Sale decrease 99% down.. why

[feelmenoww]

 My Marketplace sales are 99% down and that has never happened in 7 years. I am using inworld advertisement , web advertisement , and listing enchantment too, but something is wrong. Whatever I was earning in a day I am now earning in a week. Is this happening with only me? Can someone share advice on what to do?

 

 

Thanks

[Amethyst Jetaime]

You can check your store to see that everything is displayed properly, and if you find problems file a support ticket.

Otherwise, it happens to most merchants at one time or another.  This time of year people are out and about in RL squeezing in a last minute vacation or getting kids off to school and spending their money on those things, not SL.

[Pamela Galli]

I don't keep close tabs, but my sales on MP are about what I expect this time of year. I suspect some merchants were benefiting from some type of search bias that no longer exists. 

[Tari Landar]

Listing enhancments haven't been effective for *most* merchants, in a very long time(some still profit, most won't, at least certainly not above any other advertising method).

Have you looked at your erchant home to be certain you don't have listings thta have been removed for violations? Since no one can take a look at your store, I doubt anyone can offer any direct advise. But what you've been given is good advice. I too suggest combing through your store to make certain everything is ok. You can check your search ranks(simply be performing a search) but know that, right now, search is not very effective either, lol, it's a bit of a wonky mess. Your market might be a factor as well, but again that requires looking at your store from someone else to see if maybe you meet a niche market that's all over down right now. 

Lods of folks are having low sales right now, there are other threads in the merchants forum you can read for info on that though.

Personally, my sales are down, but I expect mine to fluctuate. I have a tiny store, it's a hobby for me, so while I follow it meticulously, it's not a huge game changer(used to be, but no longer is). But I also don't sell latest trends, or latest...anything, lol. So my results aren't common. I also haven't added anything new, despite having a vast amount of things TO add, due to recent changes LL is making that I'm not particularly fond of. 

You're not alone, fi that's your main concern, but aside from going over every ad you have, checking for violations yourself(even ones not reported or flaged yet, such as keyword spam-which is a huge one), and checking where you fall in search ranks...I'm not sure there is much to be done at this moment. Opimizing is key, and if I were you, I'd dithc the listing enhancements, they play little to no role these days(again, for *most* merchants). I personally ignore anythign and everything listed in them on the top of the pages when I;m searching for stuff, because I make specific searches and rarely just randomly browse(which is the *only* place they are even remotely effective...an that's stretching the definition of effective to near unrecognizable state). 

[Ela Talaj]

Regularly I have a few sales a day and don't expect more because my products are relatively expensive.  However once in a while my store like drops into a "black hole", no sales for a week or even more... then it recovers. I was never able to find a pattern in it, seasonal or otherwise; luckily it doesn't happen more than a cpl times a year.

[Chic Aeon]

My Marketplace sales have been pretty steady all summer with just a slight decrease (summer is always slower).  The only difference I have noted these last few months is fewer surround sales on the Marketplace. People are buying inworld more than before. I attribute this to less landholders --- especially in summer.

So in some ways it depends on your product and since we don't know what those are .......

 

By the end of Septermber any summer lull should be over --- historically speaking anyway.  

 

Other things you might try would be updating any old vendor photos or adding a free product to get folks to your Marketplace store.

 

 

[feelmenoww]

thank you everyone..

I contacted customer  they are saying problem becuase of new search engine

my listing enchantment  is activate from 3 year ..  ,and this month people not even bought my product those are less than 10L.. and yes I can see I lose number 2nd second position from marketplace.. now its not even top 50

 

[ChinRey]

I just noted that six of the nine most recent questions in the Answers section are from people having problems shopping on MP or buying Lindens and there's also this thread here of course.

There are always problems like these of course but this is an unusally high number and although I haven't any exact stats, I have the impression this has been going on for a while.

Obviously, if people can't buy Lindens, they can't shop on MP and if the checkout is messed up, there won't be any sales. Maybe it's this that is the main reason why so many merchants see drops in sale figures?

[ChinRey]

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Arwen Serpente wrote:

I'm convinced it's the new search as well.

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Hard to say for sure. That is, I don't doubt that the new search has seriously reduced the income for many merchants and probably the total MP revenue too.

But I don't think problems like this random example has improved the situation very much either and I'm quite sure there are a lot more of them now than there used to be. As I said in my previous post, many of these questions have obvious answers (and this may well turn out to be one of them) but the sheer number of them recently is rather worrying.

[Arwen Serpente]

No question that shopping cart glitches and other bugs affect sales. However, those tend to happen throughout the year.  The sales drop corresponds directly to the change in search, by double digits down.  So while other glitches may take a nibble at sales, the search change took a bite.  Just my experience and that of Merchants I've spoken to.

[Pamela Galli]

I suspect mine are not very affected because I threw in the towel on all SL search years ago. I doubt anyone ever just happens across my stuff -- either they are specifically looking for it or they will never see it. 

[Caren Jewell]

Well the last time was it bad and today no sales - not one over MP

I wrote here at first cause the Grid Status told us that all is fine now.

But today I have 0 Sales - 0! The badest Day at my last 8 years

Well and now I read over Groups that People can not buy in MP - Issues again - I hope they fix it realy soon :-/

[Chic Aeon]

While I can understand that this is very problematic for folks who have lost ALL (or most) of their sales, I am kinda with Pamela on this.  

 

I could never see how the Marketplace gave any kind of relevant search (this looking for products to buy -- not complaining on my listings).   I figure that for the "big stuff" folks have seen the items inworld and have looked them up on the Marketplace. Same with instore sales.

