How to run Successful Shops in EU - 2019

morey

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Aurisk Morey Kenbi
Hello, I wanted to write a guide on how to properly run a shop in EU because I noticed many new shopowners end up failing. Which really sucks.

If you're a current shop owner or thinking of running a shop / changing up your shop theme, this is for you!



A. Selecting A Shop
B. Choose a Successful Shop Theme
(I see most problems Here)
C. Supply and Keeping Stock
D. Shop Organization
(Here)
E. Getting customers (And Here)
F. Improvements/Investments



A good selling shop is a win/win for the shop owner and also for the buyer

- Cause its always cheaper than auction
- Availablility
- Buyer can compare better
- Smaller stacks at low prices



A. Selecting A Shop

1. Apartment with Shopkeepers (taxed 2.5%, paid to MA): An apartment cannot act as a shop unless you place shopkeepers there. The apartments does sound attractive since it is cheaper, but running here also means you will not benefit from foot traffic, or from ads from other nearby stores. I will not recommend running stores in apartments.

2. Shop in a Mall (taxed 2.5%, paid to mall owner): This is the best choice for most owners as every active shop benefits each other.
Important Factors:
- Proximity to Teleporter or Televator. The closer the better, ofc price will go up too.
- Proximity to AH & other active stores. Active store traffic feeds off of each other. People will check out nearby locations. It's important to know what type of stores are around you and what they stock. This determines the majority type of players that walk by. Ex. If a whole floor is specifically hunting supplies and you run a single mining shop, it might be harder for you to succeed.
- Display Area item points: Item points in display helps people quickly glance what you are all about without walking in. This is helps covert foot traffic and helps new shoppers find you.
- Main Area item points: Where most of your stock will be. When a customer comes in, this is what they see.

3. Shop in a LA (taxed): These are usually owned by the LA owner as well. It's like a fancy apartment where LA owner get back the taxes anyways. Shops here should just mimic the theme of the LA.




B. Choose a Successful Shop Theme

Common Shop Themes: Each theme has a Low, Mid, High lv to stock for.
- Weapons (Melee, Energy, BLP, MF) & Weapon amps
- Armors and Armor plates
- FAPs & Regen chips: Not a good standalone theme, Best as an "extra" in a hunting shop
- Damage Enhancers
- Finders, Mining Amplifiers & Depth Enhancers
- Fashion: Run events to support this theme
- Hair Dresser/ Coloring: Run events to support this theme, also requires you to be online more often
- StrongBoxes, Pets, Skills: Best as an "extra" theme in a shop
- General Shops: Don't run these, they actually do more harm than good... unless your shop has LOTS of ip and you have a tonne of stock
- Specialty UL/Rare items: Good for a trader if you deal in uncommon/rare items

To run a successful shop, it is super important to the see the other shops beside you. What you want to do is find something the people coming here would like, but isn't currently stocked, or not stocked well enough, or priced funny.

1. Isn't currently stocked: If an area attracts mid-lv players, and you notice people don't have full sets of that lv range items stocked, it's your opportunity to go in :)

2. Not stocked well enough: Sometimes shop owners might be "semi active" ingame. So their stock keep running out. In this case, it makes sense to stock the exact same thing.

3. Priced Funny: If a store is stocked too high or even too low of a price you have an opportunity. Too low means they probably run out of stock all the time and thus you can go in and set the same items a little higher. If it's too high, just make the prices reasonable (usually 1-2% lower than AH is a good benchmark).




C. Supply and Keeping Stock

There are 2 main ways to stock your items
1. Craft/Mine/Hunt yourself: Works well if you have the right BPs, Skills, and knowledge of areas. Selling your loot in shops can make more money than AH because of the lower listing fee.

2. Buy in bulk from others: You can buy in bulk for a heavily reduced price. Some things like L MF chips are usually TTed, so 101% bulk buy is attractive. Lookout for grinders, skilling crafters, etc. It's all about network here :)

I kept around 5-10 copies of each item stocked at any given time. So note the ped locked up in stock. If it's not moving out, consider changing some items, price adjustment, etc. Best way to find out problems is literally asking people for their opinions (getting feedback can solve any other issue ingame or IRL tbh).

