Advice on Sales!!

Must admit I share your thoughts lately. Any freebie notice I put out had the same effect. People literally popped in, picked up the freebie and b*ggered off again . My freebie prefab just flies off the shelf!

Sales in December were pretty poor to say the least. I took out more L$s than were spent in my store, although my quarterly fees were due, so that's been the case more often then not.
I think most people were looking for seasonal stuff rather than what I have to offer.

Sales have just started picking up again. I'm hoping that's due to the fact that I now have a proper working prefab rezzing platform. It might also be helping that I promoted that with a half price prefab sale.

Who knows, maybe all those LMs that get picked up with our freebies could still send a few customers back to us. Hopefully to spend some real L$s!

another thing I have problems with is prices

price too low people consider it junk, or not worth buying
price too high, people think.. why pay that much, I will just buy it elsewhere

(at least that has been my observation, others may have different results, opinions, and observations)

I agree with the freebie thing, while they do generate some sales, it's gotten to the point in SL where whatever you need, you can find it for free somewhere. I have decided that in future I will no longer be offering regular freebie/dollarbies. I will have secret sales from time to time (I usually have one whenever business is really slow) because then the people have to actually come in and walk around a bit and I have had a bit more luck with sales then, instead of people just tping to the door, grabbing an item and leaving. For quite a while I have done a freebie almost every week. Now I will just update the freebies in my gift bags once a month or so and send a notice, do a secret sale here and there, but that's it for freebies...they do generate some sales for me but I think that SL is glutted with them. They are a great way to get your name and LM out when you are starting out, but they have run their course for me.

LOL ron you capitalize every word but not your first name.

I have changed malls now tho, I found one that was L$25 more a week than I was paying, a much nicer mall, and more than double the prim space.

And I can't thank Rhi enough for the Primal Art space, the most mall sales I have are from there!

I have to echo the idea of removing my dollarbies and not put out freebies on a reg basis

the market is definitely glutted with them....

The hunts add even more to that
eventually it will get to the point where no one will buy anything because they can get it all for free...

Welcome to the thread, Bryony. I don't envy anyone trying to read it all from start to finish in one go!

I was in work, it was either that or actually work

Thanks for the welcome

I've been reading a few tutorials, and I might actually give this a go. I used to design websites so know my way around Photoshop... hmm I might fail miserably of course!

I think this is probably a good approach.

While I have participated in some hunts and probably will again as I think they're a good way to get people into the store who may have never been there before, I've been a tad stingy with our "regular" freebies. What I tend to do is whenever I have a new furniture collection introduced in the store I do a ONE DAY ONLY freebie of one or two small items from the new collection (usually an accessory of some sort). I've found that this certainly generates good traffic and also have seen sales increase at those times as well.

Also, I decided to go with HippoGroups and have put up a sign at our store where people can choose to either join the HippoGroup or our InWorld Group. Ive already had a couple people join the Hippo Group since putting it up last night.

~ Desi

Welcome to the thread Bryony and also to your future in the business world of SL.

My advice to you is to find something you love in SL and do that. It might take a bit to find it but the passion you have for it will show in the product you produce.

Cheers!

~ Desi

I always loved making graphics but just drifted away from it I guess. This might just get me interested again I'm making a tshirt!

You should learn to walk before trying to run, Bryony. Instead of making a t-shirt, you should start my making t (tea), and I like mine with milk and 2 sugars

Bryony, I highly recommend that you also read this forum's sticky "The Comprehensive Guide to Optimizing Parcels for Search," especially the posts by Phil.

Unfortunately for Phil, you'll now be too busy to make any tea for a while. But I'm sure he'll be pleased to know that his wise words helped yet another SL business owner.

I'll have mine with honey and a shot of JD

Okay, are you guys ready for this?

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/5351/firsttshirtid5.jpg

How awful is that the picture is far too small (it is the beatles yellow submarine) and I left the template on round the neck and arms!

Oh well, at least I tried.

I have to say my observations disagree with this.

People LOVE a bargain. There is a small group who equate quality with price and yes some of those would balk at my 50L items as most of my store is. And to be honest Im likely to woner about the quality of a 20L outfit. BUT because of the small amount of money peope will usually shrug and try out an item for those kinds of costs.

I get large amounts of sales, and the reason I am pretty sure this is the way it happens is becuase they usually come in and buy one item, tp away. Then an hour or to later, or a day or two later they will be back. My guess is they take the item home, unbox it and try it on. Then they come and buy several more items, already knowing the quality.


I dont think anyone should sell something for less than they feel it is worth. But at the same time if you think something is worth 200 to 300L I wuld suggest putting it at 200 rather than 300.

I also have to say i still do a LOT of shopping. I dont make clothes, so I still shop for them a lot. These days the number ofstores are growing and the prices are coming down. People can go to 5 tores and are likely to find that siilar shirt they like in2 or 3 of them at varying costs.

Now ill admit most people dont price compare for clothes, sure. But they do look at an outfit, decide if they likeit then look at the cost and decide if they NEED it. Now if youare gettng traffic and not sales the issue has to be

a) they dont like what you are making

b) they cant justify the costs of what your are selling
(i) becuase price vs quality is out of wack
(ii) or it costs more than somewhere ese with a similar item


Ignoring the idea that they may not like your item let me explain how myself, my partner and my best matesin SL shop. We all make decent lidens, we certinly arent on a budget.

