Less Sales Since Magic Box Cutoff?

[Czari Zenovka]

Has anyone else experienced a slowdown of sales during the days just prior to April 16 to the present?  It might just be one of my store's cycles but, since migrating to DD (yes I migrated...don't ask :matte-motes-agape:) I have not had any sales.  During the week prior to the MB cutoff I had my normal amount of sales but nothing during or since the timeframe noted above.

I do know my items migrated correctly and I have performed test deliveries as well as having an alt purchase one item so I'm fairly confident the store itself is ok.  Not sure if this would make a difference but since I was migrating anyway I took the opportunity to change my item perms from Mod/Copy/No Trans to Mod/Trans/No Copy.  My thinking is that my items are priced very inexpensively to begin with and some of the items are ones that could be used as multiples.  I changed the prices to reflect this; ie. I lowered some prices a bit so that, for example, someone purchasing curtains would now pay less if they just needed one pair, but a bit more if they purchased multiples - and my paying "more" is still very inexpensive.  Will have to watch this over time.  I may end up changing the permissions back.

 

[Dora Gustafson]

In my experience any major change involves the sale in the way you describe.
It looks like the market search and item sorting take several days to catch up with changes in the market listing.

In a week or two everything should look more normal if you don't touch anything

:smileysurprised::smileyvery-happy:

[Trinity Yazimoto]

hey hey Czari !!! :smileyhappy:

firstly, im glad to know that you made your switching to DD hehehhehe ! i think we will have to drink a glass of champagne inworld for celebrating this ! :smileywink:

about my mp sales... well mp never liked me a lot, and i always made the majority of my sales inworld (80 % / 20%=)

So i havent noticed any change since the shut down of the mb... i still sell tons of one of my freebie, tons of 2 of my dollarbies and the normal priced items are at they normal level, that mean at slow level lol....

so well, nothing new on my side. but i send you a big hug anyway !:smileyhappy:

[Czari Zenovka]

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Dora Gustafson wrote:

In my experience any major change involves the sale in the way you describe.

It looks like the market search and item sorting take several days to catch up with changes in the market listing.

In a week or two everything should look more normal if you don't touch anything

:smileysurprised:

:smileyvery-happy:

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Oh dear...maybe I shouldn't have done my perm changes quite yet.  Ah well.  Taking your advice and not touching anything else for awhile.

[Czari Zenovka]

Thanks, Trinity!  Yes, I would LOVE to celebrate with champagne.  *Big Hugs* back atcha!! :matte-motes-bashful-cute-2:

What's hard to get used to is that in the past if I had a string of no sales, I would reset the MBs and invariably start getting sales again.  With DD there's nothing to reset...that I know of at least.

[mtwtfss71]

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

Thanks, Trinity!  Yes, I would LOVE to celebrate with champagne.  *Big Hugs* back atcha!! :matte-motes-bashful-cute-2:

What's hard to get used to is that in the past if I had a string of no sales, I would reset the MBs and invariably start getting sales again.  With DD there's nothing to reset...that I know of at least.

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You know what Czari? That's a fantastic point. I used to be able to do that as well and had a similar experience. We've lost that little trick.

As for sales, mine have definitely dropped since the 16th. I've had some sales but way less than usual. I was hoping it was a typical trust issue with customers when MP slows down. Time will tell.

Does this mean you got your new computer?

[Deja Letov]

I noticed it was well. My sales dropped a lot last week, but I also noticed that after all the deletions started search was jacked all up. My textures were appearing above my furniture, which is insane.It apepars to have corrected itself though, because I got several sales notifications over the weekend and it's back to buying furniture. So it looks like maybe it is leveling itself off. most likely with all the deletions they had to reindex their database and it was throwing searches off.

[Dirtnap Mumfuzz]

At least one item has sold per day since January. 

April sales have doubled at minimum, and customers are now buying multiple related items at a time, instead of just one item.

multpile purchases of unrelated items remains the same.

Item searches, as well as item views, appear to be climbing at the previous rate.

 

So much for consistency.

 

I think it probably has more to do with actual economical factors than any virtual one.

 

[Czari Zenovka]

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mtwtfss71 wrote:

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

Thanks, Trinity!  Yes, I would LOVE to celebrate with champagne.  *Big Hugs* back atcha!! :matte-motes-bashful-cute-2:

What's hard to get used to is that in the past if I had a string of no sales, I would reset the MBs and invariably start getting sales again.  With DD there's nothing to reset...that I know of at least.

