Deja Letov

Yup and I do that now, in fact I have 2 years worth of excel shets I downloaded from transaction history. But if I want to implement a lot of their cool features, such as a customer rewards system for example, I need to do more than just track them. I need to be able to get them into some sort of system, such as Caper of BSM. Right now, they allow import of Marketplace sales items it looks like but not in world sales. I just can't imagine I am the first person who has needed to import sales data into a system that didn't come from a vendor script.

I own a couple of the popular sales systems but I've never implemented them due to the fact that I really don't sell via a "poster" or "Vendor". As a furniture maker, most of my sales happen from the items on display. Yes I have some vendors, with my "packaged" suites, but I get lots of individual items sales. I also have an outdoor area where people can buy fountains, cemetery items, etc. I'm not about to have boxes laying around in a cemetery to buy from. Part of why people shop with me I imagine is because they can envision what it will look like on their own sim and vendors would junk it up. Anyway, these sales systems have the abilty to import Marketplace data and to use vendor scripts to track sales instantly via vendors. But is there really no way to track regular old in world "buy" rom a right click? I've asked if importing transaction history was an option and have met road blocks from everyone I've asked. Honestly, I find this odd because even people who use a ton of vendors in their place of business, they still have actual products set out for sale so are people just not tracking these sales? Has anyone found a system that would let you track sales without using vendors and just using your SL transaction history files?

Josh Susanto wrote: >Well that is you assuming that a developer didn't tell them. I can't tell you how many times I've told my boss "we really shouldn't do that it's to intense on our servers" or "let's do that next year instead of right now" only to be told "thanks for your input, do it anyway". I haven't had what I would consider to be a programming job, but I think I understand the dynamic from working in the medical and insurance industries. For example... I worked for a guy I was warned was the world's angriest insurance agent. After long discussions with various people authorized to discuss it with me, we determined that what I needed to do for a specific client was to cancel the auto insurance policy and issue a new one. The boss exploded and threw some stuff around and slammed his fist on the desk. So I told him that I would follow his instruction not to cancel and reissue, but that I would leave a notes in the system indicating I did not agree with his decision. And I put a note to myself in the file indicating that if he later got upset that I had not canceled and reissued, I was to give 2 weeks notice, whether I had anything else lined up or not. So when I arrived at work months later and he threw a wad of paper at me as I came through the door, I thought it could be about this thing, one of dozen comparably f'dup things, or just that his wife and kids weren't answering phones to be yelled at. He was upset that I had not canceled and reissued. So I was able to work around his fist shaking and whatnot to get to the file. When I finally let me open it, I pulled out the notes, laid everything on top of the file cabinet for him and, as he stopped cold, dumbfounded, I went to my desk and printed my 2-week notice as I had planned to do months before. After 2 weeks, I still hadn't found another job, but I walked and I didn't look back. And as hard as things were after that, I know that I absolutely did the right thing. I don't think leaving a job simply because you disagree with a decision your boss made is a very smart thing to do. I don't know your family situation but if you were me...with 3 kids, 2 dogs, a husband and yourself to take care of, with a nice fat mortage to pay, car payments, food to put on the table, etc. That would be HIGHLY irresponsible of me to do. I disagree with my bosses on many decisisions, but the thing is...I don't run the company. They pay me to do what I'm great at not to make executive decisions for them. Oh sure, I get resentful at times and think they hadn't thought some things through, but I'd never put my family's needs in jeapardy because of that.

