Artisan Archive
Thread: Business and vendor etiquette (and some starting tips)
Page 1 of 1
hrakno
Sun Sep 25, 2005 10:08 am
#1
Welcome to the artisan community, first of all.
This is a short introduction that I felt like writing, not only for new players, but it seems like a few of the older ones needs a reminder too. Apologizing inadvancefor errors/spelling.
First of all, in order to conduct business you will most likely need vendors.They canbe aquired from your house terminal, when you have the proper skills. There are many different ways of advertising for your business, some of which are better.
Hereis a short list of things to keep in mind when you're setting up your business.
1) Keep it clean
Avoid having 75 different vendors in your house, with names that does not fit their contents. If you're selling resources and some loot, andyour name isBob,thena pretty good name fora vendor would be "Bob's resources and loot". Or perhaps you want to have one vendor for resources, andone forloot.This makes it easier for the customer to find what they are looking for.Thereare lots oftrashy vendors in the game already, don't add to them please. Think about how you want other people's vendors to look when you're setting up your own.
2) No fraud
A typical fraud would be to nameatrashy rifle"T21 rifle \ 800-1500 dam \ 5 sac \ 5000 dps \ not sliced", then put it up for sale, cheap, and hope that people will impulse buy without checking. Another fraud would be to name a bag "Full set of 8000 std prot battle armour - 100% durability", thenstuff a few broken datapads in it and put it up for 1 mil at your vendor. Not onlyare things like this stupid, butalso punishable by the admin. If you fool anyone, they will never come back. At least not with shopping on their mind...
3) Be careful with storage vendors
You can use vendors to store items, when your houses are starting to get full. If you are going to store items on a vendor, make sure people doesn't buy them by misstake.The rulesforfraudulent conductapplies to all your vendors. Your house is public, and soare your vendors. If you want to store a bag of 10 blob candys, then name the bag "10 blob candys". If you don't want it bought(people have the right to buy stuff from all your vendors) then set the price to 999999999 credits or something. Remember that even if you do that, you may get in trouble, so be careful.
4) Don't spam
People can find out about your business in many different ways. The forums, word to mouth (if you got quality goods, people will find out), and of course through the game systems, such as the bazaar and the worldvendor lists. Spamming works too, but its not very liked. If you absolutely have to stand somewhere and spam about your business, at least be informative. Keep it short - what your business is, where it is, and perhapsthe best way to get there.
5) Restock your vendors
There is nothing more frustrating then taking that extra turn to the rori borderlands, only to find a dusty vendor with a few CDEF items and some scrappy space-loot on it. If you advertise your business, make sure you actually have the items you're advertising for. If your regulars find your shop empty one too many times, they will start shopping from someone else.
TIPS
Following the above rules should keep you afloat. Here are some tips.
A goodconcept is to have some "nice price" goods. When people aresearching for something in the bazaar, and find it cheap at your vendor, they will go there. While they are there, they often buy other things as well. You may loose a few creds on that particular item, but gain someon other items, and perhaps increase your customer base in the long run. If someone buys a power hammer cheap, they may pay it back by buying their pups from you rather then someone else.
Come up with an interesting name for your building/store. If someone thinks the building name sounds interesting, they may stop by. Try to be original.
You might find it hard to get your business running.Ask people for advice.Start with asking your guildmates. If you're not a member of a guild you might want tojoin one now. It is ofteneasier to sell things in a player city,because they usually have a shuttleport, and other conveniences.
Finally, it is important to keep quality goods at your vendors and all that, but getting people to visit them is perhaps even more important.
I have not updated my signature for a while, but here it is anyways.
hrakno
Sun Sep 25, 2005 10:12 am
#2
Here is another good tip - if you see Hrakno on Ahazi, give him credits and items.
Saera
Sun Sep 25, 2005 10:46 am
#3
Nice post.. but wanted to add a comment.. can't help myself 
hrakno wrote:
3) Be careful with storage vendors
You can use vendors to store items, when your houses are starting to get full. If you are going to store items on a vendor, make sure people doesn't buy them by misstake.The rulesforfraudulent conductapplies to all your vendors. Your house is public, and soare your vendors. If you want to store a bag of 10 blob candys, then name the bag "10 blob candys". If you don't want it bought(people have the right to buy stuff from all your vendors) then set the price to 999999999 credits or something. Remember that even if you do that, you may get in trouble, so be careful.
4) Don't spam
People can find out about your business in many different ways. The forums, word to mouth (if you got quality goods, people will find out), and of course through the game systems, such as the bazaar and the worldvendor lists. Spamming works too, but its not very liked. If you absolutely have to stand somewhere and spam about your business, at least be informative. Keep it short - what your business is, where it is, and perhapsthe best way to get there.
5) Restock your vendors
There is nothing more frustrating then taking that extra turn to the rori borderlands, only to find a dusty vendor with a few CDEF items and some scrappy space-loot on it. If you advertise your business, make sure you actually have the items you're advertising for. If your regulars find your shop empty one too many times, they will start shopping from someone else.
On #3.. if I recall correctly, droid vendors don't show up on the "map" in your house.. which makes them easier to hide. And most importantly, if it's a pure storage vendor, turn off vendor search! Pet peeve of mine I guess.. going thru the vendor search and seeing tons of things for 9999999 credits
On #4.. if you must spam, don't falsify what you sell in order to get more traffic. I just saw someone in Theed spamming about the lowest prices on the server, and my curiousity got the better of meand I went to check and they were so wrong. *puts a sucker stamp on her forehead*. But never again will I visit this shop.
On #5 .. I could not agree more, keep your vendors stocked. If you are spamming and I go to your vendor and find them rather pathetically stocked I will of course not visit you again. This goes back to #4 really.. don't lie or exaggerate to get people to come. If you don't have what you say you do, you can count on one customer never returning.. and or possible telling everyone they know to avoid you.
And one thing you didn't add - your reputation is very important as a seller/crafter. It only takes one person saying you "stink" to ruin everything.If you want to be successful, don't lie and don't trick people. Keep your vendors stocked as best you can and keep your customers happy. A happy customer tends to tell their friends/guild. Before long you can have a ton of customers. But just as quickly, you can have a ton of people avoiding your shop....
Page 1 of 1