Be mindful of your Item points. If you only have 40, you'll have to be very specific with your supply. If you have more, you can be more general.




D. Shop Organization

This will also make or break your shops. I see a lot of new owners like to add random decorations and all that. It's cool, but the major question you need ask yourself is "Are my items easy for my customers to find?"; those decorative stores are usually organized unintuitively, which turns people off.

I like to use signs to help organize my shops. Most owners organize by Level and/or Type of Item. Shopkeepers are also a great way to organize your stock. One idea is to let shopkeepers hold specific items and stock only related items in them. Make shopkeepers hold/wear the items they contain along with signs (ex, blp weapon to show they sell blp, finder to show they sell mining supplies, etc. Then add a sign to specifically say what they hold "blp amps lv 10-40", "Laser weapons lv 50-90", "Lv 5, 7 & D-class amps", etc)

This is an old store of mine. It had 250 IP, so I was able to stock lots of different things.
tumblr_mo7n6ykbby1s90mpuo1_1280.jpg


Make sure your Store Front showcases exactly what's in your store clearly
southendshop-frontreduced_zps06eccc83.jpg





E. Getting customers

1. Ingame Ads: I think this is undervalued. Put in some ped for a month, let the game advertise for you 24/7. If you are in a smaller planet, the smallest Ad fee will guarentee you being up top. I used to run ads in Rocktropia for 30ped a whole month. I'm the only one there, so it was a lot of result for a little investment. In Caly you probably need around 100-200ped a month to have any significant impact. So choose and price accordingly.

2. Word of Mouth: If you set your prices fair, start building your own reputation. People will share good news to their soc and friends especially if you have that gun they always use at the best price :) [It's super easy to beat AH prices as a store]. People care about how consistent you are, how you price, what you stock.

3. Self Advertising: Definitely create a message for the trade channels and maybe stand awhile in Twin Peaks, PA, or wherever your customers might be.

4. 3rd party tools/services: If you want to be abit creative, there are Radio ads, hire other Entropians to ad for you, online directories, and even streamers who are willing to help you out.

5. Post on PCF: While you are here, make a page for your shop! About 20% of users from Entropia use PCF (mostly the higher end players). So, make a post and get your shop additional traffic. People also use this to check which shops are currently active and gets restocked. So updating frequently with a simple "restocked!" or something like that is helpful at the beginning. When you are seasoned and have to restock a few times a day, you know you are well known.


F. Improvements/Investments

1. Have shopkeepers (0.1 ped decay/purchase): They effectively give you 14 more IP for your store, which is fast and easy.

2. Pay MA 2k PED for 20 IP upgrade (no decay)by sending them a support ticket asking for the IP improvement. The best place to upgrade first is the Display Area Item points if you don't have any. Then the main area. After you pay MA, they will implement in the next Version Update.

How do you know when it's time to upgrade? If you have a store that's doing well, and you want to expand :).


I hope this helps. P.s. My old store was not the most organized. I'll get better photos of other's stores sometime later. Or you could send me yours and I'll put it here if it's good ;)


Thank you for reading!
~Morey
Currently Running Medusa Mall
 
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just want to throw in here that

