General Discussions

[Torley Linden Community Manager]

Friendly greetings, shopaholic Torley here. I'm helping our Experience Design Team understand best practices of the most awesome shopping experiences in Second Life. This means instead of quality goods themselves, I'm looking for ROCKIN' PATHS to getting those goods. (And I admit, it's an excuse for me to spend L$ at some kewl places.)

I want to make sure I've heard YOUR exceptional examples, don't be shy, tell me! Here are some things I want to learn about:

• Stores that may not be the most aesthetically beautiful, but are a joy to travel around — fast loading times, clear navigation, sensible landing point.
• Cultural tropes that have arisen in the wake of lacking system deficiencies. For example, we don't have a built-in "buy a gift for a friend" option, so what are the best Resident-created ways of doing this?
• Easiest-to-use vendor machines and related tools? (That are great for both the creator and the customer.)
• At-one-time rare innovations that've been adopted/copied widespread?
• Any shopping process you've enjoyed at one store and wish EVERY store used. It makes you say, "I love this and I want MORE."

To get us started, a couple recent examples I'm fond of:

BlakOpal Designs' "BUY AS A GIFT" steps in and I found it easy to use.

I loathe when there's hot new products at a place but it's so hard to find them. Here at NOTsoBAD, navigation is made clear from the get-go.

Does that give you ideas? Simply reply with a SLurl and your enthusiasm,  and I look forward to visiting EACH AND EVERY STORE (meeting the above,  heh) mentioned in this thread. I'll lock this in about a week,  so don't hesitate, speak up now! Thank you!

[Suspiria Finucane Recognized Member]

Thanks for the tips as always ;-)

[Marianne Little Advisor]

I love Real Waves by Antreas Alter. They look so nice, and are ridiculous low in prims. It's almost no lag, and I forgot to bump up LOD factor when I switched viewer. Still, the sculpts rez well.

His teleport board has a funny text, I can't remember it. He prefer visitors to walk or fly, and but he has still provided a tp system that says something like "If you really must tp, aaargh!"

One of the corners has a Sicilian village with a huge sculpted beach, just one prim.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/My%20Paradise/49/95/43/

[Roxy Couturier]

Rag Dollz at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Videos/212/95/22

Positive points:

A large, open build. (with a fairly fast load time)

A new products board as you walk in

Various 'departments' within the shop that groups similar items. As well as themed kiosks

Discounts on themed outfits. Frequent themed sales.

Friendly, active store helpers. Someone can assist you at any time of day. (This really is the big one. All my favorite stores have this very human touch.)

Frequently changing and active MM boards (gets me in the shop every few days)

Fun outfits from a maker that is constantly producing new product.

[Kara Spengler]

I like multi-use areas myself. Livingtree is a great example of this and the default tp point is right in the middle of the stores in the center of the island. Then surrounding all of that you have nice scenery areas to relax in, go fishing, and such.

The architecture there is used to indicate what is in a particular building too. The kid stuff is in a schoolhouse. The building that sells textures is connected to the texture tutorial space.

Other store layouts put more into a smaller space, but I like a well-thought design that integrates with the non-comercial aspects of the sim.

[Abigail Merlin Member]

I like the layout of just for kids kreations, it might not be the most stunning build but the clearly devided sections and unobstructed walkway makes it a pleasure to shop.

[Venus Petrov Helper]

Hiya Torley!

I was at Lingerie Boutique yesterday and was delighted to see that every item for sale was Transferable.

Peace

Message was edited by: Venus Petrov  I rezzed pretty quickly in the shop, also.

Message was edited by: Venus Petrov http://slurl.com/secondlife/Atlantic%20City%20Island/89/196/25

[Rhonda Huntress Member]

I always like to buy when the board itself is the product.  In other words, not from a vendor system but letting the system be the vendor ^.^.  This way I can see exactly what is in the box when I buy it.  Which layers, which pieces have different permissions and things like that.

Here is one of my favorite places.  I like the openness from the main area and the directory for each room and what it has there.  Not too crowded and not to spread out.

[Blue Voix Honored Resident]

First an foremost when I shop  knowing the quality of the textures that are being used for the item is the most important thing for me. I really like shops like concrete flowers that have copies of the dresses or items on prims like there were items in a shop. Super cute and you really know what you are getting.

[Gypsy Quixote Member]

Not really a shopaholic but I do love my sl wardrobe and have noticed a few things that I prefer in the shopping experience.

1) I really prefer it when I click an item and the option gives me "buy xxx contents" then lists the contents. This is the only way to see if I'm getting the options I desire in an outfit etc.

2) I really prefer to not have to rez a box. Especially if I need to tp out of the store to do it. If I buy and then the item goes direct to inventory I will immediately try on a few items to check for quality. If I like it, I'll buy more on the spot. If I have to leave, I may not come back, sl is like that for me, I never know where I'll go next.

3) I like it when menswear is clearly pointed out, especially in large stores. I've wasted plenty of time searching for the right department in megastores only to find the selection was incredibly poor. A tp directory at the entrance is great for this.

4) And as far as rezzing goes, I never buy from those multiple item, click-the-side-arrow type of vendors because they rez too slow for me. I don't mind a slow rezzing store because I can cam around as things come into view, but those vendor boxes are tiresome to wait for.

As for good experiences, I agree that Ragdollz is excellent, it is rare and welcoming to find an actual store attendant to help you. I also like sf designs, not only for the quality, but also a fast rezzing and well laid out store. My partner loves SLC, and I would too if there was a bigger menswear selection. The mainstore is awesome and features models actually wearing the clothes at times.