Tips On Building A Shop

Has anyone have any advice on how to build a shop on a 1024sqm piece of land? Just the basics will suffice for now!

What is your level of building skill?

But before you start, when you're designing the space, think about it from your customers' perspective. How they get in, get around, obtain information, purchase and exit are all critical to giving a good impression. Then think about the style, and finally, start building.

For an example of how minimal a shop can be and how little building skills you can get away with you might like to look at my place at secondlife://Miru/23/70. My "shop" uses a 20m by 20m footprint, has a dozen items on display and for sale, contains an SLBoutique server, and does it in under 100 prims with some of them purely decorative.

Please understand that this is wildly minimalist design (e.g. a floor with walls on two sides) but it works for my purposes. I am not a major merchant and the concept that an SL shop needs neither roof nor walls was stolen from Viola Bach (who did a much more artful job in Tan). But if you want to see how very little can go pretty far.

Good luck. Break "out of the box" that an SL build needs to be boxish

The most important thing about building a shop is to make it so simple to get into that someone can fall out of the sky and land on what they're looking for. Surprisingly few newbies consider that the concept of "doors" can translate from RL to SL. They'll press themselves against the walls, especially semi-transparent ones, like moths batting against a window. My first shop started with one door, but after watching this kind of thing several times, I eventually made it almost entirely phantom. My second shop was designed to be more open. You can get the landmark from my sig below. If you visit, I also built Binne's shop across the road.

General tips:

* Have your building illustrate where the entrance is. Don't just make it a box, give it a shape that someone can look at and know intuitively where you get inside.

* For the love of GOD set your parcel's landing point where the shop's entrance is. It's a huge pet peeve of mine to land at that red beacon and find myself on the roof, or in the corner of the parcel, with no clue where the door actually is. It's amazing how many people don't bother to stand at their door for three seconds and hit that button.

* Again, make your shop as simple to access as possible. Doors, especially ones that have to be touched, will confuse people. Fancy phantom curtains/windows intended to be an entrance which obscure the interior of your shop from outside view will confuse people. Glass fronts or windows at floor level will confuse people unless they're phantom, cause people WILL assume they can walk through anything semi-transparent. The best thing is a big arched opening with absolutely no door or curtain or anything. I don't want to say bad things about anyone, but, well... unfortunately some people just can't seem to figure out the fancier things. Like doors.

* Remember that people are flying to your building. A big skylight in the middle of your roof that people can drop through is welcome.

* Also remember that people are flying from the nearest telehub. Make that trip yourself and note your angle of approach. If possible, have your storefront facing this direction.

Just remember that you're trying to maximize the number of people who can easily get right into your shop. Maximizing your traffic maximizes your sales. People are fickle and give up easily. Make it as simple as possible.

Very good advice Kali.

I think Kali covered most of it.

Simple and direct work best for selling things. People show up, don't have to rezz much, and see what they want immediately. Oh...PLEASE organize the stuff you have available for sale in a logical manner Nothin' bothers me more than going to a shop that looks randomly put together (and yes, there are lots of 'em like that).

Of course, somethin' aesthetically pleasing infers that the product inside the shop will be worth buying. It's not required...but helps quite a bit.

If you wanna see an example of what not to do with a shop, visit my place (SoCal Culture in Kojin). I'm not changin' it, I love it the way it is...but it's definitely not set up to be an efficient shop. I've got doors, shop areas that aren't immediately visible upon arrival, and an innefficient layout.