The Marketplace Debate

41 thoughts on “The Marketplace Debate”

• Personally I feel the marketplace assists in sales, and the economy. A lot of shoppers have limited computers and struggle to shop in world. For them, marketplace is an easier way for them to purchase items. A sale is a sale right? A resident may have no purchased anything at all if it was simply in world, where they may have been having computer issues/lag/rezzing problems.

  A great personal example is a purchase I made from Coldlogic today. I wanted to purchase their newly released items, and due to sheer laziness, as well as efficiency I ended up purchasing a lot more than I probably would have if I would have gone to the store in world. I’m not entirely sure the psychological reason behind me purchasing more on marketplace, but I think due to it being a lot “easier” and experiencing zero lag I went a little consumer crazy.

  Great thought provoking post Berry. I love these kinds of discussions. I’m really curious to see how others feel about this topic as well. 🙂

• I myself love Marketplace as it helps me find the items I am searching for and introduces me to new designers and stores. More often than not, if I like the product I go to their in world store to check out their products further and usually end up buying more from them.

  I never really liked having to walk around a laggy mall to find what I needed. Frequently it would take too long to rezz in that many graphics on my poor little laptop, so it would take up too much time to shop that way. Now I have some of my favorite designer store landmarks and just go straight there. It’s the best of both worlds…sort of speak.

• Hi Berry, Interesting article!

  But before I go on to comment on the Marketplace as a long time Merchant I absolutely love thesenew photographs and what you’re wearing. They are quirky, funny and gorgeous in a super hero way.

  About the Marketplace, where to start. I joined SL nearly 4 years ago and have always been a creator and merchant. Although I think the Marketplace is great it has definitely had a significant impact on inworld traffic, requiring most merchants have to work much harder at maintaining footfall. I’ve always assumed that this was part of Linden Lab’s longer term strategy to get more of a share of the vast number of product sales. However as you alluded to in your post the impact has been more business owners giving up their inworld stores (as non viable) which in turn affects landlord’s income, which means people spend less, which means merchants don’t make as much money, which means they can’t afford their rents and so it goes on…..

  Many people are sceptical that this is really happening but it really is. Freebie world closed down recently (unbelievably) and just before it closed most of the stores were empty, the owners struggling to get new merchants in.

  Since the advent of the new Marketplace my inworld store space has halved but sales have doubled, with at least half of all sales (often more) coming from the Marketplace. People have also suggested that LL want SL to be more like an internet based experience with less attention to the overall 3D experience and more emphasis on what can be sold online. In my humble opinion this is a short sighted and misguided approach as why are we all here and stayed so long? Because we love the 3D experience and we want more! This is what always made LL more innovative but very little has happened recently to improve lag or really upgrade the 3D experience. How many of us go shopping and even now if there are more than 20 other avis (all scripted up, wearing hundreds of prims each) you can barely move or see what’s on offer and I have a super fast MAC, so not good….might as well just look on the Marketplace if that’s going to happen, it will be easier……

  Overall the Marketplace has been good but the balance with ease of shopping in world needs to be there as well. It will be interesting to see what others think!

• I love Marketplace, both as a consumer and a seller.
  I mainly use it to explore and find items that I have in mind, though I rarely buy on it because of it being unstable.
  I always go to the mainstore and purchase it for two reasons.
  As a consumer – Because I know LL is taking a cut from the seller on every purchase (Supporting the creators is what counts!)
  And as a seller – I know I received too many IMs and notecards about the delivery not being successful + it’s always nicer to get a full price of your product than having to deal with corrupt LL that doesn’t do anything for the creators and residents in general anyways.
  Nice post and topic, that was my 2 cents.
  Peace

  ~ Sho

• 1. I (erm, my alt) bought that same outfit not two days ago. Of course I modded the heck out of it but it’s a great outfit. Remind me to send you a pic.

  2. The web interface has always done better for me sales-wise than my inworld shops, even before the Marketplace implementations. I think it’s not so much that the Marketplace is declining inworld sales, since we’ve had a marketplace of one kind or another for years, but that LL doesn’t do enough to promote the inworld experience of shopping. They’ve gotten greedy, and they know most merchants won’t slit their own throats to spite LL.

• I love the MP. It is much easier if you are searching for a specific item to search on the MP without the hassle of trying to find it IW and dealing with laggy malls or the crappy search function IW which sucks more than the MP one. I find so many stores I would never have known about in the MP. A sale is a sale right?

