Mickey Vandeverre

Thank You now....on the tweet-like buttons.... those things are Solid Gold. We are not provided the stats here (major problem), but I've got stats and graphs from another venue that I can evaluate by the minute, the hour.... and Holy Freakin' Cow. When someone hits that tweet or like button, you better buckle up and get ready. One of these days you and I will discuss numbers on that. Large Numbers. In an instant. That continue to multiply among circles. For days. And weeks.

there is hope..... @SupportLinden has arrived.

Yep, yep, yep. It's fascinating to watch. (in a gut-wrenching sort of way) This part you mentioned... "That means more sales for merchants, more sales for them. You'd think with a board that knows money makes the world go 'round, they'd get that money makes "this" world go round for us as much as them, but that seems to elude them in favor of some experimental management and culture." I just don't get it. Baffling. Interesting study for someone to contemplate and observe, who doesn't have to have a day job or two. On this... "And then let the world know once you've got the tools that you can come here and sell everything from your real life product to your virtual goods. They'd double their revenue in a year. But don't even try it without being able to deliver on the tools, you'll just flush money down the toilet, you can't fool the new generation for long with hurry up and wait ... they don't wait for anything." So much potential. The venue offers everything. Every aspect. Those social media gurus that drive me freakin' insane on twitter think they have every tool mastered, think that they are first to use the newest greatest sites and circles and networks to promote, and totally miss the opportunity for promotion and networking here..... Maybe it's just not real enough. Maybe being real is not the way to go. But the musicians do it, The artists do it. The educators do it. Why is it so bad and why is it so swept under the rug and neglected, when a merchant wants to do it. Bad seeds or something. Some days feel like a used car salesman. That influx of people that came here in late 2006 were curious based on intrigue that related to doing business and commerce in a new world. And they ramped it up big time - saw the potential - invested in it - had the passion. Those were my friends. I miss them. We used to talk about amazing things to do with this venue - all kinds of things to tap into. Not one is still here.

He's around here somewhere. Some days I want to choke him. Some days I think he is on to something. And he's so darn "out there" it's endearing. He's been pretty mellow since he got sent to the corner for a pretty long time out. I don't think he's the blogging type - so no hope there.

Very interesting. I'm out of the loop a bit on new news as there were months on end without "real" new news. Same ol', same ol', promises, promises. Gave up. M. Linden had great vision. Much of it involved things that would be a merchant's dream. On the new addition, I'm not familiar with how the Sims worked. Did they have commerce there? I'm not into all the gaming stuff. Just the retail/commerce stuff. Suppose I won't get excited until someone specializing in that aspect jumps on board. It seemed as if they wanted that Farmville type thing, hamster jumping on a wheel type thing, logging in constantly to check crops (your store), buying stuff (stuff to make more stuff - stuff to sell more stuff - stuff to market more stuff, etc).... To me, Farmville was already here, ready to explode. And I don't mean that in a negative way. I think it's totally cool that you want to log in and check your store stuff and try to make it "grow" every day. I'm not sure they recognized that in the merchant population. Recognized what they already had. Ready to go. Make the tools work, and we'll jump on that wheel every morning. Heck, still jumping on it in hopes that it got oiled yesterday. Kind of sick behavior if you think about it. They could exploit that! It's there for the taking. I wish they would add someone from the Etsy team, or from a similar environment. Have to work that heavy until holidays, and boy oh boy, what they've got going on there is amazing. Combining the social aspect in a big way with merchandising/marketing. Talk about being on a hamster wheel - you've got to log in and feed that beast all day long. But it's not a chore - it's super fun. We could have something like that. The basics are already in place for it. But I'm not sure if it will come from a Gamer type person. They seem so anti-social. ooops. Did I say that out loud? eta: ok, went back and read that article better, and checked bio - yeah, that's super duper exciting news, I suppose. If you're a gamer. Or a lab rat.

I don't have a clue what any of that means..... but sounds like Bad Karma. Today was my slowest sales day ever in 3 years. Came in to see if somethin' ain't right. I think it is just an accumulation of ain't right that is hitting..... and it's going to continue to hit. Looking forward to new CEO announcement in January.

