Boosting Sales in Marketplace

[Tara Chester]

The easiest  way is to have more new residents. Why I mention this obvious fact? Because I'm assuming a lot of people are giving up SL before even entering in-world, let alone coming to the Marketplace. Why I think this?  I play with two avatars for a year now, and last month I wanted to create a new one. After a lot of unsuccessful tries and support tickets, I finally gave up. And I'm sure you will all agree that someone who has just found out about SL and couldn't create avatar after 2-3 attempts, will never contact support in order to find out. And they shouldn't.

My point is: entering SL maybe free, but it's far from fast and easy. And we need that desparately.

And one more thing: keywords. I think it's time LL sent a survey to people on how they search the marketplace: how much they use general search, how many words they usualy type in the search box, do they browse categories more, how much they use filters and which filters, do they see and use related Related items, etc. We have no clue on this, and  feedback is needed in order to optimize our listings. ty

[Lizzy Saintlouis]

It could really help if one could do a key word search at subcatagories rather than only for top level. That might eliminate a lot of trash.

I also like the idea of a special category for all freebies and almost freebies.

[Relm Foxdale]

I agree with a lot of what's posted here--fixing search (duh), searching categories...maybe a bigger featured area or something, even if it means damaging the "what customers are buying now." I'm not sure anyone cares what anyone's buying now, but only a handful of featured items show up at once, and merchants actually pay for those. The "buying now" stuff isn't paid for.

Kind of OT, but...

From a merchant's perspective, a way to mass-edit listings that are partly the same and partly not. Like right now, I need to delete a line from most of my listings, which AFAIK, means going through every one individually, and I'm nearing 300.

The only possible fix I can think of is to have text fields that are separate from the description of that item. 

So you know, you could have a field for that item and then a few for fixed text that would appear for all similar listings, like "visit my store in-world for a free ___" or something. Maybe it could even be used for other in-world promotions, which may be anathema to LL's efforts to boost SLM sales, LOL, but you know, you could push your store hunt in it. It'd show up on every listing, and when it was over, you could go back and delete it, and it would disappear from every listing.

[EndoPlasmic]

I know this is just repeating what's already been said, but maybe if the lindens see it enough, then there's a chance of a lightbulb turning on and an actual clue is found by those in charge of such things.

Long story short: Fix the search function.  It is so obviously broken that you could put a moneky in charge of "fixing" it and they'd have a better chance of success than what the Commerce Team is currently accomplishing.  This applies to both the MP and inworld search functions. 

THE SEARCH FUNCTION IS BROKEN AND UTTERLY USELESS.  That being the case, how in the world do you expect merchants to make sales?  It's not only killing merchants, its killing the commission for LL.  I'm not sure how this cannot be a priority or, if it is, how the Team in charge of "fixing" it continues to be employed. 

Search is an absolute joke and, until it gets "fixed", it's irrelevant to go any deeper into boosting sales than that.

[Josh Susanto]

But if they fix the search function, that could actually result in a loss of LL revenue from listing enhancements.

Need I explain how?

[Darrius Gothly]

 

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Josh Susanto wrote:

But if they fix the search function, that could actually result in a loss of LL revenue from listing enhancements.

Need I explain how?

---

 

No, but honestly .. if that IS their motivation .. I think a lot of folks will be either fleeing or seeking legal counsel REAL fast. That's fraud, plain and simple. Not providing search at all is just pathetic service. But providing a knowingly hobbled or broken service is cut and dried fraud.

LL may be doing crazy stuff sometimes, but I seriously doubt their lawyers would let them commit fraud with knowledge aforehand.

[Toysoldier Thor]

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Josh Susanto wrote:

But if they fix the search function, that could actually result in a loss of LL revenue from listing enhancements.

Need I explain how?

---

You might have a good theory there Josh.  I mean come on - how hard is it for the LL team to put some focus on fixing SLM search?  We all know that inworld search is pretty much a NEVER TO FIX write-off... but SLM search has some hope to fixing it yet month after month after month all we get from Brooke's team and the team before hers is either crickets chirping or "we are studying it".

One would have to conclude that they dont have any desire to fix search and a good reason is to hopefully push more sales of their grossly over costed and under valued listing enhancements.

If that is the reason Brooke - that technique will never get me to buy the listing enhanvements.  They are as ineffective today as they were with xstreet.

[Josh Susanto]

It's just a theory.

OTOH, I haven't hear a better theory yet, nor have I seen any denial by LL.

I don't think it qualifies as fraud as long as there is some kind of searchability to satisfy the claim that the market is searchable.

That is: it's not a question of searchable or not searchable, but a question of HOW searchable... and one could argue that it is always possible for it to be more searchable than it is.

 

[Girlfriend Melody]

Very simple:

Read again complaints that SL residents posted when you announced the trasition from former xstreetsl into this new marketplace and take it for serious.

We had warned you guys !!!

[Josh Susanto]

Yes.

We were warned.

And that enabled us to take action by ... doing nothing.

