Seeing advice from SL shoppers . . .

My dear friend Miles Montgolfier and I are working together to start a clothing line called Social Butterfly. We're finally getting closer to creating things that I feel are worth selling and hope to be opening a proper shop once we've got enough things ready.

However, I know next to nothing about the mindset of the average shopper in SL because I hardly ever do it myself! I've been very, very DIY-and-freebie from about day one of my inworld existence. (Apparently I'm just as thrift-oriented in SL as RL . . . ) I'm certainly not knocking people who spend Lindenage on clothes--indeed, I'm hoping lots of them will be buying what we have to sell. But since I don't do it myself, I was hoping to, perhaps, pick the collective brains of SL shopping types out there, so our little shop can get started on the right foot.

So I have a bunch of questions--feel free to answer as many or as few as you feel apply. I'm just trying to get a feel for things.

I suppose I should specify that we're plotting on a very 'girly' look for our clothing, but male input is just as welcome.

What do you look for in SL clothing? What makes it worth spending Lindens on?

How do you find places to shop at? Word of mouth? Classifieds? Wandering in "mall" areas?

What makes a shop a pleasant place to visit for you?

Do you join Groups for specific shops or clothing lines? How often do you hear from them? How often do you WANT to hear from them?

What's the optimal interface for buying clothes? What information do you want on the vendor to help you make a decision?

Is there anything that certain clothing designers do that you wish more people would do? (Somebody suggested putting a texture in the folder with the outfit that shows what the outfit looks like--which comes in handy when one is trying to remember which dress is in what folder!)

Are there any suggestions you might have for someone just starting out in the SL clothing business?

Thanks so much for any input! I really appreciate any help anybody can provide.

As a business owner in a somewhat competitive field (robots and mech avs and stuff) there are a couple suggestions that have been very successful for me.

1) scope out and identify your DIRECT competition. Not every clothing company will be your competitor...just the ones with similar styles. Figure out who they are.

2) undercut their prices as much as you can within reason. I saw that most places with mech suits of similar quality to mine were selling them for about L$1000 or so. I did that and had modest success after a few months. Then I decided to cut the prices to L$550 and have sold a TON more than before and am making more money than previously.

3) make sure you know who your audience is. Another thing I noticed when I first opened up was a lot of combat people came to my shop, looked around and left. That was before I had anything with guns on it. Once I broke down and made a suit with weapons my sales went up because those people had something to buy from me now! I also have a mech suit for tinies!

Hope that helps and good luck!

Nyte'N'Day: Clothes, Skins & Mor, Couture Isle (46, 124, 50)

clean and neat design
boxes on the wall with pictures and several colors
alot of room so u don`t feel like being on a shop wich is "packed" with stuff to get as much out of every cm

personally, i hate the "girly" look, rather have normal looking casual clothing

when bored, i either classified, search or just map hop and look around, found "my" best stores like that by accident and a few by word from friends

just look around SL and u know how NOT to build a store, best advice lol

/hops over

I look for good design. crisp patterns , details, coloring. realistic styles, if I won't wear it in RL, with some leeway, I probably won't wear it here. (with a couple of possible exceptions.) I don't have a closet full of belly shirts and micro skirts in RL, I don't need a lot of them in SL. I hate when sleeves are not adjustable. A lot of times i ca'nt wear bracelets with certain items.. On a vendor I want to see a good idea of what the item looks like when worn. I don't read inworld classifieds, when i started I just searched by keyword and visited all the shops that came up. Now I have my list of favorites. I do read the classifieds on the Forum. I don't join store groups anymore. They are mostly IM Spamfests. If you open a shop, announce it here. I will definitely stop in.

Primarily word of mouth, or the fashion blogs.

I never use classifieds; if a tp ends me in a mall, I'll just tp out. It's really just too much of a hassle to wander around a mall aimlessly, looking for a specific store.

Take a look at the Fashion Consolidated group for an alternative to a store group.

Joining store groups is limited to stores I shop in all the time really, there just aren't enough group slots, or groups that actually have another purpose rather than just increase sales (ie dropping a *quality* freebie onto your group, organizing events, etc).

I'm far more likely to add a blog feed than join a group (web profile tab is a good way to have the link easy to find).

No scripted vendors at all (a vendor for colours is ok I guess, but not for different outfits), but prim based ads.

It's far easier to cam around a store and look for something that catches my eye than to stand in front of a vendor for 10 minutes waiting for that one texture that just won't rez .

The price doesn't have to be on the ad, but the permissions should be.
Texture ads included with the outfit are definitely handy .

