Can you have too many items listed on SLM under one account?

[Porky Gorky]

Howdy,

My bread and butter sales is prefabs. I have about 70 listed on SLM and sell a reasonable amount on there, but only a small percentage compared to what I sell in-world. Obviously allot of people like to tour a prefab in world before purchase. I want to sell more on SLM.

I also have another 550 or so 'other items' on SLM, items that are not prefabs, such as landscaping stuff, furniture and wot not.

So I am wondering, if having all these non prefab related items on SLM is detrimental to my sale of prefabs. If people click the "visit the store" link and they are looking for prefabs, then they need to wade through all this other stuff to find the prefabs. I don't have enough control over how my items are displayed in my SLM store and this bugs me.

So I am considering removing all non prefab items to another SLM account and only selling prefabs via my Porky Av.

This is allot of work though. 

On the other hand, all my non prefab items are designed to go with my prefabs and are generally built in a similar style, so maybe separating them will harm the sales of my non prefab products.

I'm completely undecided on what would be the best course of action.

Does anyone have any experience or practical feedback that would help me make up my mind?

Do you sell different types of content on seperate accounts?

If you are a customer looking for prefabs on SLM would you be put off by having to scroll through hundreds of items to find the prefabs?

Thanks.

 

[Catwise Yoshikawa]

I sell lot of different things cause like to make almost everything in SL, and sometimes I feel customers could be lost in my Marketplace store, but if you have items that are in a specific category I guess they can just go to your store and on the left side click on the category they want and just look for your items on that category.

 

[Pamela Galli]

If it's all good stuff that sells, I don't see a problem.

I weeded out a lot of stuff before the switch to MP, and I think it helped overall sales but only because the stuff I deactivated was garbage. 

[Porky Gorky]

 

 

 

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Catwise Yoshikawa wrote:

I sell lot of different things cause like to make almost everything in SL, and sometimes I feel customers could be lost in my Marketplace store, but if you have items that are in a specific category I guess they can just go to your store and on the left side click on the category they want and just look for your items on that category.

 

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Hmm yes that is true. I rarely shop myself so over look these things :smileyhappy:

 

[Porky Gorky]

 

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Pamela Galli wrote:

If it's all good stuff that sells, I don't see a problem.

I weeded out a lot of stuff before the switch to MP, and I think it helped overall sales but only because the stuff I deactivated was garbage. 

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I have some stuff on there that is up to 4 years old and only sells occasionally. Maybe I just need to do some selective filtering out of crap.

 

[Josh Susanto]

the more new items i add, the more demand there is for the old items

if your products are good, more products are more presence

dividing products between 2 accounts divides your presence and weakens brand recognition

[Yanni Hinterland]

As a shopper, I hate going to a persons market place store and seeing hundreds of items not related to what I am searching for.  If I search for prefab and get a hit on your items I will then want to look at all your prefab listings all together.  If when I get there I see I have to wade thru tons of other stuff ....... I just leave and look elsewhere.  Of course that is just me.  Not sure what most others preferences are.

LL either needs to create a way merchants can categorize within their market place stores. that way we could see your items listed by category. but since that is not the case I would recommend you create a separate market place store.

[Pamela Galli]

Yanni, if you look to the left of a merchant's store, there are categories you can use to find the merchandise grouped together.

 

I agree that a brand is worth a lot on a balance sheet.

[Ai Velde]

Long post ahead.

Porky, I found you on XStreet a million years ago and have bought oodles of your 'other' stuff as well as a good handful of prefabs. I'm only speaking for myself and the way I shop, but as one of your customers who found you on the market, I think your current set-up is fine. What determined my interest in your items generally was the style and quality. It didn't matter what exactly I was looking at; it was something I thought looked good, and that enticed me to browse your listings further.

Speaking of prefabs specifically - say I'm looking at some topiary of yours - it's good quality, has a nice modern style that appeals to me, it was as easy as clicking 'view more' and then having to pick my jaw up off the floor from the gorgeous homes, several of which I had to have along with all sorts of other things. And that was from oggling to death some neat topiary.

It's easily seen (and I say easily meaning someone isn't mentally afflicted and can click the Building Components -> Structures on the store page)  that you sell prefabs, a lot of them looked epic, so I went to look in world. There was nothing convoluted about it for me. I think most customers, if they see something done, anything at all, in a style that's appealing to them, they'll look and see what else the person has to offer in that style. Therefore, in your case, I don't think it matters if they're looking at all the accessories and other items. As long as you DO have some prefabs on there for them to discover you sell prefabs, your other items work as good advertisement to the quality of items you sell.

