Demo to purchase ratio

[Bree Giffen]

I find that I am trying demos constantly and saving a few to buy in the future.  I think my demo to purchase ratio is about 500 to 1 right now. Once in a while I try a demo and immediately go out to buy it but that is very rare. I remember when we didn't have demos at all and we started discussing the possibility of using it in the forums. I think the rise of mesh avatars and clothing has been the main driver of demos. What is your demo to purchase ratio? 

[FairreLilette]

7 minutes ago, Bree Giffen said:

I find that I am trying demos constantly and saving a few to buy in the future.  I think my demo to purchase ratio is about 500 to 1 right now. Once in a while I try a demo and immediately go out to buy it but that is very rare. I remember when we didn't have demos at all and we started discussing the possibility of using it in the forums. I think the rise of mesh avatars and clothing has been the main driver of demos. What is your demo to purchase ratio? 

It's high.  I try a lot of demos especially hair.  I'm going to guess about 50 demos per one purchase which is still high to me.  I change shapes a lot, so every shape needs things that look good on that shape.  It's weird how it looks good on one shape but not another.  

[Garnet Psaltery]

I'd guess my ratio is also about 500 to 1.  I haven't bought any wearable without a demo for a long time now, not even from brands I love, as just occasionally they don't work for me.  Shopping events are a great opportunity to try new brands or styles I don't normally go for; it's true almost all end up in the bin but there are some gems to be found, and they get repeat purchases.

[Laurel Aurelia]

I have been trying to clean my inventory for sometime now. One of the first things I did was search for the word "demo" and delete all those things. The last time I did that, I deleted like 5k items >.>. So I demo  A LOT. I am very picky about how things fit and look, so when in doubt I will always try it on first even with brands I trust to make sure I actually like it. I've gotten burned a couple of times with hairs specifically when I didn't try them on and discovered it didn't fit me right or they were insanely high in complexity. If something doesn't have a demo, I usually steer clear entirely. Not sure on the ratio though. I always demo, but at an event that might be 1 or 2 very specific things in a sea of  many more. Still sounds like my buy ratio is pretty high.

Edited August 4, 2020 by Laurel Aurelia
Additional info.

[Ceka Cianci]

mine is pretty low..

I'll grab all my demos then go home try them out and  decide if the item is worth a trip back..hehehehe

if it's not , I'll delete it right away.. if I have something I really like I'll go back if it's just one item..But if it's something that I liked but kind of lost it's impact when I'm at the house.. I'll delete it..

I've been really saving a lot of money doing things this way, using my laziness to my financial advantage... hehehehe

[Blush Bravin]

Mine changes over time. For instance, I had pretty much stopped buying most clothing items for my mesh body because it was hard to find anything I didn't already own in the same type of design. So for me to spend money, it had to be something that was rarely seen or had really superior rigging with an abundance of unusual colors/textures that I couldn't pass on it. So the 500 to 1 could easily have been the case up until recently. Now that Debi has made the switch to the Lara Petite I've been buying a lot of things because well I don't have much of anything in the petite size. I imagine my ratio now is about 15 to 1 and I foresee that continuing for some time. Same thing goes for kitten heels, but that ratio is probably more like 2 to 1.

[Pixie Kobichenko]

I don’t know my ratio, but I wish the jewelry shops I frequent had demos to see fit & colors, the look of the gems & complexity.

[Tari Landar]

I don't usually fit the patterns for these kinds of things (and don't here either). I don't shop the way a lot of others do. That is to say, I rarely ever shop for things like clothes, accessories, things for my av, etc. When I do shop for them, my demo to purchase ratio is pretty well balanced. I only demo things I'm already damn near certain I intend to buy. I would say out of every 10 demos (and that's being generous, I probably haven't demo'd more than ten things in the last four years lol) I have purchased 8 of them.  I can really only think of two things I have demo'd in the least few years that did not look as I expected them to once I got them. One of them I was uncertain of to begin with and a demo just confirmed what I had already thought,  and the other was an unexpected poor quality (badly rigged and poor quality textures).

That said, I do help some others with finding demos a lot, and their ratios are probably more in line with others' listed here, so probably close to  a 10 demos to every 2 or 3 actual purchases.  I also know someone that seems to demo damn near everything she encounters, lol, but rarely buys any of it. Pretty sure she has a demo addiction, and hey, at least that's a free addiction, lol. 

[Cinos Field]

It's surprisingly low. Generally because I only demo things that appear to be high quality to begin with. More or less, if I get a demo and don't buy something it means it was poorly made for one reason or another (clothing that spams text, entirely too much clipping that's annoying to alpha out, a misaligned skin, hair that floats above my head, grotesque amount of polygons...) which happens now and then... but I'd approximate it's only about 5 demos to 1 purchase.

edit: And I have a personal blacklist of vendors who are frequently rather poor, so I know not to bother with their demos.

Edited August 4, 2020 by Cinos Field

[LittleMe Jewell]

I probably buy 1/2 of what I demo.  However, I don't demo things unless I'm pretty darn sure I want them at that time.  I almost never save demos to buy later, so about the only reason I won't buy after a demo is because the demo showed it would not work for me.

[Lindal Kidd]

Mine is usually low.  Most of the things I buy these days are on sale, and the prices are low enough that if a thing turns out to be not suitable, it's not a big deal to just dump it in the trash.  But I've been picking up a lot more demos lately for hair, skin, and mesh heads.