  I prefer do to the majority of my shopping on the MP and leaving my time in SL for other stuff, RP, taking pics, hanging with friends etc and would be happy to see the end of malls in SL.

  If merchants are worried about the chunk LL takes from MP purchases…well they should compare that to the cost of having an IW store and paying rent or tier. There will always be costs associated with doing business, whether RL or SL.

• Graves has been around for a long long time. I actually own quite a bit of the items from the store (of course it’s immense popularity was that it worked wonders in post apoc character creation). Most of the items there are just ones that will tend to stay around for quite awhile.

  As for the Marketplace: Personally I only use it when I’m bored or when I don’t want to deal with the lag of sims that are especially packed all the time (aka TRUTH).

  The only complaint I have about the Marketplace is the way it’s set up. I don’t find it user friendly at all. Also, if a store owner has an MP – please update it like you do in your stores.

• As a sometimes mesh white tiger I would happily lounge around in any of your Catwoman fantasies. 🙂

  On the topic of the MP, I think it is a good thing, and helps sales for creators. For small designers and creators it gives them the ability to present their content along with the big content houses side by side. Sure the larger firms will pay for featured status and the like. But still not having to be bothered with putting up a store front can be helpful for those first starting out.

  Alternately for those with Mainstores, the MP makes the need for a ‘mall’ presence unnecessary. In fact I forsee malls in SL going the way of the flexi alpha hair in the future. I’d love to see the sims made into scenic wonders and for entertainment purposes. The Mainstore will always be around though for who doesn’t like going ‘shopping’ with their friends jumping store to store gossiping and trading fashion tips along the way?

• overall i think Marketplace is great, especially for new stores, and lazyness, lol. What i dont like is the commisson LL makes off of the sales, for the obvious reason, but another is in the off moment when a customer makes an accidently double purchase, and wants a refund for the second item, you pay them back for what they spent, but its not like “you paid me 350, so here is 350 back” and your account balance is the same, because part of the 350 went to LL and you cant get it back, lol. it just really ads up over time. But with this new integration to direct delivery… i still have not set up my items with it, through asking people and tutorials im still confused how to do it with the viewer i choose i use.
  Also ive heard friends of mine who also have store, and i have experienced it myself when ordering off of market of things never getting delivered, but it says it was delivered, and as a customer that really inconvenient, and sometimes the designers wont want to send you another one (and this is usually the case with transfer items) and then you have to file a ticket with LL. Luckily none of my things are trans, so i don’t worry to much about sending extras to people.
  So i guess overall, i think market has done wonders for a lot of people, especially customers, and new businesses. I’m not sure yet if i will re-list all of my items with direct delivery, it may cut down my sales, but i’m still annoyed with probably having to download another viewer i’m not sure how to use to just list items on them, i guess that makes me lazy, but maybe it will bring more people BACK into the store.

• Pingback: Sand & Sea « HarlowHeslop.com

• I also frequently use the Marketplace. I think I do it about 50/50, depending on what my mood and the time is. Sometimes I’ll buy directly through the Marketplace, but I also often use it simply as a reference. I prefer to see the goods in the store if they’re clothes; if the designer has a model out (whether an avatar/bot or a flat graphic), it gives me a better idea of what to expect.

  It’s most likely that the truth, like so many questions of debate, will lie somewhere in the middle of the extremes. I don’t think in-world stores will die off, but business will flow as much through the Marketplace as direct through the store, give or take some percentage. In the end, as I see it, if the designer is getting the money, they can still afford the upkeep on their store(s), and people will be able to find things and shop easier, especially in laggy sims.

• It’s much easier to shop on Marketplace and I can see how it would help in sales. I understand both sides of the argument though. Some people like the art of using Second Life to do their shopping. Going to a mall, walking around from store to store, it makes SL more fun! I personally enjoy doing both but Marketplace is better at advertising other developers!

• I wrote about this here – http://primperfectblog.wordpress.com/2011/11/06/is-the-marketplace-killing-the-mall/ (and there are several follow-on posts too).

  The point is about the impact on people who depend on small stores on their sims to pay their tier so that they can keep their music venue or their roleplay or whatever running.

  It doesn’t matter if you’re able to buy the most stunning outfit on the Marketplace if you then have nowhere to wear it because all the good venues have packed up and moved on because they couldn’t make tier.

• Forget the MP debate, the emphasis should be on these smexy photos and outfit! Strawberry you certainly set the bar with your photography.
  Thank you for being unique, different from other bloggers and setting your own trends.

