Drop in sales since update?

Ok, I'm cross posting this from Resident Answers, I want to see how much of a problem this might be...

Has anyone noticed a drop in sales since the viewer update?

Vale

My sales have dramatically decreased. Our sim's traffic has dropped a ton also. =\

Yep, same here. It's the Mature checkbox. All shops on Mainland are affected.

might be due to "mature" being unchecked in search by default now.

Check your land name and description too. I have to finely adjust the description so it cover more keyword mutations. They only search whole word now ;p

my sales have froped to 0 since thursday. very worrying, seeing as i was selling about 2000m2 a day previusly

we noticed in terms of sales and reduced traffic and yes we've been told its down to the change to PG default on the search checkbox. Apparently some knee jerk reaction to sexual content even though we sell none of that because our sim is mature we get lumped in. Whichever idiot decided this mod when the program is supposedly 18+ needs to be given something more constructive to do. I'm more than capable as are most users of deciding which shops I wish to visit without this assanine censorship

Oddly, my sales have gone UP recently and I'm on mature land. Heh.

so do i.

Why do they have a "mature content" flag in the parcel options under the "search" checkbox if they're not going to use it in search?

My sales are also down, by about half..whats happening to our SL, it's becoming more and more like RL!

My sales are wayyyy down since Wednesday. I expected that for Wednesday itself because of the update and the fact that the island the store is on was being rebuilt that day. Unfortunately, yesterday and today (so far) have been equally abysmal.

I even doublechecked my classifieds to verify that they were teleporting to the correct location.

If it doesn't pick up again, I'll end up having to close my store at the end of the month. It's a bit too early for panic, though. *fingers crossed*

As kiki said earlier...her sales went down, and for about a day our sim was kind of empty. But that happens once in a blue moon.

Luckily for me i noticed only a slight dent in sales. I have quite a big customer base so i know A LOT of my traffic is incoming from word of mouth and/or customers who are simply coming back to pick up new items. I wasnt too hurt by it, just fortunate to have that.

Sales are not as strong as before. But because that mature thing is now off by default...they did slow down- all of us on mature are at a loss when ppl search.

Yeah people finally notice and some opt to turn it back on. but it seems once someone updates their SL...it goes back to being unchecked. so unless LL changes it back (Which i doubt) everytime theres an update this is going to happen.

Someone mentioned closing down- that sounds kind of drastic. wait it out. sometimes business take loses. Use different routes for advertising. Get some vendor space in PG areas. etc

My sales have more than doubled (due most likely to a new product release), while my wife and business partners have noticed no significant change.

Most of our stores are on Mature land, but none of our products are the kind you would classify as Mature, and I don't believe any of our classified ads ever specified Mature.

Perhaps the new default for the mature checkbox is significant, since other people who had that on are seeing a significant impact while I am not.

My merchandise is not adult-themed, but my store is on "mature" land. I can't really think of any other explanation for the sudden, sharp downturn in sales. I'm currently taking in about 20% of what I was before, and half of what I am still getting is from SLex, whereas previously most of my sales (perhaps 90%) came through the classifieds, with Slex/SLBoutique and walk-by traffic being a tiny fraction.

As I said earlier, it's too early for panic (and anyway, I'm paid up until the end of April), but my rent is fairly expensive and if I don't start getting more business again, I won't have any choice but to shut the store down after the end of the month and try to find something decent on PG land (and I suspect there will be a lot of competition from others in the same boat).

If LL doesn't reverse the change, I predict a major drop in the valuation of commercial mature land. Nobody's going to want to pay a premium for shop rentals in a sim that puts them at a severe disadvantage unless they actually carry mature merchandise/services or are already so well established that people will know to seek them out.

Ok, so I finally got in-world late last night. I was unable to repro the behavior in classifieds. From another thread on this subject I had understood that classified ads were affected, but it appears that that isn't the case. Since my shop is a space rental, I'm not listed in find/places anywhere, so I wouldn't be affected by the change there. Of course, that still leaves the question of the 80%-90% reduction in sales. A friend of mine believes that it's due to the Easter holy-daze. Could be, but I'm a bit skeptical...

