Sunday, May 18, 2008

PLEA to DESIGNERS and CREATORS and MAKERS of STUFF

Ok look out I am going into high rant mode.

Damn I wish I could make the font HUGE !

You have stores, you create beautiful items, we buy them, or in some cases get given them in one form or another, be it a gift from a loved one, or we sat on a red chair and green particles come out and we get a pressie.... or you happen to Blog and Designers like your style and you get sent Showcase Items to feature .

So many ways in Phils Place to Honestly Acquire fantastic merchandise. But then OMG, you run out of space in your store, you are creating at a speed faster than one hallmark holiday to the next, this cant go on , you need more space , OMG you have a sale and discontinue it all .

Stomps my foot HARD , NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

YOU ARE ERASING HISTORY .

The insanity has to end , stomps foot again *.

Why to not discontinue :

1. Coz I said so.

If one doesn't work for you then these reasons might .

Many other designers use your products, they are constantly advertising your hair, your skins, your shoes , your jewelry , your clothing in their vendor ads. Hundreds maybe even thousands of IMs a week occur with the question 'Excuse me your vendor in your store has a blah blah blah blah in it , can you tell me where that is from ? " sure says the designer , I got that at such and such store , so off the customer TP's and finds its not there, its been DISCONTINUED !.

Now that doesn't seem that big a deal right , well it is, because usually then the customer returns to the first person and says they cant find it, so they then have to spend time working out why with that person, if the item is hot , it means this happens a lot - this I know to be true, not one week went past at my old work where I wasn't asked about hair from HCT , thankfully that was old stock but in a multi vendor.

Once the designer finds out their ads are constantly being asked about, and so many of those ims of despair, they have to change them so that the insanity stops , same with stores that provide information on other items in their ads, that gets out of date and same goes, they have to then go and redo all the info and take new ad shots etc , that costs them money, and if the store they buy from does this a lot, they find it easier to just not use their products.

Now lets get down to, customers too the other ones that don't make ads etc, sometimes the whole 'you cant get it anymore is a fun thing ' , I know I myself wear Dazzle and Ruins to major events a lot of the time, so that I don't ruin anyones NEW look by accident - "I" don't care if ten women are wearing same as me, but I'm pretty sure they do . So yes it is nice to have some older pieces from places that are no longer in world.

But many get really upset about wearing things that aren't out anymore, because in a way you are making them 'last season' and we know many don't want to wear last seasons clothes - chuckles. For many designers its not just a case of space though, its a case of older stock may mean not as high quality as their current is, due to having improved as they went, and thats admirable too, to not want to sell stock to people that you don't feel is your best work.

But I have come to learn that many of you are batty :P , that what you deem not good enough, are some of the sets people hold near and dear in their inventories. They are also the sets that made your customers loyal to you in the first place.

Now lets get on to the bloggers, oh lord its so hard to know what hair textures are the latest black , what accessory you adore that looks so good with these new pants etc hast been sold for 6 months because you always mean to get back to the store but don't get the chance, but love sending people their way. Ive done a complete post once that wasn't in a store anymore, not only was that a big fiasco but such a shame to all that read and couldn't purchase.

I even met Wednesday Soon of Woo's that way, I wore hair from ETD not having any idea it was discontinued , and the poor girl ran all around looking for it wanting it so bad - still feel guilty over that . Some designers keep old stock thats not longer in the store, and will sell it to the customer, but that often takes IM's and time and catching each other on line etc.

Back to the gifting thing, a Partner buys something special for their other half, or a great friend for a great friend, somehow the Mothership rumbles and its gone, they are heartbroken, the item is no longer for sale and the creator isnt online as often due to RL etc , again heartache to try and replace something so special to them, and it could even be a case of first hair or a dress a person gave them when they were new, replacing it isnt exactly the same, but it makes them feel better having it again.

There are so many items I have that are discontinued, and no transfer, or are transfer and I don't want to part with them lol. But there is a IM where someone you know needs that exact thing you have, they don't know you have such a thing , they just have this idea in their head of what they want, and you know that item would be perfect, so you want to lead them to it, or gift it to them,but alas again you can't its not in store and they need it then and there to make their look complete- if it was transfer of course I would lend it :P but so much easier and exciting to gift it to them.

So here is my PLEA! ONREZ and SLExchange give you unlimited wall space so to speak lol. SLX Im not a huge fan of, but sales wise apparently its better than Onrez for some, but for me Onrez is the one and only.

When gifting from Onrez you get a resend option if its no transfer, meaning if for some reason it doesn't deliver, you the purchaser can resend it to yourself or the giftee, whoever it was on the receiving end of the purchase.

You get your very own online store, meaning http://shop.onrez.com/Sasy_Scarborough or any person you think might have items on their with the _ in between first and last name, that is how you find them, even if unsure if they are on Onrez , using that trick will find them.

they allow for batch editing , meaning if you do one dress/item in 48 colours , you can click the check box and do the desccription and details all in one section for all 48, then save and add the pics for each one.

Anyway all Im begging for is that you all consider utilising tools like OnRez and SLExchange, it would be so awesome to say now, ok I know its not in the store now but it will be on OnRez , oh you love this hair, its an older style but it is on Onrez etc etc.

So many people shop on those sites from work, people that never store shop anymore due to their time in PhilsPlace being limited, so they want to log in , accept all they have bought, get dressed and go to an event or meet up with friends and thats it, and if they find something by you they haven't seen before and really love what they see , you never know what kind of future loyalty that could bring to your store.

