Dear Arkadians, why dont you buy at my shop (Celeste North #3, Emma's)? Do you in general dont buy in Shops? I hear other shops like kikki jikki, kitten's and Point Shop run very well. I tryed a lot different things, MF chips, looted weapons, crafting materials.. .. but nothing catched your eyes. Not even the cheap Nutrio you want to buy. I cant understand why you rather buy the overpriced stuff in auction. And we dont speak of a few %, we speak of like 50% and more less. I have the feeling you dont want me here on your planet. If you would rather buy something else in the shop or have any other suggestion how to make it worth your while, anything is appreciated! Kind Regards Emma
People usualy lag in shops and its kinda annoying sometimes , not to mention ctd , i dont normaly go in shops but i think more people will come if you advertise more , i will visit your shop since i need some nutrio bars and mby a weapon or two
Don't go!!!! Not sure why things aren't working for you. I see you are advertising regularly in trade channel. I've always had problems selling MF. Have huge amount stockpiled. I tried buying crafting resources from shops but couldn't reliably get what I wanted and couldn't tell if they had the stuff unless I physically visited the shop. And if it was in stock then it wasn't easy to compare to the prices of stuff in auction. It was just really annoying. More convenient to buy from AH or in p2p trades. I would have thought looted weapons would be be good seller if you can provide reliable consistent source.
Perhaps this bit has not arrived in people's perception. Quite often shop prices are even above auction prices, and this is what sticks. The problem of lacking discovery options as Kikki said is stacking chances against shops. While in a shop, you can check an item's market stats which are derived from auction data. But the other way around you can't see if a better deal is available somewhere. It would be so easy to implement a shopping directory (nearly same interface as the auction house, just give waypoint instead of the trade window), it is beyond comprehension why they haven't done this a long time ago.
Shops just don't work well unless you specialize in something and have a market of buyers set up before you actually buy the place. Advertising the hell out of it might help, but not much. You are in direct competition with an auctioneer that has agents working on every planet, and almost every town in every planet. You are essentially local grocery shop working against a big box store. Just like irl, you better have a hell of a business plan and the contacts to make that plan work or else you are in big trouble. Why Mindark puts you against such odds is hard to tell (not that hard though as they get a cut out of each and every single auction fee), but it's just the way they do things. It's not just your shop, but all shops in game... Go do an inventory screen recording of every item in every shop in game... record the same thing every month for year and you'll be surprised how many things are still sitting there after a year in a lot of shops. Only real advantage of shops vs auction is you don't have ongoing daily auction fees. Stuff doesn't sell any faster in shops than auction unless you have a buyer lined up and ready... and hopefully they'll buy multiple times if you are lucky enough.
every time i visit arkadia i like to take a few hours and brows the shopping area just to see if there's something new or on special. lately i notice that most shop item prices are more then that of the Auction price.
I don't use shops all that often, but when I do it's almost always for crafted items. What I want from a shop is a reliable and replenished supply of a specific item, and the people in the best place to provide that are the active crafters. Other people tend to have a constantly changing supply, or overpriced stuff that sits there for months, and I don't want to waste time randomly browsing so I don't bother with shops like that.
Your main problem is location. As far as I remember, only the new player missions nearby harbour area, there's no need to low/mid or high player go through there, only space arrival and very few people go for jori throught that place. I only stopped on a shop once when I wanted to buy a Quad.
Thanks for all the answers, till now these dont show great interest in shops. BTW, atm I only sell pets, Nutrio, Whips, Animal Essence, Pet Name Tags and Texture BP's in it. All other stuff like textures, clothes, weapons , MF chips and Texture/Clothes crafting materials i tryed for some months and gave up because so few sales where made. I think i'm pretty unice with my selection of pets and pet near stuff. But maybe arkadia is the wrong planet for these kind of things.
