Top 10 Reasons Shoppers should WindowShop SLM & Buy Inworld

[Toysoldier Thor]

So I wondered if the LL "hide bad news" moderator police would coome around - specially when I seen a certain forum poster respond to my posting in another thread.

So this is a clip of the top 10 reasons why SLM Shoppers should only use SLM to window shop and take their buying inworld to the Merchant's actual stores...

(this is a clip from a blog post I have already created and posted on my site and announced on Twitter - which LL cannot censor or moderate to hide their service's weakness.  If you want to read the whole story - find my blog (in my profile))

 

TOP 10 IMPORTANT REASONS WHY SHOPPERS SHOULD WINDOW SHOP IN SLM  &  BUY INWORLD:

 

1. When you buy a product from a Merchant’s inworld store, the sales transaction is direct between your Avatar and the product vendor (for basic vendors).  This reduces the chance for a delivery delay or failure. It can still happen but far less likely than the frequent delivery failures that are occurring between the SLM website to the Magicbox to your Avatar inworld.
   
   
2. Your product delivery will almost always be instant after paying the inworld product vendor.
    
3. If you have a purchase problem of any nature whereby you are entitled to a Refund, the Merchant is able to provide you 100% of your purchase price back.  If you have the same issue from an SLM sale, the Merchant can only offer you 95% of your purchase as a refund. Why? Because LL has the other 5%.  So if you are looking for $1000L refund, the Merchant can only offer you $950L of it – he doesn’t have the rest.
   
   
4. When you come to the inworld store to buy the product you found on the SLM you often will get to see the product live or in action (i.e. I sell Landscape Sculpt Maps – you see many of them rezzed in my store).  You can’t get a good experience of the product from photos on SLM.
   
   
5. When you take the time to visit the Merchant’s store inworld, you will often get to see several other products created by this Merchant that you might also like or that might even better work for you than the one you initially found in SLM.  I have had countless of my Customers that changed your selection of products after visiting my landscape sculpty store.
   
   
6. Often when you visit the store, you might bump into the actual Merchant / Creator.  This is a great experience as you can engage him/her and learn valuable tips/tricks of the products or find out deals in the store that were not available on SLM.  I have met many inworld customers where I have engaged in great chats and often came to their sim to provide them advice on how to solve their landscaping challenges.
   
   
7. When visiting a Merchant’s store, you often get to run into other stores as many of stores are in malls.  You might just find an amazing gem of a product you were always looking for or find something that you didn’t even know you wanted! J
   
   
8. THIS IS A BIG ONE:  When you buy from the Merchant inworld and not on SLM, you are making a powerful contribution to the SL’s general economy! Why?  Because 100% of your purchase stayed within the SL economy.  When you buy from SLM, you are assured that 5% of all your purchases instantly leave the SL economy.  That is because LL takes its 5% and removes it from the SL economy – that is their real life $US profit (a complicated source / sink model but it’s gone from SL).  It’s not to say that the Merchants don’t take your $L out of SL – because many of us do. BUT, unlike LL, almost all of us Merchants spends a good portion of the $L they make to pay rent, buy other Merchant goods, donate, pay tips, etc.
   
   
9. When you shop inworld you help the Merchant support his/her inworld store.  Remember that LL considers their Merchant’s inworld stores as direct competition to their SLM operation.  SLM sales are funded risk free by sale’s based commissions.  But inworld, the Merchant takes on big risks by renting or buying land that charges tiers to the Merchant – even if the Merchant makes no sales!  If the Merchant’s inworld store costs more each month then it generates revenue, the Merchant has no choice but to close its doors.  This has ripple effects in the economy since the rent stops at the mall – the mall owner needs to shut because of no rent…. etc.etc. etc.  So, buy inworld and support the SL economy.
   
   
10. Finally, when Window Shop in SLM and then go inworld to buy your products, you are sending the LL Commerce Team a powerful message – a message we Merchants have not been able to send to LL.  You will tell them that they will not be rewarded 5% commissions for running a SL Marketplace with terrible service stability, development priorities that do not have the Shopper & Merchants in mind, and making poor decisions that are often half baked.

