Advice on Sales!!

I think that's debatable.
It can be more difficult to make a low-prim quality product.

I disagree with both the above..
offering a mix of items in a store.. including carefully crafted items at a lower price.. often means ppl will splurge on something else that goes with it
low prim can also be way better quality than primmy stuff.. using custom sculpts and applied and baked textures sometimes ends up in a stunning combination.

BTW i read this thread everyday it has to be the best thread on the forums

yes I am totally rethinking the freebie thing... I moved some stuff around, and will be removing the dollarbies (near freebies) but will leave them on slex(xstreet)

going to also rethink the free item with each new release... wondering if that is a good idea too.....

way too many freebies out there, people are probably still unpacking Halloween hunt stuff (I heard some folks say they still had ghosts and pumpkins from numerous hunts to unpack and sort)


so are my freebies just being tossed into a folder to not be seen?

I soooo need to figure out how to market myself better...
maybe scout out some malls and see if any are worth renting...

/me chuckles. I've been told in another thread that people WILL laugh at my builds, because I keep them low-prim by using alpha-textured windows.

Funny thing is, they're still selling

Totally agree. There is a very well-known furniture designer who seems to go out of his/her way to create items with as many prims as possible. As an example, I received a hanging lantern kind of thing for our patio from that store as a gift that was in excess of 150 prims...maybe more! It was extremely detailed...as well as fairly ugly!

I've noticed other items in their store that use double the amount of prims of similar items elsewhere and the lesser-prim items are always much nicer.

(I am not referring to any stores or designers who have posted in this thread.)

Your items are stellar and amazing!!

Just point me to the people that laugh at your items...I'm in a mood and up for a good fight!

phew it took me long enough to dig back and find this!

I have been actually updating my blog! Can ppl add me to their bloglists again /redfaced

done

I must say that dress (Svelte) is very pretty

I have not been making much lately, been in a bit of a funk

been debating turning the furniture store into a club/bar type thing, open to any and all to use to dance, (DJ if a DJ wants a place to use), escort (with escort ad boards), dance poles, etc

but still not sure

(I have a fondness of building, as mentioned on a recent blog review on one of my dresses hehe)

so... I tend to change things a lot.... not sure yet though what I will do

I just know the furniture is not selling so thinking use it for something is, and just set up a smaller furniture store elsewhere on the land...

decisions decisions
(nice thing about SL, if I do that, and it doesn't work out, it is easy to remove and do something else hehe)

Thanks and thanks, I saw that blog, a good review is nice to have hehe

Hellos~
Figured I would pop back briefly to let u know Ralektra, that I added u back in to my blog roll. Nice gowns, by the way - sorry for the corsage story! Last night I sold a jewery set that the original stone I had somehow- I really hope by mistake, cause I can't imagine I did it on purpose!- had Full Bright... I didn't notice this and continued to use it in several things- Last night a customer asked me to model the pieces befor eshe bought them and she could see the light whcih I could not- not sure wh i have local lights on...? Anyway - I took off the offending lightshow and she was happy with her purchase.. but still!

peeks in around the door sheepishly. Sorry not been on this thread in an age. I did quickly skim back a couple of pages, and have to agree on the freebie/dollarbie comments, I sell very few of these at all. Been working hard to get all our stock on xstreet...it's taking forever but sales are definitely improving on there. I have also found that doing daily releases of one or two tattoos rather than a monthly release of 40-50 produces improved sales. I used to do the bulk release to save my group being spammed, but they actually seem to prefer a daily release in which I can give more detail about individual tattoo releases, so am continuing with that, although not daily as i don't always have the time for a new design every day. It is great to hear from those with space at my store that they are still doing well there. Family illness has also taken a lot of my time of late so forgive me if I disappear from the thread any time.
My business partner is not online inworld so much these days, so the expansion of the mini mall has not happened as yet, but it is still on the to do list, and I still have a list of names of those who expressed interest but missed out on the first set of spaces.
It is great to see everyone is still alive and kicking in this thread and still supporting each other, gives me a warm fuzzy feeling
huggsss with love
Rhia xx

Last night I was talking to another store owner- as has been discussed already- Freebies are trashing sales really. It is fine as a come see my stuff thing- but there is just so much!