• I create airship and skin content. I’ve had a Marketplace presence since I started (and before it was XStreet). But I do not put my Most Recent items for sale on Marketplace. Instead I use MP as a ‘taste’ of the things I make.

  This allows folks to find me quickly on MP and also come look at my stuff in 3D samples at my shop.

  As a shopper, I make most of my purchases at stores. But I use MP to find items or designers who are making things I want. In-world search isn’t as strong as the MP search, which allows refining by price, or new releases, or etc.

  Sometimes after finding the item on MP, I still go in world to buy it because the pictures on MP are usually low quality.

  Recent example:
  I want some ‘rigged mesh hand claws’. How long would you search in world to find something like that? Does anyone even make it? Twenty minutes on MP and you know very few people make it and can see decent pictures of how they’ve decided to implement.

• I don’t think the Marketplace will “kill” Second Life, but I do feel it is a mixed blessing.

  Personally, I tend to use SLM for browsing; looks at styles and options there, narrowing choice – but I invariably go in-world to make an actual purchase. This allows me (usually) to view the product first-hand, either by seeing it rezzed (in the case of an in-world object) or by trying on a demo (in the case of hair, clothing etc). I’m also aware that the creator benefits more this way, as they don’t lose 5% of their revenue to LL.

  Which is not to say this is always the case – at times I do go via SLM simply because I know what I’m getting, and it’s a great convenience. Conversely, once I’ve found a creator I like, I only ever purchase from them in-world. Take Jackie Graves, for example (as you mention her). I have a lot of her creations, and every single one has been brought from her stores.

  I’m not sure the Marketplace impacts clubs (although willing to be proven wrong). I’m not a great club-going person, but those I do frequent, I do so because they are lively, vibrant places with a good cycle of well-attended events. As such, there is strong footfall which may attract creators to use vendor space in them rather than elsewhere. Certainly, I’ve not noticed any decline in the number of vendors or rise in unrented space in the vendor areas of those clubs I do visit.

  Malls might be harder hit than clubs in this respect. They have perhaps always struggled for footfall and in turn struggled to get creators to place vendors within them. As such they are more vulnerable to creators pulling out in the face of stronger SLM sales, simply because the footfall at the mall isn’t enough to justify the cost of having vendors there.

  But even then, attributing issues over footfall and viability as solely being due to SLM is perhaps not that straightforward. Sure, SLM is somewhat more convenient than its precursors vis-a-vis the ease with which you can make purchases (not need for separate accounts, etc) – but it is probably fair to say that malls, etc., have always been a gamble as an in-world “business”, simply because footfall in comparison to major stores has always been that much smaller.

  It’s an interesting conundrum, and one that will doubt spark a lot of different viewpoints as to the good or ill of the Marketplace.

• Malls and entertainment venues in Second Life have relied upon satellite stores and small shops on their sims to fund the tier and running costs, since time SLimmemorial. Saff makes a fair point that buying lots of pretty clothes is near pointless if you have nowhere to wear them, but Marketplace represents a much easier and accessible way for people to shop and discover new brands.

  For things like clothes, I never really understood why an inworld store is needed at all, when it offers no more information about a product than a Marketplace store would and the merchant can save themselves the cost of tier. Obviously this would be different for things like furniture and prefabs.

  Entertainment venues and malls are going to have to accept Marketplace and “adapt or die”. Finding new and creative ways to generate revenue is how the stronger venues will survive and continue to grow.

• I feel they both have valid points, the marketplace is like everything…there are pros & cons. While it does decrease store traffic, it helps people like me with old or low end computers, as I can’t handle any amount of lag…which most stores will have, another downfall as I know personally is having LL take a cut from YOUR sales. But I have came across stores that I would have never heard of otherwise just by browsing the marketplace…so it’s a good way of promoting your stores.There have been times I seen really good stuff on there & decided to check the in-world store just to see what other awesome stuff they have created. There are people just starting to make stuff or don’t have enough business yet to open a place in-world so the marketplace is a great way for them to get their brand known to residents…so like I said, there are good & bad points to having marketplace around, to each his or her own..everyone is entitled to their own opinion!!!

