Potentially going solo (shop advice)

Submitted by lilly on Mon, 16/11/2009 - 3:27pm
I am considering going solo, and I'd love advice. Why? I'm in a great Mall right now, but A. My shop is way too small to be 'malling' right now (I am learning from reading all the posts you guys make!) and B. My Mall has gone totally inactive. *No one updates their banners. I was shop of the month in October, and no one updated their banner. *We've got people with banners that are months old *People aren't updating stock *People that left & havn't been removed. The leader, while wonderful, has been busy. The mall *might* turn around (if it does, I'll stay, it IS great and I don't 'quit) Of the people in the mall, 1 left, 2 have low stock, 3 positions are unfilled. I've become discouraged, and it's effecting my restocks/ upgrades. Wow. That turned into a rant. Sorry. I'm having to seriously consider what I'll do if the mall crumbles, or becomes so inactive it can't function. What I'd love advice on: Are faerie quest shops effective? I'm considering making my shop a quest shop just for Light, Dark, Air, Water & Fire Faerie quests. I imagine I'd need a petpage guide, and lots of advertising (since I'm not market). I'm really looking for something that would allow me to upgrade to a marketplace. This is all slightly hypothetical until something happens with the mall I'm in. Would YOU consider no updates in 1-2 months grounds for leaving a mall? FYI: My current mall/shop stats: Size: 100 Goal size: Spooky Marketplace Mall: Neoparadise Mall (http://www.neopets.com/~neoparadisemall) We haven't had a recruiting thread in over a month, too. Stock: Wearables, Backgrounds, Pbs & Mps Premium: No (no SSW) Using the Portal: Yes 430 item(s) stocked totalling 7,091,438 NP as of page 7. Plus 1.1m in cash (that SHOULD be in stock) I play for fun, not just to make profit. I could liquidate, spend 3-4m upgrading, then start rebuilding in a new category... thus, I'm wondering about having a stand-alone Faerie Shop. Thank you so much for any & all advice, and for reading this. I've come to really love these forums, especially the frank (& wonderful) advice.
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Public - The Lobby - Shop Advice
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I tried that--you have to have very competitive prices to make it. Not really a huge profit thing. Books! Reasonable Prices!! http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=kermat13&misc
Food! Reasonable Prices!! http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=kermat13&misc
kermat13 | Mon, 16/11/2009 - 9:09pm |

I've been solo for a couple of months now. If you are not at a market size, it isn't much more profitable to be in a mall imo. When I was smaller (around size 200 though), I was in a mall. Most shops were around size 150 and I only got about 5 visitors a day from other mall members. I quit my mall, but I didn't find a new mall. What I did was growing my shop stock. When I had 14 pages and, just like you, about 7 million invested in items, my sales were doing pretty good. I had about 40 visitors daily (at least 30 from the wiz).
P4Ssoa | Tue, 17/11/2009 - 12:46pm |

Thanks for all the advice guys. [quote=Dmitri][quote]Why? I'm in a great Mall right now, but[/quote] Soundsl like you're in one of the worst malls ever. Anyways, you'll probably do better solo. Why? Because mall banners are annoying tbh and discourage buyers and at that size, your mall wont provide enough exposure to offset the negative aspects of mall banners and whatnot Then we get to the hassle of ridiculous rules that micro malls often have... (i.e. no using non-mall banners, etc) So yeah, solo wearables/furniture and you'll be set EDIT: You'll probably have to advertise on customization board/shop boards and wiz price a portion of your stock for extra exposure but because wearables inflate/deflate all the time, you still can make profit even from grossly overpricing. For instance, when christmas rolls around.... certain things go ??????[/quote] Oh wow. That puts everything in the perspective.... [quote=Dmitri][quote]Sales Summary for : 15/11/2009 (Sunday) Items sold: 158 Total Sales: 2,417,131 NP | Costs: 1,753,435 NP | Profits: 663,696 NP ( 37.85% ) [/quote] hehe yeah, riding on some of it (A)[/quote] Oh WOW. I thought it was just inflation, because the guy who I think inflated Job Coupons recently bought out my Christmas stuff xD Wow, I guess there is NP in this :o nioe_yemar -- thank you SO much. Hm. So I'd need a much bigger shop... Actually, I love your shop/ Mall/ Banner. Very nice. [quote=kermat13]I tried that--you have to have very competitive prices to make it. Not really a huge profit thing. [/quote] Hm. Drat. That makes sense... I was thinking of putting up a few NB ads each week, to pull people in, maybe not. [quote=P4Ssoa]I've been solo for a couple of months now. If you are not at a market size, it isn't much more profitable to be in a mall imo. When I was smaller (around size 200 though), I was in a mall. Most shops were around size 150 and I only got about 5 visitors a day from other mall members. I quit my mall, but I didn't find a new mall. What I did was growing my shop stock. When I had 14 pages and, just like you, about 7 million invested in items, my sales were doing pretty good. I had about 40 visitors daily (at least 30 from the wiz).[/quote] Oh, okay. thanks. I'm not getting many hits, either. I get it. A long post, but I did NOT use bold this time. Thanks so much guys. Now I have much to consider... and I neomailed my mall leader.
lilly | Tue, 17/11/2009 - 3:58pm |

I make more profit in books than I did in quest items--sounds like a really great idea. Didn't work for me--I wish you uck if you try. Plus--I got board--once I had all 622 items--where do you go from there. I like to keep adding and adding and trying to challenge myself for more an more items--otherwise I get bored. Books! Reasonable Prices!! http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=kermat13&misc
Food! Reasonable Prices!! http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=kermat13&misc
kermat13 | Tue, 17/11/2009 - 5:41pm |

[quote=kermat13]I make more profit in books than I did in quest items--sounds like a really great idea. Didn't work for me--I wish you uck if you try. Plus--I got board--once I had all 622 items--where do you go from there. I like to keep adding and adding and trying to challenge myself for more an more items--otherwise I get bored. Books! Reasonable Prices!! http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=kermat13&misc[/quote] I agree with this one. I always want to find new items for my shop. And you're welcome lilly, I just thought I'd put into perspective what all items and how much space you'd need, if you were wanting to do a true quest item shop. And thank you! :* Gavin made both the page background and the mall banner. :D *** [size=10]Grooming, wearables, backgrounds, clothes, Fire & Air Faerie Quest items! http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=nioe_yemar&misc Owner of The Rainbow Fields Mall & Celestial Colours Guild![/size]
[url]http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=nioe_yemar&NB[/url] - Nioe's Emporium of Medicine and Cures! :* [url]http://www.neopets.com/~Fiylayla[/url] - Join Rainbow Fields Mall!
nioe_yemar | Sun, 22/11/2009 - 12:30pm |

Lilly, as an unaffiliated light faerie shop I have discovered that those sales are minimal since I do not have ads other than the handy neomaller banner on display in my hut but it is useful as a way to draw people to my store that otherwise might not find their way there. Fire Faerie and Earth Faerie items are few so those would be easier to stock than the others and still leave room for selling other things. I have toyed with the idea myself of trying to do all the faerie categories but realized that is too much for a user to wade through unless I went to the work of shortcut links to jump users to the section they need but I am too lazy to do that. The people with a petpage of links to each item probably do well though.
thebirthdayprincess | Thu, 26/11/2009 - 9:22pm |

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