Don't listen to the grouch I was a customer twice, but... I don't need to return because they don't break. Maybe this is a problem. On the other hand, I just heard from someone else that they even failed to sell nutrio bars on Arkadia auction, which for the same price are gone within the hour on Caly. I noticed that on Ark I find much more fruits in one bunch than on Caly, and then I usually just get some Sweetstuff and make it myself. I didn't need to buy any extra in quite a while. It seems hard to find something folks really need on a regular base.
i must say i visit the shops every now and then to find weapons and matts.One thing iv been searching is the vtol rocket launcher and viceroy matts.There is not even a single weapon for sale in shops nor from avas.if u can provide the stuff the planet is looking for then its worth it.noob missions are best in ark other than any other planet so if u can make noob guns as in laser and blp then u will do good cos tt weapons are expensive for a non depo player at start.as for the pets if u r selling lvl 1 pets from any other planet then its not worth cos players need to go that planet to get it to lvl 7.As for the clothes try to put up some coats if u can.i cant find a good price for them.200 ped for a 7.50 ped coat is insane for me.but at a right price,me and my soc will buy a good stack.its all about ped i knw but if u make stuff and sell with a little profit then u will hv many more buyers than anyone else.iv seen this in crafters and they charge tt + 10 in making vehicles rather than selling them for the ongoing MU(they are high lvl crafters).Many will not agree but its just an idea.Stay on ark dnt leave.Wish u the best.
With a shop, the big factors in success are: demand, location, price, advertising. Demand: This goes along with price, and is the most important factor. If people don't want your stuff, you won't sell it. Period. Sometimes, they may want your stuff, but not at the price. Location: All the shops on Ark have decent locations, this is more of an issue on caly where you have more remote and obscure options. Price: If the item is readily available, then the shop price really should be lower than auction. If the item is hard to find, then the shop price can be higher. Advertising: It's not enough to just spam chat or forum... People have to remember about your shop when they need something. Example is kikki's shops--everyone knows you can get just about any crafted ark weapon there whenever you need it. A shop with random assortment of junk, nobody will remember what's there. Find a theme for the shop, then find a way to get that to stick in people's minds. I would look at demand and advertising as the most usual culprits for low sales.
you have realy nice shop .. and there some pets that I see for the first time and the prices are good too just maybe you can put small packs with nutrio bars like 100 or 250 ... (will be easy for new players to buy) With best regards OLD NICK
When I was play EU actively I'm a big customer of Shops that selling chaep stuff. I personally like shops giving full information about what they are selling, I suggest you to post a thread about what are you selling in your shop and update it constantly. Not just I'm selling MF, weapons etc... in my shops but like mining equipment from Terramaster 1~8, Ark-30, Ark-35 etc... with price tag would be even better. So even some people have shitty computer can know what are you selling in your shop, and they can come by just for it.
The only reason for me to visit shops is to check out unlimited items. Like armor and unlimited guns. I have a shop on Monria, which has the advantage that the auction is basically dead, so people go to shops easier. But with the reintroduction of universal auction , sales have come down a bit. I still sell unlimited items or mid level E.L.M guns.
When I stock my shop, when I have time I cater to both ends of the market. Cheap stuff that players can't be bothered travelling for such as pets. When I do runs on furniture it sells, usually in bulk when someone gets a new apartment. For the high end gear, check the market. Some stuff is rarely made these days, the market history is usually cheaper. But people will pay a few Ped more if you can source something they need. Pricing it critical. Location is prime. I sell mostly from my Quarry booth. The lag at Celeste is an issue unfortunately.
Some of the TT weapons are actually more eco than most other weapons. The Herman PF-TT (L) for example. It beats S.I Psy-Blade by a few fractions of a pec. So if beginners are not bothered with the type of weapon they start with they should go for this one and then move on to whatever else they prefer once they have the levels for non-puny mobs. My own budget, play style and crappy computer prevents me from going shopping. There's no need for me to buy anything because I have what I need (an UL powerfist for punies). Once I move up in skills this will change. If crafted Ark power fists are ever released consider selling those. I would definitely be visiting.
This is just an idea. See if you can get a decent permanent deal with well known crafters on highly popular items, and go all in on a select few, but popular items. Problem sometimes is that those high skilled, well known crafters have their own shops, but maybe not on arkadia and then you would not be in competition with them anyway. Items such as 5b plates, The most popular (L) Faps, Most popular Crafted armor etc. No all the misc. stuff which doesent sell much, and only confuses the visitor more than needed. Tldr: Simple layout that is easy to navigate, Items that are popular and always a demand for. This would be what i would try.