Hey Nym - Come on by, bring a crowd and some picket signs and hang out for days on end in front of the store. (could use some extra traffic, since they monkeyed with the inworld search) Let me know if you want a more aggressive music selection, and help yourself to the liquor cabinets. btw....are you working on the "Nym" wars too? Dang good job you did on that one - google is coming around a bit.

I don't think you're getting what I'm trying to say simply. Try reading again.

Yeah...ton of opportunity there, and not just with offering your physical product as a virtual product, but even simply as using the virtual world to just display pics and links of your physical product as a presence. I've seen some already do this, but it was a while back, and I don't have an example....but just renting a spot in a mall with your advertising for physical product and link to web site or blog would be good exposure. Several artists with their art galleries do this. It can be done now. On the corporate meeting thing, that was exactly what I was trying to offer to a few people from twitter - offer them conference space above the store, but ran into a few glitches there. It would serve me well as advertising for store and also as traffic. But could not pull it off because they wanted to be able to advertise in the land description their group charter etc. info - and they also wanted voice - which would spread across store, not good while people shopping. Plus...the day they came in, the voice thing had some glitches and that was a huge turn off indicating that it is not reliable for a conference (which it isn't really) Considered moving them to home base in Costa Rica for a beach setting meeting, but again ran into same glitch there, and they wanted option to promote in land description wasn't workable. Considered Renting them a vacant lot, in which they could control voice feature somewhat (but in past I've noticed that voice carries over several lots sometimes).... but they wanted more control over the land rental than what I could offer....but at same time did not want to pay or commit to their own piece of land for that control.... so there were a variety of issues that needed to be resolved for someone using it experimentally like that. There are places that are set up and geared toward a conference room atmosphere, but when scouting them out, they would still be same glitches as above. Would require some tweaking and offering of a different type format than what we are used to, to encourage that on a regular basis for someone or to offer it as experiment without a lot of financial risk - even if it's just a hundred bucks a month - no guarantees on functioning at a scheduled meeting time, which is crucial.

Balance is a Good Thing. The problem is that Rodvik does respond to the negative bloggers. It's encouragement to continue for more attention. Unfortunately.

Dartagan Shepherd wrote: Mickey Vandeverre wrote: oh, and in reverse....have met some people on twitter who sell real life product quite well - variety of things, mostly in home design or art or interior design services and they are fascinated by the creativity that comes from SL and by the marketplace too - all those different products offered. I would imagine that if you had never set foot into a virtual world, browsing through the marketplace to see each niche that someone carved (some quite interesting!) would be intriguing to say the least. A good while back, I had several come inworld to talk about it, and showed them the store....and they really wanted to get involved. But some issues came up that did not present well in public, and I can't exactly smooth those over right now and encourage someone to give it a shot. Which is a huge bummer. That's why I get a little anxious about this tool functioning thing. Waiting. I'm woefully weak on blogging, Twitter and have slacked on social networking such as Facebook and LinkedIn, although we manage Facebook and LinkedIn and paid Google advertising for the day jobs. Might look you up on Twitter for some tips for that and blogging sometime if you don't mind a brain-picking session. Interestingly, a few years back I'd still been selling some woodworked products (lets just say fantasy garden products), as woodworking had been a hobby-turned-business. I still maintain that a couple products that really took off that would do very well by upselling the RL version of the SL product ... meaning to create in SL the products I was producing in RL. They were inexpensive enough to pull that off. But of course, there's the whole privacy and identity thing, and the way it tends to go, I wouldn't risk marring my RL business ventures with some person in SL that decided it'd be fun to trash my RL business. Had hoped to see a lot of that when I first came to SL ... the merging of RL and SL goods, but that hasn't happened in any big way that I know of. In fact, I don't know of an instance of that now here in SL. I think the inhibitor is for the same reasons of privacy, but you would think any hand-made products would be a perfect fit for virtual/RL crossovers. Ah well. But that would fit in with your advice about mitigating risk. The blogging is where it's at. It's how people make fortunes now. It's not a sideline - it's a MUST. By having a blog in first page of google search every day - you have major control. You have to use twitter or facebook or google+ to direct traffic to it. It's no longer an "option" - it's necessary. For one of the venues I use - it's like 90% of their business leads - maybe more. Get going on that. I think that as far as someone in SL trashing your RL business - it's risky - but I think that you have ultimate control as a real life person over an anonymous one when it's all said and done. What's the worst that can happen? They show up on your doorstep? Yeah - they've done that - - and once they've done that, you can file a police report. Odds are they won't go that far. And their "threat" is not worth missing opportunity over. A physical product business is going to have far more opportunity than perhaps .000001 % of the population of the world using a virtual world - - physical needs to come first. But for someone who laid the groundwork in SL, and did so beautifully....would be foolish not to apply that process to 99.999% of the world's population. And do a tie-in on both. A while back I saw someone on twitter advertising doggy treats (physical product) on SL marketplace. I thought it was brilliant. But I don't think you are allowed to do that! I think they were removed. I do see that offering a virtual world product designed after a physical world product would be super smart. Or vice versa, as you said. Or - if you had a huge presence and niche in a certain product line in physical, and were known as the go-to person on that online....it only makes sense that you should have that same presence in a virtual world marketplace and cover every angle. Say it's home furnishings/accessories - those virtual world folks often decorate in a similar style here, as to what they would in physical world - you might as well cover both worlds, and much more opps in physical. The virtual might not be a money-maker for someone who does well in physical - - but the presence opportunity will "someday" be required. Someday. Might as well get in on it right away and hold position for That Day. When M. Linden was here, he spoke often of the above happening. He seemed really passionate about it. Looks like powers at be on a different track for that, and have neglected the retail aspects/opportunities.... but someone can run with that and control it on their own. They don't really have support for it, but the trailblazers rarely do anyway.

Dude, get a grip. Take your freakin' 200 bucks and buy yourself a real life whipping post. I ain't it, and neither is anyone else. We weren't having a discussion - I was merely responding to each of your posts that were chock full of misinformation with my name attached, as is this post I am responding to which is chock full of stuff that did not happen.

oh, and in reverse....have met some people on twitter who sell real life product quite well - variety of things, mostly in home design or art or interior design services and they are fascinated by the creativity that comes from SL and by the marketplace too - all those different products offered. I would imagine that if you had never set foot into a virtual world, browsing through the marketplace to see each niche that someone carved (some quite interesting!) would be intriguing to say the least. A good while back, I had several come inworld to talk about it, and showed them the store....and they really wanted to get involved. But some issues came up that did not present well in public, and I can't exactly smooth those over right now and encourage someone to give it a shot. Which is a huge bummer. That's why I get a little anxious about this tool functioning thing. Waiting.

Dartagan Shepherd wrote: Been stewing on this today and had a related conversation with someone today also. Didn't want to appear to be a Mickey groupie (although you're certainly worthy of err ... grouping?), but you know I'm a sucker for a business chat and coffee. This is priceless advice, especially when I hear that people are sometimes instantly and dramatically affected by search and such. Not an anti-SL statement, but putting food on the table (and life in general) should always come first. To that end and back to your topic, I think you're touching on something that might be useful, and that is reusable skills and content. SL is an absolutely awesome business testing ground, and a great place to try out concepts. Perhaps a wise move would be to think about honing skills that translate well to other income. We've got graphics work, which are skills that can be used elsewhere as well as a great place to learn programming for the technically inclined, marketing skills that all merchants tend to learn, branding, etc. The other point is reusable content which can include graphics, but is particularly suited to mesh and 3D. 3D skills and even the content itself is usable for generic sales (turbosquid and friends), game and film content, etc. Local advertising and television is another place to possibly explore for these. Music and DJ skills may also translate to other vehicles. Thanks to your post, I'm kind of brainstorming ways to (with the least amount of work, effort and content) find those things which can be used in the most amount of areas, in and out of SL. As much as I love SL, when it comes to financial security, I have to say that it's best to spread the investment over a wide array of venues, in order to weather the storms of SL change. Thanks for getting those juices flowing, hopes that a merchant forum can one day scratch that business itch more than providing a place to poo where we eat. Yes, Dart said poo. I've seen some people using twitter who have taken the graphic design to some other venues. I wasn't really sure what they were doing in SL - wasn't super clear on their bio, but they had SL listed. Maybe they were making textures. In the other venues they were selling graphic design. Even something as simple as learning to photograph your objects, then post and list, and manage an online store will make attempting another online venue a breeze - pretty much to the effect that you could whip up another online store overnight practically. The part that doesn't happen overnight is the marketing stream. But if you get into the practice of using a blog here, posting two or three times a week (I'm on hiatus right now for SL blog) - but to be effective that needs to happen weekly, to stay in top position on google search. That practice here is exactly the same as what one would do with another business. To get even more of an edge for both businesses - would be really cool to mesh your followings a bit. If one built a following for SL product, would be cool to tap into all that work, then transfer to sales in another venue. You would have a percentage of market already built in and ready to go - people who already know you and trust you. In that case, then certainly your time and efforts were not wasted with what you built here. That's a bit tricky, though. You've got to mesh RL with SL. Not there yet. For someone just getting started they could probably pull that off by playing it right and staying away from some bad seeds in SL. I did not play that right. Stepped through poo and stomped on it the entire duration here. Wish I could play that part over, Another aspect is the environment. I don't think I'll go into that - but it's really cool to participate in an environment a few hours a day, where you can walk in, and not have to scrape poo off your shoes.

