Marketplace Shoppers - What is Your Opinion on Seasonal Items....

[Czari Zenovka]

...being offered on the MP year 'round?

My seasonal items (ie. Christmas, Valentine's Day, Halloween, Easter, etc.) are only "visible" for sale in my Marketplace store during the specific holiday/season.  However, I've been running across MP stores where all seasonal items are always visible for sale.

How do you, as customers, feel about that?  Does anyone buy something for Christmas in July?  Or Halloween items in April. 

Thank you for any feedback on this.

And any merchants reading this - how do you handle your MP seasonal items?

[Melita Magic]

I don't mind it. Sometimes if I run across something I will buy it and put it in the seasonal folder or holiday folder for later use.

[Czari Zenovka]

Thanks Melita   Wasn't sure if it would annoy MP shoppers...but then I think a lot (I know I do) put in search terms for what they want and would likely not even see them.  But if I got the occasional sale off-season from a seasonal item, it would be great.

[phaedra Exonar]

In general I don't see why not to leave them up, but one reason I could see for wanting to unlist seasonal items is that we don't have control over the order of items listed on our store fronts, if out of seasonal items dominate the first page of a shop listings then it might be good to remove them or remove them until other items take up the first page again.  I think seasonal items are a great example of some thing that would benefit greatly form being able to chose the order of items listings of your own storefront on the marketplace.

[Czari Zenovka]

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phaedra Exonar wrote:

In general I don't see why not to leave them up, but one reason I could see for wanting to unlist seasonal items is that we don't have control over the order of items listed on our store fronts, if out of seasonal items dominate the first page of a shop listings then it might be good to remove them or remove them until other items take up the first page again. 

I think seasonal items are a great example of some thing that would benefit greatly form being able to chose the order of items listings you own storefront on the marketplace.

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(Emphasis mine)  Good point, phaedra.  I need to pay more attention to what shows up on the first page of my listings.  Generally it seems to be the items that sell most often but these days almost anything can  happen on the MP.  I think I'll list them and then monitor where they "land."

[Bernmarie]

This is so funny cuz I found myself in this situation just the other day while shopping for flowers for landscaping.  I came across a section of the store that had items for Easter, X-mas...ect. And I found myself annoyed at having to go thru this section full of items I clearly wouldn't need for months to come.....Then I gave in and started looking at a few items and was happy to find a few beautiful items that I purchased for X-mas :matte-motes-bashful:...I say keep them on display.:matte-motes-wink: 

[jwenting]

I happen to like green. St Patty's day stuff is green... :smileyhappy:

[Czari Zenovka]

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Bernmarie wrote:

This is so funny cuz I found myself in this situation just the other day while shopping for flowers for landscaping.  I came across a section of the store that had items for Easter, X-mas...ect. And I found myself annoyed at having to go thru this section full of items I clearly wouldn't need for months to come.....Then I gave in and started looking at a few items and was happy to find a few beautiful items that I purchased for X-mas :matte-motes-bashful:...I say keep them on display.:matte-motes-wink: 

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Thank you so much for this perspective, Bernmarie - it combines what I was concerned about (annoying a customer) and the possible outcome.

[Czari Zenovka]

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jwenting wrote:

I happen to like green. St Patty's day stuff is green... :smileyhappy:

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You and me both.   Part Irish here.

[iCade]

Well, I am a total sucker for winter, and having prowled the catalog for many hours an end, -a lot- of creators have placed their winter items into the seasonal sub category. So having that category locked would be counter productive unless those items are moved. Christmas items in there I can understand, but winter landscaping things? There's loads of countries who have snow in the summer! And loads that never have snow at all. The season shouldn't impact that.

With that said, I, as a customer wish to purchase seasonal items all year long. Exlusivety imho, isn't a novelty but an annoyance.

[Tari Landar]

As a customer it doesn't bother me in the least. I like to browse, so seeing seasonal things doesn't really annoy me.

As a seller, I leave mine up year round, beause I sell seasonal stuff year round. I've sold lots of halloween, and even winter stuff all summer long, lol.