Saucey Sinister wrote: Hello all! I'm looking for opinions from the rest of you experienced folks!! I am very busy in rl and I tend to keep to myself in Sl so I sometimes lose out on what is really going on in SL. That being said, I'm curious as to what everyone thinks about the mass production of sales groups and hunts in SL. I find that doing hunts, as a merchant, is just not the same as it used to be. I do believe there's a decent amount of customers to be gained, but it really does seem like with the mass production of hunts that the novelty isn't a rare thing anymore but something you must do to get people into your store because everyone is focusing on these promotions. I do feel that most who are just after freebies aren't going to be paying customers anyway, but what about those sales groups? Am I the only one worried that there are numerous days of the week and weekend 50L-ish type groups? Sure, it was a great promotion at first, but now people are coming into Sl feeling that things should cost about 50L-100L a piece. That's great for someone without income in SL, but 543L is only $2.50 US. I'm curious if anyone realizes how much this drags down the ability to pay rent. I'm lucky that my sales do cover my 1/4 sim, but that costs $80 a month... and a lot of dresses if I were to be stuck competing at 100L an outfit. I feel that my prices are fair, but my worry is that what was once a great marketing idea has actually driven down our sales without changing the value of the Linden. I worry about what this will do to the entire market. Thoughts, anyone? There are always going to be lots of hunters who are there simply for the freebie item, however, I have had a lot of luck getting people to spend. I think the key is to have things out that people will buy. I usually hide my hunt items by items that typically sell the best. I see it in my transaction history all the time where someone bought the hunt item for 0L and the very next transaction could be the item it was hidden by and they bought it. One hunt I am in right now I see it a lot because it's a darker themed hunt and I hid the item next to a couples coffin. So all these people who RP as vampires elsewhere and are on the hunt find the item and then catch a glimpse of an item that would fit their needs. It's really all about placement to get them to turn into shoppers there on the spot. Now, getting them back...for that you need to get them on your subscription list which is a whole other obstacle. And I don't think the group sales drag anything down. Honestly, because of those groups my sales have gone up, Not just a little...but A LOT. I don't think I sell anything in my store that costs 50L, or 60L. I think my cheapest item might be 75 or 100L and that's probably a little table statue or accessory or something. Most who shop in my store leave having spent around 2000-5000l. So, I don't see any damage done due to those.

Josh Susanto wrote: So it's not the executive's fault for not wanting to know if something is impossible, and it's not the developer's fault for not taking the responsibility to tell him? Wow, I guess nothing is anybody's fault. Next time someone just straight-up reaches into my pocket and takes my wallet, I'll try to remember that. Well that is you assuming that a developer didn't tell them. I can't tell you how many times I've told my boss "we really shouldn't do that it's to intense on our servers" or "let's do that next year instead of right now" only to be told "thanks for your input, do it anyway".

Darrius Gothly wrote: Sera Lok wrote: Ela Talaj wrote: In fact I more and more lean to an opinion that the commerce team does not have adequate testing facilities and is forced to release without much QA at all. This, yes, definitely And I'd like to add .. they seem to be "forced" to include features, exclude features and overall target the product/software they release in ways that fly in the face of all logic. It's almost as if someone higher up the food chain is looking at their spec or possibly just getting an oral explanation of how they intend it to work .. and then for some reason I cannot fathom erects roadblocks and insists on changes that literally hobble the product's behavior. I don't know how much autonomy the Commerce Dev Team truly has, but there have been times when it truly feels like Josh's mythical "Malefactor Linden" is in reality "Manager Malefactor Linden". This is actually REALLY common in the technology industry. You get the exec's up higher wanting you to do something that you as a developer KNOW shouldn't be done, but you are forced to do it anyway. I deal with that almost daily at my job. But...I've also made sure not to release it until it's been tested...and tested...and...oh ya...tested.

Darrius Gothly wrote: To summarize, I think the answer to improving in-world traffic and participation is to more tightly connect MP with in-world stores. As it stands now they almost operate as friendly competitors. (And not competitors in the positive sense.) I believe the synergy that could come from tying them together, each one exploiting its own particular advantages and handing off to the other on those things it doesn't do as well ... I think that would turn into a wonderfully powerful and beneficial partnership. Darrius, that is fantastic insight and I agree. I would love to see what people can do to integrate the MP and inworld better. Like I said, I'm not opposed to using the Marketplace, I'd just like to see it be secondary to in world not just from a profit standpoint but from a life of second life point. If you get that working...I wanna come see!

