New to the marketplace, where to start?

[TrixieNorton1958]

A friend suggested I should put the vintage outfits I made for myself on the marketplace, so I did. Now I have no idea what to do next! How do I advertise, how do I find a good price, etc.?

If anyone is curious about what I'm trying to do, here it is (and I do apologize if it's inappropriate to hawk our stores here; honestly, I'm just looking for feedback from other vendors to get started in the business!)

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/185367

[Pamela Galli]

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TrixieNorton1958 wrote:

A friend suggested I should put the vintage outfits I made for myself on the marketplace, so I did. Now I have no idea what to do next! How do I advertise, how do I find a good price, etc.?

 

If anyone is curious about what I'm trying to do, here it is (and I do apologize if it's inappropriate to hawk our stores here; honestly, I'm just looking for feedback from other vendors to get started in the business!)

 

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/185367

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[QuincyJohnes]

Hello,

I'd still like to answer your question and recommend a few things.

Based on your product's price-list, you're missing out on an important marketing aspect, preferred digit in the pricing are not attractive to customers, try to use something like L$ 49, 126, 239, etc - you get the drill. This is a known fact in sales, I'd go with this first. 

Secondly, descriptions of your products, you've a problem here, here's the description of your most expensive one:

"This smart outfit is just the thing for the professional office worker. Get ahead in this classic grey pinstripe skirt suit!"

This simply does not tell me what should I expect, what the purchase will be containing - which by a glance, simply comes off not trustworthy. Nowadays, a lot of vendors like to talk about their product(s) with big lines and non-stop descriptions about how their purchase policy works, at what conditions they will re-deliver an item to you, what special tools their product contains (resizers, HUD, etc) who to contact, with which avatars this will work, where to visit them in-world, etc. - not like I personally read them, but seeing these big lines of information, simply makes me trust the seller more.

Pictures, don't be lazy to take pictures - this advertises you and your creation in the first place. Vendors also nowadays like to put their promotional pictures along with every product they have, such as their logos, mottos and so on.

Since you're stepping into a big empire of clothing and aimed to a most difficult market of entire Second Life, you should address this issues on a first-hand, as you are in for a long journey, good luck. 

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

I love your swimsuit ads, Trixie. All of your photos have a retro SL feel as well as a retro 50s vibe and a sense of humour, so I think you're off to a good start. Pricing in SL is a nightmare, there is no right answer. Depends on your niche and competition and customers. Have you searched marketplace looking for similar items and what others are asking? Be sure to check their reviews too.

My gut instinct is that your pricing for the swimsuits is spot on. The skirt suits might sell better at a lower price. If I were doing this, I might keep them as they are for now, but make some more and lower the price to say L$150 and hope customers bought two. That's not a very 50's approach though, is it? :matte-motes-smile:

You're working with a strong, well defined niche. Are you using appropriate keywords like 50s, fifties, etc in your listings? That's a must so your items come up in search. My guess is that theme-specific advertising inworld will make far more sense for you than anything like marketplace enhancements. Are there any 50's related SL blogs? The Historical Hunts group has a Rte 66 event thats 50's themed (I think), but you just missed it this year. How about the sims you hang out on inworld to wear these things?

[Pixieplumb Flanagan]

As your clothing is texture based with prim attachements you should consider adding appliers for the texture elements and adding versions of the prim parts fitted to the most popular mesh bodies.  This would considerably widen your customer base with very little extra work for you.  If you do decide to go down this route it is well worth investing in a mesh body yourself to use in advertisements; your clothing will look a lot better applied to a mesh body than it does on the default sl avatar.

 

[TrixieNorton1958]

Thank you all for the brilliant suggestions!

Pixie, it took me forever to learn how to create textures and apply them to prims and system clothing (jackets, skirts, etc.) At my age, I don't think I have enough years left in me to learn how to do mesh! But I suppose I should at least give it a try.

Personally, I can't stand mesh clothes. I like being able to wear clothes on any body shape, even ones that don't fit the standard models. It seems like no matter what shape I'm wearing, the mesh outfits that most closely fit my body are either too small in one area or too large in another, leaving huge gaps between the exposed skin and the clothing texture. But if that's the way the technology is moving, I'd best surrender to the inevitable. I still reserve the right to be a cranky old lady who gets dragged into the new world kicking and screaming, though!

 

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

Appliers are basically system style clothing for mesh bodies. They are "applied" (thus the name) to the mesh body via a HUD. So you wouldn't have to learn how to build original mesh, just how to set up the HUDs for your clothing textures.

The whole clothing market keeps getting more and more fragmented. Do you have any sense of how popular mesh bodies are amongst the 50s aficionados? The retro circles I'm most familiar with aren't particularly bothered about them.

There's no way a creator can build for everyone, so create what you love and what works for you. That's what you understand best and what you'll do best. Then if you want to expand and explore, go for it.

In my opinion, of course. :matte-motes-smile: