April Marketplace Update/User Group Topics

[Brooke Linden]

Hi all,

As I indicated in the March Marketplace Update , I will be posting the April update to this forum before the April User Group occurring on April 6, 2011 at 10:00 AM SLT.

Before I do that, I’d like to find out what you all want to hear about. Please take some time to fill out this survey, and I’ll provide an update on the top 5 topics. If there is no change since the last update, I’ll indicate that (with a pointer) and skip to the next topic of interest.

Please complete the survey by Monday, March 28, 2011 at 5:00 PM SLT. I will send out an update on April 1, 2011. Questions submitted beforehand or during the User Group will be addressed on a topic-by-topic basis. Please read the April Update if you plan to attend the April User Group, which will ensuer that the meeting provides more detailed information for everyone.

Thanks!
Brooke

P.S. The April Update will include information on some of the issues/concerns that have been mentioned on the active Commerce Forum threads related to Maturity and Search.

[Catwise Yoshikawa]

Thanx for the update :smileyhappy:

[Toysoldier Thor]

The next meeting is again in mid-day N.A. time so again out of range for me.

I noticed the survey does not have an item that covered "technical problems / issue / bugs" as a main item.

Considering how many of us have all reported an average of a 50% drop in sales since LL Commerce Team's changes to SLM two weeks ago, I hope many of you are going to select OTHER and demand Brooke explain what the heck the team did to destroy without any current recovering about 50% of SLM sales.  and demand that she come up with an action plan on how LL Commerce will restore the lost service / sales flow that these changes seem to have clear impacted.

[Sassy Romano]

General consensus from the last meeting was that the value in attending was low.

Typed excruciatingly slowly, no time for questions (only a rare hand picked easy to answer set were chosen).

Save everyone the time and frustration, "JUST BLOG IT".

 

[TriloByte Zanzibar]

I'd be curious as to how many hours are being spent, and how the time can be justified to be working on the Dash Deal program ahead of all the other priorities that were summarized in last month's meeting.  That's fantastic that there's a commitment to getting accurate/complete data in the downloadable CSV files, but that STILL falls far short of what we were promised that the Marketplace would offer and what we have had for many years on the old XStreet site that the Marketplace replaced.

If you want to increase revenues give merchants the tools we need to measure the success of our listings and enhancements (accurate web-based traffic and sales reporting), and work on improving and fixing the system, don't force merchants to trade at least 75% of the gross on best-selling items (minimum 50% discount plus a 50/50 commission split) in order to get an unspecified (and ironically, unmeasurable) amount of additional traffic from email, facebook, and twitter promotional activity.

It would also make more sense for you to post your monthly update (via blog, as other Lindens do with relevant news/updates) before soliciting feedback on your agenda.  By providing merchants (and customers alike) with real/tangible data and progress reports, you could save a lot of wasted time and effort and make the meeting a lot more productive than the sessions held so far.

 

TriloByte Zanzibar

[Pamela Galli]

Agree with Trilo -- we have been waiting for restored, and even the promised increased, functionality and reporting tools for a long time. I don't need help marketing my merchandise; I need data. The only way I can tell if an enhancement is even working is if I cancel them all -- right now I would say they do almost nothing, but how would I know?

My #1 problem (even ahead of search) is the MP being used as a fencing operation. Not only for copybotted merchandise but for reselling full perm creators' items full perm -- but at a lower price. It is deeply unfair for someone to spend hours creating something that someone else will buy and add to their store for resale with the same perms but a lower price.

[Madeliefste Oh]

 

---

Pamela Galli wrote:

My #1 problem (even ahead of search) is the MP being used as a fencing operation. Not only for copybotted merchandise but for reselling full perm creators' items full perm -- but at a lower price. It is deeply unfair for someone to spend hours creating something that someone else will buy and add to their store for resale with the same perms but a lower price.

---

That´s what it is, very unfair! LL should support the legitimed IP holders, not the infringers.

