I came across a podcast by Sasy Scarborough and Whimsy Winx discussing Sales Events on Second Life. It started out as me wanting to add my two cents in a comment, but turned out to be too long. I’ve listened to the podcast about three times and touching on things they’ve talked about.
The main benefit of sales events is to get people to the stores.
I feel there are too many sales events. There are way too many events, period. It’s overwhelming. And if we didn’t have Seraphim, how the hell would we be able to manage our Second Life? Wait. OMG. We’d have to go into a store!
People are wondering why people don’t do anything anymore –> they are too busy checking out events. Watch a group chat when an event has just opened. All people care about is getting in and complaining about not getting in. Then you have to wonder… what do they do with the stuff they bought? Do they open it as soon as they’re finished at the event? Or do they wait and then forget about it because they’re too busy attending another event?
Sasy and Whymsy talk at length about unpacking stuff because for all you know, there is nothing in the package or it is broken – and by the time you figure one or the other, the brand may have gone out of business I’d like to add.
Bloggers will unpack because they have to blog about it, but for the rest of us, what do we do?
I make a conscious effort to open everything now because I add them to my wardrobe. I’m the kind of person who buy with the intention to wear anything more than once. It would take forever to clean up my whole inventory, but I’ve been pretty good since the day I bought my wardrobe and I stay on top of my inventory.
Second Life Sales Events.
I sometimes cringe when I see something I bought full price being sold for 50-100L, but a sale is a sale, and you know they happen. Although sometimes I will try something on and decide that it would be something that I’d buy when on a sale day. I’m unsure how the mind decides that, but I go with it. I also have a tier to pay, and outside my few rentals, that is all I have for spending money on SL.
I don’t mind a good sale. Fifty Linden Fridays and Hello Tuesday have been around for a long time and that’s fine. I look forward to see the list on Seraphim each week. I won’t buy an item just because it’s on special, unless I’m 100% sure I’ll use it. I remember buying a dress from Dead Dollz some years ago because it was in a different colour since I don’t buy Fatpacks, but it wasn’t a colour I’d normally buy, and ended up never wearing it. Found it while cleaning my inventory and I trashed it.
Do we really need a 60L sales day, a 50L one and a 75L one?
Why? 50L is better than 75L if you ask me… But what’s the point of having so many different sales events based on a price?
I don’t understand the concept of having more sales outside fifty Linden Fridays and Hello Tuesday because most of the time, you’ll see the sales for these two events last for a few days if not all week, so you have plenty of time to get to it. And Hello Tuesday is 50% of the retail price, so it can be a good deal at times, though I think you have to have a store on the Cosmopolitan sim, so that can only be a limited event.
Unless maybe 50l was for fashion, 60L for accessories and poses and 75l for furniture? Themed sales could potentially make sense …
There has been quite a few new sales events popping up lately. One for the men is totally acceptable and was needed, but the rest of them?
Would you hold off buying something because you know the brand has a weekly sale?
Not really.
Foxcity does regular sales, and I’ve seen some of the poses I bought when they came out, so you know that what is sold for 250L or more might be on sale for 60-75L one day. One day… I’m not waiting for that day that may come up tomorrow or in six months time. No way. If it’s worth it, I’ll buy it. I would only hold off for a meh product, something I may use one day or because I simply can’t afford it at the time. And with the amount of events, it will be quickly forgotten anyway until a sale happens and you’ll remember wanting to buy it.
For somebody who has a very limited budget or survive on the 300L stippend from the premium membership, they will probably wait for the sale, and that’s fine I think.
I can’t see why it would hurt a brand to have a weekly sale because it kinda helps the people who don’t have that buying power.
As a consumer I much rather see either new items like Peaches do. They often create cute clutter for FLF. I don’t mind repurposed clothing or accessories with new textures. It’s not always to my taste, but having exclusive colours for a specific event I think is great. I’m always looking forward to DDL Saturday sale, because it’s always unique textures only available during the sale and time limited. You can’t be one hour late or too early with DDL, and I love that.