 

So all you Shoppers of SLM, please help yourself, help us SL Merchants, and help the SL economy,

 

DO YOUR WINDOW SHOPPING IN SLM - DO YOUR BUYING INWORLD!

[Marcus Hancroft]

Howdy, Toy

I am inclined to agree with you.  I just started my first SL business (coming up on my 1st month mark) and so far, from the marketplace, I have had one sale.  One.  The rest of my business has come directly from my store inworld.  I tried a classified ad for a week and that didn't generate even one click for my store.  Things started out really good for me, but have since fallen off.  I became a vendor for a hunt that's currently underway and that's generated a lot of traffic, but, so far no sales. 

I know that all of my products on the marketplace appear at the very end of the list of products (I've checked) when a search is done.  Most people looking for something don't make it even halfway through the number of pages presented when a keyword is searched.  I know, because I've done that many times.  Search for something, get 47 pages back, make it through 5 or 6 pages, say "To heck with it" and try something else. 

Rarely have I purchased something from the MP.  I like to go to the inworld store to buy for exactly the reason you stated.  I can see the product firsthand and not just a small picture or two. 

I have to rely on my sales to keep my store open, so I sure hope people start taking this advice!

[Eloise Baily]

Top one reason why people don't buy inworld.

Overly paranoid and privacy invading security devices. Keep those out of your store if you want to keep your customers.

I like shopping inworld, but I'll never return to a store with one of these devices.

[Anita61 Anatine]

I do most of my shopping inworld and use the marketplace to search. However I do use the marketplace a lot for gifts, not all shopowners have gift options in their inworld shops. 

 

[Monti Messmer]

Hi, fully agree to all.

One thing to add. Some have only a store on SLM because inworld sales kept dropping. Actually i make 99% from SLM.

With only having a store on SLM it is more likely this people take their money out of SL because they have not a single reason to spend inworld.

[Toysoldier Thor]

Monti, I feel your pain in that I was at 90% sales in SLM (a majore risk to my SL business) since my business was and still is one stupid LL Commerce Team move away from having my sales collapse.

Last fall I made a major promotion push to try to convince my customers on the value of shopping and Buying inworld.  That has reduced my ratio to about 70% SLM - still too high.

And last month my fears of a dumb LL move hurting my business came true when the LL Commerce Team made some mystery change that damage a lot of SLM Merchants sales - including mine that are still at 50% of my normal sales prior to that change.  It has not recovered.

AS FOR THE INWORLD ISSUES....

There sure are reasons why a lot of SL residents have started shopping in SLM...  a growing Grid LAG issue in SL and security privacy issues like CDS and RedZone dont help encourage shoppers to shop inworld.  But, the benefits to the shoppers, merchants, and the SL grid economy is much better served if shoppers BUY inworld.

MY bog post on this topic is much more detailed then what I posted here - if you want to read up more of it (find it on my main personal web site)

[Phoebe Avro]

Nice post Toy,

I have not listed any new items on the MP since it came into effect!

I use it to window shop as you say and most of the time go inworld to buy!

There is too much stolen content on the MP

I never normaly buy anything on the MP if that person does not have an inworld store

 

Phoebe Avro

 

[Phil Deakins]

Top Two Reasons Why People Should NOT Window Shop In The marketplace:-

1. Because many many business, big and small, do not use the marketplace to sell anything, so window-shopping there would cause people to miss a load of excellent choices.

2. Because using the marketplace to buy and/or sell only encourages Linden lab to screw every last penny out of their customers. Using the marketplace to buy or sell is aiding and abetting Linden Lab to continue with their policy of pure greed against their customers.

[Canis Baxton]

I completely agree that shopping inworld is more desireable than on the SLuM. I use SLM to search and make a list of places to visit. I also prefer to see the object rezzed inworld as opposed to a picture on a web site. Is the LOD acceptable? Was a flaw in the product hidden by the angle of the picture? Are there any other things he has that may suprise me? Are the animations and menus icky or are they good?

I recently went shopping for a sculpty and didn't find it to be what I was looking for. Dejected, I walked out of the store and stumbled upon a sculpty bedroom set that was perfect for another project I have lined up. You never know what you will find if you don't go out and look.

SLM is nice for research but I prefer to buy in world on site and pay in the store so the creator gets full price for thier creations and not lose that valuable 5%.

