In-World shop is a kind of sign of merchant's reliability and responsibility

[Valois1488303660]

Hello folks! I do hope your sales are ok and a business is prosper. I have found very interesting topic here about in-world trading. One person said that malls are dead because of the marketplace. It’s kind of signal for merchants - try to improve sales through marketplace. Of course, merchants have to pay rent for in-world shops, but the marketplace gains more and more attention from customers. I visited some popular big malls with high rent prices. Merchants rent them and then abandon after a couple of weeks. From the merchant’s perspective I’m really disappointed.   But I majored in social sciences in rl during my university years. I made a survey about sl customers' preferences (newbie and old ones). Most of all prefer marketplace for buying things, another part of respondents use both - marketplace and in-world. When I asked them: “Why do you prefer to use marketplace?”, practically, all gave me the same answer: “It’s easy and quick. There is no need to change in-world shops”.  Folks, easy and quick! Sounds like marketing motto, but it really works...from customer’s perspective.

So, is there any reason to upkeep an in-world shop? I will say ‘yes’ because having an in-world shop is a kind of reliability and responsibility of merchant. If you are a small merchant, it’s hard to handle such things and pay a rent, but it’s the trading and it needs all cumulative efforts.

If you have any thoughts,  I would be glad to read them :-)

 

[Kenbro Utu]

I rarely have a purchase from my in-world store, but I do keep up a spot with a very few items rezzed for decor, but mostly just a few vendors that can rez my products just in case someone wants to pop in and see it before they purchase.  Of course, I don't do classifieds anymore, or try to work the search; they are just not reliable.  Also seems to me that people don't go looking for shops as much as they used to.   

[Perrie Juran]

I am what you might call a 'I like to handle it before I buy it shopper.'  I will browse the marketplace to find what I am looking for but prefer to buy it at an In World store.

[Tiffy Vella]

Hi Valois..this is an interesting topic, and I'm looking forward to seeing what others have to say.

While my Marketplace sales are increasing, and are now on a par with inworld sales, I still intend to keep my mainstore and satelite stores. The decision is partly business-based, as I believe that I'm covering two demographics- those who immerse and shop inworld (like I often do), and those who like Marketplace convenience. Inworld, I can participate in sales events and fairs, and have an actual presence that customers can see.

It's very much an emotional/lifestyle choice too. I really enjoy making the store an expression of what my business is about. It's a space that I enjoy, and it's a chance to display info and items in a 3D environment. In fact a big part of my brain really wants to understand how it can be that we have this potentially gorgeous and unique virtual world, and the people who were attracted to that concept are now supposedly shopping on a flat conventional website. It's a bit arse-backwards, I reckon, or is the average sl-er today not the same virtual citizen as 3 years ago?

As a shopper, I'll often use the Marketplace to find a product, and then I'll usually go to the inworld store to look about and purchase. Or if I'm in a store I'll look up a product on the Marketplace to glean more info from the merchants description.

Anyway, while my inworld shops continue to profit, attract new customers, and bring me joy, I'm going to continue doing what I came to SL to do.....and that's live in a virtaul 3D world.

[Phoebe Avro]

I have very few items listed on the MP, but inwolrd I own a region 3/4 of that is for my store 1/4 is set aside for our club and small mall

I wont be putting all my things on the MP, LL need to be very careful they don't actually kill off a lot of sl!

Put it this way if my sales drop off so much, I wont move over to the MP I will just close and when I do the 3 year old club goes too, so it will be one less place for people to go in sl !!

If I had my way I would not allow anyone to sell on the MP unless they had an inworld store and payment info used  there are far too many people selling ripped off content as it is on the MP

Phoebe Avro

[Zanara Zenovka]

 

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Tiffy Vella wrote:

Hi Valois..this is an interesting topic, and I'm looking forward to seeing what others have to say.

While my Marketplace sales are increasing, and are now on a par with inworld sales, I still intend to keep my mainstore and satelite stores. The decision is partly business-based, as I believe that I'm covering two demographics- those who immerse and shop inworld (like I often do), and those who like Marketplace convenience. Inworld, I can participate in sales events and fairs, and have an actual presence that customers can see.

It's very much an emotional/lifestyle choice too. I really enjoy making the store an expression of what my business is about. It's a space that I enjoy, and it's a chance to display info and items in a 3D environment. In fact a big part of my brain really wants to understand how it can be that we have this potentially gorgeous and unique virtual world, and the people who were attracted to that concept are now supposedly shopping on a flat conventional website. It's a bit arse-backwards, I reckon, or is the average sl-er today not the same virtual citizen as 3 years ago?

