Merchant Archive

I am on Corella, and all of the houses we can build are so far out of the city, that I might as well have places my shop under a rock.

How can I get people to come visit? Only 2.5 min run, but a world away it seems.

Any advice?

Send everyone you see a waypoint, advertise lower prices, say it's ONLY a 3 minute run from town, give away freebies, TALK to people, shout announcements in town, hold contests and parties and auctions, etc...

The simple fact is, if you have good prices, good items, and are trustworthy, they will come.

Word of mouth is by far the best asset you can have.Give some free items to somebody making a large credit purchase. They will come back and bring friends!

Personaly I set up a macro to /shout about my wonderful store and low prices and set it up to yell every 15 min so at least when I am not online I can still advertise.

Quality products at a respectable price. Undercutting is bad for the economy as a whole, so sell your wares at the same price point others do. If your doing a general store,carry as diverse a product lien as possible. That goes for every type of merchant, i personally have 6-7 gun types on my vendor, i sell at a very reasonable price and the units are all good quality (cheaper if their lower then my standard) and ill burn 30-40 guns a day off thier with no effort what so ever.

First step is loyal customer base. Ive been building guns since luanch day, and id say 50-75% of my main business are loyal repeat customers. They understand what i need, and I understand what they need, and they know ill give em what thier looking for (albiet maybe not right away since a do a great deal of business i have quite a large number of custom stuff to build before i restock etc....). Find the people who come to you continually, and make sure you provide them with whatever they need, ask them to help spread the word, let others know they like your goods/service.

Second step: Advertise. Every time i sell something off the bazaar i send an email with a way point. I go to cantinas, send way points, go to hospitals, send a way point, bazaar terminals, senda waypoint. Since im a gunsmith, most of the population needs a gun......Shout in town, strike up conversations with random people. Just get the word out, luckily forums help a great deal with this too.

3rd: Incentives. TO my normal customers, Ill break them a deal, ie 2 for one, 50% off, take this gun for free etc. Keeps them interested in you. Plus when you help them out liek that, theyll tell thier friends. Throw a party, have musicians, dancers, docotrs, chefs, your armour smith friends, tailors etc. Help your freinds, helps you. Do give aways, every tenth sale gets a free crate of stimpacks or sumthing. Contests are always a plus. Raffles etc.......anything to get the public wanting to come to your store, even if they dont "need" what you have right now, odds are if thier browinsg aroudn, others are talkign about how cool thier new lighsaber (woo hoo just got 3 of these myself......rares tradign market i see comign up, im rich so im buyign them all now), theyll impulse buy. Have a half off day etc......Thiers all sorts of gimmicks to get the potential customer out fo the city and into the country side.

But above all else, be personable, and provide the best customer service available. Thiers a thousand others in your profession, you have to give them that extra bit of personal touch........

Also, think about setting up in a fairly high-traffic area away from the major cities. You might get a different clientele then you're looking for, but I think it might work. I'm setting up shop near the Tusken Fort today, trying to sell things geared to what the Tusken raiders (not to be confused with the Tusken Raiders) would want, i.e., weapons powerups, stat buffing food, med/stimpacks, resources, etc.

Another solution that saves you all the barking pain is to place your vendors where action takes place, or where your items are needed.

For example, in Tatooine, the big leveling spot for fighters is the Tusken Camp near Jabbas Palace. Place a VISIBLE house there and offer what players need : the best weapons on the planet, the best armors, raw material for docs (stacks of organics and inorganics) and of course...sets of tusken clothes =)

You can also place crafting machines there..so that players with some skills can change their mind for a while between two fights craft for themselves and eventually offer surplusses on your vendors.

One thing noticable as well is that battle fatigue is not curable on scout camps. If anybody can confirm that it can be cured in houses, then you could hire an entertainer and get people to your shop.

Another interest to be on the hot spots in that people buy your wares in emergency..they need it..which allows you a noticably better margin than anywhere else.

Of course this strategy fits maily pure merchants, not crafters with merchant capabilities, that prefer to stay in urban areas and meet their customers so that they can get some greetings about the quality of their products.

Your comments are welcome.

Treat your customers well and word of mounth advertising wil keep you so busy you will wish you had help to keep up. Atleast for weapons on Lowca.