• I’m abivalent about it. Both arguments have their merits. Here’s a thought…. merchants could put up just a few teaser items to show the quality of their work and get people interested. Maybe only offer a certain design in one color on the Marketplace and tell people to see a full range of colors and options to visit the in-world location. A hair designer (or clothing designer), for instance, could just offer their just their demos on the Marketplace, and promo items, with links to the shop to make purchases in-world. This would help little known names and designers get the word out about their shops, and would help customers easily find and try out a style they are looking for, before having to teleport to the shop to get it. Teleports should also take a person right to the item so customers don’t have to search through a huge store to find just the thing they need.

• I hate searching the Marketplace 1) unrelated items popping up 2) the same item in 57 different recolours popping up 3) the complete inability to find anything specific

• I love your outfit here Berry, and the eyes just complete it.

  Now onto the marketplace debate, I understand both viewpoints. Personally, I love Marketplace. I sell on marketplace, and I like that others can have them too, and there’s no need for me to pay tier, or set up a physical location. I personally wish that everyone would use marketplace.

  Really though, LL does take a small portion of sales, but I don’t mind it at all, I figure that is their way to maintain the website. I also feel like people are fast to say that marketplace is killing malls, which they might be but on the flip side, just because you are in a mall and have a small shop, who says that anyone that visits the mall will even buy anything from the small shop?

  Low traffic is also something to consider as well. A store was open in world years ago, closed up shop one day, and I missed their products. Thanks to Direct Delivery being enabled now, she listed her products on marketplace, and I am glad that everyone can buy them now.

  Marketplace also increases the scope.

• I’m in the camp that sees Marketplace as a convenience and find searching for things inworld to be incredibly frustrating. If all our inworld stores are reduced to catalog sales, then there won’t be anymore online stores. I love to walk through stores and look at displays… and shop. I love it in both worlds. Something is being lost and it might be that LL should think about making it easier for us to shop inworld.

  Just my humble opinion, Yordie

• I find marketplace a great tool to use for just about anything I am looking for. It is quick, easy, and I have found more designers through this convenient site. Not to mention, you do not have to be logged on in world! Through marketplace I have been to more designers shops than ever before. Where as in world when your searching for something, it can take a very long time with rez and lag issues, and I wont even go into “less than” quality merchandise, that you have now wasted your time and lindens on. Marketplace is a sign of the times, we shop in RL on the web, same principal applies to SL.
  However, as convenient as marketplace is for us all, I do understand where the merchants are coming from, and they do suffer the consequences of a lazy society. To be fair, I feel if we have the time, we should support our fav shops and designers by purchasing their merchandise in world.
  PS…meow Berry, love the cat outfit.

• A lot of great points here guys, thanks so much for contributing your thoughts.

  I have to admit, before speaking to the first individual it never really occurred to me that the marketplace could have these kinds of effects. I was so used to just standing on my pose stand and purchasing everything I need from marketplace without moving an inch. I admit I very rarely ventured out to the actual stores to buy.

  I still do that at times, but I have been trying to put more of an effort about actually getting out of my skybox and going to the store to purchase. It is a better experience and you do get to see other things the designer makes.

  However, marketplace just has the simple convenience factor and I believe that’s the biggest reason most people do like it and will stick to it.

  I will try and put more of an effort towards venturing out to the actual stores though, just to support the creators.

  Thanks everyone for your thoughts, and for all the kind comments about the outfit. It was fun dressing up, I think I’ll stay like this for a while. 😛

• I don’t use the marketplace very often, but when I do it’s because I’m looking for something in particular. I prefer to see things in-world, because that’s where I will be utilizing them. Who would buy a house from the marketplace?! You have to get in the house or skybox and walk around in it. You have to sit in the chairs to make sure they are to scale with your av. There are some items that can only be purchased through it, and that’s okay, too. I mostly pick up freebies that way, though. I wouldn’t want to spend more than 50L on something I had not seen in 3D.
  [Problem of scale photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marfita/5756705956/ ]

• I like the marketplace for quick searches but will always try and purchase from an inworld store – I’m really not bothered if it’s a 4 sim mainstore or a stall – I will only purchase from people who maintain an inworld presence.

  Ok, so LL took over the MP and have been attempting to ‘fix’ it ever since (!?) – I’m pretty sure that in the not to distant future another enterprising soul will come along and try to make their own version of the marketplace so who knows what the future holds and where we will be shopping in the future.

  Black

  PS. I love the outfit and the benefits of mesh just ashame that LL are creating a 2 tier creator program – those with credit cards and those without.

• So I have a REALLY important comment: I can’t believe someone finally listened to me about a blogging suggestion (HA!)