-- SHOPKEEPERS DECAY... (also the cost per item slot of a shopkeeper is probably higher than the base price of a shop's own item points if you do the math... so they do have some usefulness, but you need to think twice before buying too many? They do eat up item points in estates quickly)
(the cost of shopkeeper decay is lower now than it was originally... as you can see if you look at entropiawiki entry on shopkeepers)
-- Minimum Markup in any shop or shopkeeper is tt+1, which makes it hard to price small stacks, underprice the auction, etc.
-- certain items that cannot be auctioned CAN be sold in a shop or shopkeeper....
-- Certain items that can be sold in a shop may or may not be able to be sold in a shopkeeper as they sometimes have different rules...
-- shops with instances in their basements that shop owners can craft keys for only exist in Rocktropia currently
-- cost per item slot is different on every planet. Rocktropia has the biggest amount of item slots in game, but amount of traffic there may not necessarily be higher than on Calypso due to various reasons... Arkadia shop owners are proud of their little booths on the Quarry, so price em sky high. Some of that markup on the price may be justified, some of it, (or most if it) may not be...
-- the historic price of many shops can be discovered not too difficultly by doing some historic searches in the forums here and elsewhere...
-- certain players will never go to certain planets for a variety of reasons, some justified, some not so justified
-- SPACE IS LOOTABLE!
-- attempts to get Mindark to create a shop directory have been unsuccessful for years. At a couple of points in time some players did try to do something like that on, but keeping those attempts updated was too much, so the players could not successfully do it...
-- monthly maintenance fees to keep estates, including shops and apartments open, was removed many years ago at the request of the community. Those fees may someday return? (doubtful but not impossible as every estate terminal in game still indicates this)

A few links related to shop ownership or estates:
2007 list of shops
Ludvig's shop directory thread
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...op-directory&p=2965861&viewfull=1#post2965861Leeloo's shop directory thread
Ark Underground booth pricecheck thread
Rusy's Landplot Info thread:
Basics Estate Guide Thread
How to Pick up stuck items in estates thread
Rowan's shop guide thread
Rowan's Active Shop List (Now Outdated, once was actually popular enough to be in a sticky on this forum)
 
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Great thread :)

Will give more +rep as soon as I can but for now I need to spread more

EDIT : you only forgot to mention your own Entropiasales directory cause I already noticed it helps also and most of those older threads on PCF didn't have an update since years ... and are outdated
 
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Great thread :)

Will give more +rep as soon as I can but for now I need to spread more

EDIT : you only forgot to mention your own Entropiasales directory cause I already noticed it helps also and most of those older threads on PCF didn't have an update since years ... and are outdated

Lol I wanted to be neutral in the guide. But I definitely don't mind if others suggest it ;). Yeah, we're building a dynamic shops directory for EU, run by the players. Entropiasales
 
Problem with shops are that usually ppl ask more or same what it is in the auction... so why would anyone run to the shops to buy the items.. i once found a shop that sold amps few peds cheaper than ah so i kept buying amps from there and then i guess the shop owner got greedy and amped up the prices... so i moved into auction and never bought from there again
 
Problem with shops are that usually ppl ask more or same what it is in the auction... so why would anyone run to the shops to buy the items.. i once found a shop that sold amps few peds cheaper than ah so i kept buying amps from there and then i guess the shop owner got greedy and amped up the prices... so i moved into auction and never bought from there again

A good selling shop is a win/win for the shop owner and also for the buyer

- Cause its always cheaper than auction
- Availablility
- Buyer can compare better
- Smaller stacks at low prices

Most people are (sorry to say this) lazy, they just run to auction if they need something and paying a lot more cause the seller needs to pay fee to list it for 7 days, so that is what the buyer is paying on top also (If the seller is smart enough ofc)
But acting like that, year in, year out will cost the buyer a lot more than he ever expected it !!!

Let's see in my case ...

Selling 5 stack depth enh @ 200% = 8 ped in shop. Now if I check auction those are @ 300% so 12 ped ...(not by me lol)

Now I ask you again? What stack would you buy daily, cause as a miner you will need at least 5/day in 1 slot only

And that is the difference between some 1 complaining of losses and some 1 winning mostly
 
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What great thread. I just give some of my own experince running a shop. I have been a small mineing bussiness on ROCKtropia since 2013. I started with a booth and eventually grew to small shop. 1 of the things i see many shop owners do is put out wrong size stacks. This is mainly hunting loot or mining loot. They will stack it what they think crafters want, stack of 10's or 100's, but then Mu is wayoff. As the min fee is 1 ped. Most of my stacks incress by 1 ped. For exsamle i would set out 1 stack of 600 lyst add 1 ped, then 1200 lyst + 2 ped etc. I find this works really well as the custmor sees how more it coast them and its not stupied mu.

