer as a holiday.
i think the biggest factors are inv issues, paypal problems, grid instability, and market saturation.

I make avatar animations and I have experienced a slight sales slowdown in the last two weeks - but to be honest August and July revenue were very much the same for me - i.e., low! I have never covered costs in my 8 months of trading in SL and it is impossible for me to recoop the true economic cost of my work, so I try to see SL more as a labour of love and if I manage to offset some of the cost of it, so much the better.

I do think the gambling ban has had a depressive effect on the overall economy though - that coupled with grid instability and poor performance. I don't blame anyone for not wanting to buy an item that is no-copy - it is just all too easy to lose things. My problem is that if I sell animations as copy/mod - No Transfer, I cannot offer refunds because items cannot be returned, and people do buy things by mistake, or change their minds, and then ask for refunds.

My sales are way down.

However, I think its due to the fact the the owner sold the land from under the one of my stores that did the most sales. (:

I went to several stores yesterday and bought clothes.(I know,shocker...) Anyway,one of the stores had cute stuff,so I bought a few outfits. I get home to try them on and they are all messed up. Holes in the fabric when my av walks for instance. Seams messed up. They looked good in the pictures. Do stores around SL have a no return policy? I want my money back.


(not really that mad, but seriously can I get a refund?)

No you won't...

You'll get so sick of looking at your own stuff that you'll start going out and looking for clothes that are nothing like yours.

Its possible the creator has no idea about the issues, try sending him/her an IM, but be warned, ive heard "horror stories" about innocent consumers being attacked by the creator for these sorts of IMs.

I ask people to send me IMs if there is a flaw in my clothing I overlooked, I will then promptly fix it, repack, and send them an updated version.

Good luck!

I'm sorry to hear of your situation. As Jesse suggested, do contact the creator and discuss it with them. Perhaps it was an oversight on their part?

As far as refund policies...it depends on the store. I know some creators, such as myself & Jesse among others, are far more interested in customer satisfaction than earning a couple of $L from a customer never to have them return.

Sales in general...hang in there! Patience, marketing and good customer service will get you through it. I hope things pick up for those who have been feeling a sales slump.

Best,
~Ari

I saw a slight slump in sales, since about April/May, both personal and in general with other merchants/creators I spoke with. The reasons for this are probably:
- summer slump (most residents are euro/us based, summer slumps have been standard for every year)
- grid stability
- negative press
- huge increase in merchants (partly new original creators, partly biab)
- changed focus from word of mouth to in world/web advertising/branding, several businesses spending huge budgets (probably 50%+ of revenue) on advertising.
- partnering and refocusing of several medium/large designers into larger business partnerships. So heavier competition in that area.

Since July, my sales have been steadily going up though, but this is largely related by sometimes hitting on a 'next big thing', and largely unrelated on the sales pattern over the complete line of products I sell. So I consider this an exception to the general trend.