Tailor Archive
Thread: Anyone else have problems with lack of sales?
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AveBria
Tue Jul 20, 2004 3:27 pm
#1
Hi, first time poster here, but have been been running my own shop on Bria outside Coronet, for the last 3 months. My vendor is right on the "edge" where you can't build anymore and can easily be gotten to by coming out of the starport.
I have set my single vendor up to include about 90% of tailor made items in 7 different colours. I put my shop waypoint on each item I sell and each item is color labled. The only advertising I do is on the bazaar. I'm an Australian player and usually am only on about 3 hrs before server downtime each night. So even when I wear my tailor tag, I rarely get tells from people!
I've been tracking my sales and have been averaging about200,000k the first month, 300,000k the 2nd month, usually seeing about 10-20k in sales a day on average. Most sales come from a single purchaser buying many items at one shot. Using the merchant program, I have found I only have one repeat customer and that person is a tailor in training who just comes and buys the odd factory crate off my vendor.
In the last week or two, my sales have dropped dramatically! I think in the last week alone I made a total of 20k on my vendor! I'm definately not seeing the daily foot traffic anymore.
On a side note, my husband has a chef in the same shop and he isn't getting many sales off his vendor either. Interestingly enough, both of us can put our highest end items on the bazaar and both sell out in one day (he can sell out in less than a day selling brandy, and I can sell everything out in 2 days selling master items.) So that tells me there is definately not a "lack" of sales, but makes me wander why people don't go to vendors to shop?
At this point, I have decided to "reorganize" my wares. I will be dropping prices on master items (which I usually price in the 6k-10k range) to see if that helps any to maybe 6k. As a need for more space rather than wanting to sell factory crates, I have put them on my vendor at kind of high prices. Don't really want to sell these out all the time. =) I will also be adding BE clothing within the next month to see if that helps.
There is a part of me that even wanders why I mess with all of this. I did some calculations and figured I could make 150,000k on the bazaar every 2-3 days by selling master items alone with NO WHERE near the work I put into keeping my vendor stocked (this has more to do with about 100 items a day dropping to the stock room than sales) I am half tempted to shut down my shop and work off the bazaar exclusively.
I'm just wandering if anyone else has any problems with this. I've wandered if it's demographics, the server, the hours I play, or just time. I don't overly mind the low income, but sometimes it doesnt feel enough to take the time to stock everything out of the stockroom. =) I will definately be lowering my prices shortly though. Other tailors that have a similar setup to me don't charge quite as much as I do. There is one tailor not far from me that is set up pretty much like me, but with a huge showroom of every type of clothing. When I saw her prices, I about gagged! She was selling master items for 3k and had hardly anything else for over 1k. There is no way I could charge as low as that person is doing.
Any thoughts, ideas, or input would be appreciated. =) If all else fails, I know I can make a straight killing off the bazaar...... (sigh)
ArthurDentOnBria
Tue Jul 20, 2004 4:56 pm
#2
Tailor...coronet...Bria, I've been there, done that, lol. That was me 9-10 months ago, but times they have a-changed.I'm not sure what to tell you except that I really don't think that your lack of sales is due to clothing pricing pressures. I have no idea what your pricing structure is, but I don't think it's that. The tailoring competition for sales last fall used to be pretty fierce when there were half a dozen really really prolific tailors in corellia all with stocked vendors and putting 25 on the bazaar daily. Not to mention the novices. Now though, it's rare that I ever see a tailor in that area. Check to make sure your vendors are fully stocked, that your place is accessible, and that you are on the planetary map.
One thing that might be killing you is that the chef biz is really cut-throat right now, and you might be suffering by virtue of that (people are very price conscious for chef items, but not so much for clothing). If a lot of your customers were "walk-ins" that were there to buy food and now they are getting it elsewhere, that would explain it. I know that there is a chef in your area that just "moved in" and is charging prices like 75k for a 25-crate of "12 point" bio engineered brandy and he is very prolific. I also know of several other very prolific chefs that have set up shop nearby, so that may be killing ya.