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You know what Czari? That's a fantastic point. I used to be able to do that as well and had a similar experience. We've lost that little trick.

As for sales, mine have definitely dropped since the 16th. I've had some sales but way less than usual. I was hoping it was a typical trust issue with customers when MP slows down. Time will tell.

Does this mean you got your new computer?

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Thank you for responding with your experience re: sales.   Also thank you for being kind in inquiring about having a new computer.   Errrrrrr...next question please? *Runs and hides* :matte-motes-bashful-cute:

[Czari Zenovka]

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Deja Letov wrote:

I noticed it was well. My sales dropped a lot last week, but I also noticed that after all the deletions started search was jacked all up. My textures were appearing above my furniture, which is insane.It apepars to have corrected itself though, because I got several sales notifications over the weekend and it's back to buying furniture. So it looks like maybe it is leveling itself off. most likely with all the deletions they had to reindex their database and it was throwing searches off.

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Hoping that is the reason.  Thank you for responding, Deja.  I don't get a HUGE amount of sales, but usually *something* per week and my *norm* is a sale or two at least every other day.  But yeah, with the search results being messed up and apparently some bugs the dev team is working on...might take a bit to even back out.

[Czari Zenovka]

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Dirtnap Mumfuzz wrote:

I think it probably has more to do with actual economical factors than any virtual one.

 

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True.  There could be any number of factors and not all factors would influence all merchants equally.  I sell a lot more items during the holidays because I have holiday items.  Merchants who do not sell holiday items might notice a slight dip during the holidays.

I'm just glad my stuff is finally migrated.  *Checking that off my "Stop Procrastinating* list*

[Czari Zenovka]

I just checked my email and there was a sale.  WOOT!!!  So at least I know my store is working.  Interestingly, it isn't showing yet on my MP transactions but is showing on my personal transactions.

(And yes, it was the customer you sent my way Trinity...many thanks :heart:)

[Trinity Yazimoto]

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

I just checked my email and there was a sale.  WOOT!!!  So at least I know my store is working.  Interestingly, it isn't showing yet on my MP transactions but is showing on my personal transactions.

(And yes, it was the customer you sent my way Trinity...many thanks :heart:)

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ahhahahhaha i was about to ask lol... and i didnt sent anything neither anyone lol.. i told you... my customers love to play with your welcome mat lol.. just after you left, 2 girls came and played with it without stopping for long minutes lol... then the second one told me she was in love with the mat... since i wont give mine lol (since its a gift from you), i find the link for her and gave it to her... lol...and so she bought it lol...maybe you should rezz a lil vendor for this mat just beside mine in my store lol... im sure you ll have success with it...:smileywink:

[Czari Zenovka]

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Trinity Yazimoto wrote:

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

I just checked my email and there was a sale.  WOOT!!!  So at least I know my store is working.  Interestingly, it isn't showing yet on my MP transactions but is showing on my personal transactions.

(And yes, it was the customer you sent my way Trinity...many thanks :heart:)

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ahhahahhaha i was about to ask lol... and i didnt sent anything neither anyone lol.. i told you... my customers love to play with your welcome mat lol.. just after you left, 2 girls came and played with it without stopping for long minutes lol... then the second one told me she was in love with the mat... since i wont give mine lol (since its a gift from you), i find the link for her and gave it to her... lol...and so she bought it lol...maybe you should rezz a lil vendor for this mat just beside mine in my store lol... im sure you ll have success with it...:smileywink:

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Awww...it makes me feel good to know people are enjoying the welcome mat.  When I was at your store earlier I was seeing all these roses flying around and thinking, "Where is that coming from."  Took me a few to think, "Oh right, from my mat." *Mega DUH moment*

So back to the sale - I've lost track of time but it's at least 6 or more hours after the sale and it is still not showing up on my MP transactions.  So now I have a new question - anyone experiencing this?

[Czari Zenovka]

To recap, I sold a MP item yesterday (April 22).  The transaction appears on my dashboard transactions record; however, it is not listed on my MP transactions.  Just now I entered the name of the customer and brought up the order but...

The date listed was March 21, 2013

Ok, that's weird.  I did receive email notification of the sale on April 22.  The customer has not rezzed the item yet (I include a rezzer notification in my boxes for just this sort of issue) so I will contact the customer when I am in world later today to see if it was received.

