Merchant Archive
Thread: Vet Merchants Would You Please Take a Look Here......
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gubbie
Sun Aug 29, 2004 11:58 am
#1
Well,
I'm a relativly new merchant looking for a master to learn from and haven't found one yet....but anyway I was wondering if i could have a few tips on how to run a sucessful business.....i find faqs to be ok, but i want pro advice.....
thx for your time
Gasp
Sun Aug 29, 2004 8:25 pm
#2
Best advice...DO NOT SPAM.
I built a business ( a very successful one) by listing a few things on the bazaar....then sending out a thank you & a waypoint to every person who bought from the bazaar, along with a realistic list of what I was offering on my vendors. Keep your vendors stocked & prices reasonable & you'll be in business before you know it
GraySeven
Sun Aug 29, 2004 10:39 pm
#3
Using the planetary map, check out vendors stocking items you yourself plan to sell. This will help you get some idea as to how to price. Just remember that you have to cover ALL of the costs of making the items, from power for harvesters, to structure maintenance and vendor fee's, and most importantly the resource costs. Your time also has value, so selling items that are time consuming to make at a low price takes from you.
Good luck
Elyssa
Mon Aug 30, 2004 12:21 am
#4
Location. Location. Location.
Sell your items at "realistic" prices. If you sell too low, you'll be constantly restocking and your vendor will sit empty. Customers will see an empty vendor and not come back. If you sell too high, customers will laugh and not come back. Very few people are gonna pay 10k for a CDEF pistol.
Don't advertise what you don't have.
Nothing is more annoying than checking out a "loot" or "discount" vendor only to find out that it was bait and switch to get easy xp.
Get as many vendors as fast as you can.
More vendors = faster xp
However, don't put "xp only" vendors out front.
Name them something like "xp vendor" and put it in the back room.
You can only get xp from a single player once every 15 minutes so having them click on each of your vendors makes no difference and just annoys them if you have lots of empty vendors sitting around.
Don't waste time with an access fee.
Many people will pay a 1cr fee, but many people won't.
The xp reward is less than a vendor click so you'll actually do better to give them free access to the building.
A 1cr access fee is usuallly the sign of someone seeking merchant xp and tends to make people think that your vendors might not be very well stocked.
Get listed on the planetary map after you've got several vendors.
Once the xp starts to flow, you'll want visibility to increase traffic.
Get rid of that bulky vendor as soon as you can.
It's the merchant equivalent of running around in n00b clothes.
Don't use the "robo-bartender" vendor.
It's small, dark colored,and easily overlooked.
Don't put your vendors in the "entry" area of a house (except the round generic/corellian and small tatooine).
The delay as objects load when a player enters a house will frequently make them walk right by your vendors because they can't see them.
Most building layouts have a "main" area. Put them here because most players will wait there while everything loads in.
Did I mention location?
High traffic areas are the key.
Player cities are fine and dandy, *IF* it's an active city.
If it's more of just a bedroom community, you won't get too many sales.
Talus and Rori are inconvenient travel destinations.
Coronet and Theed are travel hubs.
Mos Eisley has a very high n00b population (which is very good for low-end sales).
Dantooine seems to be a popular destination.
Proximity to a shuttleport is always good, even if you're not actually in the city. Just make sure the city is stable enough that they aren't likely to lose their shuttleport.
Hey, this is good stuff.
Somebody should be writing this down! 
Awat
Mon Aug 30, 2004 9:07 pm
#5
Additional advice:
- Demonstrate reliability - constant stock, stable prices.
Customers like reliability. Keep your stock up, make sure your prices don't fluctuate too much, and you'll get repeat business. Repeat business is what keeps a merchant in credits. - Track resource prices!
Nothing kills your profit margin like pricing items based on an average resource price, and then paying 3-4 times that average price for resources without adjusting the price of your items. If you make food items that depend on meat, base your prices on 3cpu for meat, then pay 20cpu, well, you're going to go broke fast. When you establish your prices, map them in part to the cost of resources - I use a database in which I can adjust the cpu cost of any of my items. Adjusting the cost of resources immediately updates the cost of all of the items made with that resource. (A bit much, but it works for me.) - Be available!
My sales have tapered off a bit recently because I've not been playing as much (in anticipation of Publish 10.) When you're not available, your customers think you're unreliable (see the first point.)
Delbert
Tue Aug 31, 2004 6:18 am
#6
I've been a merchant since basicly week 1 on Flurry.
here are my tips.
#1-1 Know your product line and know what comparable items sell for on your server in order to be competitive.