Another thing i noticed espeically with new shop owners, they load up the shop with useless items that is alreads flooded the market. Pets, explovies, noob guns etc. You got to know your market. One of the things that had made me No1 mining service on RT is that i have been apart of community for some time now. So i have built up a good network of friends.
 
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A good selling shop is a win/win for the shop owner and also for the buyer

- Cause its always cheaper than auction
- Availablility
- Buyer can compare better
- Smaller stacks at low prices
...

Gonna quote that in the main post :D


Another thing i noticed espeically with new shop owners, they load up the shop with useless items that is alreads flooded the market. Pets, explovies, noob guns etc. You got to know your market. One of the things that had made me No1 mining service on RT is that i have been apart of community for some time now. So i have built up a good network of friends.

100%. You got to stock the right things profitable to you, but at fair prices for sometime to get a good rep. That's how long term thinking works folks!
 
Very nice thread. +Rep given as much deserved. Most of the guys commenting here have way more experience in running shops then me so will leave the advice to those who know best :)
 
Haven´t read all the thread. Just wanted to say that the most challengig part with shops is to keap it all up to date. Specially with the prices. On a lot of things they can change daily on auction. Changig the MU on the shop due to auction changes is not that comfortable right now, if you sell amps or enhancer.
As for the shopsite you have, I think it will be a hard/impossible challenge to keap it up to date.

---- off topic ----
I would wish that there is something like a shopkeeper, but works like a bank/drink automat. You put one kind of an item there, lets say "Damage Enhancer I". Now you can set the MU for it at what ever you want. You can fill that automat then with 1k enhancer, if you like and the buyer who is using that automat can decide what ammount he needs and purchase it.

pros:
- changig prices with 1 click
- refilling goes faster
- no need to make 20 different stacksizes
- different size automat (L) could boost the economy (20, 100, 200, 500, 1000 item points)
- low decay per sale (% or just 0.01 ped)

neg:
- 1 different item per automat only (unlike shopkeepers).
- (L) with low decay that need to be replaced one in a while.

---- off topic 2 ----
If I am already on the suggestion part. Give the auction some brain. In my therms it means a short remember function. If I put a Level 5 Amplifier in the auction and set all the parameters I need, make the auction that smart, that the next Level 5 Amplifier I put in the auction do already have the same settings as the one before.
Memory could be cleared, if auction is closed and/or new item got placed.

Sorry for the off topic
 
---- off topic ----
I would wish that there is something like a shopkeeper, but works like a bank/drink automat. You put one kind of an item there, lets say "Damage Enhancer I". Now you can set the MU for it at what ever you want. You can fill that automat then with 1k enhancer, if you like and the buyer who is using that automat can decide what ammount he needs and purchase it.

pros:
- changig prices with 1 click
- refilling goes faster
- no need to make 20 different stacksizes
- different size automat (L) could boost the economy (20, 100, 200, 500, 1000 item points)
- low decay per sale (% or just 0.01 ped)

I already suggested that to MA about 5-7 years ago.

Thing is that less people will upgrade the shop, so less income for them.
 
Don't spend +10K to +25K on a shop and then sell noob shit....better off putting that ped into deeds, you will get a better return.
 
Don't spend +10K to +25K on a shop and then sell noob shit....better off putting that ped into deeds, you will get a better return.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I already suggested that to MA about 5-7 years ago.

Thing is that less people will upgrade the shop, so less income for them.

I don´t think that this could be the reason.
We have shopkeepers that take 6 itempoints and can hold 20 items. They could do the same with this automats.
- different size automat (L):

Items - IP cost in shop (just an example, without taking all varieties into aspect)
20 - 1 IP
100 - 3 IP
200 - 5 IP
500 - 10 IP
1000 - 15 IP
 
:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:



I don´t think that this could be the reason.
We have shopkeepers that take 6 itempoints and can hold 20 items. They could do the same with this automats.
- different size automat (L):

Items - IP cost in shop (just an example, without taking all varieties into aspect)
20 - 1 IP
100 - 3 IP
200 - 5 IP
500 - 10 IP
1000 - 15 IP

Shopkeepers are way to expensive now .... 2.7-2.8K lol and you need to pay decay.

