Over on A Passion for Virtual Fashion Harper Beresford, Business Manager and blogger for House of RFyre has developed A Consumer Wish List
As I read it through I found myself agreeing vigorously particularly when read #10 as my pet hate of touched up vendor adds.
“Do not touch up your ads in any way that will misrepresent the item you are selling on the vendor. That means if your prims are out of place, fix them before you sell it, not in the photo. If you have artistic photos in your store, that is where you can do the artwork. I like seeing interpretations of the outfit but when I look at the vendor, I want to know what I am purchasing without filters or airbrushing”
There is one more item I would add to the list. I would like to know if a product has multiple layers. I would like more designers to offer multiple layers as I like mixing outfits and often multiple layer option will swing the sale for me. This request may fall into the realm of good business practice but would love to see this type of information clearly displayed.
Of course Harper Beresford’s Consumer Wish List is fashion centric but in the case of buying other things, particularly for the virtual home. I would like to see full descriptions of a product. Key for many people is the number of prims and if it has poses etc. You would be surprised how many vendors do not have this information clearly displayed on their vendors.
Lack of information on products is a pet hate. Basic questions like number of prims are often simply not answered in product display information. If the items are part of a set what is actually included? For instance, if looking a full dining room suite on display is the fruit bowl in the middle also included? If there are not display versions to be seen I would like to know the answer to questions such as do plants flex in the breeze, or are they static? Are they single prim sculpties or multiple prims? When you walk around some of the home and garden stores there is a never ending list of such questions which run through my head. Lack of information must lead to many lost sales or disappointed purchases.
There is a long and interesting comment thread on Harper Beresford’s Consumer Wish List post, including a suggestion to form a merchant group that follows consumer friendly practices. I hope it happens and is well publicized. If this group develops from thoughts aired in the post this is certainly one of those blog posts that shifts things towards the better in Second Life.