Inworld stores: are they worth it?

[Clem Marques]

Hey everyone. Sales in the Marketplace are pretty decent on their own. Having an inworld store means that one has more costs, paying monthly land fees or rent for the parcel. I am currently considering getting a small one for my shop, but not 100% sure if I should do it. So I'd love to hear from those who have or have had inworld stores to help me with my decision:

• Did it increase your sales to have an inworld store?
• Do more sales happen inworld or in the Marketplace?
• What are some benefits of having an inworld store?

Just curious  Thanks in advance.

[discussionbot]

I highly recommend doing an in-world outpost.

It doesn’t have to be massive, there are plenty of smaller parcels available in industrial districts on land, or skyboxes that you can make into your shop for a pretty reasonably minimal weekly fee.

It gives you a chance to extend some creativity towards your vision of what your own shop could look like, and it’s nice to have an in-world HQ. I’ve yet to put products on mine but I had a ton of fun custom making my own place for weeks.

Of course, not to mention all the other usual advantages of direct sales, no MP fees, more granular control over products/store, nice to see products rezzed depending on what you’re selling, etc. 

Definitely give it a shot for a few weeks to try, can always ditch it if it doesn’t work. 

[Flea Yatsenko]

I went from having an in world demo platform where people could rez products and stuff, but they still had to use the marketplace to purchase. I added in world vendors and my sales are general double of what they were last year without in world vendors, and the split between SLMP and in world is usually 50:50. Adding in world vendors probably contributed a lot.

It's hard to tell exactly how much because in the same time I created a product search engine with vendors and demo rezzers and stuff so that probably played a role. But it's interesting to me my sales split is 50:50 SLMP:in world yet my sales are generally doubled.

Also I sell a lot of large builds meant for landscaping, building, etc. Your mileage probably will vary a lot if you have a store that's mostly avatar related stuff that doesn't benefit from being visible in world as much, or that can be sent as a demo and worn on an AV.

[Stephanie Misfit]

14 hours ago, Clem Marques said:

Hey everyone. Sales in the Marketplace are pretty decent on their own. Having an inworld store means that one has more costs, paying monthly land fees or rent for the parcel. I am currently considering getting a small one for my shop, but not 100% sure if I should do it. So I'd love to hear from those who have or have had inworld stores to help me with my decision:

• Did it increase your sales to have an inworld store?
• Do more sales happen inworld or in the Marketplace?
• What are some benefits of having an inworld store?

Just curious  Thanks in advance.

My sales are split about 50 / 50 marketplace and in world store. I sell furniture, it helps to have an in-world presence so people can test it. 

[Sid Nagy]

I will close my inworld shop when I return from my upcoming RL vacation. That is for sure.
For me, it is not worth the extra time and money to run one.
I had it for a year now and still 99% of my sales happen on the marketplace. There are visitors almost every day though.

[Gabriele Graves]

20 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

I will close my inworld shop when I return from my upcoming RL vacation. That is for sure.
For me, it is not worth the extra time and money to run one.
I had it for a year now and still 99% of my sales happen on the marketplace. There are visitors almost every day though.

Marketplace has redelivery, if an inworld shop doesn't that's often the decider for me to purchase from marketplace instead.

[Sid Nagy]

1 hour ago, Gabriele Graves said:

Marketplace has redelivery, if an inworld shop doesn't that's often the decider for me to purchase from marketplace instead.

I have no redelivery in my store, because I don't want to grand a no mod script to have access over my money.
All these vendors want that kind of access. I will not grand it. Ever.

[Gabriele Graves]

Just now, Sid Nagy said:

I have no redelivery in my store, because I don't want to grand a no mod script to have access over my money.
All these vendors want that kind of access. I will not grand it. Ever.

Sure, I understand that but as a customer that would make me prefer to get the products from your MP store where you have redelivery turned on which might account for what you have been seeing.

[Claireschen Hesten]

I only keep an inworld presence going because i have some things for sale like poses that should be demoed before buying. i've never had the passing trade i thought bordering a welcome center might attract it's mostly marketplace for my ancient wares. if i didn't have stuff that people might want to try out first i probably would have sacrificed the inworld store ages ago and used my freed up Li for my home space. If you can afford to waste a few L$ it's worth giving an inworld store a try

[Chic Aeon]

I have a small 2048 extra prim store these days. I have had full homesteads.  They have all been "primarily" demo stores for the Marketplace but even now (I just checked) almost half of my sales were inworld.  I have never used vendors as I personally LIKE to see what is in the box I am buying  and I have had very few issues with people needing redeliveries.  Other than a Places ad I don't advertise. 