 

[Jenni Darkwatch]

I generally only windowshop in SLM because it's ridiculously impossible and time-consuming to find anything in-world. The only reason I often go to a merchants store is to see the item rezzed. My _preference_ would be a good in-world "SLM" of sorts.

[Toysoldier Thor]

 

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Jenni Darkwatch wrote:

I generally only windowshop in SLM because it's ridiculously impossible and time-consuming to find anything in-world. The only reason I often go to a merchants store is to see the item rezzed. My _preference_ would be a good in-world "SLM" of sorts.

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Dont we all wish for that.  Its pretty bad that as bad as SLM search is - we are wishing that inworld search AT LEAST had the search / sort / display capabilities of SLM search.

 

[BettyBoop String]

"If you have a purchase problem of any nature whereby you are entitled to a Refund, the Merchant is able to provide you 100% of your purchase price back.  If you have the same issue from an SLM sale, the Merchant can only offer you 95% of your purchase as a refund. Why? Because LL has the other 5%.  So if you are looking for $1000L refund, the Merchant can only offer you $950L of it – he doesn’t have the rest."

I'm going to be pedantic here and disagree with the choice of words because they are after all inaccurate.

You state that the merchant "can only offer 95%".  Sorry, that's plain wrong and a bit of a silly statement, I can choose to offer 100% and do, or I can offer 200% or any value actually it's entirely up to me, as it is any other merchant.

The fact that LL has 5% is what a business would consider as a "cost of business". 

What about those merchants that charge their inworld price PLUS 5% to cover the commission cost.  Should they give it all back since they charged extra to cover it?

Think of it as an advertising fee, I don't care if it's called that or not, the point is that it's a cost, same as if I rent a mall spot and I have to refund something that someone bought there, do I say "I can only give you 95% back because I have to keep some to pay for the cost of the mall spot"? 

No, I don't, do you?

However, i'm not against the suggestion that there should be an "issue refund" button on the marketplace web page for the merchant to use which did a 95% refund from the merchant and a grab on the 5% from Marketplace Linden but there isn't so i'll continue to just shrug and consider it a cost of business until then.  (I'm not holding my breath)

 

 

[Toysoldier Thor]

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BettyBoop String wrote:

"If you have a purchase problem of any nature whereby you are entitled to a Refund, the Merchant is able to provide you 100% of your purchase price back.  If you have the same issue from an SLM sale, the Merchant can only offer you 95% of your purchase as a refund. Why? Because LL has the other 5%.  So if you are looking for $1000L refund, the Merchant can only offer you $950L of it – he doesn’t have the rest."

I'm going to be pedantic here and disagree with the choice of words because they are after all inaccurate.

You state that the merchant "can only offer 95%".  Sorry, that's plain wrong and a bit of a silly statement, I can choose to offer 100% and do, or I can offer 200% or any value actually it's entirely up to me, as it is any other merchant.

The fact that LL has 5% is what a business would consider as a "cost of business". 

What about those merchants that charge their inworld price PLUS 5% to cover the commission cost.  Should they give it all back since they charged extra to cover it?

Think of it as an advertising fee, I don't care if it's called that or not, the point is that it's a cost, same as if I rent a mall spot and I have to refund something that someone bought there, do I say "I can only give you 95% back because I have to keep some to pay for the cost of the mall spot"? 

No, I don't, do you?

However, i'm not against the suggestion that there should be an "issue refund" button on the marketplace web page for the merchant to use which did a 95% refund from the merchant and a grab on the 5% from Marketplace Linden but there isn't so i'll continue to just shrug and consider it a cost of business until then.  (I'm not holding my breath)

 

 

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  Betty, you can offer 800% Refund to your Customer that accidently bought the same product twice - most often because of a SLM Delivery delay... more power to you on that if that is how you want to run your business.

But, I have had countless customers make buying mistakes on SLM and inworld.  For those on SLM that make a buying mistake, I tell them openly an dup front that I am more than happy to refund them all the money that I received from the SLM transaction but I tell them that the 5% of the SLM transaction that went to LL I cannot return - they would have to talk to LL.  I also encourage them to shop inworld more often to avoid issues like LAGGED delivery and the 5% commission are not an issue....