Sera Lok wrote: Deja Letov wrote: By the way if anyone wants to read the long boring blog post I made about this originally, send me an IM in world and Ill send you the link, I don't want anyone thinking I'm spamming my blog. It's just a bit more indepth on why i feel that way I do. If it's related to this discussion I don't see why you shouldn't post the direct link to that post here, but I understand your concern.. I'd love to read it. (as time permits, sadly there is not enough time to read everything i want to today, there is RL too!) Well, it's a little more than only not wanting to spam. It's not a main stream blog, in fact I'm pretty sure that the only people that read it are me and my two dogs. So I'm a little shy to post it...er scared...some of you guys scare me. LOL But ok, this is a direct link to my rant. http://www.slbusinesstrends.com/sl/index.php/its-in-our-power-to-change-our-second-life/

Ela Talaj wrote: Hmm... I guess it is possible that you're a better developer than I am because I've never participated in or was a lead on a project that would not bring a mile-long CSR's list from QA. Yet whatever your qualifications are, you cannot really say that the commerce team "put out code that [is] THIS bad" because you haven't seen their code and neither have I. In fact I more and more lean to an opinion that the commerce team does not have adequate testing facilities and is forced to release without much QA at all. Absolutely! And you should get a list of issues to fix if things are working in the QA department. That's the whole point, it would never even get past QA to release it in this state. So maybe Ill take that back...I wouldn't get fired, my QA team would for deeming it worthy. And no I haven't seen their code, I don't need to, I can see the result of their code. I can see that they had issues with load balancing straight out the door without seeing their code, I can also see they had database issues when merchants listings got crossed with eachother. There are many other issues I can "see" in their code without actually having to see their code. I've been a developer for close to 20 years, I know the industry very well and I know about bad code. Trust me, you don't have to see the actual code to know it's bad...or at the very least not tested. And there is absolutely no reason a technology based company of this size doesn't have at least 2...maybe even a whopping ONE person to QA for them. Hell if any of them are watching this thread, I would be happy to throw a QA process sheet your way guys!

By the way if anyone wants to read the long boring blog post I made about this originally, send me an IM in world and Ill send you the link, I don't want anyone thinking I'm spamming my blog. It's just a bit more indepth on why i feel that way I do.

Ela Talaj wrote: This really requires a long article but I have neither time nor strength to write one so I'll just list points without much elaboration; who knows, maybe someone would expand on it. 1. SL products regardless how they are bought are utterly worthless unless used in-world. They cannot be used anywhere else. So if ppl buy them it means these products enrich their SL experiences. I somewhat doubt that these experiences consist mainly of in-world shopping. One does not need to buy in one store in order to go to another store to buy more. For as long as the above is true no Marketplace is going to kill SL or even diminish it. >>>This point I have to disagree on. Part of the attraction of SL is hopping around and visiting all t he different places of the world, or at least it used to. It's not only about shopping, it's also about the life of Second Life and keeping it entertaining so people stick around. To say that it hasn't even diminished it, I think is quite a bit off base, I see it already has, from a merchant's standpoint. 2. People vote with their feet (or in our case mouseclicks). The Marketplace gained popularity because shopping there is uncomparably more convenient than shopping in-world. To mention just one thing, people can shop while not having in-world access <from work? > and then use their in-world time for other activities, those they came to SL for in the first place. >>>>Absolutely agree! People do find it convenient but it's killing business for a lot of merchants as well. Do shoppers care about that? Maybe not. I do. I don't want to see yet another business closure in world, because they couldn't pay their tier, and why should they when they can just have an online store. One less sim as a shop means one less place to explore. They will continue to vote with their feet, but there is nothing say we can't try to get those feet moving in our direction. 3. Merchants feel bad about the Marketplace because they have no control over it - everything is done by the Lab. It is however true in-world as well. The latest example would be an ill-conceived attempt (fortunately appearing aborted) to modify LSL in a way that would basically render useless all in-world "user on-line" indicators. Yet in-world there is an appearance that users have free will outside the Lab control. >>>>I don't think Merchants feel bad because they have no control over the Marketplace. I don't. I have feel bad because it's broken, i feel bad because they don't deliver products to everyone consistently, because people make sales and get told plain as day they aren't going to ever see that money and because I keep being told to wait and it will be back online shortly . What people are saying is that they do in fact have free will outside lab control with an in world store in the way of profits. They aren't skimming off the top of our sales in world. Online indicators, sure it would suck but it's not really a merchant comparison and doesn't affect our sales. 4. The Marketplace problem is not so much in poor software but in the commerce team's failure to create the same appearance of free will that exists in-world. <<<<Well, I do agree with you to a point. They definitely do not create the same sense of free will that exists in world. Because they charge a fee, that right there takes that away. However...the first part of your statement saying that the problem with the marketplace is not so much poor software...sorry...no...it's poor software...poor coding...poor QA...poor implementation....poor handling altogether. I'm a developer in real life and had I ever put out code that was THIS bad, I would have been fired.