Don't put landmarks in your folders, it's annoying for frequent shoppers, you can include the name of the store in the name of the folder (and don't forget to have your store in your picks).

Don't ever include "worn" in the name of an outfits, it's really annoying to have those items show up when you just want what you're actually wearing.

Being flexible on things like permissions (asking for NC/T or C/NT depending) is a big plus to me personally. You don't necessarily have to have both out, just a notice somewhere that people can contact you and ask for a different permission will work, if that's something you're willing to do.

(Disclaimer: these are things *I* like, they're not all necessarily things that would be a good idea for everyone )

Good seams, textures, and attention to shading, wrinkles, and other detailing; several color choices; lines that are classic, but with a twist; sexy, not skanky. I shop at Last Call, Celestial Studios, Shiny Things, and Pixel Dolls a lot of the time.



I hate malls. Word of mouth and wandering when I first started, but I find new places now by reading the fashion blogs and checking the forum classifieds. Did I mention that I hate malls?



A layout which allows me to camera-shop, clean design, and accurate pics of the merchandise.



I've joined a few of my favorites, but I don't do it as a matter of course. Weekly contact is plenty, unless there's a new release or they're sending out freebies.



I generally don't like vendor systems. If you have just a few available items, they're OK, but I don't want to have to scroll and scroll and scroll. Single item posters are much preferred whenever possible. Definitely list perms on the ad and what layers are included in the Edit tab description.



Those annoy me...I delete them immediately. It makes me happy when designers put things on a few different layers, ie, pants on both the pant and underpant layers, shirts on jacket, shirt, and/or undershirt layers.



Be patient, take your time, and focus on quality and originality. There's someone who posts in New Products here virtually every day and all the outfits look the same except for their textures (which aren't great either)...that 'assembly-line' approach will never earn any sales from me.

My two cents:

- Put a good bit of effort into the textures, both in creating realistic looking fabrics AND in lining up your prims so that the textures match/fit on adjacent prims. (Look at Luminosity's fabrics, Nonnie's laces, or Insolence's garments as good examples)

- Details! If I just wanted a simple t-shirt or plain skirt, I could make it myself. Give me the things that an average SL user probably can't do: lace edges, buttons, pocket, embroidery, and so forth

- When you create a box, please put an image (texture file) of the outfit or item in the box. It's a nice convenience for your customers. I can tell what the outfit is while sorting my inventory without trying it on.

- Organize your store for convenient viewing. Don't pack rows of displays so closely together that I can't easily walk and swing my camera around.

- When I click on an item to buy, the purchase interface that comes up should be properly preloaded with the price of the item. Don't make me have to input the price myself.

- Don't make me search for what I need to click on to buy the item. I want to click on the whole image, not just a little, inobtrusive square.

Good luck!

When you write up your classifed ad be sure to copy / paste it into a free online translater and convert it into every language.

i find having your advertisment in english, dutch, german, french, spanish, portg, latin
really increases sales

only 30% of the users in SL are in 'usa' and even those 30% dont nessssssssissssssarly speak english

One other thing, one you are up and running. When your inventory is big enough, have marked dispalys for new stuff. One of my favorite shops is quite large and doesn't mark new items a lot of times. I admit to not keeping track sometimes and buying outfits more than once.

Absolutely! Have a New Items section. I hate looking around in areas where I've already seen the merchandise for the new items.

Also, how about having sales or promotions now and again? Regularly adding inventory is nice, too. You can get me to your store, but you need to keep me coming back.

Okay, CyFishy, I don't know how to separate my comments from your quoted questions, so this may be a mess.



You're welcome. I hope this helps.

Set up shop somewhere you can get a place-listing, i.e. get your own land or rent at one of the places that offer this as a service. If you absolutely have to be in a mall, make sure people can teleport straight into your store. Malls are annoying, especially if people have to wander around them to find you. The only malls I ever come are oriented around one specific theme (for instance a medieval market square with medieval products only). When I moved out of my first store location to my own land, sales went up dramatically, in hindsight I should have gotten my own land right from the start.

Also make sure your store is spacious. I really like it when there is enough room to stand in one place and cam around without having the camera getting obscured by walls and so-called quaint passageways. More products means more vendors, ideally only one outfit per vendor. You can use multi-item vendors for multiple colours.

poopmaster sir i do protest the girth of thy signature...

product quality. crooked seams, mis-matched patterns, etc.. big turn off.



yes, word of mouth. traffic counts are meaningless because of campers. and i very seldom wander around a mall i've tp-ed to.

this applies to anything i buy. not just clothing.

Most of what I'll mention has already been posted, but I'll mention it anyway just so you can get an idea of what most people look for.

