Could use commercial / economic / statistic advice as well

Hi all,

I read the post by Siobhan about pricing at
/109/09/15234/1.html
and I have struggled and still am struggling with the same thing. After asking both newbies and well established ppl I have come to the conclusion that my prices are certainly not too high.. ( 10-15 for textures and 20-100 for furniture, with the 100 being a box offer of chairs + table ) and that's a good thing I guess.

But : my sales keep dropping.. and I would still like to be able to make a decent living out of it so I don't have to rely on the stipend all the time. So I was thinking : the reason I am not selling as much as I would like, has to be something other than pricing, and this is what I would like to ask advice / comments / ideas about because my brain cells designated for commerce are out of order

Possible reason 1 : I try, in a reasonable sense, to be all over the place, at this moment I have 6 or 7 spots where my stuff is sold. Should I go for even more exposure or just scale down ?

Possible reason 2 : I create things I like to see, not what others would like. Maybe that's the weak part ?

All feedback welcomed and appreciated

Deannea Morgan
Collection Deannea

Hi Deannea,

Some good observations came from the thread you quoted, true. But one thing sticks in my mind...

Firstly, I think your prices may be a little low. I haven't seen your goods, so I don't know, but personally, while I sell chairs and occasional-ware in the 30-50 range, dining suites and the like are much more. As in the thread quoted, I wondered if it was too much more, but some of it, especially the high-prim items (I have a 42 prim banquetting table for instance, or a 10+ prim dining table) are beyond the prim-range of a lot of newcomers, so advertising it to their price is a waste... They couldn't rez it. If they know this, you lose the sale, if they don't, they come back for a refund later. Much better to be upfront about it, I think.

As to location. I don't think the extra exposure is harming you. There are a lot of new people in world right now, and there's some amazing talent. Maybe reason 3 is just that they'd like to see what they can make themselves before they buy. Or reason 4, that the malls are getting so much adverse publicity (people selling free or $1 items for $50 or $500) in the forums here that they don't want to take the risk. (I don't know that you do sell in a mall, but if you do, maybe that's an issue). Certainly it hurts the mall owners when people do this, so it can't but hurt the reputation of legitimate sellers in the same places.

Also, someone mentioned yesterday, I can't remember if it was here in the forums or inworld, that they were glad certain items were prced outside their range, as it gave an incentive to save up, and a better perspective on what they actually needed to buy. i.e. less impulse buying.

So yes, a 2-prim side table or a 3-4 prim chair, great 30-50 ... but for say a 20+ prim dining suite, there's no point in targetting people with a small prim allowance.

Having said that, if you are a newbie needing furniture, come along and speak to me. I, and I'm sure Deannea or any other manufacturer of furniture, would be happy to discuss your requirements and come up with something suitable, and a similarly suitable price.

OK, so no real answers, but maybe I can spur someone on to providing some. Good luck Deannea, you think you could supply a landmark here or inworld so I can come take a look at the competition?

Sio.

Siobhan, thanks for your reply

So maybe I have to update the vendors again if my prices are indeed a little low.. Have to think about that.

The new points you mention are very good, hadn't thought of them myself yet

I second your remark about being available for a discussion with new ppl and/or established customers about their needs.. But I guess that is, or should be, a standard possibility... if you have nothing for that particular customer, ask wat they would like and go from there.. Custom work is almost always possible and depending on the time needed for eventual adjustments I charge no extra L$..

And checking out the competition is always a good thing so I will drop you the landmark on the updated store when I am in-world again.. if you would do the same please ?

Thanks,
Deannea

Another couple of suggestions, people seem to far prefer display boxes to vendors and they really like talking to the proprietor. I might recommend that you consoldiate all your sales kiosks, get yourself a directory listing and hang out at your shop with display boxes and greet your customers. SL doesn't seem to like high-pressure sales or saturation placement. And it does take some time for word of mouth to get you a good reputation (oh, need furniture, look up Deannea).

Disclaimer: I am not a vendor and I have not seen your goods, this is just an observation I have made of peoples purchasing habits.

Hi Malachi,

thanks for your reply

I must confess I haven't thought ot customer behaviour that way.

Boxes are a good idea, WYSIWYG, but the problem with boxes is that when you rent space to sell your stuff, there are prim limits... so if you would have 100+ items in your inventory that are for sale, you could only display a few of them at the same time...

Yes, I have had my own land with my own shop on it, had it listed an all, but 1 or 2 sales in a period of 6 weeks... so that hasnt worked for me. The suggestion however is very good, maybe I should reconsider and give the shop a chance again as this occurred during my first weeks in-world.

About ppl liking to meet the proprietor and talking to them : I tend to agree with you as I would like that myself. But, on many occasions I had been present in the store, someone flies in, doesnt say a word, flies around ( not even landing ! ) still saying nothing and leaving again .. Very likely that is a small group, but if it is, I have met all of them.

About your furniture needs : IM me when in-world so you can see if your needs and my furniture are compatible

Deannea

As far as the uncomfortable silence goes, it is a wonder how far "Hi I'm Deannea, this is my shop, let me know if you have any questions" goes. The world is big enough and SL folks, especially new ones, tend toward the timid when bumping into someone they don't know.

Or you could take the Arab Rug Bazzar Huckster approach and tail your vistors out of the store until they get irritated, but I don't think that would work as well

I shall look you up next I'm in-game.

Malachi, you are right with your example of how I could have acted when ppl came into my shop.

What I haven't mentioned ( because I think it is logical that ppl wont say anything when you yourself do not say anything ) is that I always greet ppl, be it in my own store or in someone else's

Deannea

Hi Deannea -

Another suggestion - instead of asking others to IM you in game, do that yourself.

