Hi. What items are most in demand? A few people on here said minority male skin textures but some other's said sci-fi/fantasy characters and props. People tended to downplay the need for products consisting of poses. Any thoughts? Also, any trends in the sales that are public? Even just averages?

Some kind of public statistic would be fine. Does fantasy sell more the Sci-Fi ? ... I think any mercant would like to know.

The stats are confidential information.

However, You can get a good feel for whats selling well by visiting the Whats Hot section's within the MarketPlace.

Whats New - Whats Hot

Poser - Whats Hot

2D Accessories - Whats Hot

etc...

Clint

No offense, Clint, but the what's hot caters to a segment of folks that generally don't show their images here, and while it's likely accurate for sales of a few items from a limited number of merchants, it's ineffective at showing the market as a whole, rendering it pretty much useless as a viable statistical tool for developing a product line that is competitive in the marketplace both here and across a wider spectrum of purchasers.

Thats the best I can provide. Sorry you feel it is useless. I disagree. Clint

Ynsaen didn't say useless. Some number of sales would be useful to all and I don't see how it harms any merchants.

"Some number of sales would be useful to all and I don't see how it harms any merchants." Thats confidential information. You are free to ask merchants for numbers if you like .. however, I can not provide them. "Ynsaen didn't say useless." Really...I must have misread the post. "rendering it pretty much useless as a viable statistical tool" Clint

"...rendering it pretty much useless as a viable statistical tool for developing a product line that is competitive in the marketplace both here and across a wider spectrum of purchasers..." note that's fairly specific in what it is useless for. May I ask, specifically, why you disagree, sir? I've been doing statistical sales breakdowns for a very long time, and if your points can be used to improve that, I am very willing to listen (and ya know I is ;)) And I know it is the best you can provide, Clint. I'm just noting that as a measure re: the gist of what's being asked, it was a bit of promotional fluff. Then again, that's why it exists. There is other information that you could provide (I've mentioned it before in a place I cannot enter) that is statistically more useful, however, and does not cross those lines of who sells what and how much.

Also, in general and across the wider spectrum of sites, the generes that sell best other than adult oriented are as follows: Fantasy Science Fiction Romance Horror Historical Modern

I dont feel the information is useless due to the fact that it shows what is currently selling very well in the Market. Clint

"...while it's likely accurate for sales of a few items from a limited number of merchants, it's ineffective at showing the market as a whole,..." That came before for the other part -- it was a given, hon. The hot 20 is a good example of what's selling in the store and I never said different. But it is not a good example of what sells well overall in the marketplace. The difference is similar to where houses sell well in a city as compared to what kind of house sells well in a city. The information is still useful, but if you are building a house, you need more information than just where. Building a bunch of houses in that location might get you some sales, but where are the underserved segments? What sort of houses are doing well there? The information is good -- as I noted -- but isn't effective information for this sort of inquiry. And it's a gap in the information that rosity does provide -- a gap that if you can fill will provide you with more sales, I should note, as you'll be able to reach a broader market segment that is just as willing to spend money as the rest becuase you'll be able to see them -- which is what effective marketing is about. Business 101 -- know your market.

damn... bot said a reply but none here...

I think ynsaen is right. It's not completely useless, but it's not useful specific needs and that was what I read her post as saying (when read in total). -Doug P.S. If you're on staff here, Clint, I'd suggest you tone down the sarcasm. Actually, in any event, I'd suggest you tone down the sarcastic tone. We're having a conversation and don't need the teenager "Really...I must have misread the post" kinda of nonsense. There was hardly anything offensive or attacking my posting.

I think ynsaen is right. It's not completely useless, but it's not useful specific needs and that was what I read her post as saying (when read in total). -Doug P.S. If you're on staff here, Clint, I'd suggest you tone down the sarcasm. Actually, in any event, I'd suggest you tone down the sarcastic tone. We're having a conversation and don't need the teenager "Really...I must have misread the post" kinda of nonsense. There was hardly anything offensive or attacking in my posting.

Hi Doug, Your correct. I apologize for the sarcasm. It was uncalled for. Clint

I totally agree with some kind of stats on sales.
Maybe a total number of sales for each category over a month or quarterly period. Taking it even further would be a break down of how many different products were sold in that category, of course without disclosing which products they were. I often want to create new products for the Renderosity market but it takes a lot of time and effort to create and test these things and I can't afford to just guess what will be useful. I really feel that information of this type would be beneficial to all the merchants here. The wishing well is nice but often only caters to a few people. That doesn't justify creating a product.

Just my thoughts.

I agree with JaeJae that the information would help increase what's being created (and thus maybe increase sales overall) because it allows for better planning.

