Advice on Sales!!

Hi Eclectic,

I really like the way you did this....by sending an IM instead of just sending a group invite. I personally appreciate this approach so much more. As you mentioned it also provides for a personal connection with your customers.

Hehehehe well with a mailing list ratherthan an in world group its impossible to send a group invite. And i did not just want to add peoples names. It was also nice to chat with my customers i really enjoyedthe process and the results were nice too

I visited a store about a week ago, from a friends profile picks, and even though I did not buy anything, the owner later im'd me, thanked me for the visit and said if I had any questions about the store or needed assistance, to please contact them.

I have never, in 3 years had that happen, and always shied away from doing it to ppl who visited my store, because I always thought it would feel spammy... it didn't.

so now I am rethinking the "thank you for visiting" approach.

(not sure if I would be comfortable in talking about the group option thing, but the thank you was a nice feeling)

Glad it worked out for you eclectic

good luck to everyone who is still trying to get their stores going.

i dont keep a copy of people who visit my store and considering at the moment i am usually finding at least one avie in there 90% of the time that would be a LOT of work for me to do.

I think wording it right to invit them to an update group can be a great thing. I was careful to pick people who obviously liked my stuff enoough to buy more than one item. I also made sure to make the little message more completely about the group, more an if you would like to join we'd love to have you kind of thing

"hi i just wanted to send you a quick IM to thank you for shopping at e! Eclectic Apparel and Accessories and to invite you to join our mailing list. This does not take up a group space, but you an get IMs sent to you about new products as well as gifts and specials. If you would like to join please just send me an IM back and i can add your name to the list. Have a wonderful day "

This is what i sent

i also made a note in people's profiles so i only ever send it to someone once regardless of if they keep coming back

very cool

yeah I was not thinking of just visitors, I like how you did it, picking actual shoppers

It seems to work well. 24 hours after doing iti have had around 50% reply and say they would like to join my update group. Most thanked me for taking the time to IM them as they hadnt noticed the group sign.

Many also said lovely thing about my clothing which for mewas a huge boost.

I think donein the right way an invite to a store group (especially a mailing list type one) can be a great thing for both the store and the customer

You got blogged again, E - even if he did get the number wrong

http://freefindsformen.blogspot.com/2009/05/52.html

DSN is working!

Wooo Hooo I only set that up today

What's DSN? Designer Showcase Network? If it's that, how does it get places to be blogged about?

You put a representative sample of your work into the DSN dropbox, and each day it is sent out to a certain number of avatars. A lot of bloggers are signed up on it, and blogging the things that they get (if they like them). Each avatar that gets one of your samples, will get only that one and I guess never get another one from you in the same category. There is a fee for the dropbox that the designers use to put their samples in, I'm pretty sure it was $399 (? correct me someone if I'm wrong), its free to join as a consumer tho. You can get the system on XSSL, and most likely some better info on it too

The Designer Showcase network is kinda like a subsrcibomatic group for freebies from designers only more sophistcated.
Any avie signed up will only ever get a gift from each deisnger once.

Anyway anyone signed up for the channel could get your item. The person who blogged me just happened to get my gift today And he blogged me.

However the DSN has its own ewebsite and it randomly blogs a gift from a designer each day as well. Im not sure how that works i think one of ther creators pics something to blog each day.

L$390 i got it yesterday

and i like that there is house and garden categories etc

DSN is Designer Showcase Network, yes. Currently almost 3000 avatars have signed up to receive free samples of work by the designers that have placed their goods with DSN. Many of those avatars are bloggers, and a lot of them are beginning to blog about the items they've received. When you join as a designer, you get access to a full stats page, including a list of everyone that has received your item.

When you get your DSN kit, as a designer, you place a boxed sample of your wares in the dropbox and set it to whichever of the nine channels it belongs in: male fashion, female fashion, gadgets, home & garden, etc etc. Every night, the system sends out your sample to a random number of avatars that have joined the channel you've set. It's basically a chance to get a sample of your work out there, and of course an LM to your stores and a welcome notecard and anything else you care to put in your boxed item.

You also place an LM and a logo/image in the dropbox, and once a day the DSN blog features a random designer from the network. No write-up; just a simple feature with the logo and LM.

Anyone can join the network to receive items; most of the designers involved have placed a join kiosk in their stores. The designers' kit itself can be bought on Xstreet or inworld.

I've already had a great write-up on one blog, and the blogger concerned is still using the skybox I sent out to take her pictures in, which is very gratifying

Edit: You lot type faster than me

I looked at the website a couple of days ago but there's no mention of getting blogged (apart from the daily featured place on the website itself). I just wondered how getting blogged was part of it, so I didn't know that it was the same DSN.