I'll upgrade my shop as soon as pos again, just 2K, and no decay to pay + the shop is worth more.

So now you pay almost 3K to gain 14 points extra ... no ty

And yes, like Spawn just set, dont sell crap in shop, be organised specialize in something, do not over prise items and your shop will be ok.
This thread says it all ^^
 
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A few things more I want to add if you are selling your own crafted items

- Most important !!! CHECK the market and how many sales / month are made. I see people trying to sell items on auction even when the monthly sales say less than 500 ped...
- Do not go for many different items fast, every BP you use is an investment to get a higher QR/skills and this takes time (and peds)
- Try to get your resources as cheap as possible, contact miners, place orders on auction
- If you succeed in mining with a return over 100% TT this will make a huge difference
- Don't use the % on auction without knowing your own crafting results, some craft and undercut and making losses, don't follow them blinded so keep track of your crafts
- Some will undercut in auction, just ignore those prices, they loose peds, not you. Even 1 ped lower isn't a big deal, but it does if you sell a few hundred items / month in your shop.
- Keep track of what you have in shop + stock and sales / month and think ahead. Things that not selling good, replace them with something else.
- Keep your shop filled
- Starting up your business? ADVERTISE !!!


Good luck all and fast sales :)
 
Damn, so much additional good info. I'll have to merge everyone's thoughts and suggestions into one post sometime :D
 
Shopkeepers are way to expensive now .... 2.7-2.8K lol and you need to pay decay.

I'll upgrade my shop as soon as pos again, just 2K, and no decay to pay + the shop is worth more.

While I agree, the shop upgrade option is good, it is nice that shopkeepers can be moved from estate to estate, in case you have other estates on other planets, etc. Also, I think Mindark's way of doing the estate upgrades is abysmal, or was back when I owned a shop (that shop technically got upgraded for 'free' just as did a lot of other avatar's shops back then due to the way Mindark messed things up. Sadly I never profited from that 'freebie' upgrade since I had to sell the place at a loss due to a real world tax situation that year :( Been saying for years Mindark should automate the upgrade estate process in the estate terminals, but doubt it'll ever happen, so fumble fingered employees at Mindark will continue what they do, as they always have, with all of their many human errors. I do think it's kind of crazy that upgraded estates don't have some sort of tag on em in deed or estate terminal so buyer and seller have no indication if upgrade has been done or is possible to do again...)
 
Bumping it up for new shop owners in eu
 
Im not going to say too much. But do visit "Janitors Closet" @ 3 locations. ( I suppose I have franchise now or a Group :laugh: )

Janitors Closet- Nea`s Place TP

Janitors Closet Sanctuary Cove TP shop # 4.

Janitors Closet @ Aakas Island Country Club, inside :) ( and Bar-lady is a also a shopkeeper)

I think I got everything covered :)

:smoke:

FIY-My Magurgs drop shopkeepers :) :) :)


Come Visit the Aakas Island Country Club, you deserve it.
57437650_2622230474486139_1892276343379329024_n.jpg
 
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Personally. . Most shops I go into are much higher priced than auction, so I stopped even going to shops a long time ago. I think this is a fantastic guide, and I hope it helps... because it would actually be nice to find a good shop outside of the few good clothing shops.

Seems like yet another area that MA has failed to support appropriately and expand on (why is there no guide or directory ffs... ) but I applaud the effort, as always, of the players to pick up the slack and try to improve it...
 
Personally. . Most shops I go into are much higher priced than auction, so I stopped even going to shops a long time ago. I think this is a fantastic guide, and I hope it helps... because it would actually be nice to find a good shop outside of the few good clothing shops.