As a shopper, I'll often use the Marketplace to find a product, and then I'll usually go to the inworld store to look about and purchase. Or if I'm in a store I'll look up a product on the Marketplace to glean more info from the merchants description.

Anyway, while my inworld shops continue to profit, attract new customers, and bring me joy, I'm going to continue doing what I came to SL to do.....and that's live in a virtaul 3D world.

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Same here really - with the one difference being that I'll sometimes deliberately buy on the marketplace if I think I'll want to review the product later, as a way of supporting people who make really good things.

And an in-world store gives you a lot of information about the quality of a product. I wouldn't buy a dress from a designer if their inworld store betrays a lack of visual aesthetic or attention to detail, or from a scripter whose store shows a lack of organisation and incompete realisation of ideas. A store tells you a lot about how someone's mind works.

I still get a lot of new customers from in-world, more than half my sales come from there, and a good proportion of my SLM sales are from people who've visited the shop in the past anyway, or recommendations from them.

I gets lots of existing customers popping in regularly to see what new things I have, or to ask advice on what sort of script or gadget they can get to help with a particular business issue. I also spend quite a bit of time giving customers pre-purchase advice, when people are looking for solutions to complex issues, and want to know *exactly* how something will work before they buy.

I've also quite deliberately designed my store as a place where people can come to get  a quick overview of available devices to make their SL easier, or get ideas for ways to improve their business, eg I put in a reading room with links to useful online articles about business and marketing ideas that apply to SL, and a collection of free basic business scripts to get people started. I worked out a while back I'm not in the business of making sales, but of creating customers, and my inworld store is an essential part of this.

I just think having an inworld store is a no-brainer. Without it I'd be cutting off half my market. Can anyone name a single serious merchant who doesn't have one?

[Madeliefste Oh]

I'm the owner of three different brands in SL. For all my brands a have a separate main store in world.

For me it is not only about reliability and responsibility, but it's also a service for my customers. One of my brands is a sculpty shop. For sculpties its absolutely necessary to give your customers the possibility to see how the sculpts behave in world. Some products do also work with scripts, and you can experience in the shop how it looks/works.
The target group for this brand is builders and creators. For the beginning since I have started selling to this group I have experienced they are not fond on in world shopping. Back in the Xstreet days already I made 75% of the sales for this brand not in world, but on Xstreet. The change to the marketplace has had a little, but not much impact, nowadays I sell about 80% of my total sales on the marketplace. 

Another brand is a curtain shop. For the products I sell here the movement is very important. You cannot show movement on the marketplace (except in an attached gif file). So for this brand it's also a must to have an inworld shop. It is typical a product you cannot judge from a picture.
The inworld shop is still the biggest source of income for this brand. I sell about 10 to 15% on the marketplace of these products and the rest in the mainstore. (Before the marketplace started I solde about 5% on Xstreet and 95% in the mainshop).

And then I have a ladies fashion brand. For this brand it's less necessary to have an inworld presence. Unlike my other two other brands, visiting this shop doesn't give the customer more information about the product, then the marketplace listings. The vendorboxes in the shops don't show other things then the pictures on the marketplace. The only extra value is that the shop reflects the atmosphere of the brand. I want to keep this shop as well, but apart from that the shop is still profitable, there are not much rational reasons for it, the decission is mainly driven by sentiment.

The rise of the new marketplace has had much influence on my fashion brand. In the old days I used to rent many satelite stores for this brand. I was always looking around for venues and malls where I could bring Madame under the attention. I tried to get business on many places. It was just a case of trial and error. When a satelite shop didn't become profitable in a few weeks, I left it again. About 25% of what I rented became profitable in my testperiod. At the top time I had about 30 profitable satelite shops that did very well.
At his moment I have just one satelite shop left. About the half of my shops became unprofitable just after LL joined the Xstreet money and the inworld purse. People started to spend less in world and more on Xstreet. Only the very good landlords who knew how to drive traffic to their mall or club were able to keep their renters. I also had some places where my shop was still profitable, but where the landlord gave up because  he could not make the place as a whole run without loose any longer.
And then the marketplace became reality and LL started advertising it. By that time the rest of my satelites started falling. Also the very good venue holders and mall owners could not bring in enough buyers any longer to make my satelites run without loose. With some of those people I had worked for years, and they had always been able to mobilize  the traffic for their renters. I found it very bitter to see talented people fail and florishing venues die.

So apart from my mainstore, in the old days I did spend about 500 a week per satelite store on rent (this is an average amount, some were much more expensive, and others where cheaper.) That is about 15.000 linden a week I used to spend on rent. Ofcourse the venueholders made some money on the rent, but the biggest part of this money was used to pay tier.
Now I have the marketplace in stead of 30 satelites. Now I pay a  commission of 5% to the lab. That is nothing compared to the 15.000 I used to put in the economy by renting. LL is loosing big by killing in world trade for 5% of the sales on the marketplace. And this is only brand, one example of how the marketplace is cutting into the landmarket and inworld economy.