100% of all my customers that I have refunded with this policy have been perfectly understandable about it.

But if you feel you need to cover LL's costs... that is your policy.

Generally I stick to my point and we simply must agree to disagree.

 

[Madeliefste Oh]

 

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Toysoldier Thor wrote:

  Betty, you can offer 800% Refund to your Customer that accidently bought the same product twice - most often because of a SLM Delivery delay... more power to you on that if that is how you want to run your business.

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When I have two sales right behind each other of the same (full perms or copy) item, I always check what happened. Sometimes the customer buys the same item as a gift. When it's not a gift I IM the customer with the open question "I saw you purchased item X twice. Did something go wrong with the purchase?"

The answer I get 95% of the time is: I accidently declined the item when I received it in world.

Also striking is that the majority of people don't ask you for a refund, because they see this as their own fault. Still I do refund them for the double purchase. I choose to refund them 100% and consider the 5% I loose on the item as expenses for my customer service. People highly appreciate this and not seldom become repeat buyers.

 

 

[Paulyta Miles]

BRAVO!!! nice post!

 

:smileywink:

[TatianaDokuchic Varriale]

The SLM has had a very positive impact on my SL business. 

I would say that my sales are split about 50-50 between SLM and inworld and my inworld sales have actually increased since the introduction of the SLM.

All of my products are on display and available to test inworld so I'm more than happy for people to drop by and check everything out.  Having said that, if they want to buy from the SLM that's great for me as well.  I think that whatever works best for the customer benefits my business.

I've been fortunate in that I've only had one delivery problem (knock on wood) since the switch to the SLM.  And as a side note, I do provide 100% refunds for SLM customers even though the pricing is the same as inworld.  As someone else mentioned, I figure that's a business practice that works well for me.

I'm replying here because I think that it's important for the merchant community to see a variety of opinions, good, bad and ugly.  While the SLM is far from perfect, it's working well for me and I'm glad that customers are using it for their purchases.

[Toysoldier Thor]

I am glad this thread and moreso my blog posting on this thread (the topic goes much further than this top 10 list) is generating a lot of good disucssion and debate.

Contrary to some Merchant's beliefs, I truly believe that - specially in the virtual world of SecondLife where the vast majority of Shoppers are much more informed of SL commerce activities and concerns since most are actually merchants themselve - the more informed and enlightened the SHOPPER is on whats going on in the Merchant / Commerce community of SL, the better it is for Shopper, Merchant, and even LL & the Grid. 

I do not believe in the notion "we Merchants should not aire our concerns to the shoppers and that it is better to keep them blissfully happy and treat them like mushrooms on the grid".  Our Shoppers are very intelligent well informed fellow residents that often know as much about what is going on in the commerce world as most of you Merchants know - because they are Merchants.

That being said, my response to some points made:

1. Again, on REFUND of SLM purchases and each Merchant's personal policy if they wish to "eat" "absorb" a fee that LL took and has no interest in returning.  Its each Merchant's choice.  In the real world, refunding a customer that has made a purchasing mistake of which there is a SUNK Cost to make the initial purchase and that portion is not included in the refund... this is COMMON PRACTICE.  It even has a name.  Its called a Re-Stocking Charge. 
   
   In this case, the 5% LL commission that is a COST TO ME THE MERCHANT is clearly a sunk cost - re-stocking fee.  I know it, the Customer knows it and more importantly in the 2 year in xstreet/slm, ALL my customers have been 100% OK with it.  They were just happy that they actually got almost all their money back for a mistake they openly admit they made.
   
   So, if you are a Merchant that personally feels that you NEED to cover the costs that LL incurred and cannot be up-front with your customers for fear that they wont be understanding - MORE POWER TO YOU.  LL loves you and so does your customers.  But, my customers that were refunded 95% for their mistakes have loved me just as much and I have ALSO got a lot of repeat business from these customers as you all have got for rebating LL's cost.
   
   
2. As for refunding, LL's 5%... it would be interesting to know from those of you Merchants that say you refund the 100%... what is the total price of your product?  Are you selling items at $100L of which you are covering $5L of LL's cost or are you eat the 5% LL cost of a $10,000L product - i.e. you are eating $500L?  Then you are very kind and generous.
   