Yah...going by Hot20 one would think the way to get sure sales would be V3 skins and underwear. Except, one look at how many of these items there are already suggests that this is a saturated market. One could even go so far as saying there is a high chance of ONE OF the skin-and-undie items doing well in any period, but that the chance is very low that a PARTICULAR one will do well! (Kinda like the lottery -- someone will definately win, but your individual chances are not good.) One could spend a while checking Hot 20 and checking out the stores of the merchants involved. It might even be possible to figure out a little of their history by pulling their ReadMe's. That might give you a better idea of who among the Hot 20 is actually a stable merchant who always sells well (and not just the flavor of the month). And figures using only those merchants might be a better guide to what does well. I won't insult anyone by suggesting the best thing to do is build what you love and build it with quality. That is a good philosophy but one must also pay the rent; the best strategy combines elements of joy and of smart business. It would also be interesting (but difficult) to pull the numbers and see if there was ANY correspondence between gallery postings, activity in the forums, and purchasing activity. I have made an effort to look at the artist page of every person who bought one of my products. From that I learned over half of them were non-participants in the Rendo community. I have also talked in forums and gallery threads with a number of people, and outside of my brave and glorious beta testers I find only a vanishing number of people who showed up later in my store. Neither anecdote is surprising. The only hard guide to what is wanted and what sells well is....what sells. Activity in this forum, particularly, doesn't seem to correspond to any sort of majority interest.

So Clint, do you think that this is currently feasible for the site programmers as well as allowed by Renderosity? I of course understand that no specific products or merchants can be mentioned within any stats. But what has been mentioned previously, in my opinion, would greatly increase sales here because it could give merchants a direction for needed and wanted products. I think there is way too much guesswork with this now and it turns me away from trying to make any new products. I don't know of any company that attempts to create a new product without going over consumer numbers to make sure that it will even sell. I am only assuming that other merchants feel like this as well. I think that this would benefit both Rosity and the merchants. Pleeeease, help us help you. Do I sound like a commercial yet? :)
Thanks for hearing us out.

jj.

I think we will NOT see any hard numbers for how various products do versus each other, any more than we will see numbers on total sales or anything that statistically describes the average merchant. Renderosity believes these data would be used by their competitors and thus prefers to keep them confidential. I am afraid we will have to make do with indirect and anectodal information. Should note the current merchant of the month is a character maker -- not texture, not garter belts. One thing I would like very much, if it were at all possible, is if the algorithm that goes into selecting the "Hot 20" was explained. I find it amusing but pointless to study it, lacking any idea of what causes an item to be selected. "Most Popular" seems a little more obvious but I am still unsure whether that is derived from prompt or lifetime sales.

I'm starting to think we won't see any further response.

sigh. I went and screwed it up again...

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I'm sure we will get a response. I think Clint is probably just busy.

nomuse stated it correctly. The information is confidential since it would give our competitors statistical information that we are not willing to share. Clint

Sometimes sharing helps business. ;-) How about seeing if there is ANY data that you can put out that would help? Rankings in various categories by month, 6 mos, year, since inception, etc.? Ranks don't reveal sales, but could help.

There has to be some way of presenting data to merchants to help give direction on products without helping competitors. How do they do it at any other company? Maybe bar graphs with no solid numbers or something. Anything to at least show what categories are in demand. Graphs that are driven by total number of sales per a given period by category would be helpful. They don't need any numbers but the visual alone would at least help merchants decide what is needed where and be able to pick up on any trends. I guess it would be a quick look at the Whats Hot pages but all in one spot. I don't see a category under a product when I click on it. Am I missing that or is it just not there? Instead of drilling down on a category can you see a product's category from that product's page?
Thanks for listening Clint.

jj

If you're concerned about giving your competitors information, then just restrict those stats to being viewed only by merchants, similar to access to this forum. I mean, do you have competitors who sell their products here?

I would also like stats, to know if, for instance, making a product in another platform (C4d, Max, whatever) is viable or not, but...
there's always the risk that, once we knew what category or type of product sells most, every other category or type of product would be forgotten, not because there would be no demand but because there would be no offer anymore...

I'm exagerating, but I guess you see what I mean... the stats would have to be done right, and interpreted right, so that we could know what people really WANT and NEED and not what SELLS more...

Message edited on: 11/22/2004 09:54

You can also look at the best selling merchants.

I was thinking of some kind of auction or preordering, but I guess it would be much easier for you merchants to just post a list of items you are planning to make. Maybe there could be a poll, such as 'This months most wanted item'. Sure, we would see a lot of items of that kind, but that would also decrease the need for that kind of items and new items could be created next month. It would be sufficient with a list of 10-12 items to vote for. I guess what you want is some kind of "quantified" wishing well, and that is what such a poll would be. Merchants who dont sell at renderosity for a living will still create items just for fun. There are no flaws in this system :) ehhhhrm... You could also have a search spy that lets you know what people are searching for.

i also think that it would be nice if you merchants could give us some info about how much custom items costs? maybe there is one buyer who is willing to pay $100 for a special item, but you 'know' that you wont be able to sell enough $5-items to make it worth the effort. there should be some kind of "rentacoder" system where buyers can post request and get bids from merchants. this would also make it possible for people to specialize in buying and selling other peoples stuff, taking all the risks and rewards.