[Rya Nitely]

The best fun I had in SL as a newbie was when I bought my first little island. I spent almost all my time terraforming and building. Now I have 3 sims of shop to do this in, and I still enjoy it just as much, and the tier is covered and I get paid for doing it.:smileyvery-happy: What were we talking about? Oh yes, inworld shops.

Listing in the marketplace is a tedious task, all the rest is fun. I build for fun, I display items on my sims for fun, I terraform and bring my imagination to life for fun, and when people appreciate it then that is topping on the cake. 

Many of my items are not listed in the marketplace, because it's always on my list of boring tasks that I never get around to doing. So I have an inworld shop because that is my SL.

[Sassy Romano]

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Valois wrote:

Hello folks! I do hope your sales are ok and a business is prosper. I have found very interesting topic here about in-world trading. One person said that malls are dead because of the marketplace 

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If I listened to the people that said malls are dead, i'd a) not shop in them and b) if I closed my inworld presence i'd miss out on 88% of my revenue.  Marketplace does not favour adult content merchants.  Marketplace requires that you be found in search and that's anybody's guess from week to week.  I can't control Marketplace and its nuances.

What I can control, is my visibility in world and ultimately that's where people visit.  People don't role play on Marketplace, people don't socialise on Marketplace. 

Having said that, people don't go to malls to shop either but where mall spots are suitably designed and located AND promoted then there's no reason in my mind that they shouldn't have value.  Where I believe that some misjudge their mall spot is that they expect to see a profit on each location.  Well that's not always the case, there's always the value of branding and referals to a main shop (or even Marketplace!).  I have LM givers at my mall locations and if someone takes an LM from a mall spot and then purchases at my main shop within 2 days, I attribute that value to the mall spot since that's where the sale technically originated.  I have a single page vending system web page view that shows me total of income, rents, LM's issued, purchases made and overall net value as described.  That's a hugely powerful view of the estate.  Without that it would be easy to look at income from a location and assume it was unprofitable when in fact it had referred plenty to main shop where purchases were made.

The other issue is the malls/venues themselves.  Yes they vary but some put effort into the layout and promotion and others just use it as a means to subsidise their tier.  If I ask a mall owner who sends me a notecard invite "what will you do to promote my items and help my sales?" and the response I get is "huh?!" then I have my answer.  Similarly, 1 week free rent and a club doesn't really sell it to me either.  Like many, i've rented at that place and 2 weeks later they've poofed with the months rent money.  New malls i'm happy to offer affiliates.  Yesterday I bonused the owner of one of these who was given that offer because the sales from that location met a threshold I have for extra percentage.  Had she gone down the rent route she would have been less well off.  As with anything, the effort varies but i'm not about to pronounce inworld dead yet, not by any means though I accept that it varies for different products.  Mine favour inworld.

 

[Faithless Babii]

I will reply firstly as a creator.

I have very few items on the market place, just things that survived the transition phase , I havent added a thing since the MP begun. Its too long winded for my liking and I just dont have the time. Having said that, the few freebies I have on the MP do get taken and people come inworld to my store. So I can see it usefulness.

as a shopper..

I will buy a few items on the MP but mostly shop inworld. Because search is flakey I locate what im looking for on the MP and then go to look. I enjoy the whole shopping experience, and usually once in a region with stores will look around the whole place not just where I was headed too. If its menu driven stuff or animations naturally I will only buy inworld..same with clothing that isnt free/cheap. I want to see the designers store, it says a lot about them !

It saddens me that so many stores are leaving their inworld pitches, but I can understand the economics. Without inworld stores...it would be just like the Sims no? I joined for the 3D not web browsing.

[Nefertiti Nefarious]

 

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Valois wrote:

So, is there any reason to upkeep an in-world shop? I will say ‘yes’ because having an in-world shop is a kind of reliability and responsibility of merchant.

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I have a shop area because I like decorating and landscaping the parcel, and participating in hunts.

However, 95% or more of my sales come through the marketplace - I could close the shop parcel and not miss it at all. I would make more money because of less rent.

[Valois1488303660]

Thank you very much indeed, folks, for this wonderful feedback. I would like to summarize all answers up and try to deduce important aspects of merchant’s activity in sl.

1) What shall we choose -  the marketplace or in-world shop? The question about certain target group of customers. We have to distinguish between different types of customers and pay attention to customers’ behaviours. If there is any possiblity to get a feedback from them, we musn’t miss this chance.

