Store annex - A waste of 15k meseta

[Disa]

I'm very disappointed in the store annex option in PSU. While it is a cute idea, due to the poor store search performance, it is just a money sink offering little in returns.

I've had my store for over 6 days now and in that time, the only people who have come to my room were people who had my friend card. Why are there no customers coming to my store? Easy. Because my store won't appear on any searches regardless of what popular items I carry or what wording I use in my ad. I'm not even showing up on player name searches. WHY?!

First of all, the store searches are inconsistent. Try searching for the item "Marseline". See the list of stores? Okay, now search for "Mars". Additional stores appear now in the list along with some from the first search. Why? Shouldn't all the stores appear the first time? Marseline is the only item I've seen so far with such a spelling and if you check the stores in both searches, you'll see the only item they have in stock that matches the searches be it "Marseline" or "Mars" is Marseline.

Now to the deeper issue. The store search doesn't show more than 20 or so results. What determines what stores appear in the list? I understand that with so many players, there are going to be a lot of stores, but shouldn't they all be displayed to be fair? The store result list certainly isn't random since I see some of the same people listed each day. It isn't alphabetical. It isn't based on prices, number of sales, number of merchandise available, or your player ID number. If my store is never going to appear in searches, what is the point of me having spent 15k meseta on a store? It obviously isn't making me any money and regardless of how low I price items or what variety I keep in stock, they will only collect dust.

I don't want to hear about how 'Well you can go advertise your store on some message boards'. Doesn't that defeat the whole store search feature? Shouldn't I be showing in searches in the first place so I don't have to do all that runaround?

I apparently just lost 15k for no reason with no hope of revenue it seems :/

[Edited]
Just additional clarification for those thinking that I'm just pricing items badly or have poor item selection:

In my shop I have a wide variety of items set at obscenely low prices, but that doesn't matter. People are not buying from my store because of prices or variety. Its because people don't even know my store exists because it doesn't turn up in any searches. Not even by my character's name. This is the issue.

If my store can never be found, even by player name, then how exactly am I supposed to make back my 15k and make profit? I'm happy some of you have been able to succeed from the shop system, but currently as it is, things are greatly unbalanced. Something is definitely broken here.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Disa on 2006-11-07 07:47 ]</font>

[Marduk]

I make a lot of money in my store. It paid for itself in about 2 hours. Change your add and make sure your prices are fair. It helps to sell items that people want also.

[AkiraXxx]

On 2006-11-07 07:15, Disa wrote:
I'm very disappointed in the store annex option in PSU. While it is a cute idea, due to the poor store search performance, it is just a money sink offering little in returns.

I've had my store for over 6 days now and in that time, the only people who have come to my room were people who had my friend card. Why are there no customers coming to my store? Easy. Because my store won't appear on any searches regardless of what popular items I carry or what wording I use in my ad. I'm not even showing up on player name searches. WHY?!

First of all, the store searches are inconsistent. Try searching for the item "Marseline". See the list of stores? Okay, now search for "Mars". Additional stores appear now in the list along with some from the first search. Why? Shouldn't all the stores appear the first time? Marseline is the only item I've seen so far with such a spelling and if you check the stores in both searches, you'll see the only item they have in stock that matches the searches be it "Marseline" or "Mars" is Marseline.

Now to the deeper issue. The store search doesn't show more than 20 or so results. What determines what stores appear in the list? I understand that with so many players, there are going to be a lot of stores, but shouldn't they all be displayed to be fair? The store result list certainly isn't random since I see some of the same people listed each day. It isn't alphabetical. It isn't based on prices, number of sales, number of merchandise available, or your player ID number. If my store is never going to appear in searches, what is the point of me having spent 15k meseta on a store? It obviously isn't making me any money and regardless of how low I price items or what variety I keep in stock, they will only collect dust.

I don't want to hear about how 'Well you can go advertise your store on some message boards'. Doesn't that defeat the whole store search feature? Shouldn't I be showing in searches in the first place so I don't have to do all that runaround?