  Berry you make a purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrworthy Catwoman!!! Sooo happy to see you revisit this particular heroine :O)

  xoxoxoxoxo
  Tesh <333

• I personally make a conscious effort to shop at in world stores whenever possible because to me the experience of going to a place and seeing the set up and design of it all is a big part of why I am in SL. I don’t want to just stand in my SL house alone and IM all day. I like running into strangers, designers, creators, fellow bloggers, and friends. I like encouraging creators to keep these spaces in world. I also feel like LL is already getting enough of a cut with things like Linden Exchange fees (both going in and out), premium memberships (almost a must as a creator since to get support you HAVE to have premium for almost all types of support) and land tiers.

  I do find MP a good place to search for products, because apart from using search in world to find a specific named place person or group, in world search is pretty borked / useless. I also use MP for stores whose content quality I know that offer demos through MP and that I know from experience will be pointless to visit as their sims take forever / never rez for me (Thank you Truth for putting your hairs and demos on Marketplace.). The biggest problems for me on marketplace are, the favorites are completely non-functional. You can’t organize or sort them with any meaningful criteria. You can’t feel comfortable with your deletions from favorites and you can’t group anything. Also delivery has consistently been a problem for me unless I am actually in world when purchasing (at which time it is only intermittently a problem.). Even with the new system it is not consistent and now there are even problems with the correct items being ordered from the correct creator due to the changes in marketplace.

  In summary, both are useful, but when possible I purchase in world.

• Tesh LOL yeah this Catwoman post is all your fault! 😛 You totally inspired me to look again, so happy I did.

• Merchants often say that a significant amount of sales come from the marketplace, so I can’t see how that is hurting the economy. Like people have said previously, the marketplace is good for smaller stores, because they get their products out there without overhead.

  I have heard merchants speak of the struggle they have to even break even on their store tier, and some have even said they were closing their in-world store and having a presence on the marketplace only. As for clubs, I don’t get the logic with person #1 because none of the clubs that I have been to promote their shopping areas, and most of the merchants don’t do anything to bring traffic to the satellite location. So why would people go there (as opposed to the main store) unless there was something to entice them to go?

  I remember when I used to search for something in-world, and in the search results you used to be able to see the items that were in the stores, if the merchants labeled their vendors properly. That doesn’t seem to work anymore, so I use the marketplace to do a search on items that I like – it’s easier and more reliable than in-world search.

  As for actually buying items, I like to buy it in-world because I like to see what the store looks like, and whether they have items not listed on marketplace. There have been quite a few stores that have partial listings on mp but have a bigger selection (and newer) in-world. Also, you get to see what the item looks like in-world – I don’t see how people can buy expensive furniture and the like without examining it first.

  In addition, I feel if something goes wrong with the purchase, the merchant can address it quickly. At the marketplace (at least before direct delivery), you worried if the item failed to deliver, whether the merchant will redeliver, did the merchant get the money from the purchase, etc.

• I personally prefer inworld shopping. It just feels more like ‘shopping’, rather than just browsing a terribly made website. Also I like to give stores and malls I like some traffic and avoid paying more Lindens into LLs greedy pockets. I’ll only resort to marketplace to see if I find something there that I cannot find inworld, of if my LMs maybe don’t work etc.

  I cannot remember the times I inwardly raged because I was searching for some random part of an outfit (say “leatherpants” or something) and had to browse through hundreds of pages full of utter crap and low-quality stuff…and vaginas, penises, primboobs, milky boobies, clitpiercings, bukkakke semen and what not. The keyword system -really- annoys the heck out of me.

  Not only that, but the sometimes incredibly long waiting times until something gets delivered isn’t cool either. When I pay for my hair, I want it NOW, not in two hours.

  What I sometimes DO like about it are the random finds…tiny stores that have no inworld place. But those are rare.

• I think both Marketplace and inworld shopping experience are needed and as someone pointed out it’s a wise thing to remember that LL is taking 5% off each sale…
  But Catwoman is the subject I like the most =)
  So I’ve been trying to make a few different Catwoman looks during the last months and stumbled onto a couple other nice outfits that met my “requirements”.

  Of course the one that you’re wearing is one of the best you can find around, it has a slight cyber feel though and might not look really vintage.

  I’ve found one that is almost the exact same one than in the movie with Michelle Pfeiffer, it’s made by ‘Madame Couturier’: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/DANIKA/55/206/23

  This creator also makes another one that looks a lot more vintage, just like in movies form the 50’s so you might want to check this one too.