Anyone else with mixed date or strange delivery issues?

[Arwen Serpente]

Hi Czari, that's "normal" for the MP - the date the item is placed in the cart is the date it is recorded in the MP transactions (so in this case March 21, 2013). The date the transaction is completed triggers the email notification and is the date on the dashboard (in this case April 22). Rather mixes up record keeping and plays games with your head, but that's how the system works.

[Czari Zenovka]

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Arwen Serpente wrote:

Hi Czari, that's "normal" for the MP - the date the item is placed in the cart is the date it is recorded in the MP transactions (so in this case March 21, 2013). The date the transaction is completed triggers the email notification and is the date on the dashboard (in this case April 22). Rather mixes up record keeping and plays games with your head, but that's how the system works.

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Ahhh ok, thank you Arwen.   (Always great to see you on the forums, btw.)

Ok, now I have another question - I 99% certain that this item was purchased on the April date due to the customer being one of Trinity's customers who asked where to purchase it. (Convoluted sentence but best I can do without my first caffeine of the day...anyway...)

Let's say that this customer had other items in her shopping cart on the March date.  Would that then cause all purchases to show the date as the first item/s when checked out in April?

[Arwen Serpente]

laughs, I've never done that much investigating to determine when the item was put in the cart! lol, I've always just been happy to find the matching transaction in the MP and the dashboard. It's possible that the cart "start date" is what is assigned to all the contents, but I'm not positive (although it does seem to make sense with what you've just encountered). It seems that merchants and shoppers are always discovering how the MP "really works" since the available information is not always complete.

P.S. - absolutely delighted to hear that you are on a new PC!

Edited to add: Actually, now that I think about it - yes, the date the cart is started is the date of the MP transaction. I had an instance where a gown had an MP transaction date prior to it ever being created/released. I asked Support and they said it was the cart start date that did it.

[Czari Zenovka]

Errrr...ummmm...about that PC...so...yeah :matte-motes-bashful:

[Arwen Serpente]

I found the support ticket I had filed for this issue and it confirms that the date the cart is created is the date of the transaction for all goods in the cart. So I had a transaction complete on Aug 25, 2011 - but the MP transaction record was dated Feb 27, 2011:

From Support:

"When an item is added to a shopping cart the system creates a Purchase Order for the item.

That Purchase Order is then dated for the date the first item was added to the shopping cart.

If the buyer then does a Buy Now option on an item, it creates a new Purchase Order and immediately sends the product.

This means a buyer placed an item into their shopping cart on 27 Feb but never processed that order.

When they did finally processed the order through their Shopping Cart the date of that order is listed as the date that first item was originally placed into the cart on 27 Feb."

[Czari Zenovka]

Thank you for looking that up and posting, Arwen.  I was scratching my head for awhile there.

[LillyBeth Filth]

I'm curious.

How does resetting the MBs get sales to increase?

And why did you not hunt me down in SL and inform me of this?? lol 

I have never heard if that and for the life of me I can't understand how that would change things...so I am curious

[Czari Zenovka]

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LillyBeth Filth wrote:

I'm curious.

How does resetting the MBs get sales to increase?

And why did you not hunt me down in SL and inform me of this??

lol 

I have never heard if that and for the life of me I can't understand how that would change things...so I am curious

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Shhhhh...it was a carefully guarded secret. :matte-motes-agape:

It wasn't that resetting the MBs magically caused people to start purchasing items (although, since it was called a "Magic" box, there are some interesting implications there..but I digress....)

Over the years I saw a pattern of sales that became my "normal" - ie. "X" number of sales/week was normal, give or take.  This past year, especially after DD went live, I started experiencing big chunks of time when I had no sales at all.  Since this was a huge deviation from my norm I wondered if something within the MP "system" had hiccupped.  I came across a post on Darrius' blog called "The Care and Feeding of Your Magic Box" (I think that is the title or at least a good approximation).  The post said something about taking the MB back into inventory, deleting the locations on the Xstreet page, then re-rezzing the MB would sometimes help with delivery issues.  I began doing that when I hit a prolonged period of no sales and 99.99% of the time I began getting sales, often within the hour of resetting the MB.  I have no idea why that worked but it obviously jiggled some wire somewhere back into place.