[Lyra Blackthorne]

making ths shopping cart work would be a big help

[Chelsea Malibu]

Agreed! Search is key but moreover, tell us how it works if you can but since no one anywhere really knows it seems, I would like to suggest the following:

1. Create an Advanced Search that allows users to refine their search.

2. The Product Hierarchy is a good idea (Home and Garden > Lighting > Chandeliers as an example), should be expanded to include more product subsets.

3. Remove that pop up that screams "Get Me Out of Here" when you log into market place, it's been 4 months now out dated.  You do know each step reduces sales by increasing abandonment?

4. Increase page load times with better content delivery through a better CDN and clean up your DB.

5. Sell keywords or limit them to just a few.

6. Offer direct credit card purchases through the shopping cart.

7. Provide a user link where buyers can reship copy product to themselves that do not get delivered. 

8. Build an affiliate program that allows me to pay those who send me sales with through affiliate links.

All of this can be done and all of it works. This is what I do professionally and am paid very well for my knowledge.  I'll send the bill to Linden Labs :smileywink:

 

 

 

 

[greek Wingtips]

Thats all well and good, but how about all us shop keepers that were relying on the search engine for sales, thats gone completely out of the window it's like trying to sell sand in the desert forget,all these upgrades for the viewer is ok but how about fixing the damm search engine  most know it dont work, either revert back to the old one or fix it instead of all these little bells and whistle upgrades, am sure folks want a a working seach engine than a camera fix.

 

oh well blood boiling best stop here LOL

[WannaPiEcE Crabgrass]

Haven't yet.

 

It really seems like the marketplace is setup right now so that new items get no exposure and you're only option is to pay for enhancements that I have yet to find useful in aiding sales.

 

Relevance shows most sales in the category and that's it.  Therefore new items are actually impossible to find unless someone clicks on the store.

 

We need help with making our store more incorporated in listing pages.  Relevant items are great but can we make the store link a little more prominent?

 

But, as others have said please fix the search and keywords just ruin search due to exploitation, please go by the titles.

 

I've been thinking about how to get new items more exposure too and it involves using a new item ticker on the side, bottom or top of category landing pages or even on every categorized page excluding indiviual item listing pages.

Similar to your featured items slide but have more items shown per slide instead of only 3, maybe 9, and of course make it smaller yet functional.

Also what about item highlighting in the category pages as a feature.  TBH, the featured items box needs lots of work because it is highly ineffecient.  Are there even any Lindens left that actually looked at the SLX model and remember how the listing enhancements went?  If you went homepage your item was highlighted in the category, etc. 

Right now though everything looks too big and bulky, shiny yet not useful, pretty yet dumb.  "What customers are buying now" is completely useless.  Who cares what somebody just bought it most likely has nothing to do with what you want to buy.

Take the left sidebar and make something useful out of it, like a live ticker feed for new products relative to the category you are in.  The way things are going people will just buy the same things over and over, and new items or better items won't ever see the light of day.  People are so afraid to buy an item nowdays because it doesn't have any ratings even if it's brand new.  We need to break this aspect and make people more willing to buy items that do not have ratings.

[Honey Something]

What a freaking mess, and of course, who suffers the most? The residents. SL to me is a fond memory of what once was and what might have been, and sales are dwindling down and my bills are still due... I already gave up my island last fall, couldn't afford it any more, and why, was it because I got lazy? Yeah, maybe, all these needless changes made me sad, which made me want to stay away from the source of my sadness. Excuses aside, though, the main thing was lack of relevant search, either in-world or on the marketplace. I couldn't get sales from search, from making new items, from listing enhancements, from anything, except my rep - earned when things worked halfway like we as merchants were wanted here in SL.

 

And that is my theory, that SL/LL doesn't really want us small time mom & pop types here any more. If they do, they sure aren't showing it.

 

That new viewer is incomprehensible to me, I have no idea why it was needed, what it's worth to residents is supposed to be, or why the new one name thing was needed, if they had focused the resources used for that crap on fixing search, maybe this old virtual world would now be the place it once promised to be.

[Driver Barbosa]

Market place search relevance. We've been hearing "they are working on it" for years. The marketplace was a great idea that has been terribly built and maintained. I quit paying for enhancements long ago because there is no way to find what you are looking for any more.

[Vladamir Bearsfoot]

Boosting sales is hard as heck. I have had my store open for a bit and have not gotten a single sale other than my very close friends. I had refined the search criteria as well as key words but the fact is that my goods are way way in the back of any search as well as anyone else's that is new. Unless someone is looking for exactly what I am selling, there is no sale at all. With my appearing in searches for my products only getting into the 900-1000's about now for 3 items it tends to make me think that there is not really much chance that I will get a sale.

I had thought greatly about my products as well as looking at others as well. To me it seems that if you only have a few, or one type that it will be almost impossible to get anywhere. Some of the other merchants I have noticed have several types of products. Some that do clothing also do buildings or some such things that open their market up for more eyes(naturally). I do also tend to think that if something is on the market, some may just opt to build something themselves. 

Overall it seems to me that all of SL has a little bit of a slump, suppose that could be do to global economy and or holidays, perhaps both. It raises far more questions than what can be answered it seems.