I do think that many to most creators can benefit from an inworld presence - even small.  For one it kind of "legitimizes" your brand.  If you are selling clothes or other items that come with demos it is likely less important than for folks that are selling home and garden for instance.  I believe in having demos available for pretty much everything.  I have some old items that are very niche and still sell and they don't have demos but I am always willing to rez them if someone wants to see them. 

To be FAIR as far as my brand is concerned I have thousands of items out there in the world and it is very likely that people see the items and then buy either on Marketplace or come to the store depending on how they usually shop ---- so MY statistics are possibly not the "norm" .

Looking at your (the OPs) store it doesn't look like you have demos and likely wouldn't have the in your inworld store either so I am not sure how much the inworld would help.  I think making demos when you can would be more helpful energy-wise really.  

It is probably good to also say that ENJOYMENT is part of the package. So if you WANT to create an inworld store and will enjoy being a retailer in the mode, then that might be the deciding factor.  If it sounds like WORK the maybe skip that for now. 

 

 

[Luna Bliss]

23 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

I will close my inworld shop when I return from my upcoming RL vacation. That is for sure.
For me, it is not worth the extra time and money to run one.
I had it for a year now and still 99% of my sales happen on the marketplace. There are visitors almost every day though.

Even though most of my sales happen on the Marketplace some of my customers viewed the item at my store first before purchasing. Not sure as to the percentage as I don't make a point of tracking it, but I do notice correlation between the two sometimes.

[Katherine Heartsong]

I'm a bit unique in that my in world store (gallery) was initially set up to be able to showcase what my pieces looked like in world at full size on a wall. My issue was that there was no way to "link" my MP listing of a piece to the one on the wall in my gallery because I only sell one copy of my works. Inventory management was a nightmare.

I would either have a piece on the wall that had already been sold in the MP, or a MP listing of a piece that was still showing available that had been sold off my wall in my gallery and really wasn't anymore.

My solution was to use my MP as simply a place to highlight what I do and provide a link to my in world gallery (much like a rental listing) and only sell my pieces in world. This method saves me the MP commission as well, and having to create a MP listing for every single piece of art I create.

To answer your questions specifically, @Clem Marques ...

Did it increase your sales to have an in world store?
Sales haven't changed significantly since I made the gallery the place to buy my works.

Do more sales happen in world or in the Marketplace?
Obviously I've gone from selling everything via the MP to everything in world, so not a fair question. However, I was frequently asked to sell in world prior to my change, so if everything was equal I'd say more sales happen for me in world anyway ... but that's an partly/mainly because of what I sell.

What are some benefits of having an in world store?
I think having a presence is nice. It feels more like visiting a gallery and shopping for art. I can add small side attractions to the space to increase foot traffic ... Kat's Jazz and Kat's Cafe are adjacent to my gallery and get visits from gallery visitors, and vice versa. I may be old fashioned but I enjoy visiting the nice shops merchants have set up in world. Some stores are simply a great design and experience.

[Chic Aeon]

I think a BETTER method in @Katherine Heartsong's case (as I am pretty sure this is against the Marketplace rules except for rentals) would be to have a picture of the painting on the Marketplace with a direct link to the painting inworld. Have a copy of the painting in world NOT for sale but the people can see it.

Then they can bey the ONE ONLY item from the Marketplace and the listing for that painting would disappear automatically. If you have sales emails coming in automatically you could then take down the example or put a sold sign on it.    

[Katherine Heartsong]

1 hour ago, Chic Aeon said:

I think a BETTER method in @Katherine Heartsong's case (as I am pretty sure this is against the Marketplace rules except for rentals) would be to have a picture of the painting on the Marketplace with a direct link to the painting inworld. Have a copy of the painting in world NOT for sale but the people can see it.

Then they can bey the ONE ONLY item from the Marketplace and the listing for that painting would disappear automatically. If you have sales emails coming in automatically you could then take down the example or put a sold sign on it.    

I did do roughly that but it's such a manual process to keep on top of. Now, someone's in my gallery, buys the painting, the image changes to "Sold" and I simply go in next time I log on having created a new painting, and replace the sold one without worrying about the MP inventory.