Message Edited by ArthurDentOnBria on 07-20-2004 05:00 PM
PureJeanius
Tue Jul 20, 2004 7:46 pm
#3
What you may be noticing is the effect of the new auction channel. I'm in Theed and Bastion on Naboo. While I've had no drop in sales, I have been watching the auction channel very carefully to see how many people inquire about bio and standard clothing. The auction channel has altered the way people buy things. They don't have to travel to countless empty vendors anymore. They never have to visit another vendor again actually. Everything can be bought via the auction channel, arranged through tell, and picked up at an agreed location.
While established vendors and malls will likely be unaffected by this addition to the game, it will make it all the much tougher for newer vendors/merchants. Your schedule may not be the most heavily populated time of the server, but offering your tailor services and vendor waypoint in the auction channel when you're on may help you.
**note - thanks to the auction channel my ignore list has increased immensely. I ignore anyone using colored text, sends huge paragraphs of text, and/or spams the channel. The channel is good for advertising, but keep it simple and infrequent to avoid being ignored by potential customers. 
ShosuroHametsu
Tue Jul 20, 2004 10:22 pm
#4
That sounds like my experience......
I'm on Starsider......have a shopstraight out from the Theed starport.....no competition in the area.....two well stocked Tailoring vendors.....not counting my friends Master weps vendor.......Master Merchant with all the bells and whistles.......and my prices are set about 10% below average for the server.
I sell an average of 3K a day from my two vendors........I sell between 75 and 100K a day on the Theed Bazaar.
In my shop, I've actually had a black gunmans duster fall off after a month.........
I have a few ideas why many shops aren't working but those have all been discussed here. (no deletion of dead vendors from the map, the no build zones where customers have to travel to very nasty areas to shop.....and such)
Vandaemus
Wed Jul 21, 2004 4:31 am
#5
Hmm, i'm on Infinity (low population server ) and i've been averaging 200k - 300k per week on my clothing vendor. i did however set this up as close as possible to Mos Eisly (to catch all the new players 
), i may have yet to see any drop in sales due to the auction channel, but only time will tell
) and i've been averaging 200k - 300k per week on my clothing vendor. i did however set this up as close as possible to Mos Eisly (to catch all the new players ), i may have yet to see any drop in sales due to the auction channel, but only time will tell
Mystyrys
Wed Jul 21, 2004 8:22 am
#6
My sales have doubled this month. I usually make about 500k-1mil a week. I made 3 mil the week the auction channel came out. I have not advertised on the auction channel; I only looked at it a couple times, winced, and went away. I do post a shop advert once a week on the trade forum. I haven't sold anything on the bazaar in 8 months - since I set up shop in Serenity Valley. The city is right outside Mos Espa and my "shop" is in one of the tents in the tent bazaar placed right in front of our shuttleport. I share it with the guild Master Armorsmith (my sales were very brisk before he placed a vendor in the tent) and he says his sales leaped since he moved into the tent. I believe we are mutually beneficial.
There are four basic things I did that made the difference between a "no to lowsales" week and a "booming sales" week.
1) Moved from a large house shop into the tent bazaar by the shuttleport.
2) Posted a detailed shop advertisement on the Galaxy Trade Forum once a week - usually on Sunday.
3) Four vendors - Serenity Fashions (everything but Wookiee, Crates and Quest Schem Items), Serenity Shyriiwook Styles (Wookiee Only), Q Crates (Components, many in packs of various counts for factory needs - each crate bearing the serial # in the item name, and each pack also labeled with the serial #s so multiple packs/crates can be combined), Serenity Limited Luxury Editions (All Quest Reward items - only one of each item listed)
4) On average - stock 2000 items on Fashions, 500 on Shyriiwook, 200-500 on Crates, 8-9 on Luxury.
I do NOT do BE clothes. I do advertise our other guild tailor does do BE clothes and I refer all BE customers to her, and have her included in my weekly trade forum advert. The Crates vendor made a huge difference in sales for all the vendors. It brings in people who don't usually care to shop for clothes. I never have to worry about crate storage - it's on a vendor for sale, or for me to withdraw whenever I need a couple more to restock the vendor next to it. The "Factory Packs" sell like candy. Travel Packs by the crate is a really big bonus for sales too. (Yeah, it's a lot of work and expensive to stock but well worth the effort. About half my sales are crated components.)
If sales are impacted greatly by the addition of the auction channel; I haven't experienced it yet.