ocliff, Your "rentacoder" or creating a custom product for one user would be a good idea but I think it would be very hard to implement in this current setting. Something like that would require a contract between the merchant and the customer and could be way too hard to regulate. If a merchant made a product for a customer and it didn't meet the customer's specs then he/she wouldn't pay for it. But the merchant says that the specs were met and has now wasted all that time creating a product that the customer won't pay for. Who would regulate that? That could be very time consuming in this type of place. I'm not sure Rostiy wants to get into that kind of situation. But speaking as a merchant, I think that would be a nice thing to offer. Not quite a fair playing field for every merchant but then again...life is not fair :) Just my thoughts, jj

wow. this posting went from "what's most popular in the marketplace?" to "let's turn the marketplace into a sort of 3D EBAY" - or "3BAY". Wild. Thank you, Clint, for not releasing my stats to anyone. They aren't anyone else's business. I know what my clientelle like by the number of views on my renders, the numbers from their wishlists and most importantly my sales (which are up - which makes me smile) :D ~ Moe

Rrright. I don't think we were looking for any merchant's stats, just a tool to help create products that are wanted and not the same old skins and functionless clothes for Vicky. Its all in the posts above. jj

Ah, but I don't make anything for Vicky. Probably why my sales are doing nicely.

Okay, congratulations on that. But the process of making products, modeling, texturing, advertisement, testing and such, takes a lot of time. And though you may be successful with your product that does not mean that other merchants can just make up anything they like and sell it as a successful product. Most companies will do some kind of product research and study statistics to see if a product is even marketable. That is what we are talking about, some kind of tool to help merchants research the market. No personal sales information, just some idea of how certain categories are doing. jj

MoeGoofie, you are right, this is very much off topic. If a renderosity-3BAY could give buyers more and better products for their money, and merchants could make more money then I actually think that it is a good idea. But what do I know, I am only a free stuff contributor. :) Meanwhile, how about a search spy and some polls to get some numbers on how many people actually wish to buy a product?

I don't know what is most in demand but what I would like to see more of is dynamic clothing for poser 5. I would also like to see more clothing (dynamic and conforming) and characters that take advantage of the male morphs for victoria 3. I think that is something that is really lacking. It is nice to have a single figure that can be both male and female, but if there is nothing available then its usefulness is limited.

i would love to do some more dynamic clothing, I am still an amateur so I post all my items in the freestuff. what kind of clothes are you looking for?

Typical, everyday, clothing. t-shirts, button up shirts, pants, shorts... just normal clothing. I've got some of your other dynamic clothing, ocliff, it is all very good.

Personally I can find lots of scifi and fantasy stuff....and lots of medieval western area stuff. What I need most is Japanese/oriental medieval era stuff. Castles....temples....houses....perhaps an expansion pak for samurai that has different texs so you can have a number os samurai in one pic. Boat....home furnishings, garden accessories. Thx, Scott

Personally I can find lots of scifi and fantasy stuff....and lots of medieval western area stuff. What I need most is Japanese/oriental medieval era stuff. Castles....temples....houses....perhaps an expansion pak for samurai that has different texs so you can have a number os samurai in one pic. Boat....home furnishings, garden accessories. Thx, Scott

I'd love to know if there's any market for motion files. I've seen a few static pose packs in the marketplace, but only a couple of motion sets. Do you think there's any call for animation motions? or do most people prefer still poses that they can create single pictures from? Creating a motion file takes ages to make natural looking movement, and since I never see feedback posted on other people's pose sets, I can't tell if they're doing ok but never get public comments, or if nobody ever buys them.

Hi choinkees, Good motion sets sell steady. They arent heavy sellers but they do sell steady. Clint

Two words "Military Uniforms"....and good accurate current US Army Uniform and personal combat field gear (TA 50) to match. I've been looking for a good and accurate modern US Army uniform, but all the ones that have been made so far don't really measure up, the only one that seems to come close is the "Modern Desert Soldier" from Daz3D, but still no cigar.

At any given time you can see what the best sellng items are in a catagory by looking at the left hand side of the screen. This feature changes to the best selling items by merchant when you look at a specific store (I.E. MoeGoofies...) I will tell you from Personally Experience (and based on products requests at the Daz forums) that a lot of people are looking for more support for David and Michael 3. They would also like to see more support for the Young Teens and then Stephanie Petite. Victoria on the average has far better support than the other figures followed by the Girl and then Aiko (IMHO). I think it has to do with the old adage "Sex sells..." My viewpoints are based on what I'm seeing in the marketplaces.

Yah...going by Hot20 one would think the way to get sure sales would be V3 skins and underwear.

One would, wouldn't one?

And "one" would be correct in that thinking. If the product is done well, that is.

I don't understand why some people seem to have such a difficult time in accepting reality for what it is.

Personally, I enjoy unusual "niche" type items. But I won't get huffy and refuse to acknowledge that a beautiful V3 character package will probably sell better than a model of a kumquat. Or even than a model of a Dodge Viper.

It is what it is.

And people like what they like.

and if every merchant were privy to what sells best, wouldn't more people make items in that category, thus reducing sales in that category? just a thought...

One thing you could do is look to your own Wishlist report ( the #'s of peoples who have your things on their wishlist.) this can give you a notion of what people want from you as a merchant.