 

[Toysoldier Thor]

---

Sassy Romano wrote:

General consensus from the last meeting was that the value in attending was low.

Typed excruciatingly slowly, no time for questions (only a rare hand picked easy to answer set were chosen).

Save everyone the time and frustration, "JUST BLOG IT".

 

---

I agree whole heartedly Sassy.  Brooke's typing speed at the last meeting I was able to attend was so slow that it effectively reduced a 60 minute meeting to 30 minutes.  And so few actual questions were asked and answered - thanks to Brooke's Question Filtration System (Colossus) that it just ended up being Brooke typing out a blogged status update.

Since I am unable to attend anyway (as are likely most merchants), I would totally agree that Brooke should just collect the survey responses of the top issues, develop a blog of the topics she is willing to post about, and then just let the larger audience of Merchants ask questions on the blog.

Then she should take some time out of her schedule and answer some of the responses / questions.

[JubJub Forder]

I'd rather see time spent on fixing basic standard functionality than Dash Deals. Things like retaining my paging preferences between pages/sessions/days. I am soo tired of having to reset my preferences every few pages - and it's very basic  web design stuff to save those prefs. 
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/WEB-3464

Why is development time being spent on Dash Deal when there's a known huge issue with products still failing to be delivered? I had 25 failed deliveries in a single two day span not long ago. And am very aware of others suffering similar problems. When is this going to be fixed and what resources are being devoted to it?

[Legend Hye]

Yes, I agree. The delivery system should be fixed first, before developing anything else new.

[Zanara Zenovka]

 

---

Legend Hye wrote:

Yes, I agree. The delivery system should be fixed first, before developing anything else new.

---

The single biggest thing LL could do to help with delivery would be to put a message on the checkout page, the same as we had in XStreet, of "Please ensure you are logged in to SL or delivery may fail.".

 

Capped messages are the most common form of delivery failure, before you even get to shopping cart problems. Although with my tinfoil hat on, it's tempting to believe that LL would rather let the transaction go through, and leave the merchant to sort out delivery issues after the fact.

While a total redo of the delivery system is a good idea, in practice it's going to be a big job for LL, requiring much testing, etc. Also remember that it would mean a lot of work redoing your listings, organising inventory, etc - again. Are we really up for that again already?

[Darrius Gothly]

 

---

Zanara Zenovka wrote:

.... Also remember that it would mean a lot of work redoing your listings, organising inventory, etc - again. Are we really up for that again already?

---

 

NO!!

(oops .. sorry .. that just kinda slipped out)

[Pamela Galli]

Ohhhh that possibility never even occurred to me.

 

JUST SHOOT ME NOW! :womansurprised:

[Catwise Yoshikawa]

 

---

Zanara Zenovka wrote:

The single biggest thing LL could do to help with delivery would be to put a message on the checkout page, the same as we had in XStreet, of "Please ensure you are logged in to SL or delivery may fail.".

 

---

Exactly. Was the first thing I said when they open Marketplace. Basic info for customers that they don't know when buy and is the most common cause of error in delivery.

 

[B00tsy Compton]

 

---

Toysoldier Thor wrote:

---

effectively reduced a 60 minute meeting to 30 minutes.  And so few actual questions were asked and answered - thanks to Brooke's Question Filtration System (Colossus) that it just ended up being Brooke typing out a blogged status update.

Since I am unable to attend anyway (as are likely most merchants), I would totally agree that Brooke should just collect the survey responses of the top issues, develop a blog of the topics she is willing to post about, and then just let the larger audience of Merchants ask questions on the blog.

Then she should take some time out of her schedule and answer some of the responses / questions.

---

I do agree that larger group meetings are not all that effective and has no room for in depth discussions, I am positive though about the active communication we are having with Brooke. After Pink there was a gap in communication and no Linden that took over the public role. Glad to see that void filled.