Marketplace needs a Make Over

[Suki Pelazzi]

Hello Everyone, 

 

I am taking to the forums for a topic that needs to be discussed, Marketplace.

I have been in Second Life over 11 years so I have seen us progress in so many ways that most haven't.  I remember Flexi hair, Flexi skirts, and afro hairbases; I am so glad we have come away from all that and moved onto better things in our lives, like mesh, bento, custom bodies and animated heads, and don't forget the ever challenging yet favorited gachas.

And then there's Marketplace. I can search for a "pizza" and on the first page, there will still be a pizza from 2008. sure we can sort by most recent, but even then, somehow, things that aren't even mesh still get uploaded daily (which if fine if that's your prerogative), but there needs to be a way to specify what we want. We cannot have one online shopping site as our only option, and still have items older than 2013 creeping around. Second life moves fast, there is no need to be keeping anything older than 5 years old, unless it is updated and remained relevant. 

With this being said, I have created a list of ideas, that I would like to offer for Marketplace, a lot of work needs to be done, but it is possible. I hope that you will comment, and share, and hope that 2018 will be good to us, sure Sansar might be nice, but a new marketplace would be nicer. 

Here are my ideas:

1. offer a search option to select for bento or mesh only. 

2. we need to have a gacha center, something that makes searching for gachas easier, since that is basically all we live by. Perhaps organized by events? ( I am open for options on this one) 

2a. a way to flag sellers that sell empty boxes as gachas, and get them (and all their items) off the selling field

3. have a "posted" date, or select posted date range, so we know when an item was actually put up for sale

4. I have ran into buying items from people that no longer are even in SL, heaven forbid there is an issue, we are SOL. I propose a way to have the seller verify they are still online, and want to continue selling their items, at least once a year, to clear out anyone no longer available. 

5. an option when you go into clothing, to click your mesh body, so you can see what options are available only for you and your bodies. 

6. hey, I'll throw out another crazy idea, revamp it so that we can create a profile of what we like EI. mesh, bento, catwa, laq, maitreya, hourglass, slink, and then our search results will always stay relevant to our profile. 

Basically Marketplace needs a complete revamping, unless they want to offer online shopping through a third party like OnRez again (yeah, there's another throwback for you!) to a website that would be willing to put some time and effort into this, then it is unfair for them to leave marketplace stuck in 2012. The second life world has gotten so big, that I like to think that the majority of us find ourselves shopping on MP to see what else is out there, not what used to be out there.

 

If you got this far, thank you for listening (reading), and please share your opinion, and if you work for LL or know someone who does, please, pass the message along.

Thank you!

Suki Pelazzi

[McGrillen]

I'd like a gacha center. Whenever I look for the newest avatars or something, most of the pages are gacha resales.

[animats]

• If you buy something from an in-world store, you can't review it on Marketplace.
• LL is reluctant to provide "last login date" data. Probably because it would be embarrassing to LL. But for sellers, that should be disclosed.
• Yes, the whole "will this fit my avatar" problem should be automated.

[Nalytha]

I recently started getting into the Gatcha business... by accident. It started with just wanting some items for myself, and then I found I had many extras. So I made a MP store. But being a MP shopper, I know gatchas can be annoying. I've been working on revamping how I sell Gatchas to be less annoying. Some things I do are as follows. Any other suggestions are welcome. 

1. I take the time to find the highest resolution photo I can. I crop the main thumbnail to be the actual item. This sure does take some extra time on my part, but my hope is that it is easier on the eyes. 

2. I only list a maximum of two of any item. This way I'm not flooding my store, or the main market with a ton of duplicates. It also gives other gatcha sellers a better way to set prices. If I list six of the same rare, when there is only one up from another seller, I inflate the idea of just how rare this item is and thus lower its perceived value. This might not be the case. I recently got three of the same rare in a row, even though there weren't many up on the MP. I just got lucky. 

3. I do my best to correctly categorize and use the correct keywords. 

[Suki Pelazzi]

On 1/9/2018 at 5:03 PM, Nalytha said:

I recently started getting into the Gatcha business... by accident. It started with just wanting some items for myself, and then I found I had many extras. So I made a MP store. But being a MP shopper, I know gatchas can be annoying. I've been working on revamping how I sell Gatchas to be less annoying. Some things I do are as follows. Any other suggestions are welcome. 

1. I take the time to find the highest resolution photo I can. I crop the main thumbnail to be the actual item. This sure does take some extra time on my part, but my hope is that it is easier on the eyes. 

2. I only list a maximum of two of any item. This way I'm not flooding my store, or the main market with a ton of duplicates. It also gives other gatcha sellers a better way to set prices. If I list six of the same rare, when there is only one up from another seller, I inflate the idea of just how rare this item is and thus lower its perceived value. This might not be the case. I recently got three of the same rare in a row, even though there weren't many up on the MP. I just got lucky. 

