Store organization

[animats]

Is there any way to organize a marketplace store? Departments? Grouping? Something.

I can't even find a way to bring items which are just different sizes of the same building component together.

[Polenth Yue]

No, but you can use linking to related items to show there are other variations.

[Saucey Sinister]

The shopper can filter items in your store based on the categories you have put your items into. So, yes, there is already a system to do this. In order for people to find other "like" items you would use what the previous poster said and simply choose those items to affiliate them with. This way when someone is looking at one of the pieces they will see the others at the bottom of the page. Also, when you list the items, if you do so one after the other, they will be listed this way. When someone comes to your store page they can then filter your items by the categories you have listed your items in and can also choose to filter the items as "new". I honestly wouldn't worry about it. Just make sure you state it in your item description that other pieces are available. Just remember that people will often look to go to your store in world if they want more of a certain item you make and are curious what else you sell this way, but but lost their patience for MP shopping. I also advise you use the most specific category as possible when you list your items. Don't just use a main category.

[Sabrina Tamerlane]

I have changed pictures on my items and the listed order changed as well, so it's difficult to order them properly.

[Dakota Linden]

Greetings, All!

The "listed" order will change based on the Sort options. 

Due to the limitations of the code for the Marketplace, it is not currently possible to have separate "Departments" under a single store. So a seller could not group all of their clothing into a 'Clothing Department" regardless of what categories their listings are in. 

At this time, the only real way to group content is by using a sub "brand" name for each offering group.  For instance, if you have a main Brand for your business you could then create and use a sub-brand and then list ONLY those items for that brand with that name. 

If I were a creator/merchant and say I had a Brand Name for my business as 'Dakota's Offerings', I could create/use something like 'Dakota's Fashion Faux Pas' as a "brand" for all of the clothing I was selling.  

When I created product listings for the clothing, I would use the 'Fashion Faux Pas' name in each listing so that the item listing names would be 'Fashion Faux Pas - Black Mens Jeans', 'Fashion Faux Pas - Womens Blue Jeans', etc.  

Any user who visits your Marketplace Store Front could then click on the "Search this store" tab and do a Keyword Search just of your store and enter the 'Fashion Faux Pas' brand as the search term and every item in your store that has that name or keywords will be shown in the search return. 

The store visitor can then Sort that search return to see Newest to Oldest, Lowest or Highest price, etc, and/or they could just click on the Category options on the left to see only those items in a specific category. 

Any visitor who goes to your Marketplace Store can opt to sort all of your listings by Name A - Z or Name Z - A and all listings will show alphabetically, so if you have separate brand names for your grouped offerings (furniture, clothing, etc., and you use the Brand Name as the start of the Item Listing Name), then all your item listings will be grouped together by brand. 

Merchants can also drop a 'Tip' at the bottom of their listings letting others know how to search for those types of items in their own store, as well.

Something like "To see all of my Awesome Clothing click on the 'Search this store' link at the top of the page and enter "Awesome Clothing" (without the quotes) in the Keywords field then click the Search button."

Related Items are great for linking truly related items, but the offerings are limited to 8 other products.  If you sell Mens Jeans in the same style, but multiple colors, the Related Items are a fantastic way of pointing users to the other colors.  A listing for a pair of Totally Cool Mens Blue Jeans should have links to the same style of jeans in Green, Orange, Red, Purple, Black, etc., in the Related Items section.  This way if someone finds your Blue Jeans listing on its own they have fast links to the other colors without having to search your store for the same item in a different color. 

Related Items is also a perfect way to link together outfit parts.  If you are selling an outfit that consists of Tops, Pants, Shoes, etc.  You can create 1 listing for the full outfit then offer the ability to buy only the individual items themselves, so the Outfit listing could then have Related Items for links to the Top, Pants, Shoes, etc., and each of the listings for the individual items should then use the Related Items to link back to the listings for the Full Outfit and the other parts of the outfit. 

This is also a great resource if a merchant sells things like an outfit but also sells the hair the model in the outfit image is wearing. The listing for the Outfit could then also have a Related Items link to the listing where the user can buy the hair in the image. It is not possible to use the Related Items to link to other sellers Item Listings, so there are limitations in that you can only link to items you personally sell in your own store. 

Cheers, all!