On a side note, the first time I bought a handbag from DDL, I was unhappy about the quality, sent a notecard and never heard back. I saw a sale and loved the texture so much, at 60L I had to give it another try. I have not been disappointed ever since, but I also don’t buy anything from DDL outside the Saturday sale because I like that exclusivity, limited edition stuff better. On the other hand, if I were to see something from DDL at an event that I really love, because I know the brand, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy it full price or I will recommend DDL, so I don’t think the brand is missing out from customers who are only buying on sales day.
At the end of the day, brands can look and judge by their figures. Is it better to sell two fatpacks or 300 bags for 50l?
Should the sale happen at the front of the store or at the back?
A sale is usually a marketing tactic to lure new and old customers, so it should be at the back. In Second Life though, a lot of brands have never had a brick and mortar business, so that’s why you can see a lot of rookie mistakes.
As long as there is a sign to let us know where the sale is because some of the stores are huge, and if I don’t mind looking around, I don’t always have the time. Especially if the sale is timed. In the past, I have logged in just to get one thing that was on sale.
Should the brand offer a discounted or free group fee on sales day?
Absolutely not. Until we’re bound to a limited amount of groups, we should not be bribed to join a group. I’d rather see an option to buy the group gift. I’ve joined groups before because the fee was what I’d expect to pay or less for the group and then left, though more than often group gifts end up not being worth it. If I like a brand, I’ll follow them on Flickr. I don’t need to be in a group to know what they’re doing.
I dislike that you have to be part of a group to get the slurl. Yet you know what’s on sale because it’s on Flickr, but they don’t divulge the slur because you have to get the list from the group. That sucks. Again, I don’t have space for another group and I’d rather look at Flickr than having to open images in my viewer (I’m even sad for the person who has to create the Notecard as it must be a fair bit of work – unnecessary work even.) Some of the stores I’ve never heard of, and some of the brands are using a different user name on Flickr and can’t be bothered to fill out the “about” section. Sometimes it’s almost as if they don’t even want to be found and may miss on a few extra sales because of that.
Second Life Popup Sales in Conclusion
Sales are good to discover new designers, try out stuff and be less disappointing when buying something like the handbag in this video:
I would have been annoyed had I paid more than 60L for that handbag. I now know not to buy handbags from that brand.
There are too many sale events to keep up with, so I stick to the main ones such as Hello Tuesday, Fifty Linden Friday and whatever I see on sales on weekends through Flickr. If I don’t see the sale then I didn’t need it.
For example I missed out on this sale:
Absolutely love them and had never come across that store before. Instead of 75L, I paid 295L for the shoes which left me unsatisfied, but that’s a different story.
The Flickr groups related to those sale events should be strictly for the vendors/store representative to keep them clean.
What do you think of Second Life Sales Events?
Hi, so glad you liked our podcast and really like your take on the matter. I will make mention though about why so many, why this one and that one. They are all created by different individuals or groupings of people. When FLF first started everyone wanted to get in and the owner pretty much said make your own…that opened the floodgates, they died off a bit and then resurfaced. If the event is charged for then that is a different person making that fee over others. In the past we had My Attic at my Region The Deck. It was a discounted event, but there was no Fee and it was primarily to bring focus to the region and the renters on that region with some invited guests. It had an impact on those stores people shopped inside the individuals from the event space etc. But in many cases they are to create organiser income, events are a business in and unto themselves now, and then some organisers also have their own stores so they create buzz…it is marketing their own brand by extension.
Thank you again for enjoying our podcast and adding your own spin 🙂
I do understand events are now a business, but holly crap, way too many of them. A lot of them don’t survive long enough to even talk about them. I’ve been meaning to write my thoughts about them as a consumer but can’t come up with something coherent. Looking forward to your podcasts as they come. We need more bloggers talking about the ins and outs of SL instead of just posting pretty pictures with links – no offense to them, but can be deceitful at times, even with demos… but that’s another story 🙂