 

As a merchant, my reply is a little more basic. If you feel there is room for improvement, then improve. However, don't fix what isn't broken. I wouldn't think having lots of misc items takes away from your prefab sales, because for me, it gained me as a prefab customer of yours. Anything that shows off the quality and unique style of your art is excellent in garnering sales. If someone likes your misc items and knows you sell prefabs, then the next time they're looking for a home, they'll look for you first because they know you sell a style they like and are familiar with.

Also, I think that probably a lot of people who buy from you both buy misc items like furniture and topiary, and prefabs? The items you sell tend to work together; ie: prefab, furnishings, landscaping. So again, as a customer who buys a house from you, and would like to furnish it, and add some nifty stuff outside that matches the theme, I would want to find all of those things under one name, together, when shopping. I think you could run the risk of hurting your sales by separating them. But that's me and I'm lazy.

[Porky Gorky]

 

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Ai Velde:

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Thank you Ai, It's always great to get feedback from customers, whether it be positive or negative.

Allot of my business processes and the store set up in world have been developed and changed a few times over the years purely based on customer surveying and general feedback. I've never really had any feedback about my SLM set-up, basically because I have never bothered to ask, so it's really useful to hear the thoughts from someone who has actually searched through my items on SLM, and also very much appreciated that you took time out to write such a long post. :smileyhappy:

 

[Porky Gorky]

 

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Josh Susanto wrote:

the more new items I add, the more demand there is for the old items

if your products are good, more products are more presence

dividing products between 2 accounts divides your presence and weakens brand recognition

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I tend to agree Josh. Brand recognition has been key for me over the years as my stuff has a distinctive style and look. I am not keen on splitting my items between 2 accounts.

 

 

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Yanni Hinterland wrote:

As a shopper, I hate going to a persons market place store and seeing hundreds of items not related to what I am searching for.  If I search for prefab and get a hit on your items I will then want to look at all your prefab listings all together.  If when I get there I see I have to wade thru tons of other stuff ....... I just leave and look elsewhere.  Of course that is just me.  Not sure what most others preferences are.

LL either needs to create a way merchants can categorize within their market place stores. that way we could see your items listed by category. but since that is not the case I would recommend you create a separate market place store.

 

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Thanks for posting Yanni. So as a shopper did you know that you could view sub-categories within someone's store on the left hand side of the screen?

If so, do you use this feature regularly?

I have to admit that I hardly ever use the sub-category filters feature. I rarely ever shop, but on the few occasions that I do, I want to get my shopping done ASAP so I can get on with other things. So even though I am aware of the feature I forget about it, and it often gets over-looked by me when shopping. I see a store with hundreds of items, I may look through a page or 2 and if I am not impressed I quickly move on.

I will also admit that I had not taken the sub-category filtering into account whilst thinking about changing my SLM store over the last few days. The fact that people can easily filter out my commercial and residential prefabs from my store listings kind of makes up my mind for me, I will keep all my content on one account and will do some selective housekeeping on older and poorly selling items.

[Porky Gorky]

Ok so I guess a more relevant question to ask now is....

As a shopped do you always use the sub category filtering when looking at larger merchants stores? Or like me do you forget or overlook the feature or simply didn't realise it was there?

Thanks.

[TatianaDokuchic Varriale]

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Porky Gorky wrote:

Ok so I guess a more relevant question to ask now is....

As a shopped do you always use the sub category filtering when looking at larger merchants stores? Or like me do you forget or overlook the feature or simply didn't realise it was there?

Thanks.

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As a shopper, I'm always aware that the filter is there.  When I'm in a browsing mood I may look at everything but most of the time I focus on a specific sub-category.

[Porky Gorky]

Maybe it's a male thing. Even in RL I want to get in the shop and get out ASAP. Oblivious to everything around me.  Unlike my wife who seems to have a rule that involves her spending at least a minimum of 20 minutes in every shop she enters.

[Yanni Hinterland]

wow no , I had no clue I could do that duh.  Given that option I too would say keep all your stuff on one account

Thanks for the tip!!! that will save me tons of time lol

 

[Catwise Yoshikawa]

 

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Porky Gorky wrote:

Maybe it's a male thing. Even in RL I want to get in the shop and get out ASAP. Oblivious to everything around me.  Unlike my wife who seems to have a rule that involves her spending at least a minimum of 20 minutes in every shop she enters.

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Not sure is a male thing, in RL I'm like you ^^' In marketplace is the same, category filter make the shopping even faster, that's why I use it ;-)