Seems like yet another area that MA has failed to support appropriately and expand on (why is there no guide or directory ffs... ) but I applaud the effort, as always, of the players to pick up the slack and try to improve it...

Well, the idea is to compete with auctions in my estimation. I do that even if its one measly ped lower. Some items just dont fall in that category ofc. But for the most part, good point.

I have notice some shops run by the "me", "myself" and "I" generation. When you walk into such a shop, you are overwelmed with a theme thats all about self-worship. Its quite funny to come cross that in a RCE. Constantlly crafting, hunting, etc. I just aint got the time for self-glorification. Too much worries about, will have enough to craft a certain item, or find what I need to make more amps. Hunting down Blueprints. That kinda stuff.
 
There are some great stores around always under mu and super active. Just keep a look out. I know quite a few that are active with great pricing on caly.

@Space Janitor
I feel like the lack of guide/directory is almost done on purpose. AH should always be more convenient thus higher price. Shops are intended to take abit more effort to find, but have better price/selection.

Yup crafting and knowing the market is abit of work, but that has the highest profit potential. You can always buy bulk and resell as shop owner too. That's what I did.
 
bump up for new store owners.
 
Personally. . Most shops I go into are much higher priced than auction, so I stopped even going to shops a long time ago.

This was a common problem I saw before I started my shop (ore & enmatter mostly). As a buyer, I have no reason to go to a shop if the MU is higher than auction unless it's for extremely small stacks that aren't easily put on auction at the correct MU.

At least what I always do is calculate what the effective MU is I would get at auction factoring out auction fee, etc. compared to the actual MU the buyer would pay at auction. The difference between those two is where you as a shop owner can take some extra profit and pass the savings on to buyers to draw people in to the shop to make it worthwhile for them too.

On upgrading a shop though, I thought I saw at one point that you don't get 20 IP for a display area upgrade, but something like half that for 2k PED? Maybe I'm entirely misremembering, but is it confirmed that it's 20 IP regardless of display or main shop area?
 
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On upgrading a shop though, I thought I saw at one point that you don't get 20 IP for a display area upgrade, but something like half that for 2k PED? Maybe I'm entirely misremembering, but is it confirmed that it's 20 IP regardless of display or main shop area?

Many of the stores at Medusa were upgraded by 20IP in display area for 2k ped. 2k PED for 20IP is the cost for display or main area.

Though some places have limits. I asked for 2k ped upgrade for Rocktropia Booth by main CND TP some years ago and they won't do it.
 
Lately some people have been messaging me in-game to ask me for some advice or if it's profitable. So I've been thinking about writing a guide about it. Then I remembered morey had written one some time ago and here I am :)

I've read this whole thread and there are a few things here and there that I don't agree with, but overall I think the guide is very useful, just somewhat incomplete. I've learned a lot over the years as a shop owner. I now have almost 900 item points at Twin Peaks mall and the 2 booths at the Rocktropia landing spot and let me tell you, managing busy shops is a LOT of work. But the journey to getting to this point has been quite fascinating and is something I'd like to share with the community at some point, along with some great tips and insights.

Let me know if that is something you'd be interested in.

Regarding this question:
On upgrading a shop though, I thought I saw at one point that you don't get 20 IP for a display area upgrade, but something like half that for 2k PED? Maybe I'm entirely misremembering, but is it confirmed that it's 20 IP regardless of display or main shop area?

It's 100 PED per item point anywhere on Caly, on any estate whether a shop, apartment or house. For example I upgraded the Display area of my small shop by the Televator at Twin Peaks mall recently with 5 item points, which cost me 500 ped.

Yes there are maximums, these are not very well known. In any case, you can always request it and MindArk will either approve or deny your upgrade request.

On other planets, these upgrades are handled by the Planet Partners. It would be interesting to see if Ark Studios would allow Celeste Quarry booths to have more item points. So far, it seems Neverdie Studios will not allow additional item points for the booths at the Rocktropia landing spot.

Legends
 
I forgot about my old post. I can also confirm there is no difference in price between display and shop time points when I just submitted for an upgrade (5 in display, 15 in shop).
 