[Czari Zenovka]

Thanks so much, iCade.  It looks like the responses are falling toward keep seasonal items posted - or in my case set them back on active.

[Czari Zenovka]

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Tari Landar wrote:

As a customer it doesn't bother me in the least. I like to browse, so seeing seasonal things doesn't really annoy me.

As a seller, I leave mine up year round, beause I sell seasonal stuff year round. I've sold lots of halloween, and even winter stuff all summer long, lol.

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(Emphasis Mine) GREAT to know, Tari!  I've been deactivating my seasonal items after each season.  Based on the responses here, I'm going to activate them.  Great to know they do sell year 'round.  Many thanks, Tari.

[Deja Letov]

I would definitely leave them posted up. One of my items, a ice skating rink i actually sell year round. If I took it down cause I thought it would annoy people, i'd be out many thousands of lindens. Besides it is just Marketplace and that's a catalog, so why not just leave it there

[Melita Magic]

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

Thanks Melita

  Wasn't sure if it would annoy MP shoppers...but then I think a lot (I know I do) put in search terms for what they want and would likely not even see them.  But if I got the occasional sale off-season from a seasonal item, it would be great.

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You're welcome.

I wish there were separate categories for things like "DEMO" - things like that. Those clog even specific search parameters, if searching for 1-10 L$ items. 

Sometimes shopping off season can be fun, and also, often as a holiday approaches I am multi tasking in RL as well as SL and short on time. I don't have the chance to shop as well as I would like at such times. So, an off season sale would be great for that reason, too. Or even if not, if the item is nice or something I haven't gotten/seen before, I have more time to go look at it, read about it, open the box, sort it into the folder etc., in between busy times like holidays.

It would be nice if one drop down option in MP search were specific holidays. Maybe it already is. I don't remember.

[MoiselleErin Teardrop]

seasonal stuff offered year round? Doesn't bother me. I know some people in SL might live their SL life as if it were summer or winter year round. Seems a good idea to offer items for those customers.

I tend to live in SL as if it were spring/summer all the time.

[Czari Zenovka]

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Deja Letov wrote:

I would definitely leave them posted up. One of my items, a ice skating rink i actually sell year round. If I took it down cause I thought it would annoy people, i'd be out many thousands of lindens. Besides it is just Marketplace and that's a catalog, so why not just leave it there

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Working on taking the seasonal items out of storage - spent today on Christmas welcome mats.  Wow!!!  I didn't realize that I'd made so many changes in my product presentation during the last 8 months.  Relisting included:

*Making new ad photos since I now use a template

*Changing permissions since I switched from Mod/Trans to Mod/Copy

*Tweaking the item descriptions

Then I went in world and:

*Updated the packaging

*Tweaked the mats themselves cosmetic-wise since my building skills have improved

*Replaced the script with an updated, much better version

*Updated the information/instructions notecard

Finally loaded them into my Magic Box (hanging onto it until they pry it from my clenched hands...lol), went through the synching process and...woot!!!  one batch of seasonal products uploaded.  Based on iCade's mention of liking winter, plus half of the world is currently experiencing winter, I took one of the mats out of the holiday category and put it in the appropriate home & gardens sub-division, as well as putting it in my in world shoppe.

I think I'll sleep well tonight.

The experience was a bit of a stroll down memory lane, remembering when I first learned to build this, or do that with a script, etc.  Up next - Christmas trees and wreaths.  Maybe I should have a "Christmas in August" sale.  Hmmmm....

[Czari Zenovka]

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MoiselleErin Teardrop wrote:

seasonal stuff offered year round? Doesn't bother me. I know some people in SL might live their SL life as if it were summer or winter year round. Seems a good idea to offer items for those customers.

I tend to live in SL as if it were spring/summer all the time.

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That's an interesting perspective...but makes total sense to me since I keep one world setting on constantly so my avatar lives in perpetual day.  In RL I actually prefer the night but the SL settings I use were the ones suggested by the designer of my skin so of course I want to look my best at all times.

Of course now with so many generations of SL viewers, not to mention all the TPV - I may look like a walking lump of clay for all I know.  Kind of how people wearing mesh currently look to me.  Ah well...