IM those who you wish to follow up with.

In that spirit, feel free to IM me inWorld for a couple other networking suggestions.

Hang in there Deannea, SL is a big place, take your time and work your business and people will find you.

Hiya Merwan, thanks for replying

I have thought about your suggestion, dont wait until others IM you but do it yourself, but unfortunately I have always felt rather uncomfortable IM-ing ppl out of the blue when it comes to selling my items. When I have questions about something I will not hesitate to ask but IM-ing ppl when I know they need something I might be able to supply.. I feel too pushy. I know, not commercial at all

But thank you for your suggestions and encouraging words, I will take you up on your offer

Deannea

Here's my experiences as a merchant so far. My shops are very unsuccessful right now because I have a tiny inventory, so first thing is to take a look at the size and more importantly the variety of your inventory. Get a couple good ideas that are distinctively different, then you can fill in the gaps by offering different sizes colors textures models etc.

Maybe inventory isn't your problem, the next thing is advertising. You'll notice all the big name vendors will jump on every new mall that opens. Anshe Chung has a booth in virtually every mall in SL. The trademark purple Luscious booth can be seen in every mature shopping place you'll find. Expand expand expand.

Customer relations. If I'm working in Photoshop or Poser, I keep SL open and sit at my highest traffic shop and talk to anyone that passes by. Over 50% of my sales have been through interacting with customers, not just waking up and finding out I made some sales overnight. Assuming your items are no copy, there's no such thing as a loss sale. If someone will only pay $1 for your item, you are still $1 richer than before, because while items in game have a time cost and an initial cost which can be grouped as research & development, there is no manufacturing cost whatsover. So offer everyone who passes by 25% off, and 30% off your bigger items that you really push. This is why I set my prices a little bit higher, because I like to give lots of discounts.

Also, "loss leaders" (although there's really no such thing in SL) are a good marketing strategy that surprisingly few people use. If you're inventory consists of 100 items, what difference does having only 99 items make? Give one good item away for free to anyone who walks in the store; for my store it's a t-shirt with the shop graphic on it. You might give away a microwave or something, as long as it doesn't interfere with other possible sales.

You asked for statistical advice... I can't give you any without numbers. Load up all of your previous sales in to an Excel spreadsheet, one entry for each sale that is the price it sold at, ex.

25
25
40
35
40
100

then use one of the free statistical analysis add-ins available online to create a histogram. This will allow you to abstract from the items being sold and focus just on prices. Where are the clusters at? If price really is everything, there would be a perfect slope from left to right, i.e. as the prices go up the sales go down. In reality you'll probably see some peaks in the higher numbers where you had a more expensive item that was popular. Find the range of that peak and target new items around there. WARNING: accurate measures can only be derived from large sample bases, unless you have a lot of sales numbers to work with this might be shooting in the dark. Also if you've never sold an item over $200 you won't know how good an item over that price will sell, so there's more than one way the sample population can be flawed.

If you're still frustrated over sales, switch to real estate .

I'll just reiterate a couple of points already made here...

Pricing too low can definitely negatively impact sales. It's a psychological thing on the part of the buyer. Two items could be virtually identical but people will subconsciously assume that the more expensive one is of higher quality. You need to balance that against your desire to offer affordable pricing. It's a weird bit of human nature.

Hanging out in your store definitely helps bring in traffic. People appreciate the personal touch. Sometimes, though, I can sense that someone is uncomfortable. I imagine some people can feel pressured if they feel like you're watching over their shoulder. You sorta have to play it by ear. Most people seem to like being able to ask questions or see something out of the box. If I'm in one of my stores and shoppers stroll in I say hello and let them know that I'm happy to answer any questions they might have or model items they want a closer look at. Then I busy myself with something and leave them be unless they strike up a conversation. In the end though, you'll get more traffic in your store when you're there than you will when you're not.

Also, word of mouth is the best advertising in SL... but there is a substantial time lag. It can take a month or longer of items being in world before you start getting people coming in looking for something they saw at a friend's house or their friends wearing. Don't be discouraged if it seems like it's taking a long time to build up sales. It can take a while to build up repeat customers and they'll be the true lifeblood of your SL business.

Deannea, as you are realtively new, If Chip says something about conducting business listen carefully: he is one of the longest and most repspected merchants in game. Just in case you hadn't picked up on that already.

Actually I'd like to retract all the advice I gave. Well, it still stands, but that's all secondary to the most important aspect of being a merchant I found out tonight. SEX SELLS.

I've been running my little skateshop for about a week, and considering the inventory size and how new it is it's been doing fairly well since I put a lot of time in to advertising and customer relations. Well all that got put to shame when I decided to make a sex animation kit. I spent about an hour, hour and a half making the animations and gestures, threw them in a box, put a really rude picture on the front and threw it up for sale in two places. In three hours I became richer than my wildest dreams, beating my total skateshop sales by an order of magnitude and then some in a mere three hours. If this pace continues I'm cashing out a large chunk on GOM tomorrow, and making more dirty animations! I also got two contracts to do custom adult animation work on a fairly large scale, and have been bombarded with IMs of requested add-ons, scripting ideas, etc.

You perverts! Thank you for your business.

Chip, Malachi and Eddy,

thank you for posting.

Chip, like Malachi pointed out, you are an respected merchant and I will certainly try to implement your advice Thank you!

Eddy, I know sex sells, but I won't take my business in that direction because of RL circumstances. Thanks for the advice though, and good luck with your adult animations

Deannea