Architect Archive
Thread: Crafters... What would Make you want to use another Merchant?
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Dvnce
Wed Aug 11, 2004 7:27 pm
#1
Ok... with attention focused on merchants.. I am trying to get the focus off of JUST vendors.. and onto things that will make me as a crafter .. want to use someone else as a reseller of my goods... I am all for the merchant profession.. All online games have traditionally had those who made their money from buying and selling.. It is cool they actually get an official Role here in SWG... However for it to benifit me and my goals in this game there have got to be more tools given to them to make this interaction benificial. Its not just about the money... My goal main goal as acrafter is to get my name established as the person that makes great stuff... to me success is not how many PvP duels I can win.. or how hard of a mob I can kill... It is how many people know who I am and what I make... and Just making Merchants the source of who has vendors does not make it worth while for me to interact with another player merchant to promote my name.. especially when the only tools they have are to help make them more money... ( not that I dont think they deserve to make a profit..)
Tools that I think will be better than just focusing on vendors .. are..
Better Advertising methods..
Giving merchants via special vehicle and backpack the ability to come to my workshop and actually pick up my supply and transport it to their vendors... so I dont have to play delivery person... afterall isnt there a merchant transport...?
Tents are nice.. but I run a high Class Business.. I want a Mall that is placed on the Planetary map like a cantina for my goods to be sold in...
These are only Some of the aspects of A real Merchant that I would love to see added and improved into that profession.. Afterall.. I would love to drop merchant .. I hate worrying about my inventory.. I would love to hire someone to sell all my stuff for me... Buy as of now.. My best interests arent Protected in the equation there is nothing in place to hold the merchant accountable for how I want my Name Promoted after he has my goods... and I know there arent going to be many people that can out right buy my inventory to remove me of my involvment in the process...
So .. I truly mean this as a constructive Post and hope to spark constructive conversation.. so please tell me what You think.. am I the only one that thinks this? are merchants just Vendor Handlers?
Message Edited by Dvnce on 08-11-2004 07:30 PM
LonelyGhost
Wed Aug 11, 2004 8:13 pm
#2
A choice of Merchant-only structures to sell from. ANythign from the 7-Eleven style things (with working windows), a mini strip mall of up to 5 small shops in one structure, each with their own exterior entryway and admin rights (1 lot per storeftont to the Merchant, with a second story "office"), or an interior "mall" with up to 10 "stalls". I think there is a LOT of room for additions in what Architects can make for the game. Lets get some in! Seriously!
Delivery droids made by DE that a Merchant can use to send goods to a customer. Imagine a cross between an interplanetary survey droid, a seeker droid, a Droid Helper, and a storage droid. Drop the items in the droid, program the name of the person to deliver to, and it goes away. When the person comes online, even if the Merchant is not online, it will pop out like the Helper droid, and the person accesses the storage compartment to get their items.
Consignment sales are a must for an Architect to sell through a Merchant. Much of our stuff is the most expensive crafted stuff in the game, and few merchants would have the bank accounts to buy in bulk from us.
Search features for the vendor...ugh, it seems like a lot, and it is, but it might solve our problems.
ZenDragonMLS
Wed Aug 11, 2004 8:34 pm
#3
Is the Architect forum the best place to do this, rather than the Merchant forum? Or are you just trying to address the specific needs that architects might have for Merchant interaction? I'll assume the second for the purpose of this post.
I currently host my own vendors in my showroom (I'm 3044 in Merchant). I primarily sell through vendors with very few "custom order" sales. Even the custom order sales, unless they are for specially labeled furniture, I will make and then tell the customer that "the stuff is on my vendor".
When I look at what I do on the "business" side of my business, I do the following:
- check the stock of the vendors to see what I'm out of or low on (I *could* do this via email dump but I haven't as yet)
- put new items on the vendors, either proactively or reactively (e.g., someone gives me a tell and says "do you have 2 food factories on your vendor" and I say "I'll make sure that there are 2 there")
- adjust the "packaging" of products (e.g., I put crated furniture on the vendor as well as singles - so if all the singles are gone I might pull a 5-pack and relist them individually)
- advertise in two ways: placement on the planetary map via Advertising 3 and putting stuff on the Bazaar with my waypoint
- send "thank you" email to people that buy stuff from me
- look in the offers to vendors for various dropoffs (typically miners that are dropping off resources for me)
I see two possible "extremes" for a Merchant role:
1. A "sales rep" who places vendors on my behalf in places that I want them placed. The "brand" is *mine* (e.g., Zalle Enterprises) and the "sales rep" is somewhat "invisible" to the buying public. However, they may have the contacts to get me placed into high-traffic malls or specialty malls. My mental model here is someone who provides a service to me, and in exchange I pay them a commission on all sales (or flat fee per vendor or whatever). The point being that they work FOR me.
