While you may think Daz is doing a good thing by putting great products out at ridiculously low prices, many vendors wouldn't exactly agree as it tends to devalue the market, people start thinking that there can't be all that much work in those products for them to be sold so cheap.  With those low prices, Daz doesn't make a lot of money though, it's mostly with the membership people have to purchase in order to get those great prices that Daz makes its money I would say.

Here's the thing with lowering prices to remain competitive and generate sales...  Merchant A lowers his prices so that his products are more competitive then any other merchants in the market.  He gets tons of sales because people buy his stuff instead of buying others since they're so much cheaper so his idea seems really neat at first.  But then other merchants who have lost sales to this merchant start lowering their prices so they can compete with him and merchant A starts loosing some of his sales because people start buying other products that have gone down in prices, his number of unit sales go back to what they were before he lowered his prices but he makes less money because his prices are lower then they were then. So he feels he has to lower his prices some more so that his products are even cheaper then the other products in the market and hopes to increase his number of sales that way and then other merchants start doing the same thing and...  It's a vicious circle and only works for a short time, then the merchant is back to square one only with a much smaller income.

As a merchant here, I can tell you I'm very happy Renderosity isn't following in Daz'  footsteps because prices are already really low, if they have to get even lower then that, it won't be worth it anymore to put time and effort in the creation of products, too much work for too little profit. 

Judging by the figures you have given for the average seller I don't think that Renderosity can be that hot of a selling medium anyway if sales are as poor as you say. Surely it would'nt take too much effort for someone to put up a gateway site to list and link to the various sellers sites?

This selling medium while not too hot is still hotter then trying to sell in your own private store for most vendors, it's very hard to find ways to generate traffic on a private website.  A gateway site is a good idea, but most people still prefer to shop in a store where you can find everything rather then have to go through I don't know how many small stores to find what you're looking for, it's more convenient.

Lucie
finfond.net
finfond.net (store)