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Pros and cons of having multiple MP stores


ChinRey
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12 hours ago, Pamela Galli said:

(Just want to say how much I appreciate the help both Dakota and ChinRey give in and out of this forum. ) 

Dakota is always trying her best to help and answer questions and she's really good at it. (She's also really god at evading when she can't answer. A question unanswered by Dakota stays unanswered. ;)) The same can be said about most of the current staff at LL.

Many of the problems with SL are rooted in the early years when development was in the hands of a mad genius who had all the brilliant ideas that made SL possible at all but also some not very brilliant ones that were bound to cause problems in the long run (and who also never had time to tell anybody how this thing worked). Most of the problems are rooted in the six dark years of neglect.

They've made mistakes since 2014 too of course, that's only to be expected. But they've tried to learn from their mistakes and considering where they started, they've made remarkable progress since then. They're still not in a position where they are able to provide adequate customer service though. And, more to the point in this case, they still have a strong tendency to treat paying customers as interns.

 

48 minutes ago, Blush Bravin said:

You care enough to write several long posts about it, then why not enough to make a jira?

Old habits die hard. ;)

I didn't expect it to go this way and I sure didn't expect I had to write several posts, they kind'a happened one at a time. Each of them triggered some comments I just had to respond to. I don't do Linden Lab's famous Oyster Imitation trick and stop responding when the going gets tough.

But this is the point when LL do so we won't hear more from them. A discussion about the pros and cons of being an active participant to the SL community as a whole is going to be a bit one-sided since we're not likely to hear much from the non-participants and besides, it belongs in the General discussion section, not here - possibly in this thread.

So let's talk about something merchant related instead.  There's ne question I've been thinking a lot about recently: what are the pros and cons of having multiple MP stores with different well defined product ranges vs bundling it all up ina  single big messy store?

Any thoughts on that?

Edited by ChinRey
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11 minutes ago, Blush Bravin said:

If you stop participating because someone offended you then you are letting that person silence you. There is a reason why there is a JIRA system. 

Let them have that victory then. There are battles not worth fighting and this seems to be one of them.

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

Dakota is female? TIL!

Awww poor Love! That must be disappointing to you!

Edited by ChinRey
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40 minutes ago, ChinRey said:

what are the pros and cons of having multiple MP stores with different well defined product ranges vs bundling it all up ina  single big messy store?

Pro: Someone shopping for “home and garden” may not want to see your selection of “bits and boobs”.

Con: Without a MP feature to “see my list of stores”, someone shopping for “mesh outfits” may not know you also sell “mesh houses”.

Edited by Love Zhaoying
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29 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Pro: Someone shopping for “home and garden” may not want to see your selection of “bits and boobs”.

Corrected that typo of yours. This is SL, remember.

Edit: Love has corrected it himself now so this post looks a bit meaningless. For those who wonder: there was an "o" missing from the last word.

Edited by ChinRey
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I've already posted my opinion on the topic, but I'd like to add that while my shop is very eclectic, it's a simple task to use the filters to the left to see which categories I have items in. So a customer can easily sort by clothing or buildings. And yes, it's good that the buyer can see that I have a variety of items for sale and not just hosiery. 

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8 hours ago, ChinRey said:

That's not my point, Whirly. My question is why should I care?

 

Bluntly?

Wilbur and Orville didn't fly a 747 at Kitty Hawk. 

Everything HAS to start somewhere, and is only improved with input from the people who use the product. That means you, other sellers, and buyers. If you wish to use the product, and have it do what you need and want it to do, then you have a direct, vested, interest  in the product.

You already care, or you wouldn't be here, on the forums, bringing up ways that the product is failing you. 

No one is asking, or expecting, you or any other user to "fix" the problem.  We are trying to explain to you that as someone who has a vested interested in the product, that since it is not doing what you need it to do, you should file a Jira Ticket so that you get your request into the system so that it CAN be improved. 

Venting about how a system isn't working for you is just that, venting. Unless and until you are willing to take the time to provide some semblance of information and details about what it is you need the product do to for you, all it will ever be is venting and nothing will change. 

Many of the developers are not merchants.  They do not use the Marketplace in the same way that you and other sellers, and buyers, use it.  They have no way of knowing what features or functions the users want or need to make the Marketplace better for them. 

For you, who uses a variety of e-commerce sites, as noted in a previous post, may believe some features that are lacking are "noobish" and should have been included from the start, but your experience is yours, and does not match the same experiences of others. 