Medhue Simoni wrote: Now, I would agree that the loss of inworld shopping is a major issue. The problem is, we have little control over this as most traffic is going to be pushed around by the inworld search engine or the Destination Guide. What we can do is make a conscious effort to make our inworlds stores not just a place to shop at, but also to play and meet people. ^^^^^^^^^ THIS Oh and Medhue, I love the idea of an affiliate program. Do you personally think it can benefit any type of business or is there a specific industry or type it would fit better? I wonder for a furniture maker like myself how good it would do.

nikita Jefferson wrote: i put all my time into my inworld shop, yes i am on MP but i don't get much from it,i refuse to pay enhancements, the times i did, it did'nt help me one bit., 95% of my income comes from inworld sales. But in the end we are all to blame,as long as we all list on MP it will take away inworld shoppers so we have no one but ourselves to blame. Nikita...I think I love you! Your post is exactly what I'm trying to say. And wow 95% of your income is in world. Will you have my baby?

Czari Zenovka wrote: Dora Gustafson wrote: A agree a 100 percent and I never disagreed, let us bring back the trade inworld. I never understood why anyone would buy an animation, a skin or a house without seeing it or testing it first, like we do inworld What I have found interesting is a sale I will get on the MP and the customer shows up on my shop visitor's list so they apparently came into the shop to check out the item, but then purchased it on the MP. I know the MP is convenient for many people to shop when they can't be in-world, or if they are lagging, etc., but I wonder what the psychology is of coming to the store, then purchasing on the MP. The only thing I can think of is they want to see it (agree totally with you, Dora) and maybe think about it before purchase. I've asked this question of my customers and it's ironic but I was told by a few that they thought as merchants we would prefer it. They were being nice and said they knew the search on the marketplace was ranked by sales and said they were trying to help.

Czari Zenovka wrote: Dartagan Shepherd wrote: The best strategy for being a merchant in SL is something I posted way back in on SLX roughly 4 years ago. Supplement your income with other things and don't ever neglect your RL, your contacts, your family and friends and don't burn any bridges. Even WoW will tell you not to neglect your first life (although their disclaimer relates to their responsibility with minors) in their tips of the day at the login screen (although this applies in SL to not only life but personal income). I couldn't agree more re: RL. I just began playing WoW for the first time in December (I was a diehard EQ gamer...lol) and the first time I saw that statement by WoW on login I was like...that is amazing and wonderful!!!! I remember when I saw that on my loading screen for wow...I thought, mhhh they actually want me to stop playing for a bit. LOL In reality, I have a very healthy real life. I don't get on SL as much as I would like simply because of my RL. I'm a mom and a wife plus have a very stressful job as senior developer for my company, which is funny because my background is actually in marketing (go figure). I've also got 2 dogs that demand my every waking moment Real life is way more important than SL...SL is just my creative outlet.

