Transfer or Copy on clothing

I have thought about putting a sign in my store stating the different perms I am willing to set if the customer needs it, of course full perms or xfer/copy are a no no LOL

I have them as no copy no mod transfer (except any prim pieces which I set as mod transfer so ppl can make them fit).

I am willing to do mod on clothing if someone requests it, or switch layers if needed (had this request for someone who had tattoos and needed thongs on the pants layer) not a problem to do.
or if someone wants copy but no xfer yep I will switch the permissions if they request it

if I had the space I would place up all options on the wall or in the vendor...

maybe I should make a copy no xfer vendor of my items hehe... it is a thought I guess, and just put a blurb in my other vendors that if they want this item copy no transfer visit the store

Here's a new thought:

Why not sell it both ways?

Offer items that are set Copy/NoTRans and the same set, same price with NoCopy/Transfer perms.

Obviously, some items would not work as creators may not want some items copied, and others may not want their items passed out and about (Though I really don't get this one due to word of mouth advertising.)

However, and I'll use a clothing example, if you see an outfit in a store and think "Hey! My sis would lvoe that", you can buy the NoCopy/Transfer for her, or, alternativly, you could LM the store and she could come buy the Copy/NoTransfer if she prefered.

As long as your product is still protected concidering it's function, why not offer the consumer base more options? Overhead cost for this? Maybe 10L$ if you want a seperate pic, or possibly needing more prims to run COPY/NoTRANS and NoCOPY/TRANS venders seperately. One time costs that would prolly be returned many tiems over by increased sales.

~Jessy

Just to reinforce what Capella said, there are a few things that should definitely be copy/no transfer as the default and it irritates the hell out of me the sellers don't offer this. It's a select list, but it's basically those things that go with a multitude of outfits, and that honestly you'd never or rarely buy as a gift.
For example:
Animation overrides
Hair
Shoes

The craziest example I have is some Crucial shoes that have a no transfer shape, but a no copy prim object - insane.

Prims are the problem. I rent shops and use up all my prims on different products. Offering both options would mean double the prims, and that would mean bigger shops and higher rents. I've considered selling different options at different shops, with a TP point at each store, but would people bother to TP between stores?

What would be really useful would be a script that would permit you to choose an option when you click to buy. Has anyone heard of such a thing?

That's a fabulous idea! Actually, I'll take that one step further. Put both sets of perms together, tack on an extra $50L and then everyone is happy, and there's no confusion. People can't come back saying "I bought the wrong one" or "I can't transfer this and I wanted it for a gift". One notecard says it all, "inside you will find two sets of this same outfit. No refunds, no replacements". Tada!

Or better vendors to handle more products with the same amount of prims.

If you have the prims to place out multiple vendors (and the space to display them) it's always good marketing to show the people what you have. However, so is having the stock.

I place out new products on the floor. 1-prim vendors (11 prims total) that sell that one product which is displayed. Dual purpose of attracting new customers, plus letting the "regulars" come and just browse what's new. When I place out new items. I stuff the old into a single vendor (7-prims) that cycles through the products on a timer when no one is pushing the arrow buttons (20 prims total for those keeping track (2 for store signage)). Only one vendor lowers lag. Not only from less scripts, but that prim is the only one changing texture. The cycling of product pics catches eyes, as well as shows products to all. Even Regulars can finally notice something they missed this way.

I sell Copy/NoTrans but I get around the "Transfer as a gift" because my vendor has a Gift option. You pay that option, type the name of the person you want to give it to, and the system send the Copy/NoTrans item straight to that person.

Where there's a will, there's a script *Grins*

And for those wondering "What vendor?"; Check out all the niffty products by Moopf Murray. From simple to complex, to outright silly and fun, I've had great experiances with his work. Even complex items are easy to use (if time consuming) due to very well written manuals.


~Jessy

well prims are an issue for me as well, more prims means more cost, which I already had to downsize due to sales going in the trash

people say my stuff is awesome nice wonderful etc, but...no one seems to buy the awesome nice wonderful etc stuff. (few very few do, but not the amount that rave about them)

I dunno, guess wait and see, and make the sign so ppl know there are options.

