Prohibit PP commercial plots being used to promote a mainstore.
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Jelly Doll
Established SL businesses are claiming PP commercial plots with the intent of using them as promotional advertisements / satellite locations to drive users to main store locations.
This denies smaller merchants a store location and is exploitative.
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deplove Resident
Usually, whether we’re creators, furniture makers, engineers, hairdressers, or fashion designers, our profiles include a quote that directs visitors to a physical store or an online shop, along with links to platforms like Flickr and/or Primfeed, to boost visibility. Or at the very least, a photo or post that showcases what we do. This includes me, you, and many others like Truth, No Match, Scandalize, and Ysoral, to name a few. The other day I took some time, and thanks to an article by Inara Pey that I’m attaching, I visited all the current shopping centers in Bellisseria. Well, in every center, one or two stores were empty, taken by someone who has none of that in their profile, which makes me think they’re just a premium subscriber who took a space like that just for fun. So a filter is needed, but excluding MP, I’m not sure what kind—a ticket? But aside from showing my creations, how can I prove I’ve been a merchant since 2018?
Oatmeal Linden
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Hello Jelly! Thank you for your feedback!
We are closely monitoring this new program's performance and effectiveness. If you believe that there has been a violation of the covenant for the Linden Homes Commercial regions, please take the time to file an abuse report for the issue and include as much specific information as you can.
The purpose of Linden Homes Commercial is to provide an opportunity for Premium Plus Residents of Second Life to quickly own a business and belong to a community of businesses. The covenant information has more complete information about using your store parcel. You may find the covenant in the About Land panel under the Covenant tab.
We are planning to release additional regions in this program periodically, and understand that demand may frequently be higher than available supply. We apologize for any inconvenience you may be facing due to the limited availability of these parcels.
We understand that this new program has experienced some technical difficulties, which may have hampered parcel availability and the opening of the commercial regions. This is a very new venture for us, and some bugs are to be expected.
Additionally, we will communicate when changes to Linden Home Commercial areas may be applied to any issues that arise.
Please continue to provide your feedback about Linden Home Commercial properties. As this is a new program, we absolutely do want your feedback, so that we may improve.
deplove Resident
Oatmeal LindenHi Oatmeal. When you mention “The Covenant Information,”
do you mean that I need to find an empty store and then go to the “About Land” panel under the “Covenant” tab? But the problem is that there are no stores available. Will we be able to see them on our dashboard once you open new commercial areas, just like the list for Linden Homes? If so, they should only be available to Premium Plus members. Thanks
Oatmeal Linden
deplove Resident: You may view the covenant under About Land in any part of the region. A covenant is established by the estate owner, and applies to all parcel land.
deplove Resident
Oatmeal Linden thank you
Light Snacc
If I have a mainstore, and I own one of these parcels, it's normal to want to also promote the main store. Why would this be exploitative? As long as I'm using the space to sell products, I can use the space to advertise where all of my products are (especially considering the space restrictions here). This is entirely normal, competitive behaviour.
You're better off asking how LL would instead solve this artificial supply issue they've made for themselves in a bid to onboard more premium plus users by generating FOMO.
Jelly Doll
Light Snacc These spaces are supposed to be commercial shops, not advertisements.
So yes, It's a problem if an established brand uses them as free billboard space, that denies users who actually want to START a store from having one.
It's little more than greed.
Light Snacc
Jelly Doll As far as I'm concerned I'm nowhere near an established brand but I've had a store for a while. Am I suddenly barred from having a plot just because I already own a parcel somewhere and would put a teleport to a main store location if I had one, and maybe a small selection of products I have for the Belli plot? That would be highly unfair if I were a Premium Plus member as it could be a potential reason I buy Premium Plus, and if I'm not offered this it would feel like false advertising.
When you have a Premium Plus account, you pay more than you would for a parcel somewhere else already. Linden Lab made this available to
all
accounts. Putting in stipulations to limit someone's access to it just because they make a decent chunk of change on the platform would be unfair and anti-compeyitive, especially considering that only 1 account may only own 1 plot (certainly can't have a monopoly there). Especially if they already put a large portion of that back to SL in the form of a region as their main store. LL suddenly has to limit people's access to this based on the size of their business? Not only that, but you need larger brands to bring footfall to any shopping area, if it's all small businesses you will have a hard time getting people to even consider the value in going there to look at the content of smaller businesses (not to be offensive, but if you're starting out people won't know you, so they might trust the content less and a new merchant has something to prove to potential audiences).If the spot is offering
no
product or service and just a teleport somewhere, sure. This specific instance shouldn't be allowed. But if I want to put promotional or new products there and keep my main catalogue in my main store which, frankly, I have more space to actually do so then there would be no problem with that.If a smaller business really wants to start out, there are more cost-effective ways than a commercial plot in Bellisseria as many regions offer spaces for rent with a much higher potential footfall to the region it is in, before having to pay Premium Plus prices for a tiny spot.
Dana Enyo
I'm not sure what that means, though. Many retailers (including me) have small shops and a big Mainstore. The small ones generate saies of their own, but they might have a "Visit the Mainstore" sign in them. Would you call that "Driving users to the main store"?
(I did NOT get one of the PP shops in Bellissaria, by the way.)
deplove Resident
I’ve been keeping an eye on an empty store in the Bellisseria shopping center, but it’s occupied by someone who doesn’t create anything (their profile just says silly things like “I like doing XXX”). It’s been empty for three days now—that’s the problem: anyone can occupy a store just for the sake of having a space they don’t know what to do with. They need to increase the number of spaces and include a feature in the dashboard similar to how you choose a Linden Home, but with a filter that allows only merchants to claim them.
DittanyBelle Resident
deplove Resident what would the filter be? having a store on MP? Because any PP user can set up an MP store, and if that's all they have to do to get their free 1024 that's what they'll do.
deplove Resident
DittanyBelle ResidentThat's true, you're right, but we need a filter to verify that you're a merchant. It's just that, at the moment, that's the only thing that came to mind. But as Oatmeal Linden's post says, they're planning to implement merchant zones—let's hope it happens soon.
Light Snacc
deplove Resident Verifying someone is a merchant is something I do think should be the case, as becoming one is just a case of selling something (maybe on MP). But the idea of prohibiting larger brands from this I believe goes in the opposite direction to solving this.
A lot of places besides technical issues could simply be empty because they aren't actual merchants but wanted the space "just because".
Nerxual Oh
Big named stores that majority of SL knows, should step back in this. Let others shine for once.
deplove Resident
Nerxual Oh Sorry, Nerxual, but I think, for example, if my store were next to a big, well-established brand in SL, I’d have greater visibility. An eye-catching display might pique the curiosity of that big-brand customer and encourage them to visit my store too. It’s all about marketing :))