2) Another interesting opinion  was that the in-world shopping more appropriate to 3D world. No doubt it’s so well fitted to the framework of second life. But! We have to understand that people always try to comprehend new reality on the basis of previous experience. The marketplace is very similar to the most internet shops and stores. It means the traditional way of doing shopping.  We are accustomed to buy things through internet shops.

3) There is a strong correlation between having a land and earn rent money from shopkeepers. If we have a land for fun, we can upkeep it by money’s flow from marketplace. If our well-being totally depends on in-world shop renters, we won’t be prosper.

4) The price of the product can be a good point to visit in-world stores. If I’m going to buy an expensive wedding suit I have to check the quality of it in the inworld-shop, if it is possible of course.

5)The role of merchant. Being a merchant is kind of performance. It frames our own behaviour and relation to what we do in second life. Shall we distinguish between trading for profit or trading for fun? Different goals mean different types of behaviour. We must decided this crucial question for ourselves.

I think there is a structural change of second life trading. It is in process of re-shaping. The in-world shops with 3D products (like shops with houses, cars, furniture etc.) will survive, but most of fashion designers (for example, clothes, dresses, gowns) will slightly move to the marketplace. Maybe only big designers will continue to upkeep big shops (1/2, 1/4, 1/8 sim).

[Polenth Yue]

It's not unusual to see someone visit the shop, then buy on the marketplace. They want to see it before they buy. Also, some customers favour in-world sales (this might vary on product, but for garden stuff, a fair number prefer to shop in-world).

I haven't had any luck with malls. I try new ones every now-and-then, but none of them have made a profit. One of the issues is a mall doesn't give me space to put the products out.

[Josh Susanto]

[One person said that malls are dead because of the marketplace.]

The malls are dead because they were full of overpriced crap, and the people who were dumping money into turning SL into one big, tacky shopping mall are now unable to do that due to RL factors.

Thank goodness.

 

[Tiffy Vella]

 

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Polenth Yue wrote:

It's not unusual to see someone visit the shop, then buy on the marketplace. They want to see it before they buy. Also, some customers favour in-world sales (this might vary on product, but for garden stuff, a fair number prefer to shop in-world).

I haven't had any luck with malls. I try new ones every now-and-then, but none of them have made a profit. One of the issues is a mall doesn't give me space to put the products out.

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/me nods...I think many of us are seeing a balance between Marketplace and inworld sales, and they do compliment each other. For some reason, I suspect I'm easier to find in the marketplace search compared to inworld search, and so new customers from there will sometimes end up purchasing inworld.

On malls- I too have found them to be pretty much a waste of time and money, but they are not the only form of rented store. I find themed rp sims to be much more effective for this, as they are not the generic bland excuse-for-shopping that a mall is. They have community, and a purpose for existing already. This is not only good for business, but can add bonus fun points to your life as well.

An aside; I've been redecorating this week, and found a beautiful place inworld where everything I needed was rezzed on display. Then, over the next few days, as items I'd seen in this store were needed, I bought them from the Marketplace. So convenient, and this way really makes the best use of both.  (And my home looks superb, btw. I've had waaay too much fun.)

 

[Miyo Darcy]

I did close every of my inworld activity because I earn much more on the webbased marketplace in SL.

[Taralynn Trommler]

I have to agree with you. Marketplace is a great way to market our products, but increasingly Secondlife is losing the in-world presence. I have designer friends who know it is slowly eroding the experience of SL, but really dont' care if the malls, clubs, cities disappear. Sadly many are just in it to get what they can and dont' care about the future of Second Life. Perhaps in-world presence needs to be forced. Eg. The number of items selling on marketplace be in line with the amount of land owned or rented in-world.

 Does anyone think Linden Labs is paying attention?

[Ashasekayi Ra]

I think it would be a horribile decision if LL tried to "force" merchants to have an inworld presence in the way that you suggest. That would in no way solve the problem that you mention. People need more quality events/SIMs to visit and get immersed in ... not more stores.

[Bagheera Kristan]

One thing I can do with my dresses at my in-world shop which I cannot do on the marketplace is have a bot-model showing the clothes in all their dimensions.  A photograph can't capture how the skirt moves or show how everything really looks and fits inworld.  It allays any fears of mistrust about Photoshopping and lighting in Marketplace photos.

I like to shop inworld WHEN the store is laid out so I can find things.  I'll see things on the Marketplace and then go inworld to get them - what I find frustrating is when a shop is laid out across an entire sim with no direction.  I'd love it if the SLURL provided at an item's Marketplace page took you right to the item in the shop.

In-World and the Markeplace compliment each other, when done right.  My opinion, fwiw