[fhlurs]

I actually demo a lot especially hair maybe because I’m picky when it comes to hair because sometimes the hair or clothing whatever it could be looks good on the ad but when you actually try it on your avi it doesn’t look like what you thought it would cause there were times I just bought it without demoing and when I wore it I’m like “oh no why did I ever buy this?”. I demo a lot for sure and then I decide if I’m going to purchase or not.

[Bree Giffen]

Some very different thoughts from mine on trying demos! I tend to grab lots of demos whenever I'm at a shopping event or store. There are times when I will grab a demo of something that is not appealing on the product image but after trying out the demo it looks much better. It could just be that my avatar is so stunning that she makes everything look good. 

[Jordyn McGregor]

I have to admit I rarely try demos.  9/10 it does work out and I save myself the struggle to get into an event, grab demo, TP home to try it (cos lag!) and then battling to get back in to buy it.  But sometimes this can backfire on me and I end up with hair that doesn't fit, or something that I thought looked good in a picture and crap on me. 

[Ivanova Shostakovich]

Mine can be pretty high. I most often get demos for only the things that instantly interest me. But I do get adventurous and curious sometimes. Many of the demos I try lead to purchases. Every now and then a demo will have particularly irksome qualities, such as a short time limit, or intentionally disabled demo HUD color options. Those just go right into the bin.

[Raspberry Crystal]

I buy demos to test for fit, and only bother with those things I already know I want, so 3 demos per 2 purchases on most things. Hair is a bit different, as I try styles out out to see how they feel, as well as how they look. I will sometimes reject hair even it fits well and looks good, if it doesn't seem to sit in the same universe as my skin and clothing. Hair could be 5 demos to one purchase.
 

[BelindaN]

Hair for sure has to be demo'd and I'm very picky.

Otherwise from good makers I hardly demo at all. The rest I should demo more and occasionally get caught out with rubbish.

[Lillith Hapmouche]

It depends on the circumstances, actually.

Mostly focussing on personal attire like clothes, hair or skins:
For events like weekly shopping rounds, I "pre-pick" by blog posts what I might like or need. If it's a shop where I regularily buy from, chances are high that I skip the demo and grab the offer right away. For new locations or special fittings which look like they better get tested, I'd put the ratio at 50/50.

When "raiding" a new hair designer or such, it's not uncommon to demo the whole store and perhaps end up with 2 or 3 styles for now.

I'm also keeping a good deal of demos as a reference in terms of "might need such a style at some point".

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

I'm selling a skybox for which I also provide a demo. The thing has very decent ratings and reviews. However, its demo to purchase ratio is really weird.

For one, the ratio is about 1 : 1. More curiously, almost no one who actually purchased it tried the demo first, and vice versa.

Edited August 6, 2020 by Arduenn Schwartzman

[Garnet Psaltery]

40 minutes ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

I'm selling a skybox for which I also provide a demo. The thing has very decent ratings and reviews. However, its demo to purchase ratio is really weird.

For one, the ratio is about 1 : 1. More curiously, almost no one who actually purchased it tried the demo first, and vice versa.

Possibly this is simply because you sell fun things.  I've had some myself.

Edited August 6, 2020 by Garnet Psaltery

[Mollymews]

22 hours ago, Lillith Hapmouche said:

When "raiding" a new hair designer or such, it's not uncommon to demo the whole store and perhaps end up with 2 or 3 styles for now.

I'm also keeping a good deal of demos as a reference in terms of "might need such a style at some point".

this is me also

when I find a designer I have not got anything from before, I get about three demos to start with. See if they fit well by dancing and sitting my avatar. If the quality is good then grab a whole bunch more

try them on, mix n match with my other stuff also. When I like, I put the demo into a folder called Maybe Buy These. Delete the ones I don't like

when I feel like some retail therapy as when/can afford then Look in the Maybe Buy These folder. Try them on again to be sure. If so then buy

[Teagan Tobias]

 

I seldom buy without a demo. And I seldom demo unless something really catches my eye, then its demo and purchase if it fits and has no auto alpha, I hate alphas. So my demo to purchase is kind of high, I think.

And just a little rant, I would love a way to turn off alphas completely so auto alphas don’t work at all. If creators think auto alphas are so good, PUT IT IN YOUR AD, so I don’t need to demo that stuff.

 

Edited August 6, 2020 by Teagan Tobias
word

[Lillith Hapmouche]

5 hours ago, Teagan Tobias said:

If creators think auto alphas are so good, PUT IT IN YOUR AD, so I don’t need to demo that stuff.

Why's that? Because of overwriting your own and currently worn alphas? Guess that could be... distracting, if you aren't demoing stuff at home.

 

5 hours ago, Mollymews said:

when I find a designer I have not got anything from before, I get about three demos to start with.

I actually did mean "demo the whole store", or at least everything that comes close to my liking. 😊

[Teagan Tobias]

1 hour ago, Lillith Hapmouche said:

Why's that? Because of overwriting your own and currently worn alphas? Guess that could be... distracting, if you aren't demoing stuff at home.

 

I guess if you didn’t read the first half of my post your response could sound... okay.

But thanks for the laugh, I guess overlapping alphas could just make matters a lot worse, but I wouldn’t know.

 

[Lillith Hapmouche]

OK, enjoy your hate or whatever. 🙄

Lindens forbid that there might be something like a normal conversation on here.