I have not yet made my mind up on the upcoming XStreet SL changes. I see where Linden Lab comes from with the announced changes, and I think this is not all bad. I also see where Linden Lab goes to with these changes, and I am not sure whether I like it. I heard many good arguments against the canges from residents and merchants. And I heard many good arguments for the changes, also from residents and merchants. What I am sure of is that the changes were certainly not a majority-wish, as the Lab wants us to believe. At least not a majority in the sense of the majority of people. Maybe a majority wish in terms of amounts sold...
In the process of making up my mind whether I am for or against the changes, I looked at my own XStreet SL listings. This has, in fact, been overdue, so that is a good thing that I now got forced to do it.
Regular Merchandise
The good news is - all of my items sell. Even the most expensive one - Plywood Man - sold 12 times this year, giving me 1508 L$ of revenue. Instead of the 5 L$ commission, there will be another 120 L$ per year to keep this item listed. However if I only sell 2 in the next year, I already make a small profit. Two other items, my Celtic Cross and my Dasher, are also in the "green zone" and will continue to generate a profit, even with the new charges. However the Lab will get 786 L$ share of those items (same amount of sales anticipated), instead of 182 L$ prior to the changes - so 604 L$ more for the Lab.
It gets critical with my 2-prim-couch. This items is based on a 5-prim freebie, which I trimmed down to look exactly the same but save 3 prims to clever prim parameter and texture repeat selection. I set that item at the more nominal price of 5 L$ and since I listed it back in the day 183 people thought these are 5 L$ well spent because it saved them 3 prims. Up to now, Linden Lab got no share of the sales of this couch. In the future they want 3 L$ for each sale and 10 L$ each month, so I need to sell 60 copies in order to break even. Unfortunately it only sold 53 times last year, and since it is not really stylish anymore, I will most likely delist it.
Promotional Items
The next two items are listed for 0 L$ - freebies. Those two items are actually a good example for promotional items as Linden Lab states. I do not give them away for free because I am such a nice person. I give them away for free to raise awareness of my in-world business and find new clients. Up to now, Linden Lab gave me free advertising - now they want me to pay for it. Of course I would have preferred to still have it for free, and I do not really buy the explanation that the running costs are so high. However 1188 L$ per year is easily affordable for my business.
There are two problems however:
- Freebie listings will not be searchable anymore and can not be put into suitable categories anymore - they go into a special freebie category. This makes it basically unusable for me. Potential clients find my Language Kiosk in the "Business -> Signs" subcategory. They will certainly not look in a freebie category. And those who will look in a freebie category, are usually not the ones requesting my services. If it is a promotional tool, and if I have to pay 1188 L$ per year to keep it listed, then don't give me a worse service than before!
- Even without the first item, I would not keep TWO items listed. Both have basically the same aim and effect, so I would only keep one of those. Sorry, LL, not 2 x 1188 L$ for you.
General Considerations
I mentioned in the beginning that I understand where Linden Lab comes from. XStreet SL is like the Wayback Machine for Second Life. There are thousands upon thousands of obscure items. Admittedly there are thousand upon thousand of outdated items like pre-sculpty-age shoes. The fact that listing items without cost was a blessing and a curse. There is a lot of - well - trash on Xstreet. There are countless grossly overpriced items. But also countless very good items, items from philantropes who give them away for free as community service, as well as items from content creators that never bothered with shops and just developed for fun. Many of those merchants have panicked in the meantime and pulled their stuff. Which is an immense loss - even from a istorical point of view.
A second consideration is that Second Life does not have an effective object search! The closest that comes to an object search in SL is in fact XStreet SL, exactly because of what I said in the last passage. To be honest, searching in XStreet is a pain, but at least you can do it.
How would I have done it?
Accepting the assumption that XStreet SL needed changes at all, there still would be things I had made better:
- Linden Lab claims that the changes were wanted by the majority of users. There are reports that this is somewhat of a euphemism. Fact is that those changes affect definitely way more merchants than got involved in the process. The proper way would have been to send a survey to all merchants on XStreet SL, and a second survey to all people who made at least one purchase in - say - the last 3 months on XStreet. This would be in my opinion the only way to get qualified feedback.