I can not feasibly set up 2 sets of each in the store, just no room, and I am not going to package both transfer and no transfer sets in the same package for an extra 50L, when some sets are 400L, (some much lower of course)

that would not make sense, then they would be getting basically 2 sets (well with copy on one of them, an unlimited amount of sets) for the price of 1

For me, copy/mod/no transfer is the ideal set of permissions for clothing items. I too use folders and make up a lot of mix and match outfits (just because / photo shoots / runway modeling). No-copy items drive me nuts and my resulting inventory becomes a huge mess.

I like being able to have multiple copies if I have to make any modifications. If something goes wrong - I can always go back to the original. It is also handy to be able to make different modifications and save them as separate items.

It would be great if merchants offered both sets of perms - though I understand the limitations on prims and the extra work to accommodate. I really appreciate the efforts of merchants to clearly label their perms and to offer perm alternatives with an IM or notecard.

</rant on> Customer service is sorely lacking with a large portion of SL merchants - many of whom don't even reply if asked about alternative perms - or give a "read the signs - don't buy if you don't like" response. </rant off>

I'd love to see SL provide the ability to create virtual copies of any item for things like inventory folders while retaining only one original. Only the original item could be transferred - and if it was - all copies would no longer exist. Real 'copy' perms should only apply to rezzable objects - not things like clothes and skins that you can only use one at a time anyway.

This would allow clothing and even skins to be exchangeable, returnable and transferable while still allowing those of us using folders to better manage our inventories.

Yes, it would mean they basically get one set for themselves and a "free" set they can give to a friend. BUT you'd have the sale. Which is better than not having it. And the bonus is that it's one more person in your clothes. Walking advertising.

Oh, and I checked out the vendors mentioned earlier...Those rock. fewer prims and you can give gifts to people with them.

well if it was a guarantee I would get sales of course I would do it, but as it stands the sales are not there because the ppl are not there
(If I had high traffic and low sales I would wonder why) but I have no traffic and no sales, and do not know why..

I do have classifieds I also have it in my pics and have a banner ad on ginko website

I use the jevn vendors and if I recall they have the give as a gift option, however I have not been able to figure that out yet heh

still working on the catalogue system so I can put the option to ppl to get one (of course no cost) so they can browse and buy whenever and where ever they want, and even sell to others and get a commission

but again, have not completely figured out how it works yet... close though

That sounds like a good idea sell both in the one package, it's not like it costs you more materials to give away a free copy.
If you look at the poll it tells you where the preference is for most people.
I have decided against buying many items because they weren't transferable, or they weren't labeled as to what their permissions were.
I often see things out shopping that I would like to buy for a friend or alt, but then don't buy at all or see someone elses similar item with transfer perm. I'll move items from outfit to out fit as I wear them, generally I just split everything as I buy it into shoes, shirts, pants, belts, armor, etc and just mix & match otherwise I keep finding stuff I don't wear but maybe can't give away either.

And the outcome of the poll is fairly moot to any buisness.

Why?

Because look at how it's currently split now: 38%-62%

While math may say to market to the 62%, it would be idiotic to ignore 38% of the sales market. Even people who sell hand over fist because their products are just that darn good, would benifit from marketing to the largest selection of customers possible.

RL buisnesses focus on the larger percent. Why? Because manufacturing costs preclude making the item in all the ways people want. They produce and sell the most desired to the largest percentage.

In SL, however, there are no manufacturing costs. No, uploads don't count, nor does your time in making it. Those are "Creation Costs". Once your product is made, it costs absolutely nothing to produce more. Therefore, targeting the largest mass of consumers, with the widest variety of options, is the smarter marketing strategy. As I said earlier, this stratagy should only be veared from when the function of the product precludes such.

While how a certain person should run their buisness, based on prims, tier, rent, and personal desire, can be argued forever, what the consumer wants is variety. Why? Because a consumer is not jsut one person. A consumer is the group of people you are marketing to. In this case, anyone who buys clothes.

The perfect marketing stratagey is to give every consumer exactly what they want. Even in SL this isn't a feasable option, but is where the seller should start their market analysis. From there, bring it down to what can be afforded. Never exceed profit with cost. The first two items may fluctuate as some options are discarded in favor of others. The end goal is to make as many of your consumers happy as is finacialy feaseble. Happy consumers create two things: Sales (obvious) and advertising (reputation if you prefer). A consumer that is truely happy with your product, and your marketing, will spread word of your buisness in ways that no advertising campaine can every duplicate.