I'd personally like to see in world inventory tied into MP store inventory, but there are far better improvements to make to the MP than that. First one is only allowing on listing for X blouse and have a colour selector in the listing, instead of having 20+ listings of the same top. Like every other online store has done for the past decade-plus.

I should also charge a lot more for my works since they are hand-done by me and only one available, and take between one and four RL hours to create, but I'm competing against AI generated work, work done just using Photoshop filters (ugh), and artists who sell multiple copies of their pieces to make up the cost so I can't charge what they're actually worth.

Not here to make a profit anyway, just earn enough to buy everything ISON, Mimikri, and Scarlett Creative aka @Charlotte Bartlett release

Edited August 25 by Katherine Heartsong

[Paul Hexem]

What nobody has mentioned yet- An in world store gives you mildly more credibility than not.

How many stories do we see about fly by night stores on the MP and one of the most common sources of advice for spotting them is "check their profile, see if they have a store".

[Eowyn Southmoor]

I think I must be doing something wrong when it comes to in-world stores 

84% of my sales come from my MP store.  Now admittedly, i'm very much in a tiny niche field, but I do often wonder why my in-world sales are relatively low. 

My in-world store has a demo rezzer, which I personally believe to be very important for the products I sell. I think it's important for a potential customer to see an item under their own viewers setting and environment.  In terms of customer support, my in-world store also has a re-delivery kiosk,  as well as an on-line paging board so customers can contact me.  In terms of location, my store is strategically placed to be as close as possible to an area populated by my intended customer base.

On occasion, I have asked customers if they looked at one of my demos prior to purchase, and usually the answer is "oh i know your stuff, i dont need to demo it".  That's great in one way, but I am not sure it's applicable to new customers. 

Ironically, I have a couple of affiliate in-world vendors set up in various places - and I sell more items there than I do at my own store.

Good thing I am not in sales or marketing in RL 

[Lyric Demina]

On 8/31/2024 at 11:43 PM, Paul Hexem said:

An in world store gives you mildly more credibility than not.

100% agree

And it would be worth studying how many Marketplace sales happen BECAUSE there is an in-world store to lend that legitimacy.  Even if nobody goes shopping at the brick&mortar, they shop the brand because the brick&mortar is there, I bet.  (I shop that way personally so if there's me there must be more.) 

[Flea Yatsenko]

On 9/1/2024 at 9:34 PM, Eowyn Southmoor said:

I think I must be doing something wrong when it comes to in-world stores 

84% of my sales come from my MP store.  Now admittedly, i'm very much in a tiny niche field, but I do often wonder why my in-world sales are relatively low. 

My in-world store has a demo rezzer, which I personally believe to be very important for the products I sell. I think it's important for a potential customer to see an item under their own viewers setting and environment.  In terms of customer support, my in-world store also has a re-delivery kiosk,  as well as an on-line paging board so customers can contact me.  In terms of location, my store is strategically placed to be as close as possible to an area populated by my intended customer base.

On occasion, I have asked customers if they looked at one of my demos prior to purchase, and usually the answer is "oh i know your stuff, i dont need to demo it".  That's great in one way, but I am not sure it's applicable to new customers. 

Ironically, I have a couple of affiliate in-world vendors set up in various places - and I sell more items there than I do at my own store.

Good thing I am not in sales or marketing in RL 

The first sale is the hardest if you are selling quality goods, it applies to any storefront, not just SL. If you have good stuff customers will keep coming back and buying, some will trust you enough to not have to view demos or rez.

I think my in world sales are strong, not just because of my store layout and the ease of buying, rezzing, etc., but because I have so many products that synergize together. Different tunnels that work with different rooms, etc. It seems like if you have several products that go together and you have them easily viewable and buyable in world people will buy multiple things at once when they wouldn't because SLMP can be cumbersome. It depends on your store layout. It's pretty common for people to buy several things from me at once. It seems like it's easier to impulse buy in world instead of adding things to your cart, looking at the total, then removing from the cart instead of just clicking "pay" over and over and then realizing you spent way too much.

Just for fun I compared average payment (excluding any fees) for the last 30 days between in world and SLMP sales. My in world sales are almost double the average transaction amount than the SLMP. Maybe I'm a fluke or maybe there's a reason why people don't want to buy bigger purchases on SLMP. I would have thought it would be the opposite since SLMP makes it easy to redeliver and stuff.