Also if you dont think its your best work anymore , DISCOUNT IT dont discontinue it, aloow people who may be on a limited income the ability to purchase it one day when they have a few lindens to spare, they may have been pining over that gown half their time in world, and then its gone OMG I would be so upset, I had a customer once tell me she had camped for a 500L item, saved every linden to get it , do the math , thats one dedicated woman, and this wasnt your afk go to sleep type of camping , she didnt know how to do that, I asked , she actually spent time in world sitting on a camping pad every day for a few hours, knowing that at the end she would have that dress - you just got all weepy didn't you , I know I did remembering .

So PLEASE next time you need to reduce the stock in your store, think about us out here , that never want to lose the option to buy your items, think about all those new residents that have never seen the drape dress from Pixeldolls , or the abby hair from Diversity - Yeah I nag aleri allll the time lol.

KEEP PHILS PLACE HISTORY ALIVE !

end of rant :P

16 comments:

SySy Chapman said...

Sasy! that is a REAL good idea~! I'm doing the same, retiring items to make room for new ones. But indeed, the shoponrez and slex listings can go on...i will do that!! WOOT. UNLESS its items i feel myself not really good about anymore, but trust me, no one wants those anyway LMAO! Hey seriously great idea!

Dove Swanson said...

Yeah I agree about just retiring stuff to SLX or OnRez. Seems to make sense - you save space, you get to keep making money off of it, and yer customers are happy.

Marni Grut said...

Oh no WHAT HAVE I STARTED!

Sasy Scarborough said...

lol you didn't Marni its an old rant, I was actually typing it when I IMd you :P coz it was on my mind, plus had a chat with another designer and I repeat myself so much now Ill just link them lol

Do itttt SySy

and Yay Dove for the happy people

xoxo Sasy xox

Anonymous said...

ahh so glad you made this post! i've been planning on having a sale so i could discontinue a few of my older things for some of the reasons you mentioned (i think i've improved & personally dislike the quality in the older items.. though i've argued with friends who disagree with my pov lol) but i didn't think anyone else would really be affected much.. now i see it from another perspective :D i'll have to reconsider what to do with the old stuff now ;P great post!

Sans said...

I support this message! :)

Sans

swaffette Firefly said...

ahhhh sasy :) ty , some of my items have been in my store for nearly 4 years LOL and i often think i should get rid , slowly im trying to get round to all old items and either release them as an update and bring them up to standard ( i went into sl knowing zilch about layers and psp/photoshop) or ive been putting them as freebies. Thanks for confirming im making the right choice i have been thinking about just deleting them and getting rid as its taking me so long to do.

Iris said...

Agreed. I'd like to add a little thing though - stuff on blogs that is unavailable is generally unpolite imho, I know I've accidentally done it a few times too so I'm not innocent in this but come on people, don't deliberately blog items that will never be for sale. Like that special skin or hair or clothing item or all of it in one. Yes, I've actually seen a post once where all was unobtainable except for the eyelashes and eyes maybe:P
I do know people have special stuff, good. But don't go parading around in your blog saying na-na-na-na you can't have it.
Okay, my rant lol. But overall I agree and thanks, I was just thinking about what to do if ever my store gets too bulged up. I don't want to discontinue anything unless it starts looking extremely embarrassing after a while hehe.

Marni Grut said...

In regards to things being inobtainable, yeah its annoying but generaly i wouldnt expect people to copy my look down to my socks tbh. I always think when im bloging and outfit its more to convey an idea or a look than the peices

Efemera Bisiani said...

Phew! Finally awake enough and focussed enough to get to the end of the post! And what a fantastic idea Sasy - as you say a win/win situation. And now I've got my password issue fixed, I'm loving OnRez again (possibly too much!!)

With regards to the blogging aspect, I'm new to the whole fashion type blogging thing, so meh, what do I know?! But I think I'm probably with Marni on this one. It's more about showing ideas and a feel for outfits than a free ad for the newest releases. Yes, I just blogged Digit's new coat, but as well as showing it "out of the box", I paired it with some lingerie that's still available inworld tho is not new by any stretch, and also with some Last Call items which of course are now sadly gone, but they're such a staple in my wardrobe, if I had to put together outfits without I'd be lost. And everyone's got their own favourite tank/pants right?!

Iris said...

I did not mean you have to wear items out of the box.
With vaste amounts of available items is it really impossible to convey the same idea with items that are actually available? I mean yes you don't expect them to copy your style to your socks but what if those socks are exactly what I want?:)
I doubt people actually want to copy a bloggers complete outfit. It's more about the pieces.

Sasy Scarborough said...

yay hope it helped and cant have items are different from no longer available, i think i understand that part Shir :) .

nothing wrong with posting items that are a look, but the inability to know that half what you are wearing is no longer sold is hard, I could try tping all over sl to look first, and i have tried that in the past, but it kills flow totally and would add more hours to the hours already spent.

also many readers do want whole looks, not just because you showed them how good that one is, but your showing them the potential use of every single item you have on, down to your skin.

regardless of all or some they do go looking and if you actually know before you post they wont find them , :o( , if you dont know then thats fine too thats the point, retiring and keeping up with all that is hard work, but if stores start taking on the policy of it will just be moved to onrez/slx then thats awesome :o)

xox Sasy xox

Unknown said...

Ok ok! You have convinced me Sasy, I am converted lol. I will do the Onrez thing for any items I feel need to leave the store to make space etc! May take me awhile though :P I like that solution alot, ALOT. Because youre right space/prim usage is a big deal as well as older items needing to be discounted. And after recieving so many requests for many of my discontinued items (like brat) I agree, ppl still love them regardless so I should make them available for those who want them :)

Sasy Scarborough said...

Faints *

JM said...

that ... was awsum

Sasy Scarborough said...

aww thank you Owly :) hugs everyone
xox Sasy xox