Is it allowed to make our own server/site to make commerce sales or do we HAVE to use SLmarketplace?

[Adric Sperber]

Hi,

I am a web developer and progammer in real life. I have been recently playing around with Second life, and well I really like what I see. I see SLmarket place and I like it but as a developer myself I quite frankly I can do as good if not better. And then there's the fact the site itself would be under MY control.. not on someone else's. I can control what I will sell, what vendors I will promote, etc.

 

I don't mind using API's to work with SLmarketplace and even following thier standards but wanted to know BEFORE I started, or maybe find a better way to do this.

Thanks

 

Paul DeJager

Adric.sperber in second life

[Cinnamon Lohner]

You should probably post your question over on the Forum - General Discussion where you can have a more active conversation about your desires.  This Answers format doesn't lend itself well to that type of conversation.

Couple things you should know.  First, there are already other 3rd party sites that sell items for SL linden and for use in SL.  You probably should visit them for further reference.  Second, Linden Lab is currently in a beta program that will radically change the way Marketplace product is deliveried to customer, which many people consider as the weakess part of MP.  This involves pulling product directly from avatar's inventories instead of using an inworld server object.  Given security issues, I can't imagine that LL would be releasing an API that allows a 3rd party to access avatar inventory from outside of SL.  I could be wrong there but seems unlikely to me.

Again the General Forum is a better place for this conversation.

--Cinn

[Chic Aeon]

Aside from Cin's answer one NON technical point is that most folks simply GO to the Marketplace when looking, so sellers already have a built in customer base. Making your own system no matter how you get it to work means starting from scratch on customers. I can't see how this would pencil out without a huge amount of effort on your part .  

I have had shops inworld but now just sell on the Marketplace and do quite well with almost no effort.  There have been quite a few developers try over the years with alternatives. Only one that I know of actually did well and LL bought them out. At least that is the version of history that I remember *wink*.

[Ceera Murakami]

Can you do one? Yes, absolutely, and several people already are. However...

LL won't allow you to promote your third party commerce site in any of their official forums, nor will they sell you advertising for your business. Meanwhile, LL advertises SL Marketplace heavily to all SL Residents, from every possible angle. You're effectively trying to compete against a company with a much larger advertising budget, that can prevent you from having equal access to the potential customers.

Since LL took over XStreet-SL, which later became SL Marletplace, most of the third party e-commerce sites have died, or have been relegated to a very small niche of the market. The average resident has no way to know a third-party e-commerce site even exists, unless they hang out a lot in the third-party forums related to SL.

It's worse than trying to open a mom-and-pop general store right next to a Wal-Mart, in terms of the unfair advantage that SLM has over any other means of sales in SL.