been a while since was able to experience the excercise in futility in all it's glory. always nice to have that reminder now and then.

Interesting. Because it sounds like you don't have a clue. I did not start this thread to advertise your "rebate" which I find awkward, btw. Let me try again. (the following not addressed to Toy) There are some merchants who run the SL business to keep a roof over their head and to put food on the table. If one is in that position, then a down-time is pretty scary and threatening. Been there a few times and also messed up big time by not having back-up plan. All indication of how this entire process is being handled here....does not look all that great to me. You be the judge. On top of that...I'm watching retail sales in a few other venues....and it's not looking all that great right now. Even a back-up plan in another venue has it's issues because of the economy. Having the social networking and blogging already in place is crucial now. It gives an edge where one can manage in spite of some hurdles. It provides control, when other systems are down or just non-existent or non-functioning. Practicing it on SL and getting in the groove of it on an SL business will transfer to any other online (or even offline) business. That knowledge and routine is not a bad skill to have in a pocket. I'm technically challenged, but it seems that it has taken almost a year to implement the direct delivery system, and they've indicated that all focus is on that. To me....that's scary. Sounds like it's major complicated. If it is that complicated, to take a year to develop....to me, that implies that there could be serious complicated functioning issues along with it. Maybe that's wrong. Personally....already on the edge based on lack of tools here, and am not going to survive another major setback. Not sure about the others - just thinking out loud. I want to survive it. I love this opportunity. It's amazing when it's functioning. (and I wish someone at LL would grasp that)....Watching retail activity in other venues I just keep coming back here wishing the tools worked, because when they work - it's awesome. And it's a smart business. Those who manage well in spite of the hurdles are on to something brilliant. No packing and shipping and the product sells over and over again after creation. And there's not a ton of competition. Plus - a person gets to use their creative skills...which not every single person gets to use when they arrive at work each morning. That's where that love of what you do ranks right up there in the top 3 important things and kicks in. Rather than fold during a complicated time....I would rather just make it through somehow and keep going. I think that's possible. I don't want to see people fold like they did during that inworld search dilemma for months. That lasted months - and that was valuable message on how another dilemma will be handled. I think that if you continue to survive - - you might just come out with a great real life business, and a couple of years ago, I would recommend it to anyone who needed extra income. But it's tricky. (can't really recommend it to a new person now - too risky) I hope it gets past that risky stage. But maybe no business will be able to currently. Original post - did not really have someone in mind that was buying fancy toys with a couple hundred bucks a month - but was thinking of someone who relies on their business to be consistent for roof and food or even emotional/creative attachment/needs.

Thanks for taking the time to explain all that - it's very helpful and much appreciated!

I'm not sure why after a couple years of posting here, that you don't have a clue what I sell. Perhaps it is because I don't drop a store promotion into every single freakin' post like you do. Have a hunch that this particular thread only serves one purpose now - and that's to massage your ego and advertise your product. ummm no.....wrong, wrong, wrong.....on most of that post of yours. How many business have you owned in real life?