The thing I don't get is the Hunts- I have said it countless times, personally I don't like them as a Hunter- because it is just too much effort - if I want something I will just go buy it. I do understand though, some enjoy the actual hunt. This last one the Gor one- everyone I have read comments from has said what a nightmare it was. I tried it for about two minutes and figured nothing in it could be worth such torture. And some have commented that mostly what they got out of it they are trashing anyway...

So- how are freebies and hunts affecting your sales if at all?

Have sales been:
Better?
Worse?

If worse, what can be done to get all of us as designers and store owners to cut back on the Freebies and thus hopefully create a resurgence of sales?

If they have helped, what do you feel as a Designer, store owner, has been key for your niche in the improvement - in other words, what about the Freebie promos specifically, have been helpful?

Thanks-

I gave up on freebies, and hunts

I organized that one, but never did another as I find it is the hunts that are flooding the market as of late

it is nice to not see so many hunts as there were since halloween

I also heard about the gor one, and what a nightmare it was...

freebies, well I dunno if they are the cause in the decline of sales, or if it is just overall a decline for everyone...

I no longer put out freebies, I removed all the dollarbies from the store (they are still on xstreet for now)

not sure if I will continue to put out a sample item each time I do a release or not...

It gets discouraging ... i have been playing with little prims and that has at least kept me interested. It is still fun when someone chooses to part with some L's for my stuff but meh... Maybe the freebie nonsense will die out a little meantime I for one am just trying to get better- that really is the ultimate incentive (besides advertising cause if they don't know u r there they cant buy it) - if my stuff is really awesome they will not be able to live with out it!! (/me makes 'take over the world' laughter sounds and goes back to her Secret Laboratory).

I did do a freebie yesterday, but it was only gloves. I decided it was a good way to get info out on new releases if not anything else I will keep doing freebies but they will not be outfits, only silly little things like gloves. I thought of it because I had done a freebie once before of just a hat and matching clutch that brought in just as many people as a whole outfit would have...no more outfits! I am in the midst of joining a new fashion group too, nowhere near as big as Fashcon but only 250 to join as a designer. They just have to inspect my shop and make sure I'm not a reseller hehe.

I wanted to get the notice out on a new item, I gave the item a special price for 24 hours and was able to send the notice out to the freebie groups as well because I had made the gloves. I sold 25 of the item yesterday, I was stoked!

Oh yea, I popped into my store to fix something quickly today and found the girl who owns the Cheep Peeps group in there, doing a review on my store. Hope its a good one, and Amar, where will I find that?

another Edit: I so love my little shop at Primal Art!

Here is Cheap Peeps on line Group:

http://www.slprofiles.com/secondlifegroups.asp?a=list&id=698

Chami is a great lady

Join the group there and so u can post your stuff- exposure, etc (take my own advice, i have been negligent of late)

What new group did you join?

As for the gloves idea- I think yes that's the way to go- I believe Rha had mentioned before about putting out just a component to an outfit? May have been someone else not sure- but in any case- it is good- gives the person an incentive and also gets them to want the rest. I have a gold and emerald brooch out right now for $5 Lindens displayed next to the matching Necklace and Earrings set.

The new group is ***Fashion Trend***. I already am in the Cheep Peeps group, I just wanted to know where to find the review

I don't know that she will post it there but unless something new has been added- she didn't have a blog last time we talked- I was just assuming it would be over there -- hmm- good question

yes that was me

usually what I was doing was putting out one piece if it was a multiple piece item (say shirt layer if it had a shirt undershirt and jacket layer) or picking a non for sale color

but not sure if I even will continue to do that

lately I am finding that folks are grabbing the free item and never coming back and no sales...

I want folks who are there to shop, not just grab the freebie and leave

If all my stuff is only good for freebie prices, then I will just stop selling...

removing freebies and dollarbies will tell me over time if my stuff is still worth selling

I don't think it's a "worth selling" thing- I think it's just the overall mentality lately. There are some truly fine freebies out there - and I don't mean just the construction or texture or animation if applicable- I mean the sheer combination of all of it in some pieces! I am just dumbfounded that someone went thru so much and then made it free- OK, great- glad it feeds their altruism but it sure doesn't make it any easier on the rest. Sometimes I give stuff away that I worked very hard on- but that is as gifts to either friends or peeps that express a need for something I have - just cause I happen to notice it. I think it's the over the top glut of stuff out there though.

Don't expect too much change from at least the newer people on choosing to buy if no freebies abound - many just figure they will find it elsewhere. It's the ones that have been around the grid a few times and know what we do and know too that though it may be found elsewhere cheaper or free, there is always that one thing - that ephemeral little "Rha" thing they are just not going to get if they get it elsewhere. Those are ur loyal customers. In the end - we can't be discouraged, just gotta keep pitching

same here!!

