CUEmu - Thread Posts

AlexKC

Sun Feb 29, 2004 7:09 pm

#1

Hey,

I'm desperately tryng to get my weaponsmith business off the ground. I'm also a 2000 merchant. I have 1 vendor outside

Coronet, 1 NE of Anchorhead, and a nother coming soon to the city i live in, Mos Quito on Naritus. My questions are:

1. Does registering your vendor on the map really attract business?

2. Has spam-advertising worked in your experience? (I've had mixed results)

3. Any tips for a new merchant?

Thanks

Olmaal Ackiv - Naritus' first Mon Calamari Jedi Knight

Osx

Sun Feb 29, 2004 7:45 pm

#2

I just took up merchant about a week or 2 ago and YES spam advertising works great! As soon as I start spamming coronet I get about 200 sales in the next 2 hours until I pretty much sell out. Then again the stuff I sell always sells like hot cakes

85%+ base comp w/ 25% stun lol

I found that one of the best places to put your vendor is outside the entrance of coronet (the one near the starport, I think its south im not sure...) this way ppl dont have to go through the whole city to get to your vendor. That really pissed me off when I had to go to this great WS shop to pick up some new weaps, so thats y i spent about an hour trying to find a spot where i could drop a house. And i found one too! only 800m from the staport! lol

FulminataXII

Sun Feb 29, 2004 9:29 pm

#3

I think map registration helps. As a customer I rarely do business with vendors that aren't registered on the map. It's just more convenient for me to check the map when I need something.

Asteroids

Mon Mar 01, 2004 6:12 am

#4

Coronet is good is you can get established and make a name for yourself for quality items and keeping your stock levels up. Nothing worse than visiting a unstocked vendor. How many times have you kept a waypoint if the vendor is empty?

It seems, at least on my server that Coronet is the place to do most of your shopping. Due to it being the hub of the galaxy. Compared to someother places where you would have to get two transports. Also alot of people have to travel via Coronet to get someplace else and how many times have you decided to visit a local shop while you have 9 minutes left to wait on the transport?

This does have a downside, if there is already lots of establised vendors (in your case weaponsmiths), you need to be offering something they aren't or at least the same, whether that be quality of product or prices.

The registering helps for the extra you have to pay. Its another method for letting people know you are there. How many times have you gone on a shopping trip and just visited the nearly vendors listed on the map?

Spamming works if you have a decent stocked vendor at decent prices of decent quality. As its all about getting them to your shop first (in the hope they keep your waypoint for future). So once you have them in the shop you need to have good prices/stock/quality so they don't feel it was a waste of time visiting. How many times have you gone to a vendor when someone is spamming that they have the best this and that or are fully stocked to find they have junk or really expensive?

As an aside, with spamming try to keep your shouts reasonable in repetition. How many times are you at some spaceport and someone spams the same message every 15 seconds? Its more annoying than productive and realistically you aren't going to miss anyone every 15 seconds than every couple of minutes or so.

Asteroids

Mon Mar 01, 2004 6:16 am

#5

Also, you might want to try some marketing tricks, for example loss leaders. Temporarily and for a limited time only offering goods are reduced prices and advertising this (spam and on these boards). People will always try a vendor if they think they are going to get something cheaper than 'normal'. Then you've got them through your doors and hopefully into their datapads.

This was done by someone I know quite sucessfully and even after the prices went up, people continue returning.

Buugli

Wed Mar 03, 2004 10:32 am

#6

Rather tham spamming I liked the approach a resource vendor near me took. I think he used the /who command for a listing of people in the area (Tyrena before it became a ghost town) and sent an email with his waypoint and what to expect on his vendors. I appreciated this no-spam approach, plus I had something handly to forward to others when asked about resources.

I've not used this yet myself as I am not ready for mass production, but being a spam-hater this is the approach I would use. Bit more work, lot less spatial clutter and lag.

Merchant Archive

Thread: Best Vendor locations and other queries