Sera Lok wrote: Deja Letov wrote: On top of increased inworld sales on my customers end and decreated Marketplace sales on my end, I have met some really awesome people! I have had more of my customers add me to their friends list in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last year. And more and more people are coming back. It's funny because I put the invite out there to stop by just to say hi, and THEY DO. I have people who have just come back to my store to hang out and chat with me. Great post! I just picked out this little tidbit to say, this is especially great adding my own thoughts: I think people like hunts so much because they find new places that they wouldn't have otherwise, and it is a totally inworld experience. Even if you don't make any sales from most hunters, what matters is that they had the experience of being in your store to see if they liked the feel of it, and often people do pop onto the mailing list because they like the first few things they see, or remember your store when someone they know says, "oh i need such and such, where should i go?" It seems that what you are really getting at is: Merchants need to work harder on promoting and maintaining their inworld presences. I agree! Marketplace has always been a secondary thing for me and more of an advertisement for my inworld store. But you cannot deny that the more people buy things from Marketplace, the better visibility you have there, which in turn increases the chances of people coming to your inworld store. I do like the idea of using marketplace for demos and encouraging people to come inworld to get the real thing. Of course you have to make sure your store is organized well and your SLURL leads directly to the product being offered. I think it's very hard to organize a store, especially if you have a lot of items, and so that's why people tend to do a lot of shopping/viewing on the Marketplace. It's faster, easier, and images take so much less time to load (that's a big one for me). All the information is right there. So, maybe we could also take a few cues from marketplace and make sure our product displays are as clear as possible inworld with perms/prices etc very obvious for the customer to see. I know a lot of merchants already strive for this, but we have all been to stores where things just aren't very clear and you have to do some digging just to find out if something is modifiable, or what not. Really enjoying all the comments and viewpoints here, thanks so much for starting this thread and word vomiting on us! I love this Sera! I'd love to see maybe some suggestions that everyone could contribute to that would make our in world stores better and easier to use for our customers. Perhaps some die hard shoppers could even chime in. I wrote a post about this a long time ago I may have to dig it up that had some of my own suggestions, I will see if I can find it and repost it here.

Mikki Miles wrote: I'd wish that vendor companys offered a function to give increasing discount for returning customers, the more they buy, the better the discount... Actually they do. I wanna say it's the Casper system. If I remember right you can set tier levels for discounts. So if a customer is new they can get like 10% off. If they have spent between 3000-5000L then maybe they get 20%, if they spend over 5000L then maybe 30%. I'm pretty sure it's casper that does this.

Sweet Valentine wrote: I do love the idea of this back to shopping in World but with broken search and broken classifieds... it makes it difficult and the increased use of scripts to make popup notes and announcements and group join and the lag makes it just an annoying experience most times for me I agree. Perhaps we as merchants should should start paying attention to more comments like this and take them out. I'm definitely guilty of a LM given out but only the first time you visit my place. But I think I may remove it completely and just put a LM giver box on a table at my entrance.

Parrish Ashbourne wrote: I worked really hard to get good inworld search placement, but still 80% of my sales come from the marketplace. One idea I had that I haven't tried yet is to just sell all demos on the market place and only sell the the full version in world. The other advantage I find from inworld sales is that customers tend to buy a larger number of items at one time in world at my shop. The market place doses have a few features I really do like such as extended product descriptions and images. Ideally I'd like to see the market place be used just for search and then just teleport to an inworld item, or have this as an option. Parrish...I'm thinking of adding to my product descriptions something along the lines of: Earn store credit when you buy this item in world at our store: (LM directly to item). That is of course once I get my rewards system in place.