We find something we like. If it is 100L or less we will usually buy without even thinking, going ooh yes what a bargin woot. 100L to 200L we might think a bit about do i NEED this, but tend to buy anyay cos it looks nice and it is a nice price.

200L to 300L I will begin to think about how much i wear it, what Im goig to do with it etc etc. I also tend to only buy one or two items now, as opposed to me maybe buying 1/2 our store if i liked it at less that 200L

Above 300L and I uyonly if it i somethign I dont alreadyhave 10 of in my wardrobe, if i absolutely fll in love with it, and i begin the do i REALLY need this. If I buy an outfit I try it on and inspect every bit of it, does it look like the ad board, what do i like or dont i like. If i am even the slightest bit disappointed in the ite you can bet I dont buy another 300L outfit, where as at 100L I can forgive the fact I have to take 20 minutes to edit the prims.


*shrugs* There WILL be people who will look at low prices and think arrgghh crap, and there will be people whoo think like mewith a bargin and go wooot bargin. The question is workiing out whoyou think there is more of and who you want to market to.

The one thing I do realise about the high priced places, your marketing strategy needs to be very different, They dont give out freebies (at least extremely rarely.) and when they do they are usually group only. If yu intend on goign this route the need to create a VERY good name for yourself is a MUST as people will look at the prices and umm and ahh over them.

I do think there is a market for higher priced well created items, but if you are going to want 400L for a dress I damn well want it to be armidi quality, cos thats what they charge (if that makes sense... why pay 400L to you (the unknown) when i can get a stunning 400L dress from armidi)

I won't quote you, E, but you're dead on. You can't get away with charging 300+ for an outfit unless you've got stuff on just about every layer and the fabric is impeccable - it is on the level of Armidi, Archange, Nicky Ree, etc. That means, that you've done a very good photorealistic job or your handpainting has baked shadows and lots of nuances.

this is the thing though, my prices are not high at all

for me it is lack of traffic, I am still stuck in how to get them TO the store

once there chances are good they will buy something...

I did not send out a notice to any freebie groups for my last release (I usually put out a limited time free item from one of the things I release)

so I plan to do that, so I can gauge if it actually does help bring in sales or not

I am still on the fence with the dollarbies and lucky letter boards and lucky chairs and such... ( I have them, just not sure if they actually help or not)

Looks good to me...I STILL haven't made clothes. (And have to make a business shirt before I can graduate from my Gimp course...and this is the second time I'm taking it...lol.)

What others have said is so true...it's important to find what makes one happy to create. Clothes make me tear my hair out!

Honestly Rha i think you have too many dollarbies and opportunities to get free stuff. If i pick up threee free things in someone's store i usually stop at that point and take them home to play with rather than buying more stuff. I would pull it all out bar say maybe one lucky chair and a freebie whenyou release something and thats it.

my thoughts exactly

I just hate to remove anything... (I always disliked it when stores discontinue anything) but I am thinking I am hurting myself by keeping so much of it there....


*sigh*

I suppose I can leave it on xstreet (as the dollarbies on xstreet do make up for the fees ya get dinged there when a reg sale goes through heh)

and by removing the dollarbies that will free up some space for the overflowing shoes section LOL (hmmm thinks it is time to retire stuff from the store and just leave it on xstreet)

Hi Rha,

I stopped by your place yesterday to take a look at your update group sign (I went to the places that mentioned in this thread they used subscribe-o-matic or hippogroups) and noticed when i got there that there were about 6 people at your store when I got there. One seemed to be looking around. The 5 others were all examining freebies. I do agree that perhaps cutting back on your freebie options might be worth testing. You've got some great items and people need to get in there and explore what you have.

Cheers!

~ Desi

I agree with the freebie stuff...When i offer freebies, they are either hidden regular items around the store that they ahve to click on to find, or they are in the group only box that i change weekly. Now i promote the beck out of both, but the free items dont stay free for too long and i do rotate them out. So there is always the enticement of coming back to look and see what is free on THIS day. I also dont normally say exactly what is free. That again makes shoppers have to actually look at every item to find them. I believe that as they click on things, they discover things they might want and buy. I have items in my store from 25L on up to about 400L and a good amount of things in each range. So there is definitely something for everyone.

I do believe that freebies can bring people into your store to shop...but you have to use them very carefully. I would not ever make a freebie area because folks would just make a beeline there and not look at the rest. I do that myself...lol. I did add a freebie ring and a lucky chair, but I dont see that they have been very popular at all even tho i have promoted them.

I also agree that being in the larger freebie groups is worth the effort...but make them work for the freebie. Also, i never just pass out freebies to my groups. They have to come to my store to get them. Hope that helps.

Do we have any wedding dress designers in this thread? VooDoo Vogue Agency is doing a wedding fashion show in February and I have some room available and some price flexibility

True, you will HAVE to offer quality in order to ask higher prices. The market for clothes is completely full. Only outstanding clothes can be priced higher than average. But that also goes for any other products. You get what you pay for. Low price usually means low quality. Low prim usually means settling for less.

In my line of business it's the combination that makes a good product: balance between prims and quality, well scripted, good animations, great textures, creativity and... fair price. If that combination is right, the product is well worth the money. Balance between price and quality, it's just that.

lol Honey I love your limerick

countdown to another wedding gown try is 4 months ! lol