Merchant Archive

Thats about it...What do you do to bring in the business? Your items dont show on the biz so how do you bring in the coustomers? Do you just /yell item at vendor xxx/yyyby the starports or cantienas or what?

I put my house in a heavily trafficked area around Bestine. Then I dressed up a few entertainers and cut some some people a few deals on clothes. Sense I'm at my house most of the time when someone needed me I'd send a way point with where it was and when they came by they would be impressed and end up telling their friends. Probably 90% of the people who come by are on word of mouth.

I've always meant to do the email messages after bazaar sales but never get around to it for some reason and I never know if something was a house sale or a bazaar sale. I've never tried the shouting method either. Personally if I saw someone shouting it in the city I'd probably make sure not to go there.

One little trick I use to distinguish my vendor sales from bazaar sales: On Bazaar, I price my items at "99" increments, not "100" increments. On my vendor, I just use even hundreds. First, even though it seems totally stupid, the "99" thing really has been shown time and again to work in real world marketing. Second, I can distinguish my goods better. So if I get an e-mail that I've just sold a pair of boots for 399, I know it was on bazaar; if 400, it was from my shop....

I got my customers by advertising on the Scylla board Also, by using one of the macros I made to advertise my shop any time i entered a city, andword of mouth has also played a big part in drawing customers to my shop.

doh sue!! i use the 99 and 100 thing too, dont go given our secrets away! heeh

I am a smuggler, and I sell spice, sliced gear, food and weapon powerups. Most of my advertisement was from making friends with one of the most known weaponmakers on the server. I slice some of his stuff etc, and he tells all his customers they can really deck out their new stuff at my shop. The people who come LOVE it, and tell all their pals. In just 3 days i now have a very very steady client pool! good fun!

Mt trick is to sell some basic items, like spiced tea and bofa Treats for like 25 credits on bazaar. in the item description box I give directions and coordinates to my shop. The yelling thing has worked wonders. Something else to think about, I charge a 1cr access fee, you get xp for doing this. I ran through Novice Merchant and Advertising 1 in about 24 hour period.

I do a combination of all of the above (cept the 99 deal). Ihave more customers through word of mouth then i can possibly supply on a given day, let alone keep the shop stocked. I have a macro yell for when in cities, email all past customers, even write down peoples names as i run by and send out an email with the waypoint and a description.

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No access fee, although i should, since ive seen upwards of 15 people in my house more then a few times.

Everytime I sell something on the bazaar, I send the buyer a waypoint and a description of my business. I also mention that items brought at my shop are cheaper than the items I sell on the bazaar. I also rely on the radiant board and word of mouth from repeat customers.

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I do a little of what you guys are doing as well. Sending email on bazaar sales is VERY effective my hit ratio on those emails is extremely high.

I have started my own Ad Barking campain in the city and I have some crafting contacts that only sell through me so they refer anyone who asks them about stuff to my place.

Honestly it would be a lot easier if I could get more of those, but I understand why the weaponsmiths and armorers want to keep all their profits.

Don't know about other servers or areas but Naboo on Lowca I have to go afk and ignore tells to even make weapons to sell. I can produce 50+ laser rifles AND 50+ laser carbines a day and still not keep up with existing repeat customers and their friends. Advertising would kill me at this point in the ball game. Heheheheh.

Well, I get a lot of /tells from people looking to buy guns, so I am always afk and have the coordinates in the afk message. I also sare my shop with a few other weaponsmiths who all send out emails and keep friends lists of everyone who has bought anything from them. I've actually got so much traffic at my shop I have musicians playing there because it gets more traffic than the local cantina. Now there is a pub that has appeared next to me and a hospital, so we have a one stop do/all city now

Sweet Zara. Same for me. I got a droid engineer, tailor, armorsmith, andarchitech who hang by our city. I've seen over 45 people in it the other night. Crazy stuff.

Here's my little secret...anything listed for sale in my store ends with a 1...101, 2001, 51, etc. When I list on the bazaar I list is regular....that way when I get mail saying I have a sale, I know whether someone was at my store or not!

Turning on the Novice Tailor flag does it too...I actually have mine off. I got a zillion tells for dusters, which I can't make yet hehe.

Outfitting a few characters who play alot and are good people is a way to get free advertising. Give away s good weapon to someone with your store wp and tell them to reccommend you. They really do and its a great way to network.