Kiatra
Wed Jul 21, 2004 9:12 am
#7
lol i generally sell like 1 item a month...but then again...that has to do with it is an understocked (im waiting till i finish merchant exp and can move my vendor out of my house) unregistered (again waiting on merchant) vendor in a remote town on lok with no shuttle port....yeah...i dont expect to make much lol...but as to why you arent making much out of coronet...that surprises me...thats where i always go to shop (on lowca) cause its easy to get to and almost garunteed that if you find an unstocked vendor, there will be a stocked one within 300m...
VooDooK
Wed Jul 21, 2004 11:04 am
#8
Ionly sell a total of 25 Exotic Leotards and Fleshwraps at 6k each a day on the bazaar. They are always sold out. Of course you have to chose the right colors, which is black, white and red. most other colors never sell out.
Because I shut down my business... I ended up with too many clothes that I could never sell and it was such a waste of money.
The only way to be succesful these days as a tailor is to either:
- Open a shop that only sells white and black clothes
- Open a shop that only sells white and black men clothes
- Open a shop that only sells sexy revealing womens clothes
- Open a shop that only sells BE clothes of all kinds (again, only make them white and black)
- Or take special orders by email or tell. (But this gets so irritating in the long run)
I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I did the opposite of everything I mentioned above, and I didn't sell much, then I did and my business was sorta booming.
AveBria
Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:46 pm
#9
Thanks for the replies. =)
I've even had a half thought of selling only black/white/red items (my 3 top colour sellers). I won't do that because it takes away from my view of a "tailor". Unless I make a goth tailor..... My husband honestly couldn't believe black was the biggest seller until I showed him my end of the month sales.
I've decided to put some more merchanting skills under my hat. Enough to get on the map and get at least 2 vendors set up.
I think in all sincerity the biggest gripe I have is having to restock about 100 items a day back onto my vendor from the stock room.
One thing I have noticed about the Coronet area on my server, for every vendor that goes up, another one goes out of business. My husband and I have managed to block up 3 lots all next to each other. Currently have one small shop, a house for his storage, and a crafting station set up perma for his factory runs atm. I haven't had to whip my factory out in close to 3 weeks now. If the Coronet and generic-style houses weren't so terribly laid out, we would put at least a medium up.
So my business scheme to work on would be get more merchanting skills, sell factory crates, and lower prices at this point. I'm also thinking of letting some clothing items go off my vendor to help with the restocking issues I'm having. That restocking issue is most annoying..... (I keep coming back to that!)
I'm not going to give up on tailor at this time, I do enjoy it. But if my new structuring doesn't work out, I will probably become a "bazaar seller" only.
RebDestroyer
Wed Jul 21, 2004 7:03 pm
#10
I have been doing a boomin business. I stay in my player city most of the time and peddle to my fellow citizens and i make about 20-30 sales a day. but that requires you to keep your vendors stocked and meet demands. also try making a demo house with all your differnt styles on display.
Roshigoth
Wed Jul 21, 2004 9:05 pm
#11
I do pretty well. I don't pay close attention to my sales, but I would estimate about 100-200k/week. I have two vendors: Regular clothing, and BE clothing. I'm slightly high-priced, and located in a small generic house outside Theed. I decorated my shop very nicely (and have gotten compliments for it), and I keep my vendors stocked daily. I also have my vendors on the map, and my shop name has the date of the last restock, so everyone knows the vendors aren't empty. Other than that, I don't advertise at all. No auction channel, and I only put mistakes and unwanted extra clothing on the bazaar.
I take a middle road in my approach to stocking my vendors. I keep a good selection of white/black/red clothing in popular styles (especially for men and combat types), and I go into more interesting colors for the dresses, fleshwraps, leotards, etc. And I take email custom orders.
I take a middle road in my approach to stocking my vendors. I keep a good selection of white/black/red clothing in popular styles (especially for men and combat types), and I go into more interesting colors for the dresses, fleshwraps, leotards, etc. And I take email custom orders.
ecstasia
Wed Jul 21, 2004 10:30 pm
#12
I have noticed a significant drop with all my vendors not just clothes. And it was before the introduction of the Auction Chat Channel. I would stock my vendors, get some sleep, log back in and find (across all vendors) sales of 25k or more (to me that is great since I am only in the lower levels of Tailor and Architect). No I'm lucky if I seel something for 6k every week. Something happened, but what I don't know.
And I am in a very visible area. On the outskirts of Theed.
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