Well I'm not a teenager...and putting the Customer as #1 priority is not exactly a newfangled buzzword phrase. In fact...watching these tech companies operate - it's all gone out the window on that concept - except for Zappos - appears like they are grasping the old-fashioned way and doing pretty good with it. Generally - if you put the customer as #1 priority - all the rest of that stuff falls into place if you can add a good business head with it. Not discounting the importance of profit - as stated, not rich. Not sure how you come up with the concept that I can do Philanthropy in the virtual world while working 3 other jobs plus some other major stuff. Certainly never expressed that concept in any forum posts. Would be a blast though! one of these days, maybe. need a sugar daddy. You say you don't know my business. Click on the freakin' link and take a look. It's furniture and accessories. To make it look pretty - we have to set that stuff out, and add some pretty props here and there. Do you set your stuff out? Did you set out some cute halloween pumpkins and bales of hay and goblins in front of your store entrance this week? Do you do that stuff? That stuff that requires prims? Dang - the halloween cupcake tray and punch bowl serving set is going to take up about 60 prims - gonna have to remove the fish and chips van for a month. It's not even my own design - so can't sell it and make PROFIT. Ambiance! How much do you spend on ambiance? heck no, I'm not going to toss out numbers. Dang sure-fire way to lose your business. Sounds like you want to have a contest.

Amethyst Jetaime wrote: I understand wanting to do away with a bad rating for non-delivery and agree that they should be removed. But, sorry I disagree about getting rid of ratings altogether or even make them optional for the merchant. As a consumer I find them useful. I take individual ratings with a grain of salt, but trends are usually a good indication of quality. When I see a product rated highly by a number of people I feel more confident buying it and may buy something from a merchant that is new to me that I wouldn't have purchased from otherwise. Conversely when a number of people give a product a poor rating, I don't buy it because I always end up disappointed in the product myself. There have also been times when I bought an item and had a problem with it. I try to contact the creator directly when this happens, but a number of times I get no reply or the brush off. When this happens I find that a poor rating gets the creators attention and generally the problem gets resolved, and if it doesn't I have warned others. Those merchants that "don't give a toss" about ratings are merchants that don't care what their customers think and one I wouldn't want to buy from. Maybe if more creators actually took the time to read their own ratings and paid attention to what consumers are saying they'd be more successful. Hi Amethyst - interesting to hear your viewpoints on that as a shopper....pretty much what I suspected runs through a fair number of shoppers minds, and which is exactly why the review system needs to go entirely. I no longer care about the ratings. People are not taking the time to rate anymore. I don't think it's because my product sucks - because when I contact them to make sure they received it - they say they love it - (as others have stated) - but I'm not comfortable asking them to take time to go back in and rate it and I'm not comfortable offering a gift for a rating or a discount for a rating. It's not a good gauge of good product or good service. I've some sets that have sold 100s and 100s of times with no ratings. I offer a satisfaction guaranteed policy. I never had anyone ask to return those - and people always seem happy when I bump into them in the store - so there is no reliable guage there to determine whether it was good product or not - particularly if you take into consideration that 100s have sold with no ratings. I'm sure other merchants experience the same thing - watching those things sell every day and having their ego crushed without ratings! dang - what a kick in the gut. Recently caught some bogus rating practices going on - in which I cross-referenced the raters' names with each product, then checked profiles inworld. It appears quite legit on that person's page - but then saw same names on 40 other products - then different names using the same comments on different products - then profiles all looked the same, with no info and same group. Bet we could all do that all day long in the marketplace and it would be never ending process. Knowing how all that goes down with the numbers - - I don't really care what a person's rating is when I go shopping. I know it pretty much means not a darn thing - - in fact...after tracking some profiles and ratings, I'm almost inclined to think that a merchant is gaming the system if they have more than 2 or 3 good ratings...the exact opposite of what a rating score should mean. But that's what we are left with. This isn't ebay or amazon where you have people plugged into a system with real name and address and charge card on file, and where people are paying more than 25 cents for items. Not to mention the ability to create 10 more of themselves tomorrow. It doesn't work with this venue.