#1-2 Keep your prices constant for the same items. Make your a price list to keep in front of you when u stock vendors. nothing is worse than finding both ber12 and ber13 heavy harvesters for 120k each on the same vendor.
#2 constantly stocked vendor. Nothing makes people forget about your vendors than going to them and finding them empty.
#3 Talk to your custermers. If someone buys something while your online send them a tell thanking them for their business. And if they have questions about what u sell answer them as well as u can (see #1) this in itself generates a lot of return business as they remember you and your vendors longer.
#4 Location is good.. you don't want to be stuck 2k from the nearest shuttle.. u will get little business then.. 500 to 600 meters from a busy starport or a favorite hunting spot can generate a lot of business unless u get drowned out in a crowd.
#5-1 TradeMarking.. this is a subject that I see little addressed. You want to label some things so that the person using it will remember u but some things its just crazy to add a trademark..
#5-2 I see some people slap their name on everthing they make from armor to weapons to furniture. Who wants a house full of furnitue that has someones name in every peice. not me.. I have been selling Powerups forever on flurry so on those since no one uses them for decor i trademark them with my DDS name.. I use the name DDS Inc. for business.
#6 When u have multible vendors divide your products up into logical grouping.. I use one for powerups another for furniture another for deeds and another for lighting and paintings.. and label your venders with whats kept on them.. examples i use are DDS Deeds, DDS Powerups, DDS Furniture... I find the shorter the better as it reduces clutter on the overhead map. short and to the point is best.
#7 Invest in some harverster whether they are yours or statics.. resouce prices fluxuate. but harvesting costs remain constant.
#8 Do not expand your business to be bigger than your willing to work it. I could be a larger Mega - retailer on flurry if i so chose but i tried to stay medium small so i could have fun with the game also.
#9 Advertize. and I don't mean by spamming.. sell stuff on the public baazar and send info-mails to buyers telling about your products and your vendor waypoints. Be creative
#10 Be patient it takes time to build a reputation and when u do you will start getting lots of business by word of mouth. most of the people who buy from me were friends of buyer who were friends of other buyers and so on.
here are my tips.
#1-1 Know your product line and know what comparable items sell for on your server in order to be competitive.
#1-2 Keep your prices constant for the same items. Make your a price list to keep in front of you when u stock vendors. nothing is worse than finding both ber12 and ber13 heavy harvesters for 120k each on the same vendor.
#2 constantly stocked vendor. Nothing makes people forget about your vendors than going to them and finding them empty.
#3 Talk to your custermers. If someone buys something while your online send them a tell thanking them for their business. And if they have questions about what u sell answer them as well as u can (see #1) this in itself generates a lot of return business as they remember you and your vendors longer.
#4 Location is good.. you don't want to be stuck 2k from the nearest shuttle.. u will get little business then.. 500 to 600 meters from a busy starport or a favorite hunting spot can generate a lot of business unless u get drowned out in a crowd.
#5-1 TradeMarking.. this is a subject that I see little addressed. You want to label some things so that the person using it will remember u but some things its just crazy to add a trademark..
#5-2 I see some people slap their name on everthing they make from armor to weapons to furniture. Who wants a house full of furnitue that has someones name in every peice. not me.. I have been selling Powerups forever on flurry so on those since no one uses them for decor i trademark them with my DDS name.. I use the name DDS Inc. for business.
#6 When u have multible vendors divide your products up into logical grouping.. I use one for powerups another for furniture another for deeds and another for lighting and paintings.. and label your venders with whats kept on them.. examples i use are DDS Deeds, DDS Powerups, DDS Furniture... I find the shorter the better as it reduces clutter on the overhead map. short and to the point is best.
#7 Invest in some harverster whether they are yours or statics.. resouce prices fluxuate. but harvesting costs remain constant.
#8 Do not expand your business to be bigger than your willing to work it. I could be a larger Mega - retailer on flurry if i so chose but i tried to stay medium small so i could have fun with the game also.
#9 Advertize. and I don't mean by spamming.. sell stuff on the public baazar and send info-mails to buyers telling about your products and your vendor waypoints. Be creative
#10 Be patient it takes time to build a reputation and when u do you will start getting lots of business by word of mouth. most of the people who buy from me were friends of buyer who were friends of other buyers and so on.
Okeefe
Tue Aug 31, 2004 11:09 pm
#7
Run. Run fast, run far, and don't look back.
Unless you want to be a slave to your character, or you think that work should be more fun than a game, do not become a merchant.
SOE has no idea how to set up merchants to make them fun and viable.
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