I used to sell a few items, long before I had a Linden last name, and my listings had, maybe, 4 pictures on each one, if that.  It would have never occurred to me to ask for the ability to bulk upload images because I never needed to be able to bulk upload images. 

Your needs are not being met. Venting on the forum is all good and well, but unless you are willing to spend some time providing information details to the Devs regarding what you want, nothing will change, and you will be back here in a year venting and complaining about the exact same lack of features, because you didn't care enough to ask for what you wanted. 

 

Edited by Dakota Linden
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2 hours ago, Dakota Linden said:

You already care, or you wouldn't be here, on the forums, bringing up ways that the product is failing you.

I did care once, yes. And as I said, old habits die hard.

As it is now, I assessed the situation, what the chances were to achieve a result and how much time and effort I had to invest in it, and decided it wasn't worth it for me.

Whether it would have been to the benefit to SL as a whole or to LL, is irrelevant. I've already done far more to the SL community as whole than I should have and nobody here has any right to expect or demand more from me.

 

2 hours ago, Dakota Linden said:

No one is asking, or expecting, you or any other user to "fix" the problem.

Yes you are. Creating a good task description is often a far bigger job than actually doing the task.

 

2 hours ago, Dakota Linden said:

Venting about how a system isn't working for you is just that, venting.

Venting can be useful sometimes. In this case it helped me reconsider my situation in Second Life and realize I've been far too compliant.

Since you call it "venting", I re-read all my posts in this thread just to be absolutely sure. I was wrong about when you would withdraw from the dicsussion, that was a positive surprise. But apart from that and the obvious and annoying typos, I still stand by everything I've written in this thread so far. Every single word.

Edited by ChinRey
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On 10/17/2018 at 5:34 PM, ChinRey said:

<snip>

Creating a good task description is often a far bigger job than actually doing the task.

<snip>

A good Jira Description is the difference between "we need a new category for Furry Items" and "There should be an Avatar Components - Avatar Skins - Furry Avatar Skins category" comment in the Jira Ticket itself.

It certainly takes far less effort to write that then it will to create the new category and the difference it makes between hoping the devs understand what is being asked for, and actually asking for exactly what the merchant wants is light and day.

 

 

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Still, I am not sure is it better to have more than 1 store under the same user account or is it better to have them separated?

Someone said it's not okay to buy multiple animations or some other "resources"... I always say to myself and it should apply to all of us; If my sales can't pay off the investments I made then I am not a good seller and I should do something else. For in-world purposes, I would prefer to have it all separated and for MP I can't say because I don't have many items there. Also, someone said that it's good to show the customers that you sell clothing and shoes and furniture.. yes it is a certain benefit but it is also annoyance. If I search for trees it is because I need to buy trees and if someone is trying to offer me a skirt while I am searching for trees I won't like it.

When it comes to sorting items in appropriate categories and hoping customers will understand they are supposed to type related keywords in the search field and click on the category, maybe even modify the price range and the permissions or prims... I know that is too many clicks for an average customer. If they need to click many times in order to buy something, they will give up or be distracted with something else. We (merchants) need to make sure that they click at least possible times (did I say this good?).

There is one big benefit for having all separated and that I have no idea how to explain in English but it has to do with risks. It is not wise to have all your "stuff" under one account or one name or anything one. In order to play smart and be safe, we are supposed to divide the risks. There are many random glitches and I wouldn't want to login and see that half of my inventory is gone missing and having to wait for the bug to be fixed or customer support to solve my problem. I believe, if some random bug happened to one of my accounts, I wouldn't be irritated if I had others to play with. Or if someone hacked one account, they couldn't get all my stuff! 

I was thinking about branding and marketing and it would actually help to have more than one brand because it helps if your brand is connected to other brands, for example you can always use the "about" section to display links to your other venues. I used to do marketing for more than one store and it is better to have all brands separated because when you work on one brand, you will connect that brand with other, related brands and it will fit together. But if you have one brand that sells more than one category it is more likely to feel like it doesn't fit together. For in-world groups and events, your goal is to be a member of the groups that are directly related to your current interests so it's better to have that divided.

The bad side of having more than one brand is the fact that, while you work on one brand you can't work on another and if you consider the fact that some basic marketing means you are supposed to not only create profiles on social media but also work on them as often as you can to reach your customer base, it becomes rather hard to do it all by yourself and it is not an easy task to find a good manager who knows what to do.