Morgaine Christensen wrote: Nice post! Very well thought out. Sounds like you have a good strategy for your needs. Unfortunately, I don't believe it is one that will meet my needs at this point in time. I may relook at this in the future, but for now, I will need to continue to sell on MP. I recently re-opened an In-World store in January (had several others over the last 4 years) and since opening again, I have sold exactly 1 item In-World. When matching visitor logs In-World to sales on MP, most who visit In-world seem to purchase from me off MP. I firmly believe they purchase via MP because if a product sucks, they can rate it and sort of have recourse via public opinion. Not something you can do In-World. Also, we all know "search" is accurate and works well In-World. I am a small Mom & Pop operation, I cannot compete with those merchants that have a healthy advertising budget or traffic bots their venues to have a better position in search. At least on MP, the search is a bit more accurate and I can compete a bit better. I am not out to make a million, but breaking even once in a while really would be nice. I don't know about others, but MP is just too damn convenient for me. I can browse it while not being In-World and purchase what I need so when I am In-World, I don't have to waste my limited time searching for stuff, which I may not find anyway due to search being borked. And, there is NO LAG on MP compared to In-World shopping! I don't have bots in my face wanting me to change my windlight settings, join such and such a group, post my pic etc. Doesn't take forever to rezz the items. I don't have to fight with the MM, Lucky Chair, Freebies only crowd. I can be in my sim and be creative, relax, and enjoy my SL more. So for now, I will have to continue to use MP as my PRIMARY sales method since it does work for me. I wouldn't recommend to anyone to quit doing what works for them. Not at all. But let me be clear about something because I see it mentioned here and a few posts down...yes I know the in world search is terrible. It's hard to find anything useful there. But here's the thing...not once did I mention going to in world and using the search for marketing. I know it sucks...it's God awful! This whole idea I am talking about is about marketing, not relying on a search and frankly the search isn't marketing at all...it's way to random and not measureable. You said you sold 1 single item in world when you opened back up. The question to ask is why? I would put money on it that it isn't only because you didn't come up high in search or because your competitors are paying for ads or traffic to get high in search. It's because you probably didn't do anything to market your business...aside from hoping to get found in a search. That's only ONE way you should be getting people to your store. If that's all you are relying on, then you've missed out on what it means to market in world.

Wow so they actually monitored people on it? Ok, I'm going to try and research this for sure and I will post what I find out. And by the way, I don't want anyone to think I'm hating on the Marketplace. I think the Marketplace is important and it has a place in every SL business, you'd be stupid not to use it. All I'm really after here is to make the inworld part of our business stronger because if that gets stronger than the community as a whole INSIDE second life will be better for it!

Brummund Thorkveld wrote: I am mostly a shopper, and have to say I agree. I do use MP as the quickest way to find items, but will more often than not look for an in-world store. I do have a hard time understanding why so few merchants add the fees onto the MP price, or is that something already experimented with? Getting around those fees is a great motivator for me, and it feels like a reward for shopping inworld. In the past, I have also turned up inworld to check out an item and seen so much more, or just enjoyed the ambience so much that I go on a spree, something much rarer just looking at a page of listings. I think the reason you don't see merchants adding fees to the listings is because of their policy on listing. From their policy page where it lists things NOT to do it states "inflating prices on the SL Marketplace, in comparison to in-world or other e-commerce sites," My take on this is that you can't offer the same item on the Marketplace as you do in world but offer it cheaper in world. Does anyone know for sure if this is allowed? I would love to promote that my prices are 5% cheaper in world due to no Marketplace fees. In fact Id list that right in my product listings if that's the case. Anyone definite on that policy?

And by the way if anyone really wants to see how my expenses have changed, in the last 10 days, I've spent 12,936L on creator type things like texture, sculpts, animations IN WORLD and only 659L on the Marketplace and the 659L was only because they didn't have it in world for me to buy. If we as shoppers start supporting merchants in this way and buying in world, it will really help those of us who are trying to make the switch back to inworld a little easier. Why does it matter if you buy it in world? Think of the last time you ran to Walmart to grab a gallon of milk? Did you REALLY just leave with a gallon of milk? lol Come on admit it! The last time I went to Walmart was last night. My husband and I wanted to grab a BluRay of a new release movie. Had I just got that I would have saved myself $189 on the rest of the stuff I had no intentions of getting but did because it was there and in my face! It's the same thing here. You may go to my store looking for a bed...but when you see it on display along side a rug, a side table, matching curtains and a loveseat...you might buy it all. In the Marketplace, that isn't quite as easily accomplished. I don't know about you...but I rarely look at related products. And you can't see related products in browse view when you are searching, only when you are looking at an individual product. You are missing out on other products that might appeal to you as a shopper and missing out on possible sales as a merchant.