3. I do my best to correctly categorize and use the correct keywords. 

Hey Nalytha,

These are some great gacha seller ideas. But I did want to let you know that you can put your multiples in the same folder so it only shows up ONCE in marketplace, but allows the same 'post' to continue selling each until they are all sold... kinda hard to explain but definitely a time saver, if you want me to explain further or show you an example please message me inworld, Suki Pelazzi. Anything I can do to help take away ONE agony marketplace creates! 

[Nalytha]

4 hours ago, Suki Pelazzi said:

Hey Nalytha,

These are some great gacha seller ideas. But I did want to let you know that you can put your multiples in the same folder so it only shows up ONCE in marketplace, but allows the same 'post' to continue selling each until they are all sold... kinda hard to explain but definitely a time saver, if you want me to explain further or show you an example please message me inworld, Suki Pelazzi. Anything I can do to help take away ONE agony marketplace creates! 

Oh wow! I will look into that for sure! I thought no copy items had to be listed serperately, looks like I should have done more research 

[velvetgurl]

predictive text is a pain, you enter a search it put something else in lol

[Fionalein]

On 13.1.2018 at 5:40 AM, Nalytha said:

Oh wow! I will look into that for sure! I thought no copy items had to be listed serperately, looks like I should have done more research 

Na, don't be mad on yourself, setting up a MP store can be a pita... maybe we need some courses on that

Edited August 1, 2018 by Fionalein

[Candice LittleBoots]

I wish DEMOs had their own flag/section/identity, so they could be kept out of shopper's search results, if preferred.

 Ideally they could only be reached via a 'Demo' link from the actual item.

No doubt this is not the place to write this, if so, I don't apologise.

[Michael Blackwood]

Let's just all agree on one thing so far: The by far most "non touched but complete overhaul needed" part of the MP is the search. The search is plain and dumb and nowhere near as complex (in terms of the amount of options to filter with) as it should be by now. So the search really badly needs complete reworking with a ton more filters of sorts.

[Fionalein]

On 3.1.2018 at 12:08 AM, Suki Pelazzi said:

Second life moves fast, there is no need to be keeping anything older than 5 years old, unless it is updated and remained relevant.

Just a silly question... who decides on what's still relevant? You?

[Suki Pelazzi]

On 7/31/2018 at 2:15 PM, Candice LittleBoots said:

I wish DEMOs had their own flag/section/identity, so they could be kept out of shopper's search results, if preferred.

 Ideally they could only be reached via a 'Demo' link from the actual item.

No doubt this is not the place to write this, if so, I don't apologise.

yess this is a great idea, and good observation! its a pain in the butt with the same items popping up twice, or even flooding the "free" market that some people search. 

[Suki Pelazzi]

On 8/1/2018 at 5:11 AM, Fionalein said:

Just a silly question... who decides on what's still relevant? You?

I don't think that's a silly question, a little condescending but I'll still answer it. By now most things are mesh. So a lot of prim items, flexi, or 2008 system based clothes are probably outdated enough that they are no longer relevant. But to decipher relevancy: at MINIMUM the creator should still be in world, and monitoring their sales. Items on marketplace do not have a "posted date" meaning, last year when my hubby bought a ring, he said the picture looked decent (and it did, though I would have done more research) but when he bought it, for 2000L it was prim and had bling on/off feature in it. so basically it was useless. We tried contacting the creator to say, sorry we didn't realize it wasn't mesh etc. and he was no longer in world. He had a contact email information, and when I emailed him, luckily he replied. but he replied with, "sorry I don't log in anymore, but if I do I'll send you the money back. "  Not saying he isn't a nice guy because I appreciated the response, but thats $10 USD that my hubby doesn't get back. I don't blame the creator, I blame marketplace for not showing any noticeable flags that this ring is pretty old and no longer relevant to what is offered. I know that most of us do our research, but some folks fall for the 'lemons'. and we should at least be trying to work around that if there is no way to even get a refund because they aren't in world. 

[Alyona Su]

Old system clothing, prims and system bodies are still very useful and a lot of fun. I just bought a complete "ghost" avatar (in prep for this October) that was created maybe 10 years ago and I knew it was created maybe ten years ago and I knew it was the old-school system stuff.

The major thing, however, is that the creator is STILL ACTIVE in SL. In a surprise, she was online and answered my IM within minutes (which shocked me. Now the fact that it shocked is a pathetic description of the state of creators listed on the marketplace).

THIS is why purging dead and inactive accounts from the MP is a long-overdue, happy, joyful, badly-needed necessity.

[Rya Nitely]

coming soon to a marketplace near you

 

 

[Suki Pelazzi]

2 hours ago, Rya Nitely said:

coming soon to a marketplace near you

 

 

o.m.g this is such amazing news!! hope they continue this good works in a timely fashion thank you for sharing!