Thank you for the replies

I'm very interested to know if its users actually turn into paying customers to any degree.

And on checking the site now, they've just put up an illustrated 'how it works' guide. Perfect timing!

http://cleverthings.info/dsn/lang/en/2009/05/dsn-an-illustrated-guide

That's good. The site was lacking in that area. The only thing I found about what it actually does was in one of the rules in the rules page - quite well hidden.

welll ill be able to tell you in a few weeks

The site logs the names ofthe avatars which get your gift so you can actually compare that against your transactions in world to compare.

right now the network has no ongoing costs however it may in th future (for the cost of the servers) so i figued i would get it now and see what potential value it has before any ongoing costs do actually come into play.

The systems only been up for a few weeks and it took me a while to work out hwo it works and what to do but the system does seem to be very good

Ok just on Phil's thing about sales.

I have had mine up for 24 hours.

I just logged into the DSN website to check who i had sent thrings to. Of the sales i have had today two of them that i can see by a quick scan recieved my gift and went to my store to buy items...

The DSN has almost paid for itself for me

That's what I'm interested to know. It looks good for handing out samples, but that's no good if it doesn't bring people in to buy. A side effect does seem to be the bloggers that receive samples though, which could be worthwhile if anyone reads their blogs.

Rene started using it recently. He said that 300+ samples were handed out in one day. I'm waiting to hear if any of those convert to paying customers.

/me giggles and points up above.

I only went through a few pages on the transactions on the DSN website...

however iatched up 2 names to sales in my store.

I had 20 pages of transactions so i suspect the actual number is higher.

My outlaying cost has basically paid for itself in 24 hours. Was better than i did with any of the in world groups like fashcon.

I also like the fact that people only get one sample from me. Which i think is nicer than the freebie groups who may get every free gift i ever give out and buy nothing... instead they get a sample of my work....

It sounds good, Eclectic. I might have a dabble

Thanks, Phil, for asking the question about exactly how DSN works. I, too, searched within the DNS website for info and didn't see anything.

Thank you, E, Ralektra & Skell for explaining and the website. That helped a lot!

I might give that a try as well. One other question I have I still don't see answered - can a designer only place one item per category in the designer box and that's it? For example, if I start by putting a couch in the box in home & gardens, then 2 weeks from now I would like to show a cushion, can I replace the couch with a cushion or add the cushion, or once I place an item in the category there is no changing it?

~ ~ ~

A tiny idea hit me last night while. My main sellers are my curtains/blinds; however, in the main store I had them on the second floor as I was planning to put furniture on the first floor. Haven't put signs up yet to indicate in store what is on the second floor. So, decided to bring the curtains/blinds down to the first floor for potential walk-by customers. (Fortunately my store is right by the telehub for the sim.)

While I was re-arranging these items and placing the sign for the drapes, another thought hit me. I recalled seeing a shop some time back (might have been Amar's) that had signs of products also facing the street as well as those inside the shop. Sounded like a good idea and something to try.

While I was doing *that* (cascading ideas in progress) I thought: "The shops face the street in this sim's marketing district, BUT, the telehub where people arrive is at the BACK of my store, which also has an opening into the shop. So, as an experiment, I also place a sign for the drapes on the back window as well.

I had only had a couple of sales from that location, thus far, and those from group members as I have not completed the store nor actively promote it. Never sold any drapes/blinds - those all come from the Primal Arts satellite.

Within hours of placing the outside signs...I noticed several sales of the drapes.

Baby steps here...but interesting to see what works!!!

I logged into SL right after my previous post and noticed my L balance was a bit larger. Checked transactions and overnight made a sale from the main store location of one of my fans!! Woot!!!

ONLY thing I did was what I said above.

Just had a quick catch-up with the thread, sounds like most folk are doing ok at the moment.

Store wise things have been just ticking over for me lately, but I haven't really had any spare time to do much there. What with the Home Expo and then a friend of mine has been keeping me busy ever since creating new buildings for her shopping and residential areas.

I have ended up with a nice range of prefabs to start marketing in store though. They still need sorting out for the rezzing platform and packing in rezzers to sell too... so much to do, so little time, lol.

The DSN thing sounds quite interesting, I think I'll be looking into that. I'm tempted to start pushing my prefabs more now, but am wondering how best to put a "sample" prefab into the dropbox? Obviously furniture is quite an easy thing to add, as a single item could be added and if people liked it they'd come by the store to see more. So, anyone have any ideas of how to make a prefab into a "sample" as opposed to being the real thing? I do have a freebie prefab in store, but it's just that, a freebie and probably doesn't show my stuff at it's best, but then it is free!