HIII and *HUGS* Rhia!! Sooo GREAT to see you! I've had the same experience with XStreet and to a lesser degree OnRez. I still haven't built up my stock but what *is* there sells steadily. On average at least one item/day. (Not much compared to big sellers but makes me very happy *smiles*)

I have had some issues lately with XStreet not delivering some items. Fortunately the customer is not charged...but I hate to see someone has tried to purchase from me and XStreet didn't play nicely.

What I do when that happens is send an IM to the person, saying I got notice they tried to purchase (item) but it did not go through. I apologize for the inconvenience and send what they were trying to purchase at no charge. It is amazing the positive reactions this is garnering. Most of the people have asked about my store/location/products, if I have a group - just gained a new group member from this issue today. I firmly believe great customer service will make our businesses stand out and create great rapport and word of mouth. (My tip for the month *smiles*)



Being in just a few of the freebie and product groups as well as store groups, I get tons of notices daily. When I'm going through them, if one has too much info/products on it, I ditch it immediately. Good to hear that smaller, regular releases work well.



THANK YOU for the space again! I hope that your family illness gets much better soon. *HUGS*

I don't offer freebies anymore, but I do offer occasional dollarbies or even fivebees (5L). They are on things like balloons I made for New Year's Eve - very small items.

Offering them helps my sales in world as people come to get them and, especially in the case of the balloons, since my items are mod/trans, one person may buy 10 or more of one item. The most expensive item I have is 100L and most in the 15-50L range, so someone purchasing 10 balloons at even 1L is helpful.

Also, each time I offer these, at least a few people purchase other items from my store that probably would never have known about it otherwise, so I get some additional sales/exposure that way.

I am not into hunts and don't plan to offer any, with ONE caveat:

To begin with, I'm not a huge shopper. At this point in time I have all the clothes I need to be satisfied in SL so probably wouldn't go clothes shopping at all. EXCEPT: I first heard about my new favorite clothing store, which I think covers several sims, via a hunt. Each hunt item was 1L so the owners are making some money on that, especially with the high volume of traffic they get. The first hunt I collected all of the items (30 at that time). Tried on the clothes, ditched some, put some away for special events (costumes, etc.) but found some I absolutely LOVED! Because that store designs a niche type of clothing I enjoy...I joined their group and go there just about everytime a group release or hunt is announced. I don't do a complete hunt anymore...but when I'm there I look around and pick up a few things. And probably the biggest thing for a non-shopper like me, from finding out about the store due to the hunt, I joined the group, which means I now get notices on new releases and specials, and I have actually purchased items there.

This may be a more unusual circumstance and again the business is huge with more than one designer, but it got a non-clothes shopper like me to be interested in regularly checking them out.

Czari, I always did the same thing: sent the item free of charge. And yes, I got some very loyal customers as a result, even though that was not my purpose.

Failed Xstreet deliveries happened often enough that I did something else that has, so far, prevented failures. I'm a premium member, but my shop is on an estate. My 512m tier was unused -- I simply rented it to the Land Ninja group for L$. But I read that if you duplicate your Xstreet SL magic boxes and put them on multiple parcels, when Xstreet has trouble delivering from a box in one location, it will automatically use the other box located elsewhere. I purchased a 256m mainland parcel solely for duplicates of my Xstreet SL boxes. Since doing that, I haven't had a failed delivery. Some people use more than two copies if they have three or more locations for the boxes, and that further reduces the chances of failure.

So if you have a second place where you can rez your magic box(es), do it and you should see far fewer delivery failures.

czari i agree with your assessment of freebies. I find many of my fav stores because of them. i only offer one or two items inside the store as freebies for anyone and i change those out often. my best use of freebies has been to offer group only freebies in a box next to my group join sign. i promote the new and free items in my group as well as the freebie groups and many many of the folks join my group if it is their first visit. with the boosted number of folks in my groups, then when i send out a note of new group freebies it brings people in and they buy additional items as well. i do very well with this. to me the freebies are my free advertising and in a sense do "cost" but the increased sales in return are well worth it.

i will say that the stability issues of the last week or so have really impacted my sales in a negative way. when sl says dont make transactions or they cant tp to my store, sales suffer. otherwise they steam along.