- One approach would have been to automatically disable items that have not sold in a certain amount of time (6 or maybe even 12 months). That way, the "clutter" (as LL calls it) would be gradually removed. Merchants could manually reenable those listings - and maybe this would be a place where a monthly fee would apply.
- A better distinction between promotional-freebies and philanthropic-freebies could be found. Someone whose whole XStreet inventory consists of 0 L$ items is certainly not promoting his regular merchandise with them. Someone who has 50 hairstyles on sale, and 50 associated demos is clearly promoting them, but is probably not in a position to pay 4950 L$ for all of them. Why not extend the functionality of XStreet with a "deliver demo" option? Maybe as charged-for option?
From my point of view it is not the end of the world as we know it. I can subscribe to some of the motivation behind it, but I think there would both have been better ways to get a true majority vote, as well as better ways to implement some changes.
I will not pull my items from XStreet SL, as it is still the major web platform. I will adjust my inventory to minimize cost and maximize effect - something every sensible merchant should do. Linden Lab will get more money from me - no way around that - but less than they probably thought they'd get.
I definitely got the motivation to seriously consider alternatives - but not to abandon XStreet SL. The alternatives will be used to widen my exposure and give additional revenue.
What is your take on the changes?
10 comments:
A way to keep your on XStreet for free and searchable would be a "mail-in rebate." Sell the kiosk for L$10 and offer the buyer a one-time rebate of the full purchase price if they contact you (in-word, e-mail, etc) with the transaction log.
For my business, though, there might be one item that I could keep listed and append "come to my shop in-word for other styles blahblahblah" to the entry. This could be an experiment to judge traffic, but I don't plan on trying at this time.
Most of the items that I have listed now are inexpensive and while they sell, the XStreet changes would make them impractical listings. I am in with Uccello as I plan to put up an "ad" which will be a deeply discounted multipack of some of my new goods with a "you can buy these individually and more in world" statement.
Actually I never did much with XStreet until the last few months, and personally, I like going to the shops and buying in world. I do agree some changes need to be made, but I don't believe the ones LL are making address the benefits of all. There is at least one alternative in the works, so choice may come into play. Choice is good!
I can't honestly support this new XStreet policy or site, so I will be at best a token user.
It's yet to be seen, but if sales of items that remain go up because of there being less clutter you may even find increased revenue. It sure will clean up X-street at any rate.
It's a shame LL handled it so badly. They generated a lot of animosity by dumping these changes on creators in a way that seems like a total money-grab, and without improving search or providing an easy way to de-list items, forcing those hardest hit to do even more work for them.
It's a shame that LL did make the decision and course of action that they did, however most of the time LL are in a no-win situation. People want X to happen and in order for that end goal to be achieved A,B & C must be done. They'll never find a solution that will suit all AND be efficient and effective.
I do agree with you, there are some things that should have been thought on a little more. Generally however on the whole I do see what they're trying to achieve and lets face it I'm sure that at least 75% of xstreetsl shoppers would agree that shopping on xstreet can be a tiresome and tedious process as you wade through page after page of overpriced, reduced quality items.
Real comments on this issue, I think will happen 6-12 months AFTER the changes have been made. That is of course if people can resist the over tempting urge to remove themselves completely from the platform.
Thought provoking blogpost Peter and very nice to read a 'different' opinion to the norm.
Yes, the 10L$ expense is negligible for most of my products, and it may be compensated with a sale raise if Xstreet becomes less cluttered. So, the only big change will be removing my Tail freebie, which will have to dissapear from Xstreet.
I'll modify the main item names so they include the "Tail" tag, and an in-world link; it will be nice to be "forced" to guide people looking for my freebie to the shop :-p
well-thought, and well-said, Peter :)
"From my point of view it is not the end of the world as we know it."