uh oh - capital letters! in trouble now. Your way is working for you - that's great. Not sure how you have your items set up inworld....boxed only? 1200L a month? my tier is 3 or 4k a day. We're on two different tangents here. Doubt we can compare effectively. If you don't have to set your product out - then we can't make a comparison. Even with boxed sets out only - still no comparison - your product line is much smaller. I ran business from a different philosophy. #1 is Customer not profits Most mentors I had stressed that and it just feels right. I know that many here have the same philosophy by listening to them. Add #2 Love what you do. then profits will come from that. Never got rich doing that...but it worked pretty well for a few businesses that I loved. Not so well with those that were not loved. (if we don't get some good tools - one is headed that direction) I'm not really debating anything - just expressing some points. Take it or leave it. Personally....appears you are behind the times and headed wrong direction. oh...and you will not always know if they got pissed or not - they simply won't come back. your comment: "The customer that simply went to my inworld store and bought as they always planned to buy and were not aware of the MP rebate - how could they be mad about a deal they didnt know about in the first place." gosh....that's awkward.

Marcus Hancroft wrote: Mickey Vandeverre wrote: I don't care if they do it in RL or not. I think here....that it will piss people off by offering two different prices. People pay attention to that stuff. Even if they did not pay attention....I am not comfortable with it. And again.... you are herding them to what is convenient for you. And not on what is convenient for them. If your figure is 90% (I think that mine might be 75%)... That's a very loud message on what is convenient for your customer. I should probably compute that figure better for myself, rather than eyeball it... but in my explanation to Ann... I wish that I could accomodate that 25% or 10% to a glorious inworld shopping experience with cutesy props and atmosphere. But I'm not rich enough to do that. I also wish that 50% or more would continue to shop inworld, so that I could justify the above, or that they would adjust tier fees to the economy.... But they aren't going to do that. And it ain't gonna happen. Seems that you are bucking a trend that may not reverse itself....and may turn into 95% or 100%. I have seen SO many shopping malls and stores close in my 3 years of SL. Inworld shopping is definitely suffering now because of the Marketplace. Store owners can't afford to keep paying tier fees (or rent) on a parcel (or sim) that isn't generating traffic and sales and so the store (or mall) shuts down. I MUCH prefer to shop inworld so I can see the products first hand before I buy. I might use the marketplace to find exactly what I'm looking for, but if there's an inworld store, I go there to purchase. I see nothing wrong with offering an inworld shopping rebate to customers. They can either take advantage of the offer or not as they decide and I am currently considering implementing Toy's idea myself to see if I can get more traffic into my store. I just hate to see all the inworld stores closing. I hate it, hate it, hate it. It's like a Wal-Mart Supercenter opened next to a bunch of Mom and Pop stores and took away their business. (Speaking of the Marketplace here) I know, I know...people complain...waiting for things to rez, lag, on and on. But we complain when we go shopping in RL also. No parking spaces, rude employees, on and on. And yet we still go to the grocery stores, malls and stuff to get our needs. I, too, see special offers for web only or store only sales. I guess I just need to shut up now. I'm rambling. I don't like penalizing someone on price depending upon which venue they want to shop in. That's what it boils down to, to me. No biggie. If it works for you great. The message that I get from Toy on that is that....you go out of your way to come inworld and shop to support my inworld store and I'll give you a kick-back. Plus - it sounds like he is choosing who gets a kick-back on whims - and I don't care much for that practice. I think that I noticed that back when I used to give special deals to group members - because they have supported me through the years, and want to reward that. First day an item hit the floor - group members were able to purchase it a deep discount before I ran it on marketplace. But while people were shopping in the store (not group members) - they noticed the deep discount price one day, then saw another price later in the week and asked about that. I remember having to explain that many times - and it became uncomfortable to explain. I explained that if they joined the group - then they could get the deep discounts - but then they explained to me that they were out of group slots - also explained that they only drop in once a week and cannot always get there on a one day promotion - - so I reconsidered some things. Now....anyone gets the deep discount first day. Because my marketing/promotion efforts have changed from heavy group activity to more of a social networking/blog activity....it is open to anyone now. When I set a promotional price on something....I offer it in 2 venues. They may choose. I wish there were a 3rd or 4th legitimate venue to choose from. I do not charge extra because they chose convenience and never will. eta: ooops, have to adjust that - never is not good word to use! and do in fact offer the deep discount inworld only for a few days, but once I get it up on marketplace it is at regular promotional price - that's a function of expressing importance of following blog and twitter posts and group posts. on a regular basis, day to day product offerings..... I do not want to give the impression that I prefer a shopper to shop online or inworld. Different people prefer different settings. I do not want to influence their choices on that. It is up to them which is more convenient to them. It's nice to still be able to offer both. Different strokes for different folks.