Hello, I wanted to write a guide on how to properly run a shop in EU because I noticed many new shopowners end up failing. Which really sucks.

If you're a current shop owner or thinking of running a shop / changing up your shop theme, this is for you!



A. Selecting A Shop
B. Choose a Successful Shop Theme
(I see most problems Here)
C. Supply and Keeping Stock
D. Shop Organization
(Here)
E. Getting customers (And Here)
F. Improvements/Investments







A. Selecting A Shop


1. Apartment with Shopkeepers (untaxed): An apartment cannot act as a shop unless you place shopkeepers there. The untaxed advantage of apartments does sound attractive, but running here also means you will not benefit from foot traffic, or from ads from other nearby stores. I will not recommend running stores in apartments unless you are a well established owner with many repeat customers.

2. Shop in a Mall (taxed 2.5%): This is the best choice for most owners as every active shop benefits each other.
Important Factors:
- Proximity to Teleporter or Televator. The closer the better, ofc price will go up too.
- Proximity to AH & other active stores. Active store traffic feeds off of each other. People will check out nearby locations. It's important to know what type of stores are around you and what they stock. This determines the majority type of players that walk by. Ex. If a whole floor is specifically hunting supplies and you run a single mining shop, it might be harder for you to succeed.
- Display Area item points: Item points in display helps people quickly glance what you are all about without walking in. This is helps covert foot traffic and helps new shoppers find you.
- Main Area item points: Where most of your stock will be. When a customer comes in, this is what they see.

3. Shop in a LA (taxed): These are usually owned by the LA owner as well. It's like a fancy apartment where LA owner get back the taxes anyways. Shops here should just mimic the theme of the LA.




B. Choose a Successful Shop Theme

Common Shop Themes: Each theme has a Low, Mid, High lv to stock for.
- Weapons (Melee, Energy, BLP, MF) & Weapon amps
- Armors and Armor plates
- FAPs & Regen chips: Not a good standalone theme, Best as an "extra" in a hunting shop
- Damage Enhancers
- Finders, Mining Amplifiers & Depth Enhancers
- Fashion: Run events to support this theme
- Hair Dresser/ Coloring: Run events to support this theme, also requires you to be online more often
- StrongBoxes, Pets, Skills: Best as an "extra" theme in a shop
- General Shops: Don't run these, they actually do more harm than good... unless your shop has LOTS of ip and you have a tonne of stock
- Specialty UL/Rare items: Good for a trader if you deal in uncommon/rare items

To run a successful shop, it is super important to the see the other shops beside you. What you want to do is find something the people coming here would like, but isn't currently stocked, or not stocked well enough, or priced funny.

1. Isn't currently stocked: If an area attracts mid-lv players, and you notice people don't have full sets of that lv range items stocked, it's your opportunity to go in :)

2. Not stocked well enough: Sometimes shop owners might be "semi active" ingame. So their stock keep running out. In this case, it makes sense to stock the exact same thing.

3. Priced Funny: If a store is stocked too high or even too low of a price you have an opportunity. Too low means they probably run out of stock all the time and thus you can go in and set the same items a little higher. If it's too high, just make the prices reasonable (usually 1-2% lower than AH is a good benchmark).




C. Supply and Keeping Stock

There are 2 main ways to stock your items
1. Craft/Mine/Hunt yourself: Works well if you have the right BPs, Skills, and knowledge of areas. Selling your loot in shops can make more money than AH because of the lower listing fee.

2. Buy in bulk from others: You can buy in bulk for a heavily reduced price. Some things like L MF chips are usually TTed, so 101% bulk buy is attractive. Lookout for grinders, skilling crafters, etc. It's all about network here :)

I kept around 5-10 copies of each item stocked at any given time. So note the ped locked up in stock. If it's not moving out, consider changing some items, price adjustment, etc. Best way to find out problems is literally asking people for their opinions (getting feedback can solve any other issue ingame or IRL tbh).