The most important thing to consider is what makes you happy? For me is decorations and style. It is important to keep it fresh and interesting and having more than one brand/store/building/parcel would offer me the opportunity to express myself in many different ways. It would also mean that while I work on one store the other would be neglected so yeah... I'm still not sure! 

 

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On 10/10/2018 at 8:48 AM, Pamela Galli said:

With the ability to have multiple stores for one acct that is supposed to be coming, it should be a lot easier. I have never tried it, managing one store is enough a PITA for me. 

I hope this is actually coming. Would be a tremendous help in creating different brands instead of lumping everything under  single name.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 month later...

RELATED ITEMS:

If you have  completely unrelated items to sell - for example, Skin/shapes on one hand and houses/landscape items on the other, you may want to consider two stores.  I don't usually go to a house/homewares/landscape place  looking for heads and skins. 

It would never occur to me to look for them in the same place... OTOH,  I do occasionally go to a store that sells 'everything'  - Lamu/Alb - comes to mind, but I shop them almost exclusively in world.  It is set up a lot like a middle eastern bazaar, so you expect to find everything including the kitchen sink, but they are the exception.  It works because it's an in-world sim. The only other store I go to that sells 'everything' is Zyn, but they're also a pretty unique place. 

In general, if you have related items, even if they are wide ranging, I think one store is less confusing and will keep your brand visible.

PERMISSIONS:

People who sell both full perm and non full perm stuff should probably have two store fronts in MP unless they mark them VERY clearly.  I've found myself almost buying items I liked, only to realize they aren't full perm. 

When I have my creator hat on, I'm not expecting clothing for personal use to be intermingled.  I would be pissed if I bought a limited permission item by accident.

In world, I would hope the items were clearly marked and sold from separate vendors.

 

TBH, if you market yourself well, and you sell good stuff that is good value for money, people will buy it regardless of whether you have two store fronts or just one.  if you're one person doing all the work, managing multiple separate spaces may just be making extra work for yourself.  If you have help, separate spaces seems like the best way to go.  Since people grow and learn, and may start out making one thing and eventually expand to a variety, I think it depends on the business owner. 

Just try to label as carefully as possible so people can find what you have, whichever approach you choose.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have two MP store fronts. Yes, it's more work if I upload everything from one avatar, but my items on my second store are full perm. I never have customer issues with someone buying the wrong item. Most people who buy from full perm brand do not buy from my main brand. It's just a different marketing area/need, so for me it works to my advantage to keep 2 stores. My main store sells a mix of things and I do admit that marketing can be a bit more of a struggle than if I focused on one specific thing. But, try to tell that to my inner child while I'm creating and it falls on deaf ears.

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I have just decided to create an MP store because I've been making some clothing and want to share it.  I also have some random gacha items I haven't done anything with and I think it would be weird to have those intermingled with my clothing... and distracting, particularly since the purpose of the gacha selling is to get rid of stuff -- I don't plan to run an active gacha business.  I've mostly stopped buying gachas. 

So, once I have a moment, I think I will create a second 'gacha' store and put my random stuff in it and give it a completely unrelated name.  I may even just put it up with my other avatar, but that could be a pain, since I'd have to transfer everything to her... Hmmm,... no, maybe not...  just getting it out of my inventory is kind of appealing, so I may do it anyway.  My other avatar has a very empty inventory, lucky thing! Blue begins transferring random stuff...

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LL were very clear that multiple  storefronts are not in their plans (at least for this year) and it won't happen......  so you'll always need to work around that one at the avatar level.

Also very clear on the fact until the cloud project is completed we shouldn't expect any major changes on things like Marketplace (which is in desperate need of upgrading into something that resembles an e-commerce site).  Albeit be careful for what you wish for as fees will go up in line with that I am sure.....

Remember when we asked for color variants on listings for Marketplace.... in 2010 (before it was even launched!), 2011, 2014, 2018, 2020 - all via Jira.      The 2014 one was accepted.   And remains in.....   "the never to do list" with no updates from LL.   

 

Edited by Charlotte Bartlett
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3 hours ago, animats said:

Marketplace should at least let stores divide themselves into "departments".

Dakota Linden has talked about this on here before.  Apparently the software package doesn't have the capability to do this out-of-the-box, would be a custom extension. Dakota has hinted that they would like to do this, just that they (the MP team) don't have the budget to do it

Edited by Mollymews
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  • 4 weeks later...

i just trew everything in one store marketplace searches and tagging properly gets the sales it really does not matter if everything is in on store or not if you tag properly everything so that it shows up in search

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