* Spacious shop with wall-mounted displays. I prefer to camera cam also. Save the vending machines for multiple color choices or not at all. If you're selling furniture or houses, I want to see it rezzed or I'm not likely to buy.

* Agrees with "New Section" suggestion.

* Offer shirts, corsets and pants in multiple layers (ie. pants/underwear and shirt/undershirt/jacket). If you don't make an underwear version of your pants, at least make them modifiable to we can shorten them or flare them to wear with boots.

* I prefer a shop or a small group of shops over a mall any day. I rarely go to big malls at all. The lag is horrendous.

* I prefer the "buy" option over the "pay" option. Not only do I not want to put in the price myself in the "pay" option, I also like to see the individual pieces that I'm buying in the "buy" option.

* I like things that are nice and detailed in design (pockets, buttons, lace, zippers) and in softer fabrics, I like the ones that have a realistic "feel" to their looks (silkiness, clinginess). I like things that are a bit unique.

* Don't turn off build mode if your merchandise comes in boxes. Lots of shoppers that don't have their own home like to open the boxes in the shop.

* A dressing room would be a nice feature for those that don't have the privacy of a home to change in, but thats not a necessity for most shoppers, I don't think.

* Don't glamourize your clothing pics too much. There is nothing I hate worse than seeing an item that "looks" spectacular in a display, only to buy it and find out that the actual quality isn't nearly as good. It really makes me cautious to ever shop there again. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised.

Often, if I go to a new shop, I'll buy one inexpensive item first to see the quality for myself before I invest in a pricier ensemble. Pixel Dolls was one shop that impressed me alot. The first time I went there I saw some cute shirts and bought a couple. I was amazed at how great they actually looked on. I've been back many times since. I've never been disappointed yet. I like the live model idea or maybe sales people wearing your outfits.

* Sexy & sensual over sleazy and slutty

* Try to keep lag reduced. I love BareRose but their shop used to be so laggy that I couldn't move. Its greatly improved since June turned off scripts there.

* Turn on the music. I've gotten too used to listening to music in everything I do in SL. If I go to a shop without music, the silence doesn't feel comfortable to me. I can't wait to leave. Anyone who doesn't want to hear can turn it off on their client. (shops that sell sounds would be exempt, of course)

* If an item is no copy, please make it transferable. Lots of times I like to buy a gift or if I buy something that I end up getting bored with or not liking, I'd like to be able to donate it to a newbie or a friend. Once I wanted to buy my boyfrend some dress shoes. I saw some nice ones in one shop, but they were no transfer. I ended up buying some elsewhere that were also nice and transferable.

* If you are selling an ensemble, list the pieces included or those not included (like shoes, accessories or jewelry) in the display. Maybe even list where the accessories can be purchased on a note card in case someone wants to duplicate the complete look.


>> In the beginning, I shopped strictly by the classifieds and word of mouth. Now unless I'm looking for something specific, I usually browse the new products section of these forums.

>> I rarely join clothing groups unless its a shop that I really like and I want to be updated on new releases or if they give out nice freebies to members.

What if the tp lands you in a mall at the doorstep of the shop you were looking for? I can name at least one that features this for all its tenants...



Absolutely agreed here. Not enough groups, sure not going to waste them on product update groups... except for the couple that supply me my most used products as a merchant (my rez vendor, my rental boards), in short, only the products that make me money will I carve out group space for to keep updated.



Oh, I think you nailed it all really well, actually Some folks really really want copyable so they can make different outfit folders, some using pieces from here and there and so forth, some folks won't take anything that isn't transfer so they can give it as gifts or when they get tired of it they can resell it and recoup some of their spendings (or give it away).


As for something I look for... I have discovered (with limited recent shopping time) exactly one really good pair of trousers that go fully to the waist using the jacket layer to complete the pant line. I wear these trousers nearly to the exclusion of all other pants now. I would like to see more made in other colors, the same shade of dkgrey/black is kind of old after a while. I've found they work well this way with the tops from various gowns and almost all shirts. The downside, of course, is I can never wear them with a jacket unless the jacket covers what would then be missing.

I think its a shame the pants layer doesn't actually come to a woman's waist, but then, of course, its a shame the skirt mesh sticks out half a meter in ever direction (well it looks that way, doesn't it?<G> making our bums look humongous unless we make an alternate shape with a 9 yr old male's hips stuck to our otherwise adult fem bodies....