• Oh and I totally forgot to tell you about two Catwoman mesh avatars I found, I think they look quite ok but since they’re 100% mesh they’re not as realistic than an regular SL avatar. I’ll leave that judgement to you 🙂

  The store is called Mesh Maniacs and is at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Aramaki/33/27/105

• I think that both opinions make points to consider. I agree, though, that I use mp to locate items that interest me, but I almost always go to the shops to purchase. Why? Because I like being inworld, I like looking at all the designer has to offer, and it gives me the opportunity to explore a new sim. Who knows what you’ll find, right?

• Crystal, OMG mesh catwoman! That is so exciting. Thank you for the slurls, I am going to check them out later today. <3

• In world search is awful so i most always use MP to search for items i want to purchase. It’s also great for just getting a demo. Also with issues of lag on my end, i just find it easier. I dont’ think it makes sense to say that people will eventually stop logging in world altogether because… well why would they purchase anything then?

• I mentioned this on a blog post I did recently, and I echoed a lot of the sentiment here. To me, the Marketplace is a great tool, and I’ve found so many vendors that way that I would NEVER have found inworld, mainly because the inworld search is terrible, and it’s a pain in the ass to hop around from place to place looking for something, and waiting for everything to rez.

  If I have time, I’ll save items in my shopping cart to remind me of what I want, but then I’ll buy them inworld if the vendor has a store. Other times, I’ll purchase it all via the Marketplace.

  I honestly use it for the convenience. I’m often looking for very specific things for my pictures, and it’s just easier to find via the Marketplace.

• I use Marketplace primarily for searching; I never use it for stores I know. I remember when in Search in world you could see every item on someone’s land, with a corresponding TP location to help you get there. Now that doesn’t seem to exist anymore, so if I want something odd, a special color, or something I don’t know where to find Marketplace is my first stop.

  Often I will just pick up the store location and go see, as the store will have other interesting things and I like to know stores and what they make.

  Marketplace is also good for those who put demos in there if I already know the item – say, a new Truth hair or something like that. But nothing quite beats shopping with your girlfriends in a store – MP is antisocial.

  So I think both have their use and would not want MP to go away, but my main shopping therapy only works if I tp to a store and walk around an see all the fun things there. I’m not a designer so can’t say how this affects the economy, traffic or otherwise. Often the problem with MP is that stores only have half their stuff on it, and so you would miss a lot of things – and apparently its kludgy to work with and if LL takes a cut, well that’s no thrill for a designer

• My computer lags severely when I enter a sim, especially one with high traffic, despite having my draw distance, etc on “lockdown” (lowest settings for nearly everything). The Marketplace is the ONLY way I can shop (until I magically win the lottery and can afford a nicer computer, that is) 😛

  Honestly, if creators are so upset over the “chunk” LL takes out for providing a website online that is frequented by a HUGE user base (which is usually far more people than the store owners have exposed their brands to previously), they can host their own site and try and drive up exposure, and hope to meet the exposure already set by the integrated Marketplace. If you’re going to use a service that requires the hosting company to use or pay for bandwidth, etc, you should pay in return. I would gladly pay the cost associated with using the Marketplace once/if I start a store inworld, as I can’t afford $100-$400 a month in tier fees, or any variation of the figures due to severely strict income.

  Just my two cents … 🙂

• I have similar lagproblems as Abbey Roe does. Personally I prefer an empty shop much over a full one, but I’m not that shortighted.
  I think the fee LL takes of every sale on the market place is probably nothing compared to the portion the parcel-rent represents.
  I think the best way is to combine both.
  The Marketplace is good for people who don’t want or can rent land for whatever reason and good to make small gather attention for small shops.
  It’s also good for big shops to take the edge out of already overflowing SIMtraffic, which prevents them from losing customers who prefer to buy elsewhere instead of diving through the lag.
  I think a good way to keep the traffaic intact if one needs it is to host events/specialoffers/sales, which are only available in world.
  Or have only selected (for example older) products available on the marketplace.
  Or just demos on the marketplace (which eat a lot of prims) with that method people could demo everything in a lag-free region and then go to the shop to purchase everything.
  In general instead of a Mall-sized-shop stuffed to the brink with vendors, I prefer a limited number of outstanding pieces in an original and interesting environment.

• Pingback: The impact of Marketplace on in-word stores | Becca's Blog

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.