Annie - depending on how long you have been in business you will definately see a change in sales on holidays..sometimes they are better and sometimes they are worse. Pre-Holidays are always hot for me and then there's a little drop off sometimes during the actual holiday depending on the type of holiday it is.

Holidays are subjective things still because according to research I saw 52.5 per cent of SL customers are European and obviously not all holidays are shared with US (if thats where your client base is mostly from).

Some suggestions . . . Look over your advertising keywords carefully. Add translations in many popular languages so that Euro/Asian searches also bring up your product. Tailor your advertising verbage to tap into all markets. Pictures of product instead of a store logos (or a mixture of the two) also serve to help bridge the language barriers, as well, since you are not well established yet.

Advertise your new releases on the SL forums, SLexchange forums, and start a blog if you dont have one (they are free) and link it on your website tab of your profile. It's surprising how many sales a nice profile can generate. If you are in business, your profile is free advertising and not the place for a lot of your intimate secrets, etc, anyways.

You said your rent is high...in my opinion unless you are super well established a main store with high rent is not the way to go...you are better off with exposure in areas with traffic already in place rather than trying to build it yourself, at least at first. Experiment with one/two weeks inexpensive rentals (they exist!) in several locations to get your product in front of as many face as possible. Lag is a consideration as well...cheap laggy rentals may be the place for a well thought out few boxes and a landmark to your main store. Explore, keep records of sales, and cut out it if doesnt make a profit or break even at least.

Have a trusted friend (who won't tell you what they "think" you want to hear) look at your packaging, advertising, and store presentation. I have revamped my stores several times and each time I incorporate a key learning from observations of friends and customers.
When you find something that works -- stick with it awhile and give it a chance.

If you haven't read it, search google or this forum for the tips for succeeding in SL business and see if you can polish your apples with anything you learn there.

I apologize if you already know this stuff and please don't take in any manner except how it was meant ...an effort to help and let you benefit from my experiences as a fairly new business owner myself.

Best of luck, hang in there baby!

Luve, reading the forums this morning and just had to say - what a wonderfully nice and helpful post! I'm not a shop owner, but if I was I think you had a lot of great advice there, so nice of you to take the time to share.

Thanks for the advice, Luve.

Actually, I've found through a lot of trial and error that classifieds generate most of my business, so I've done a lot of work to optimize them. (I work closely with the advertising, merchandising, and SEO - search engine optimization - teams at my RL job, so that's something I know a bit about.)

I don't get much walk-by traffic at all - I even tried setting up a second store in one of the most popular spots in SL and didn't get any bites. My merchandise isn't so much of the walk-by, "ooh that's pretty" variety - people are usually searching for it. I experimented with the non-targeted ads on SL Exchange - those didn't do very well either. I've sold a bit more than I would have otherwise, but not enough to break even on the advertising expense. When/if SLex implements more targeted ad placements, I'll probably try again.

I opened the main store where I did because I like the sim a lot and wanted to have my shop in an area that's actually pleasant to spend time in - not some ugly cut-rate shopping mall. Because it was doing so well, I expanded a bit. The rent just went up fairly significantly due to a remodel of the island - and in the same week, in-world sales suddenly plummeted, while my SLex sales remained fairly steady. That's what had me worried.

That said - things are picking up again. I opened a smaller store in a PG shopping area and pointed a couple of classifieds to it. That seems to be helping. The small shop isn't very expensive, and while I fully realize that I'm now splitting my business between two locations, having a PG location may give me customers who wouldn't otherwise have been able to find me, especially under the new policy.

Hiya,

im running a classy place at Virgin Island and sell high quality oriental antiques and some buildings there. Normally i sell between 20 / 45 K per day. The last days sales went down and i sell about 5 K per day max. I was wondering why this is happening and if i am the only one here. My classifieds are not set to mature. Sales on SLX seems not affected and is steady though.

My 2 cents,

Cheers,

Ami

Hi, I have had a tremendous drop in sales and I know part of the reason.

This is my post in "Current Viewer". Take a look. Could the problems be with more ppl than me?

/142/62/176613/1.html

I posted my recommendations over here: /327/af/176700/1.html

Good luck, all. I was hoping that things would be better by now.

I would be buying more stuff, but I've been crashing every 10 minutes over the last 2 weeks or so.