Char

id kill for more boy shorts for girls i love my bathing suits and bikins and such but so many of them have that darn crotch bleed so id prefer if summer wear and lingerie would do more cute but still sexy outfits with boy shorts

i am not a frufru type girl i love corsettes and poofy skirts with my combat boots but i also love jeans and corsettes or shirts just depends what im doing

but there are certain designers i always go and check out when i have shopping money to see if they have anything i cant live without lol

i hear about new shops that are good from friends i almost never look anything up unless i dont have a landmark for it or am looking for something specific for an event

Please don't make me have to almost buy the item to find out the price. If I don't have enough funds the price doesn't stay visible long enough to read.

I really like cute mix and match ensembles. There are good examples of this at Luminosity, Luminous Island. (No, I'm not affiliated with them in any way) At first I bought a lot of individual items to make up my own ensembles, but more and more I'm using entire outfits as the designers' intended. I have a sub-folder in my inventory under Clothing that is Complete Outfits and I seem to enjoy these more than anything else I wear. But I could still be in the market for some nice blouses and sun dresses.

I don't like clothes with a lot of bling or with textures that are set to full bright. These look cartoonish to me. I am also avoiding too much of the usual sleaze that you see everywhere. I don't mind revealing, but would like to see more creativity and sensuality, not more flexi-mini skirts with garters showing.

I envy you for having the wherewithal to make clothes and start a business. I would love to do that, but it's not easy! As I have shopped just about every day I log on, you can rest assured I'll be dropping by. -- KC

That approach is fine obviously .

I just can't count the number of times I appeared in a center of some big mall and then went on looking for a store that hasn't been there for months .

Word of mouth too, but most important are classified ads. I want to see that clothing designers are either confident enough in their product to pay for classified ads, or are already successful enough to be able to pay ads with their profits.

Same with the shop. A designer should either invest in or be able to pay with their profits for an own shop, on own land in a lag-free sim. There's nothing worse than shopping malls with thousands of slowly loading textures.



Wares that are clearly arranged and separated by product groups; performance (no mall-like lag); an appealing shop and vendor design.



The product photos on the vendor should look good (no jagged edges due to 1:1 screenshots without anti-aliasing, neutral lighting that doesn't affect the color, neutral background without distracting elements).

I'd like to see as much of the product as possible, probably both front and backside. It should be clear what is and what is not included (for example, if the depicted prim shoes and jewelry aren't inlcuded in the set, it should be mentioned; it's self-understood that skin and hair aren't included though).

If the product has any special features or contains extras, it should be mentioned on the vendor as well. It's nice to find bonus items as a surprise after the purchase, but it makes more sense and helps the sales if the customer knows this before.

Prim attachments containing scripts should be mentioned too. Or rather, the customer should be warned of them. I hate having to remove scripts and add new ones in order to stop particle effects (bling) or to avoid lag due to listeners (for unneeded color change menus).

The permissions should be clearly visible as well. Personally, I only buy copyable clothing, and found that my customers prefer copy over trade/resell permissions as well, for clothing and other appearance items. Prim attachments badly need modify permission. A prim shoe, belt or jewelry without mod perm is useless (unless it fits by coincidence, but even then I might want to change the textures or colors).
Some people prefer tradeable clothing though. The optimum would be two vendors per item, one with a tradeable and one with a copyable version.



Start by buying land, building a shop and placing classified ads. Doesn't matter if you start with 4 or 5 products only and leave most of the shop empty at first. Use Chip Midnight's detailed texture templates (http://www.slboutique.com/chipmidnight/), not the simple templates provided by LL.




Crotch bleed is an important quality issue. Took me a dozen uploads before I (well, my female alt) had a thong texture that didn't spill over onto the inner thighs. Here's how far one can go with a thong or panties (alpha for the lower body template; only the lower ends of the thin lines matter, which will later be between the legs, the upper part can be wider of course): http://www.succubuscoven.com/temp/thong_crotch_part.jpg

Dearly Darling,

Brenda C hit most of my points. I too hate looking like a bad prostitute. I cover my ol' body RL and like it covered SL too. Crisp detail and classic lines. One of my big beefs is: not being overly busty here...I am RL and would have breast reduction surgery if I could talk the husband into it...I hate having formal gowns with aureloi showing--- just makes me cring. To me that's just shoddy work in any universe.

Ever Yours,

Mrs. Showdog Tiger

Thanks to everyone for the help so far! I have a much clearer picture about how to go about this than I did before. The moment we get the store up and running (not sure how soon that will be . . . probably as soon as we've made enough things worth selling) I will be sure to let everybody know!

Hello? Ever heard of a small country that invented English

To the OP, finding the right location to sell is a minefield, personally I like to rent and have my own land to build my own store. Most malls will allow you to post a link to your main store in your notecards.