For any doubts, go look into the market stratagies of the top buisnesses in SL. Look not only what they sell, and how, but what services they offer their consumers. All the more succesfull ones (and that does not mean BIG) offer a host of options to the consumer, exceptional personal customer service, an exceptionaly manufactured product, or a combination of any or all.

Examples from my experiances:
BareRose :: Huge selections, pricing set to sell in bulk, very good work, absolutly fantastic customer service.
aubreTEC :: Consistantly updated products aimed at a specific market area, exceptional customer service.
Dark Eden :: Supior product in their field, very good customer relations/service.
Outland Tech / Curious Relics :: Wide selection on multiple product bases, detailed work showing a personal touch.
DoMoCo ::Creators of the Dominus Shadow. Focused on one product with all resources going to said product (some side marketing as well, but the focus is on the car), constant updates/improvements.

Buy cheep.
Sell dear. (This means 'profit' not 'greed')
Pander to the customer.

Thus ends Marketing 101

*grins*
~Jessy

This matter is one that is 50-50, what I mean is that there are VERY valid reasons for the BOTH sets of perms to be made available. The ability to create outfit folders is very useful lto me and if the items are no copy then I may end up with items of clothing sets scattered all over. I really like the ability to "store" the original outfit somewhere and then when i want to clean out my inventory I can just delete my outfit folders knowing I can create new outfits by using the COPY enabled originals.

There are MANY people who like to sell their clothing once they are done with them alo however so I feel the merchant is better off making 2 versions of their clothing so they can cater to both desires. I know several people who will refuse to Buy vlothing unless it is COPY/NO TRANS and I know people who will not purchase NO TRANS items so you just may be losing sales if you do not take peoples desires into account.

i sell them copy modify no trans until they fix the asset server issues this last weekend if they had been transfer I would have gone insane

When the asset server is fixed then I will think about transfer but the number of people who lagged out and made multiple purchases, lost items this weekend exceeded the number of people who had no problems and I dont use vendors. I spent all weekend going through my transaction records refunding money for multiple accidental purchases. And all weekend sending replacement copies of stuff that they either never got or went poof

So if and when things become stable I may actually swithc to transfer but I had started making things transferable and I ran into all sorts of problems at christmas so to save my sanity I switched and I wont be switching back till LL fixes the servers

Right, I've decided. I'm going to sell NC / T at some of my shops and C / NT at the others, with a LM vendor so people can easily TP between the two (might even splash out on a rectal shoe removal unit for unfortunate teleports too!). Lets see how that goes.

I refuse to purchase no copy items so anyone who sells no copy items looses sales as well. Bottom line some people want one thing and another group wants another thing. Since gift cards take care of a lot of issues and I have been known to "special deliver" stuff in person the issue of transfer is easily overcome but when i spend a lot of lindens on an item I hate loosing it. I lost 2 trees this last week that i bought from err gah i forget her name anyhow if they had been copy they would have also been in my inventory but I had to go back and buy new copies because I lost em. The amount of no copy items I have lost lately is absurd so i have stopped buying them no matter how much I want it I wont buy it because chances are very high that I will not have it next month

At present until the asset servers are repaired PERMANENTLY no transfer items is a huge risk especially if you buy from an older player who does not log on regularly any longer and begging for replacements gets a bit old and tiresome after awhile so i wont be buying no copy transfer items anytime soon

vendors are a bit of a problem they dont spit stuff out well and so a lot of people wont buy from vendors no matter what choice you make someone wont buy so do what you think is best beause honestly there is always going to be an issue

So looking at the results so far it's 60/40, so the question for sellers is do you want to cater for 40% or 60% or 100% by selling both?

ya know this whole thing has got me to thinking I might, very possibly might make mine offer both no copy yes transfer and copy no transfer in the same package.

will mean redoing my ads as my ad pics show the perms on the pic, but it will be worth it if it means I am able to market to nearly 100% of the consumers.
(I rarely put modify on clothing, because well, I just feel if you buy it you must want what you see, no need to modify)
prims I set to mod so they can be made to fit.
clothing always sizes to fit hehe

this comment is what is swaying me to do it this way...
"That sounds like a good idea sell both in the one package, it's not like it costs you more materials to give away a free copy."

even though it will cost me uploads, about 300 to 400L for the ad pics (no I do not have a huge amount of items but enough to add up on the lindens LOL) and the time to make the other perms and box them as well, it hopefully will help business.