 

I went back over my recent transactions and I am making the same amount that I have made for quite awhile. BUT, this is summer so that means I am a little above the curve perhaps. The INTERESTING thing in this conversation is that a third of my income is from VENUES now and I just started doing those this Spring.

 

So doing the "math" that would mean that my total income would have been down a third if I wasn't doing the venues.

 

I think it is very important NOT to count on one revenue stream -- Marketplace, instore, venues etc.  and to cover your bases as much as you can. Hopefully LL will get this worked out. If not, I actually preferred Second Life PRE Marketplace. Maybe this will give folks some incentive to market in other ways.

[Iren Tinkel]

My sales are also down last month. There was night with no even one order. It didnt happen to me since my MP story I dont know what is reason but it is kinda fast process. I feel some decrease this year but I connect it with my wish not to produce new things (it is another story, i am tired of cheap copycats) though it was very very slow, not so fast as last month.

[Lasher Oh]

Lot's of sound responses and good advice from the others.

Without a doubt the new search has skewed sales in all sorts of odd ways for many. Whilst my own sales are a little down, they traditionally dip this time of year anyway.

It's the kind of sales that I am finding interesting. My usual best selling items that I could always count on have taken a dive and in their place a whole host of obscure items I had almost forgotten about are on the rise.

More worrying overall is the solidity of the new SL search.

The marketplace has at best been less than adequate in that department but I had grown accustomed to it's many eccentricities. However a whole raft of new quirks are beginning to emerge.

For example yesterday I made a search for some some footwear I needed and I was amazed to see one of my own totally unrelated products pop up in the results. Somewhat perturbed I checked that listing Title & Keywords etc, that could have brought it there. Nothing! I then checked all the other language pages associated with the same listing still nothing, I doubled checked that there wasn't any keyword stemming that might have kicked in - absolutely none!. Nor was there a related stem in the description (which they say doesn't count anyway).

So for me the jury is still out on the new search algorithm and indexing. Meanwhile should one of my products that is totally unrelated to your own searches sneak into the results please accept my apologies and be assured it's not by my design but rather that of the mysterious hand of the Marketplace random search returns.

^L^

[Rya Nitely]

I suspect my sales may be down but I stopped keeping track. After the credit fee increases I changed my cash out routine, and then the value of the L$ started going down, and then I just gave up on keeping records all together. Whatever happens happens. I'm not taking it seriously anymore. I still create but just when I feel like it, and when I'm enjoying it. My L$ is accumulating, but I don't even bother cashing out. I don't really care about search or its impact.

For me it's best not to know. Ignorance is bliss.

[Trinity Yazimoto]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

I don't keep close tabs, but my sales on MP are about what I expect this time of year. I suspect some merchants were benefiting from some type of search bias that no longer exists. 

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THIS !

 

Because it's logical, because it's mathematical (or however u say this in english)

The fact the search engine change does NOT change the willings of customers to buy. It changes what they see as result. But if someone is looking for something, they will forcelly end up on a result that will match their expectation and buy.

Unless we are said there is a major loss of general sales on the MP, we just can assume the level of sale remain about the same. 

What changes is who is selling. 

So mathematically, if some are losing sales, some others are having more sales than usually.  (Not me, mine remains the same level). 

You can bet those ppl with a new amount of sales are not coming to complain in the forum. But of course, its logical the ones losing sales come and complain here. Thus we could think that the new search engine is doing really bad.  

 

But to be fair, on the customer point of view. When i do a search now, well, i find more relevant results. Of course, it's far from being perfect but compared to the previous one, i think that searches are giving slightly better results now.

So i understand that some merchants benefiting in the past from some type search bias, as said Pamela,  are not happy but it doesnt mean the new search engine is worse than the previous one. 

 

Edit to add 3 words forgoten

[Pamela Galli]

Yes, this what I suspect. There is always some way to game search, inadvertently or not, and some will have it and some not. I did not have it with old search and do not with new search, since I I'd not seen any sudden change from the 16th. As you say, some are going to see a boost, some a bust, and some not much of either. 

[Spica Inventor]

What I've noticed so far....

Good:

-It would appear that LL stopped the price pumping. (No more stuff getting raised up pages on search results based on their higher price point.) That is very welcome imho.

-Search results more based on recent sales and less on long term sales. Another very welcome happenstance for SL growth. 

Bad:

-Merchant store name still a big factor when there is no need for it to be a factor at all imho.

-Product name too big of a factor over keywords. Still should be word number limits to prevent gaming and spamming.

 

 

[Codex Alpha]

Wrong, I was searching for 'home bars, pubs" and such and your Galleria Bar came up in the searches

Working as intended.

Were you expecting to be number 1 in the search for some reason?

[Pamela Galli]

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entity0x wrote:

Wrong, I was searching for 'home bars, pubs" and such and your Galleria Bar came up in the searches

Working as intended.

Were you expecting to be number 1 in the search for some reason?

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No idea what you are talking about. I have not checked out how my things do on search, literally in years. I don't have any expectations at all.

[Codex Alpha]

I was responding to this quote, and saying you can be found - with a proper keyword search.

 

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Pamela Galli wrote:

I suspect mine are not very affected because I threw in the towel on all SL search years ago.

I doubt anyone ever just happens across my stuff -- either they are specifically looking for it or they will never see it. 

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[Pamela Galli]

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entity0x wrote:

I was responding to this quote, and saying you can be found - with a proper keyword search.

 

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Pamela Galli wrote:

I suspect mine are not very affected because I threw in the towel on all SL search years ago.

I doubt anyone ever just happens across my stuff -- either they are specifically looking for it or they will never see it. 

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I should have said anyone often. They usually see something inworld and look for it on MP.