Setting up a shop - please help!

Hi i am quite new to sl but have learnt how to design my own clothes which i want to sell in sl.

I am planning to rent out a shop space but would like to know how to display my wares and if there is anything i have to do to make sure when someone buys my clothes that they can wear them!

Also how do i set price etc and how do i make sure im on the right search tools.

Any other info would also be greatly appreciated. Thanks x

You have a lot of questions there. Good questions. I don't know all the answers, I'm not in that line of work. But my advice to you would be to find a store/designer that is successful. See what they do that makes them successful and try to emulate it. Do some research, see what works and what doesn't. This advice applies to all potential SL businesses. Look at the market leaders and see how you can improve upon their business models. Good luck!

Hi Rhiannon. I've been running a few stores for the past couple of months so I'm far from being an expert, but I've learned the basics the hard way, by trial ane error. Things are now starting to go pretty well. If you'd like a chat with another newcomer to SL business, feel free to IM me in-world. I'd be happy to give what help I can.

Love Suzi

The general way most people display their wares is by taking photos of their products on either themselves or models, saving it to their hard drives and then adding information text in something like photoshop or the gimp (which is a free graphics program). After adding the information (stuff like your shop's logo, the name of the product, its permissions and its cost in L) it is uploaded as a texture.

If you have a small spot with not much in the way of a prim alotment and several things to sell, you may consider using a vendor. If you need a freebee, give me a shout and I'll drop one on you or you can stop by my mall and pick one up for free. (link in the sig) the second option is to just put out a prim and set it to sell its contents for whatever price it is you want to sell your product for. But you will need an individual prim for each item. Whichever you use, you will need to apply the texture you made with your picture and information to it. With selling via a prim, you just apply the texture as you always would. With a vendor you have to put it in the contents.

The default permissions should make sure that people can wear your clothes when they get them. Although you may want to set them slightly differently depending on your preference. For example, you may want people not be able to copy or modify your clothing, but you want them to be able to give it away. So you would make sure you set your permissions to no copy, no modify, yes transfer. But if you wanted to allow people to copy the them, say to encorporate parts with different outfits but not be able to give it away, it would be yes copy, no modify, no transfer. Just as some examples. With prim clothing especially its generally good to have copy, modify, no transfer because avatar shapes are different and often times they have to be adjusted for an individual avatar. I've had this problem many times because I have a short avatar with an actual butt. Most prim skirts seem to be designed for avatars with flat butts.

I wrote a thing on setting prices here. I won't repeat it here as it is lengthy, but it might be helpful for you.

As for search tools, you'll want to set up some classifieds for your products once you have a store location. Make sure to include keywords you want people to use when searching for your products, and don't make your description just a bunch of keywords, try to make it coherant and inviting. If the mall owner you are renting from has a location listing, they might be able to list some of your keywords in their find. Advertising your new products to the forums here, and possible dropping some to some of the fashion bloggers to sample is a good way to get some exposure. Setting up some freebee samples in places like the Junkyard with landmarks to your store helps get your name and location around. Word of mouth is generally the way most people get known. It takes time, so don't expect success overnight, but if you keep at it, you'll get there.

If you want to chat with me in world and chat further, feel free to msg me.

Thanks for all your help guys - its really appreciated. Will most likely take up your offers of help. - Again cheers x

One thing I have run into being new is shops often even in busiest places have little actual buyers which can be quite depressing.
Vendor thing can be hard too. Promoting one's business can be pain because there is so many and often advertising services don't provide too much.
Also if you prepay for land and owners decide for whatever reason they don't want you there there is no recourse to get funds and you often have to deal with whatever restrictions they set.
Places that are cheap with tons of shops you seldomly get noticed or very few buyers.
Often the cheaper places are quite small and hard to get good enough display space.
Places with lots of campers usually don't shop much.
Best bet if you can is either find someone you trust to rent from or spend the money on your own land for shop space.