   
3. No one - not even my OP listing of reasons to buy inworld - implied that we are scolding Shoppers for buying on SLM.  If that is where they want to buy - GREAT!  Buy there.  The list is just to inform my educated Customers what is happening behind the scenes before they make a buying decision.  This is not taking away from their FUN IN SL as some have implied.  LOL - I dont know any Shopper that is mad and crying because "Toy has demanded their buy inworld". 
   
   If after reading the list of reasons - a Shopper says "wow I didnt know that - I have no issue buying at a merchants inworld store now that I know this - if it helps the merchant more and the SL economy"... the great.  If a shopper says "good to know but I like shopping on SLM".... Great... keep doing it.  No one was telling them otherwise.
   
   
4. I truely believe and am in complete agreement with Rodvik's perception of LL's Customers - of which 99% of them are also all us Merchant's customers.  The SL Resident Population is made up with a very large percent of highly technical and Internet Savvy people.  They are not stupid.  As such, any Merchant that takes the stance of treating them (the Shopper) as uneducated children that need to be protected from the big bad world of SL Commerce and dont inform them on whats going on for fear of them having some tantrum or "not being happy", is doing their own Merchant business as well as the SL Grid a disservice.

But - we all have our opinions.  Those are Toy's opinions.

[Sassy Dirval]

Darius,

I think some of your points are valid, but there is a flipside to every coin of conundrum:

 

1) SL shoppers, when not shopping in SL (in world or SLM) are Internet shoppers first -- they are used to cart formats, habits and trust.  SLM provides a comfortable format users familiar with.

2) Your sales experience, strategy and trends are unique to what I call "complex products" -- which differ greatly from impulse or fashion products.  Your trends are not applicable to everyone else -- just you.

3) In world shopping experiences vary. LAG, slow/low rez, ugly stores, fugly landing zones, etc... can make or break the in world shopping experience for some.

4) MYTH #1: In world sales are commission free. I'd would argue that many don't know what average percent of sale goes to the tier.  I'd also bet it outpaces SLM 5% cost significantly.

5) 90% of sales in SLM?   Mine has gone from 25% on xstreet to 65%+ on SLM -- yet everyone says it's broken

 

The conundrum:  When SLM wins this big, is LL cannibalizing retail land sales? Yes and no -- not when SLM is eventually integrated as a buy now feature of objects and can used be a vendor system and reduces SIM lag of current vendor systems ( a real problem IMO). 

 

Things to note:  my in world sales gross $$ are smaller on the percentage but slightly up in month to month total $.  SLM increases are just that -- increases specific to the total sales not in world profitability.

 

 

[Toysoldier Thor]

Sassy, I agree with your counter points.  Nothing is perfect and I was not proposing that inworld shopping is the flawless perfect means to shop.... FAR FROM IT... and for reasons you mentioned.

The one put I want to clarify on the Myth statement...

4) MYTH #1: In world sales are commission free. I'd would argue that many don't know what average percent of sale goes to the tier.  I'd also bet it outpaces SLM 5% cost significantly.

I know what you are saying and I TOTALLY AGREE that inworld costs are there and they are serious, but they are not  "COMMISSION" allocated.  That is the problem we have right now for inworld sales and the disadvantage inworld shops having when competing with their own SLM.  Your costs to operate your store inworld are a FLAT FIXED COSTS (as you can read that I explained in my my blog posting). 

This means that regardless of whatever ever sales happen in your store (if you make $1millionL a month or $0L a month) - generally the monthly costs do not change.  If your store and land tiers to run your store is $20,000K month AND if your sales have declined inworld to $10,000K a month - YOUR STORE IS LOSING MONEY.  It is a money losing operation.  Unless you have emotional ties to the store or you are too silly to realize it - that Store is costing you $10,000L a month out of your pocket and a wise merchant would likely close that store location.

The SLM store truly is a COMMISSION Cost model in that if your SLM products make ZERO SALE - your cost of operations for your SLM store is ZERO.  No Risk!

So... although I know what you are saying - its not a myth - there is no commission costs for inworld.  There is fixed unchanging costs.