Be mindful of your Item points. If you only have 40, you'll have to be very specific with your supply. If you have more, you can be more general.




D. Shop Organization

This will also make or break your shops. I see a lot of new owners like to add random decorations and all that. It's cool, but the major question you need ask yourself is "Are my items easy for my customers to find?"; those decorative stores are usually organized unintuitively, which turns people off.

I like to use signs to help organize my shops. Most owners organize by Level and/or Type of Item. Shopkeepers are also a great way to organize your stock. One idea is to let shopkeepers hold specific items and stock only related items in them. Make shopkeepers hold/wear the items they contain along with signs (ex, blp weapon to show they sell blp, finder to show they sell mining supplies, etc. Then add a sign to specifically say what they hold "blp amps lv 10-40", "Laser weapons lv 50-90", "Lv 5, 7 & D-class amps", etc)

This is an old store of mine. It had 250 IP, so I was able to stock lots of different things.
tumblr_mo7n6ykbby1s90mpuo1_1280.jpg


Make sure your Store Front showcases exactly what's in your store clearly
southendshop-frontreduced_zps06eccc83.jpg





E. Getting customers

1. Ingame Ads: I think this is undervalued. Put in some ped for a month, let the game advertise for you 24/7. If you are in a smaller planet, the smallest Ad fee will guarentee you being up top. I used to run ads in Rocktropia for 30ped a whole month. I'm the only one there, so it was a lot of result for a little investment. In Caly you probably need around 100-200ped a month to have any significant impact. So choose and price accordingly.

2. Word of Mouth: If you set your prices fair, start building your own reputation. People will share good news to their soc and friends especially if you have that gun they always use at the best price :) [It's super easy to beat AH prices as a store]. People care about how consistent you are, how you price, what you stock.

3. Self Advertising: Definitely create a message for the trade channels and maybe stand awhile in Twin Peaks, PA, or wherever your customers might be.

4. 3rd party tools/services: If you want to be abit creative, there are Radio ads, hire other Entropians to ad for you, online directories, and even streamers who are willing to help you out.

5. Post on PCF: While you are here, make a page for your shop! About 20% of users from Entropia use PCF (mostly the higher end players). So, make a post and get your shop additional traffic. People also use this to check which shops are currently active and gets restocked. So updating frequently with a simple "restocked!" or something like that is helpful at the beginning. When you are seasoned and have to restock a few times a day, you know you are well known.


F. Improvements/Investments

1. Have shopkeepers (0.1 ped decay/purchase): They effectively give you 14 more IP for your store, which is fast and easy.

2. Pay MA 2k PED for 20 IP upgrade (no decay)by sending them a support ticket asking for the IP improvement. The best place to upgrade first is the Display Area Item points if you don't have any. Then the main area. After you pay MA, they will implement in the next Version Update.

How do you know when it's time to upgrade? If you have a store that's doing well, and you want to expand :).


I hope this helps. P.s. My old store was not the most organized. I'll get better photos of other's stores sometime later. Or you could send me yours and I'll put it here if it's good ;)


Thank you for reading!
~Morey
Currently Running PA Mall & Medusa Mall.


Currently running PA Mall????
 
Problem with shops are that usually ppl ask more or same what it is in the auction... so why would anyone run to the shops to buy the items.. i once found a shop that sold amps few peds cheaper than ah so i kept buying amps from there and then i guess the shop owner got greedy and amped up the prices... so i moved into auction and never bought from there again

As a shop owner. One of the hardest issues I'm faced with is price. If I list my item for less than AH price, nothing is stopping a re-seller from coming into my shop, buying up all my inventory and reselling the same item on AH for profit. So players who are buying that same item on AH have no idea I exist or that the same item could have been purchased for cheaper at my shop. Generally, I'm left with two choices, to sell items for the same or even more than AH prices to prevent re-sellers from buying everything or I'm forced to restrict my shops and only allow a certain number of players access into the shop thus decreasing overall revenue potential. If other players weren't so greedy and only purchased what they needed from shops for personal use only, this wouldn't be an issue.
 
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