2. A "pure merchant" who buys things from perhaps many crafters. The mental module is that they buy at a "wholesale" price from the crafters and then sells them at "retail". In that model the "brand" is the merchant's brand. They set the retail prices and as long as they pay me what we agreed on then I'm happy.
I'm sure that there are variations of those, but I wanted to paint some extremes so we can talk about them. It *may* be the case that those different models require a radically different infrastructure to support them.
Speaking just for myself, since I *like* "consultative selling" and helping people figure out what they want from furniture to harvesters, I would NOT want to deal with a "pure merchant" at all, because doing so would cut me off from the customers. I might very well make use of a "sales rep" to extend my reach. But other crafters might really want a pure merchant.
I think that we have to have some sort of model (or models) for crafter-merchant relationship before we can postulate the specific infrastructure that we would want.
I currently host my own vendors in my showroom (I'm 3044 in Merchant). I primarily sell through vendors with very few "custom order" sales. Even the custom order sales, unless they are for specially labeled furniture, I will make and then tell the customer that "the stuff is on my vendor".
When I look at what I do on the "business" side of my business, I do the following:
- check the stock of the vendors to see what I'm out of or low on (I *could* do this via email dump but I haven't as yet)
- put new items on the vendors, either proactively or reactively (e.g., someone gives me a tell and says "do you have 2 food factories on your vendor" and I say "I'll make sure that there are 2 there")
- adjust the "packaging" of products (e.g., I put crated furniture on the vendor as well as singles - so if all the singles are gone I might pull a 5-pack and relist them individually)
- advertise in two ways: placement on the planetary map via Advertising 3 and putting stuff on the Bazaar with my waypoint
- send "thank you" email to people that buy stuff from me
- look in the offers to vendors for various dropoffs (typically miners that are dropping off resources for me)
I see two possible "extremes" for a Merchant role:
1. A "sales rep" who places vendors on my behalf in places that I want them placed. The "brand" is *mine* (e.g., Zalle Enterprises) and the "sales rep" is somewhat "invisible" to the buying public. However, they may have the contacts to get me placed into high-traffic malls or specialty malls. My mental model here is someone who provides a service to me, and in exchange I pay them a commission on all sales (or flat fee per vendor or whatever). The point being that they work FOR me.
2. A "pure merchant" who buys things from perhaps many crafters. The mental module is that they buy at a "wholesale" price from the crafters and then sells them at "retail". In that model the "brand" is the merchant's brand. They set the retail prices and as long as they pay me what we agreed on then I'm happy.
I'm sure that there are variations of those, but I wanted to paint some extremes so we can talk about them. It *may* be the case that those different models require a radically different infrastructure to support them.
Speaking just for myself, since I *like* "consultative selling" and helping people figure out what they want from furniture to harvesters, I would NOT want to deal with a "pure merchant" at all, because doing so would cut me off from the customers. I might very well make use of a "sales rep" to extend my reach. But other crafters might really want a pure merchant.
I think that we have to have some sort of model (or models) for crafter-merchant relationship before we can postulate the specific infrastructure that we would want.
Dvnce
Wed Aug 11, 2004 9:38 pm
#4
well this really concerns all crafters... or really even miners too.... yes there may be another forum best suited for this.. but I must respect my other correspondents and not step on their toes.. on start discussions like this in their forums.... and the opinions vary on this issue... I however invite anyone to participate in this discussion...
Pawlin
Wed Aug 11, 2004 9:46 pm
#5
All I'd really need is a way for me to get my stuff on their vendor so that I still own it but when the sale is made they get their cut and I get mine. Some sort of escrow system would work.
Delivery of the merchandise isn't as big of a deal for me. Currently I'm stocking 3 vendors on 3 planets so I have to do a lot of stockboy work as it is.
Iannyen
Thu Aug 12, 2004 4:38 am
#6
A very good question, and one without a simple answer.
1. The merchant would have to be able to buy from me in bulk. I sell furniture, and that gets made in a factory. Factory runs are important to the economics of my business. The merchant would need to be able to purchase5-20 crates of items from me at a time, as a minimum. Now, that being said, if I'm a master Merchant, and a master Architect, I should be very well equiped to sell my own wares, at the very minimum.
2. The merchant would have to be able to pay up front. At 90k per crate of Loveseats, and 10 crates to a run, sometimes that isn't doable for 1/76th of my furniture inventory.
I'll add more lateras it comes to me.
AgreaAtodlie
Thu Aug 12, 2004 5:26 am
#7
Something I thought about. As a Master Architect and Master Artisan (I have 4 accounts...and am a profession pack rat), I really don't have many point left over, unless I go pure crafter. The reason I don't do this is the fact that I have a lot of harvesters and hate getting smacked around by durnies whenever I go to do maintenance on them. My weak idea, that is probably easy to shoot down, would be to allow the Merchant to put a "gated" sales tax on all purchases made via their vendors. The bulk of the profit would go to the crafter but the Merchant gets a cut for providing the medium. So say an item is listed by the crafter at 55k, the Merchant then adds say 10 to 15% on top of that, rounding it up to 60 to 64k for the purchase. Merchants would get rich off allowing the Crafters to use their vendors, i.e. admin rights etc. (of course the merchant has to drop the vendor, etc.), and Crafters get the advantage of having their business in a high trafficked player city, like Braxis, or Thalnax, or Smuggler's outpost on dant, on the starsider server. Everyone gets fat, and everyone is happy, well crafter wise anyways. Many people would still have their own characters as merchants as well, but the pure merchants gets this added bonus.