It is not the end of the world, no. But it is a serious blow to the trade of freebies. The changes make it so that one can't be just a kind-hearted creative type, sharing the fruits of his or her labor. No. Now freebie-givers have to be a wealthy philanthropist.
Given the reaction of vendors who say they will pull all products which don't at least break even, how can we expect *any* non-merchant freebie-giver to maintain their items on XStreet? We can't.
I understand Linden Labs can't maintain a service that loses them money - but they didn't seem to put any thoughts into ways to improve their software to reduce and remove *real* clutter while letting those items of value remain. They also didn't consider that it is a valuable *core* service that, with these changes, will die.
The change is very short-sighted. As a builder, I can tell you that I frequently stop my building and search XStreet for textures or scripts or other items that I need *at the moment* - and I tend to go for free or very low cost items that I can modify to suit my needs. In this way, XStreet has been a tool for creators - a means of support for the place-creators in SL. A way to support their creativity and enhance their ability to build virtual spaces more efficiently.
These changes *ignore* this other use for XStreet. Yes, I do make purchases on XStreet all the time... but I also use it as an enhancement to my building process.
And I have a secret for you... without *places* to visit in SL, there would be no need for the other content... who would care to buy expensive clothing sets, vehicles, or many other things, if all there was in SL was an expanse of featureless terrain?
This is a serious blow to builders, both casual and experienced. It is a blow to noobies and to learners. Freebie distribution should be a service that LL provides to encourage creativity and growth. It should not be seen as a threat to commerce, nor an unjustified expense.
Yes, there are in-world ways to acquire freebies... but without a centralized search, and without the convenience of delivery, these changes are the death knell for quality sharing of free items in the open source tradition.
I'm seriously considering stopping all purchases in XStreet as a result of this. It would make my shopping less convenient, yes. But if enough people stopped doing business in XStreet, the value of what is being taken away might be realized.
~Shye~
I abhor the changes. For me, in my position, I listed items on XStreet that sold poorly, but sold; until the move to Caledon. Then I delisted most of my stock, holding a huge sale in 2007 for the piercings and the minidresses, and started slowly rebuilding. It took nearly a year of playing around with concepts to get to the point where I had vintage stock to list. By then, the SL economy (or at least my sector of it) had crashed, leaving me zero money for advertising in-world or out of it.
Without my previous top sellers, with an excruciatingly slow build of new product, most of my work was in-world and never seen on XStreet at all. And then I made a few texture sets.
One item leapt to the top of all lists--and this one was ridiculous even by my standards: a two-texture set priced at L$1 of Caledon madras fabric. I made rent on my Penzance store parcel the first month I released that. At that point, weirdly, it didn't matter if anything else sold, though things did, here and there--because that quirky little freebie was paying my way until I could get back on my feet, after being fired.
Then the "roadmap" was released, and I did the math. My top seller would now charge me once the new fees were implemented, L$2 per every sale, with a L$99 fee per month atop that. Everything else I had listed--including two full-price texture sets which sold, now and again--would now cost me L$10 per month whether they sold or not.
That adds up to money I likely would be spending anyway, if I had an advertising budget--but, I don't. And at least until December of 2010, I won't.
I can't afford to wait until I can't afford to be on XStreet--so I pulled everything now and threw things up on alternate services. I'll see which one does best, and I'll stay there.
That is an interesting aspect you bring up, Shye. XStreet as kind of catalogue for builders. It ties in a little bit into my aspect of XStreet being the only ressource which has "everything", but shows indeed a new and important aspect.
And it only confirms that this is by far not a majority decision, because obviously the side of builders did not get heard at all.
Uccello and Chic, I like both your ideas very much! I am going to look at them and see if they would work for my marketing purposes.
I see this kind of exchange of information as a small "positive" among the XStreet changes -- while merchants are losing LL's free marketing support and free merchandise listing catalogue, we are sharing strategies to deal with it among ourselves.
If LL isn't interested in the concept of "community" anymore, its users still are. :)
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