I don't care if they do it in RL or not. I think here....that it will piss people off by offering two different prices. People pay attention to that stuff. Even if they did not pay attention....I am not comfortable with it. And again.... you are herding them to what is convenient for you. And not on what is convenient for them. If your figure is 90% (I think that mine might be 75%)... That's a very loud message on what is convenient for your customer. I should probably compute that figure better for myself, rather than eyeball it... but in my explanation to Ann... I wish that I could accomodate that 25% or 10% to a glorious inworld shopping experience with cutesy props and atmosphere. But I'm not rich enough to do that. I also wish that 50% or more would continue to shop inworld, so that I could justify the above, or that they would adjust tier fees to the economy.... But they aren't going to do that. And it ain't gonna happen. Seems that you are bucking a trend that may not reverse itself....and may turn into 95% or 100%.

Yeah that, in a nutshell. Have often wanted to actually break it down by room settings, and attach a prim cost (tier cost) to each setting. per week. what it actually costs inworld to keep that set on the floor. Then compare that to marketplace 5% what it cost to offer that on marketplace. Then compare sales. Without going to all that trouble - can simply eyeball it by scanning sales per week. Don't really need to go to all that effort in computing - it's very very clear from eyeballing it. It also became very very clear when I turned in half a sim. "IF" they get marketplace functioning properly during/after change-over am probably going to turn more land in. To me (and my product)....it's a No Brainer. Yes....LOVE inworld store. LOVE inworld shopping, personally. LOVE having a massive store to play with and make cute settings with cute props. But it's not cost-effective if most prefer to shop in marketplace. Kinda reminds me of when I had a really cute high-priced retail store space downtown and everyone started shopping in the Burbs at the mall. Hated admitting that I could no longer have the cute store with atmosphere. Wasn't doable. Wasn't good business sense. Same here. But depends on whether you're here to play with a cute shop/atmosphere or whether you are here to have a real life business.

Well...I think that a lot has to do with how many prims are required to set out a display. With my items, it requires a lot of prim cost inworld to set out one boxed offering. Not because the items are prim heavy, but because I pack a ton of stuff into one box. I'm not sure how to explain this. There was a cute guy sat in front of me during my college Econ classes and did not focus well on the subject matter.... I think that it has something to do with the concept of the Law of Diminishing Returns. (or something like that) Plus - you have to consider that not everything sitting on the shop floor is going to sell this week. You are paying prim cost for something that did not sell at all, On marketplace - you paid nothing. To continue to set out each offering would be massive amounts of prim cost. On marketplace I still consider it virtually free - that 5% is very close to zero in my head. (but that's because I've been paying top dollar for brick and mortar space and functional web shopping spaces/services - that are really crunching right now due to economy) The other thing is....I consider every purchase a customer makes as a message. If 90% purchase on marketplace - I would consider that a message that is the venue in which they prefer to shop in. Say that the marketplace functions normally each day....I don't understand why one would disregard that message, and direct efforts toward changing their minds. That doesn't make sense to me. As far as marketing time/efforts....(mine are limited with 4 different type stores right now - maybe you have more time)....but it doesn't make a ton of sense to me to use that time to redirect customers you already have, who have spoken on how they prefer to shop (and in addition possibly losing some for herding like sheep).... ....would rather spend those efforts going after new customers, or spend those efforts supplying new product, new discounts, new packaging to loyal customers.... rather than "herding." They've spoken where they prefer to shop and what is convenient for them. Offering convenience is as much of a perk as a discounted price often. My prices are already discounted big time anyway when I offer something on marketplace - it's almost always a promotional item now.