Sevardos
Thu Aug 12, 2004 6:38 am
#8
A consignment type system has been requested by the Merchant Corr for at least 6 months (and most likely longer than that but I wasn't playing then).
So one of the many reasons that irks me about the limits being placed - not the exploit, the limit per vendor - is that they are trying to make the Merchant profession what it was originally designed to be BUT, have yet to put in the tools to make it plausible.
What would I use a merchant for? (assuming a Consignment system is in place)
1. Expansion. I would love to be able to offer my products on other planets without using one of my current vendors. Gives me an opportunity to expand and offer my products in places and planets I feel are underserved.
2. A real Mall ... and I stress on the real part. I want to be able to set up a mall that gave me the following tools:
(a) The ability to charge rent for placing a vendor in the mall
(b) The ability to charge a sales tax for any sales that is done by a Vendor in the mall
(c) The ability to advertise more than just the signage. Perhaps a billboard-type outside of the mall.
(d) The ability to remove vendors from the Mall because the player quit, disagreements, etc. With all the necessary protections to prevent griefing.
(e) Theme designed structures. Not just one type of look for the mall but a choice of many
(f) Ability to offer storage for tenents of the mall
3. I would usea Merchant in a heatbeat if it was in an actual city. This has been brought up before but it would appealing to breathe some life into the NPC cities other than the starports, cantina and med centre (and the cantina and med centres are full of afk players so even that is limited). Ability to lease out a room and then place merchants would be intrigueing.
4. Guarantee that I would not be cheated out of my inventory - whether thats the inventory system of any other type of protections.
Bandola
Thu Aug 12, 2004 6:44 am
#9
The only thing that would make me want to use any Merchant would be if I could not have my own vendors, and since I am a Merchant as well anyway nobody could stop me 
My customers already know the location of my store, and they know what I sell and whether it is in stock before they visit due to proper advertising. So, I would only use a merchant if it was not possible for me to be Architect AND Merchant at the same time, and if that was the case I would quit the game. I am sure that most of us have enough points in Merchant today simply because we want to operate our own vendors, I can't see much to change that, unless of course you want the skill points for something else.
Rurry
Thu Aug 12, 2004 7:05 am
#10
I'm not sure that I wouldEVER want to use a merchant... I think that prices for archy items are too low anyways, and I can't imagine a merchant that would pay my asking price. I price for what i believe that the product is worth, I wouldn't give a discount to a merchant unless he bought 10+ heavy harvesters - which i sell at 150-175k per... The merchant will be able to find someone who will sell to him cheaper.
Edit in another thought:
And I like dealing with the end users, by talking with them you can better serve their wants and desires. How many of us have ended up selling an entire city after a city hall sale and a discussion with the buyer? Using a merchant that would be lost I feel. A client buys me out of chairs, wants more, a quick tell and things are taken care of, the merchant doesn't help with that.
Message Edited by Rurry on 08-12-2004 10:08 AM
RotorofCorRng
Thu Aug 12, 2004 7:26 am
#11
I am with Pawlin. If the system can guarantee me my cut, then I might use a merchant. Is either that, or someone tha twants to pay upfront.
Pawlin
Thu Aug 12, 2004 9:53 am
#12
I am actually a merchant myself, 3/0/0/2 level (if I recall right). I would also need to have some reason to want to drop those skill points. With my current template I don't really have anything else I really want to do with those points. But if it was easy to work with another merchant then maybe I'd drop it and then go play around with CH or something just for kicks.
EnFERn0
Thu Aug 12, 2004 12:25 pm
#13
I don't see how/why a merchant would want to buy 250 Heavy Harvesters from me, and sell on his vendor.
The only way to make this feasible. Would be for merchants to put up a "pickup point" in a crafters house, where he comes and retrieves the products. Then to sell in his store, where he can add his profit margins. And still the sale be credited to the crafter. Hard to explain.
I put up an item for him to sell for me. I want 110k for it. He sells it for 125k. When it's bought. He gets 15k and I get my 110k.
The only way to make this feasible. Would be for merchants to put up a "pickup point" in a crafters house, where he comes and retrieves the products. Then to sell in his store, where he can add his profit margins. And still the sale be credited to the crafter. Hard to explain.
I put up an item for him to sell for me. I want 110k for it. He sells it for 125k. When it's bought. He gets 15k and I get my 110k.
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