I apparently just lost 15k for no reason with no hope of revenue it seems :/

I JUST posted about this too. I think ST fucked up and forgot to put the 2nd page for shops. The best method of making money just went to shit because ST was in such a rush to get this money trap game out. Kinda pisses me the hell off. Im going to close my shop and reopen it, and see if that puts the shop back up. If that is the case, then owning a shop is truly not worth it.

[Zabot]

well first off, depending on what items your selling, or the price your selling them at, people might not come. second, if you try searching "marseline" it also includes the board, so they might have the board and not the actual item. also, if you search yourself on YOUR character, you WONT show up in the list. make a new character then search it. try synthasizing items like armor, staffs sell fast as well, as well as rares, grinders, and B-rank weapons. . .etc.

also, a lot of people are just greedy and dont sell some things. so they might have them in their inventory but not in their shop,, i think that the system still picks it up, but you cant buy them they are just in their storage.

Peace. . . Hope I helped.

[Banya]

That sucks. I hope this is brought to Sega's attention. It wouldn't be hard to fix.

I also would like for prices to be shown when you search for an item.

[Saigan]

I made my 15k back in four days through my store. The reason "mars" gets more hits that "marseline" is due to the way the search function works. It looks for the combination of letters in that order. There are, I believe, other items with the word "mars" in them, thus amounting for more hits.

If you aren't making money change your stock and prices.

[Zabot]

i made my 15k back in about 2 hours, and i make money all the time, overnight i range in getting anywhere from 10k-35k

i sell a lot of things EXTREMELY CHEAP!!!

[AkiraXxx]

The money, the stock, and the prices have absolutely NOTHING to do with why people arent visiting the store.

The search result will only display so many shops with certain words in it. Example.

If you had a shop within the first week of the game, and had the word,

Grinder,Sale,Rare,Weapon,Armor,Item,Material, the chances are your shop is no longer being displayed either.

If your shop magically fell to the 2nd page that doesnt exist, there is NO way people are going to be able to find your shop, even if they type in a specific item. If your 1 of 40 people+ selling that item, your shop may not be displayed.

Btw, do NOT close and reopen the shop. That didnt put my shop back up on the list.

[Disa]

On 2006-11-07 07:21, Zabot wrote:
well first off, depending on what items your selling, or the price your selling them at, people might not come.

Well if people can't even find my shop in searches, how will they know what I'm selling or what prices they are set at?

second, if you try searching "marseline" it also includes the board, so they might have the board and not the actual item.

Well first of all, Marseline is a material and not a board. I as well as a few friends have tested this search issue in particular. The shop results for "marseline" and "mars" return different shops even though all the stores were selling Marseline (the craft material, not a board or anything like that).

also, if you search yourself on YOUR character, you WONT show up in the list.

Acutally I've asked people to search for their own stores on their characters and they can see their own store in the results, so this isn't the issue. However, if they try to search for mine, it won't show in any form. Be it ad, name, items, etc.

also, a lot of people are just greedy and dont sell some things. so they might have them in their inventory but not in their shop,, i think that the system still picks it up, but you cant buy them they are just in their storage.

No, searches only show the items you have for sale. The search doesn't refresh though when you search the same item repeatedly, so by the time you get to a store, it may be sold out of the item you are looking for even though the search still claims they have it in stock.

[Lilium]

The shop system is flawed in lots of ways, the lousy searches, the fact you can't favourite a store or see the price of the item you searched for. I have no idea what will happen to a buyer when they try and search for an item in the future and there are billions of stores.

So far I've noticed odd stuff happening with my store, usually it's eerily quiet but I noticed in my visitor log that there was a sudden influx of about ten/fifteen people that all came within the same half-hour. And then nothing again.

EDIT: Not to mention a severe personal annoyance of mine when you search for an item and you end up in a store selling the board of the item. Goddamnit, I want the item not the board. >.<


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Lilium on 2006-11-07 07:38 ]</font>