How are your Christmas sales doing?

[Sally Audebarn]

Mine took a huge plunge. How about you guys? Is it normal for sales to slow down drastically in December? Looking forward to hear your responses. 

[ChinRey]

2 hours ago, Sally Audebarn said:

Is it normal for sales to slow down drastically in December?

Yes. There is some sort of big, traditional event in RL around this time and people tend to spend time and money on that rather than on SL.

[Cindy Evanier]

4 hours ago, Sally Audebarn said:

Mine took a huge plunge. How about you guys? Is it normal for sales to slow down drastically in December? Looking forward to hear your responses. 

No drop here (yet)  though normally expected coming up to Christmas  but have you been affected by this and not noticed?  

 

[Tari Landar]

Sales are pretty much right where they always are this time of year. I always get a huge spike between Christmas and New Years though, lol. It has happened every year, without fail, since I first started being a merchant. 

[Pamela Galli]

Dec through Feb are my best sales of the year -- but you do have to have some seasonal things, as I learned my first December when I had not made anything for Christmas and sales slumped.. 

[Chic Aeon]

Well last month was my best in ten years so hard to beat that. Two of the venues I am in were pretty much not worth it money-wise, another (gacha) event was normal but not like November. Sales are better at my main shop but I have an Advent Calendar going on.  Marketplace sort of so so. 

December is traditionally slow -- well there IS that real life thing LOL.  So I am pretty much where I am normally and that is GOOD for December.  

 

[Sapphiroth]

I'm a bit confused myself by sales this month (decor things - another account).

MP-it's understandable as I practically have nothing in theme of this holidays there. But I took part in a few events and sales were small. 

I created seasonal items, but not in very traditional style, maybe this was the problem. 

 

Edited December 26, 2017 by Sapphiroth

[Gunner Grun]

My sales we're ok, I like to do a visual thing so I can maybe see a trend of what people are buying. All those boxes in the background "represent" homes I sold in Nov & Dec. Edited for Rya cause he's a goober.hehe

Edited December 27, 2017 by Gunner Grun

[Rya Nitely]

I

1 hour ago, Gunner Grun said:

.. All those boxes in the background are homes I sold in Nov & Dec.

 

Wow, people like living in those boxes?

[Talligurl]

I have made two sales in December for a grand total of 20L. I never do much but that is low even by my standards.

[Prokofy Neva]

On 12/20/2017 at 3:25 AM, Sally Audebarn said:

Mine took a huge plunge. How about you guys? Is it normal for sales to slow down drastically in December? Looking forward to hear your responses. 

No, it is not. I realize Chen believes fervently in this and that's fine but I simply think I have more data on this and it's not true.

Something indeed happened this year different than in the past, and also accounts for the value of the Linden falling (it's now back at 250-251 after going down to 248 for awhile).

It's not true people shop in RL and not in SL. Every year in my rentals, and I have hundreds of customers, they buy MORE rentals and MORE prims to decorate. More stores to sell things, more getaways, more second homes, more space for Christmas trees. So the sales go UP.

There are more sales and more advertising campaigns and events in the holidays and people buy more at them. They buy home decoration, not presents for other people like RL.

So what happened?

Some possible theories:

1. SL is a microcosm for RL in some ways, and even a predictor. We may see the early warning signs of an upcoming global downturn or recession again.

2. We are finally seeing the bounce, if you will, of the Lindens' 50% prim increase which was greeted with such joy. Except...most people don't use up that many prims. They start to see that they are swimming in prims. This should make them buy more, no? It does for some. But I see some saying, "Why do I pay all this for prims I don't use? I think I will downsize" and they go to a cheaper rental which might even have smaller square footage, and they don't buy as much furniture.

Once the rentals economy dips on big private island empires, then the whole economy is affected. I don't have enough information to know that downsizing due to prim increases is a trend, but it is something that does happen and might be a factor.

3. Event fatigue. Merchants have heavily relied on gatchas and events to help themselves in the economy that crashed a few years ago with the announcement of Sansar and other things. But now it is a self-defeating proposition as people get weary of TOO MANY of things, with increasingly expensive gatchas, $75 a pull, with one more colorized couch or lamp. So they shrink and stop buying. I was physically revolted by the offerings at a recent event I used to love because I saw how tired, overworked creators were really lowballing us all with things like picture frames and recolors and balloons instead of newly-designed chairs or tables or decor. 

4. Better ruble Linden value caused shopping to go down. This happens in Russia, too. The value of the ruble goes down, for some it is a good thing because they get more of them with their foreign currency holdings. But for others, it is now more expensive to buy them (like our Lindens that went to 248 from 254 in value). When Lindens cost more to buy and you get less of them, you shop less.

Those are off the top of my head. There are other more complex things I see, accumulation of problems like griefing or rezzing that tip the scale for people just leaving SL, period. 

 

Edited January 19, 2018 by Prokofy Neva

[Prokofy Neva]

On 12/26/2017 at 1:49 AM, Gunner Grun said:

My sales we're ok, I like to do a visual thing so I can maybe see a trend of what people are buying. All those boxes in the background "represent" homes I sold in Nov & Dec. Edited for Rya cause he's a goober.hehe

This is fascinating, thank you.

I buy LOTS of homes for my rentals, so I can tell you why I bought less in December:

o event fatigue

o my fresh homes from June or September still keep me and tenants happy, I don't need fresh ones -- yet

o reluctance to make investments in infrastructure when I see the value of the Linden tanking again. When I have to cash out my Lindens at 250 and not 248, that's my signal not to buy things but to sell things

Why did others buy less in December?

o in December they nest, decorating existing homes rather than buying new ones; they focus on decor sales

o possibly RL expenses but I don't believe that theory as Chen does

o Sansar -- it is improving again and that spurs fear of losing anything you buy as property as we may be flushed out to Sansar.