As such and as I mentioned in my reasons, it is important that as much of a Merchants sales occur inworld as possible to JUSTIFY ITS EXISTENCE.

Now... I know some of your Merchants are going to say.... "Yeah Yeah Toy I understand that the inworld store has become a money losing operation but I am making up for it in SLM sales so my inworld store costs are covered - So you are still wrong".

My response to those of you that think like that..... DONT GET INTO REAL LIFE BUSINESS!  Why?  Because if you are running a real company with sales at 3 stores and one of your stores has sales that have slid down on a monthly basis (for what ever reason) to be a constant money loser.... Most wise and even not so wise business owners would.... wait for it..... SHUT IT DOWN  They dont say.. "ohh well our other 3 store are making a profit... so we will just redirect our profits over to keep that money loser operating.... why?  "Because we like the store and we want to make sure that the few customers it does service - we are there"

so... i stick to my points....

We all need to think more like a REAL BUSINESS ... of course you dont have to and you can lose profits to have the honor of saying you have an inworld store that drains your profits.... if that is what makes you HAPPY in sl...

[Darrius Gothly]

 

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Sassy Dirval wrote:

Darius,

I think some of your points are valid, but there is a flipside to every coin of conundrum:

---

While I appreciate the limelight .. umm .. I'm not Toysoldier. *grin* (It's the sexy long hair, right? LOL)

[Toysoldier Thor]

 

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

 

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Sassy Dirval wrote:

Darius,

I think some of your points are valid, but there is a flipside to every coin of conundrum:

---

While I appreciate the limelight .. umm .. I'm not Toysoldier. *grin* (It's the sexy long hair, right? LOL)

---

ROFL - i didnt even notice that.  She had the sexier Male Avatar in mind when she was writing to me.... hence you showed up

 

[Sassy Dirval]

Toy,

Thanks for the clarification, you are correct the cost is fixed and there are some merchants who may not need anymore than a store on the SLM.  There will always be those who will need the store no matter how well SLM performs.

I think the same rules apply to the SLM that apply to "cart" shoppers on the internet.  While you may buy cloths on the internet on a regular basis, you might want to sit on a couch before you buy it etc...  in those cases, search on SLM and make the final purchasing decision in world could likely become the standard shopping experience.

It all comes down to knowing your customer and their habits.

 

 

@ Darius:  yus!  it's all about the hair

 

 

 

 

[Darrius Gothly]

 

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Toysoldier Thor wrote:

 

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

 

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Sassy Dirval wrote:

Darius,

I think some of your points are valid, but there is a flipside to every coin of conundrum:

---

While I appreciate the limelight .. umm .. I'm not Toysoldier. *grin* (It's the sexy long hair, right? LOL)

---

ROFL - i didnt even notice that.  She had the sexier Male Avatar in mind when she was writing to me.... hence you showed up

 

---

 

[Josh Susanto]

[When you buy a product from a Merchant’s inworld store, the sales transaction is direct between your Avatar and the product vendor (for basic vendors). This reduces the chance for a delivery delay or failure. It can still happen but far less likely than the frequent delivery failures that are occurring between the SLM website to the Magicbox to your Avatar inworld.]

So I should buy in-world as a way of helping LL to avoid fixing the delivery problem in SLM? 

[Your product delivery will almost always be instant after paying the inworld product vendor.]

... who will be, more than likely, someone with a paid account paying LL either directly or indirectly for substantial land use, rather than paying to rez one prim.

[if you have a purchase problem of any nature whereby you are entitled to a Refund, the Merchant is able to provide you 100% of your purchase price back. If you have the same issue from an SLM sale, the Merchant can only offer you 95% of your purchase as a refund. Why? Because LL has the other 5%. So if you are looking for $1000L refund, the Merchant can only offer you $950L of it – he doesn’t have the rest.]

Unless the item costs 9L or less, as do my items.

[When you come to the inworld store to buy the product you found on the SLM you often will get to see the product live or in action (i.e. I sell Landscape Sculpt Maps – you see many of them rezzed in my store). You can’t get a good experience of the product from photos on SLM. ]

People can see my items well enough to know they won't find anything better for less in-world. Paying to rez them would mostly only remove doubts which don't much exist to begin with, and people can already see my stuff rezzed all over the place anyway because it's full pems and too good not to share. OTOH, if I decide to sell a line of marginal quality no-perms items at inflated prices, I suppose I can both use land rental costs as a rationalization for doing that, and also use SLM competition as an excuse for doing it unprofitably.