>>>>And if Marketplace continues to be the mess it currently is, at least I am not losing out on things being delivered without getting paid for it. This is exactly what I'm thinking. The Marketplace sucks right now, right? You've got tons of people complaining about it, some saying to migrate back to magic boxes, etc. Why bother? Stop fudging (edited for my sailor mouth) with it and making it all so important and move it back to inworld. I bet 99.9% of the time if you are selling in world with a "buy now" box set for sale, you will get paid!

Well let me give you some of the things I've started doing: 1. I've redesigned my sim to make it more than just another stop. It's a fun place to hang out, we even have a teacup carousel ride, a fishing area and am installing a combat arena this week in fact. My main goal is things that could generate traffic. Not for the sake of a traffic number but ACTUAL people who would normally shop for my products. 2. If you came to my sim, you would see it has a very dark gothic feel to it. A lot of my customers are people RPing as vampires, werewolves, dom and sub, etc. So one of the other things I'm doing, is contacting RP sims to see if I can sponsor them with more than just another booth in their market area. I haven't had success with this yet, I just sent out inquiries this week, so I will update on this later. 3. I hired a "shop assistant". She is awesome and is available during times I'm not. She also took over the creation of my vendor posters which frees up my time, But if a customer has an issue with something and see I'mnot online, they can contact her. This is just a customer service on my end that I think would be helpful. 4. When I get a Marketplace sale, I now contact every person. No, I DO NOT put them on a list, I don't believe in that practice, but in the notecard I introduce myself and thank them for their purchase. I include a LM to my store plus invite them to come by sometime toon and see what we have. I am also sure to mention that we have sales and other events happening on the sim that as a Marketplace shopper, they aren't aware of, but if they touch a kiosk in my store they can be added to my update listed to receive notices when I send them out. This saves them money and who doesn't like to save money? I also make sure to mention to them that if they had any delivery issues to please contact me directly. 5. I am working on a custom script of my own to handle a rewards system. I was going to use one of the popular ones available in the Marketplace, and I still may if this scripting gets under my skin. But I need a system that will track both Marketplace and Inworld sales but only reward the sales based on inworld sales. And I'd like it to also have an option of "you've spent 000L on the Marketplace, if you would have bought that in world, you would have 00L more store credit!" That sort of th ing. This is in the works and I hope to have it done in the next few weeks. I think this will be a HUGE marketing advantage for me to get out of Marketplace sales so much. 6. I hang out in my store A LOT more. Sometimes I'm riding my teacups, sometimes I'm just hanging out on a couch and sometimes I'm lying dead in a grave. Either way, I'm there and my customers happen upon me all the time and almost always say hi to me. If they don't, then I say hi to them. Either way, I talk to them as much as I can and talk about new products. 7. I'm being a bit more selective on the hunts I participate in. I used to sign up for everything and ended up just giving away the farm but now I stick to themes that will bring people who would actually buy my products. I once did one last year that was some garden type hunt and was all bright and cheery. I can't imagine anyone bought anything from that. But doing other hunts that are more themed to my product line is a lot more fun and a lot more successful. 8. I joined in on the Colab kit projects. I am a firm believer to join in on shopper programs where people spend money. I've done 60L weekends almost every single weekend since forever ago and I love it. Not only do I get sales but many of them sign up at my kiosk when they come. The CoLab group is similiar except it's new creations based on a theme but it's still a group of shoppers that go around and buy things up at a discount but then they can always come back for more later...and I've compared to my shoppers and those who came to my from colab and many have bought beyond the Colab. This has mainly been useful for my gothic texture shop of course, but I just started on it for main gothic furniture shop last week so I will let you know how it goes. 9. My assistant and I are working to complete an instore HUD based catalog of all of my products. This is quite the project but in the end you will be able to pick up a catalog, wear it and flip through pages to find products you like. Once you find one you like, voila you TP directly to that item. It's coming along and should be done by end of spring. 10. We also have a quarterly newsletter we are working on that we will use to show off some of our new products, customer submitted pictures, customer highlights, hunts, etc. Thsi will be a hud based newsletter as well. As you can see, some of it is still a work in progress, this is all new for me since I've always just let the Marketplace do my selling but I am really hoping some of this will start to turn things around.