Do I need to buy a land if I want to open in-world shop?

[Beatricesss]

I am a super noob here. Do I need to buy a land if I want to open in-world shop? I just want a shop that I can just put my products there just a small one will do. and how much does it cost?

[Pamela Galli]

You must, and land costs various prices, as in real life.

[Beatricesss]

Any tip on finding some cheap devoloped land?

[Sassy Romano]

Well.. you don't have to buy if you can find someone to let you start for free. Someone was kind enough to do that for me when I started.

 

You don't need to start off in a grand way, product quality surpasses the need for a fancy store (in my view) and renting a mall spot is still an inworld presence, there's no need to over spend in the early days.

 

I started with L$1000, of which half was spent on textures and a script, the rest was mall rent for two weeks (after the initial free bit before I had really got going).

[Beatricesss]

I don't know anyone lol. Other questions tho...do I really need an in-world store? Can I just sell them on the website market place without this in-world store?

[Sassy Romano]

Yes, you can sell on marketplace only.

 

As for not knowing anyone, you just go and ask. Many people are approachable if you ask appropriately, see what people can offer, the worst answer you can get is "no", which is no worse that before you ask.

[Pamela Galli]

And everyone just got a prim bonus so right now a lot of people have extra unused prims.  

 

[ChinRey]

You don't have to buy land for an in-world store, there are lots of places where you can rent a store.

Whether you need one is hard to say. It depends on how ambitious you are and what you are selling. It's almost impossible for a new name to market anything on MP, you just drown in the masses of listings there. You can sell though MP but mostly to people who are looking specifically for your products. An inworld store in a reasonably visible location will be seen by people and some of them may be curious enough to check out what you have to offer. Not the most effective marketing channel but still far better than anything you can do thrugh MP.

If you sell mesh objects (not clothing), you really need a place where people can see what you have. There's so much garbage mesh on MP these days and lots of people are very reluctant to buy unseen from an unfamiliar seller.

And of course, if you want to sell in volumes, you want a redelivery terminal and special offers for your group. You'll need an inworld base for that.

[Chic Aeon]

Here is my opinion which sort of bridges the gap between others given.

 

No need to buy. RENT.  Look for a nice place with reasonable rent (no more than $2 a prim) and the number of prims you need (so 50 or 100 maybe to start?). 

 

It is true that you can easily get lost on the Marketplace unless you are making things other folks are not. So if you are texturing a mesh skirt template say with a plain fabric it will be difficult to sell anything -- that is just how it is.  The advantages of having an inworld store are :

You look more credible as the folks selling stolen stuff almost never have an inworld prescence.

You can form a group and get people to join by giving away gifts.

You can join in hunts.

You can join in SALES VENUES.

You can list your inworld store in search.

 

All these things are optional and different folks will want to do different marketing things. 

 

I do agree that it is good to have mesh or sculpt items out for viewing as pictures do not tell the story.   If you can find a small spot in a longstanding commerical area that is great. You can also rent land (about a dollar a prim) and make your own sales area. Most of the pluses are still there. You won't get wandering traffic but there isn't near as much of that as there was in years past.

 

Most of all, make your decisions based on what YOU WIILL ENJOY. It is fun to have a little shop to putter around in and decorate and feel "store owner" in. You don't get that on the Marketplace.

 

 

[Nalates Urriah]

I'm with ChinRey. You DO NOT have to buy land. For my first couple of years in SL with a free account I rented shops. So, rent. You may find a few places for free, but they probably don't have the traffic you want.

The trick to an in-world shop is having it in a place where people come. Dance Island is one of those places. People come to dance and the landing point is on the other side of the region. You have to walk through the shops to go dance.

Numerious role play regions do the same thing. The landing point is located so you have to walk through the shops to get to the roleplay area.

These are good places to have a shop because people see it. 

Also, have a marketplace shop that links to your in-world store. People often want to see things in world. But, they search on the marketplace as it is easier to narrow in on what they want.

[Beatricesss]

Thank you for all comments and suggestion much appriciated. I will try the marketplace first as I don't have a lot of funds to begin with.

 

[Arabelaska]

Does anyone know a land to rent with high traffic but not lag(much) ? My friends and I are considering to rent HS to regroup and bring our store back. Anyway, we don't think we can get traffic with new HS.  If anyone knows, please let me know. Thank you.