[When you take the time to visit the Merchant’s store inworld, you will often get to see several other products created by this Merchant that you might also like or that might even better work for you than the one you initially found in SLM. I have had countless of my Customers that changed your selection of products after visiting my landscape sculpty store.]

I think it might be cheaper just to keep my 500+ items in one little box, thanks. Especially since most of them are only compelling when rezzed at 10x10x(whatever). If I just stacked everything vertically... well... maybe you see my point? I pass the economy and convenience of not doing that on to the customer. You're welcome.

[Often when you visit the store, you might bump into the actual Merchant / Creator. This is a great experience as you can engage him/her and learn valuable tips/tricks of the products or find out deals in the store that were not available on SLM. I have met many inworld customers where I have engaged in great chats and often came to their sim to provide them advice on how to solve their landscaping challenges.]

Or you run into a bunch of noobs who won't let you look at the product. Or an impostor who directs you to his own merchandise or otherwise abuses your patience and trust. If people want to talk to me, they can talk to me. My name is right on the product and on the listings.

[When visiting a Merchant’s store, you often get to run into other stores as many of stores are in malls. You might just find an amazing gem of a product you were always looking for or find something that you didn’t even know you wanted! ]

Plausible. I'll let you know when it happens. 

[THIS IS A BIG ONE: When you buy from the Merchant inworld and not on SLM, you are making a powerful contribution to the SL’s general economy! Why? Because 100% of your purchase stayed within the SL economy. When you buy from SLM, you are assured that 5% of all your purchases instantly leave the SL economy. That is because LL takes its 5% and removes it from the SL economy – that is their real life $US profit (a complicated source / sink model but it’s gone from SL). It’s not to say that the Merchants don’t take your $L out of SL – because many of us do. BUT, unlike LL, almost all of us Merchants spends a good portion of the $L they make to pay rent, buy other Merchant goods, donate, pay tips, etc. ]

Again, 5% of 9L is how much?  OTOH, if I had an in-world store, I would NEED to charge more than 9L in order to meet operating costs. And where does rent money ultimately go?

[When you shop inworld you help the Merchant support his/her inworld store. Remember that LL considers their Merchant’s inworld stores as direct competition to their SLM operation. SLM sales are funded risk free by sale’s based commissions. But inworld, the Merchant takes on big risks by renting or buying land that charges tiers to the Merchant – even if the Merchant makes no sales! If the Merchant’s inworld store costs more each month then it generates revenue, the Merchant has no choice but to close its doors. This has ripple effects in the economy since the rent stops at the mall – the mall owner needs to shut because of no rent…. etc.etc. etc. So, buy inworld and support the SL economy.]

OR it keeps land prices high and large regions tedious to visit by filling up potentially good locations with annoying commercial crap foisted on SL users by clumsy dilletantes who have nothing better to do with their apparently bottomless trust funds. So, yeah, it keeps money coming into SL... some money anyway. It just doesn't assure a better total SL experience.

[Finally, when Window Shop in SLM and then go inworld to buy your products, you are sending the LL Commerce Team a powerful message – a message we Merchants have not been able to send to LL. You will tell them that they will not be rewarded 5% commissions for running a SL Marketplace with terrible service stability, development priorities that do not have the Shopper & Merchants in mind, and making poor decisions that are often half baked.]

OR, the message they get from it: "You have succeeded in keeping merchants paying rent rather than paying the 5% which would ultimately be less in total; make SLM a little worse and maybe you can collect even more rent next year while also making mercantile activity harder for the deadbeats who don't want to pay for their accounts."

[ZenWarrior Fuosing]

It's because I find 9 of the OP's 10 reasons to be either invalid or exaggerated is exactly why I do shop the marketplace. Encourage (or merely suggest) only inworld purchases and I'll not forget every single L$ I spend in SL is entirely discretionary income which will then be spent in RL without SL or its creators in mind at all.