Discussion: Marketplace killing SL's commerce?

LnL Square met for its weekly discussion Thursday at 2pm SLT to discuss the topic “Is the Marketplace killing inworld commerce?”.  The participants were divided throughout the whole hour! Many defended that the Marketplace (MP) is laying a heavy burden inworld stores’ owners forcing them to close their stores (considering the high tiers and costs inherent to maintaining an inworld location), not to mention the decrease in jobs such as store greeters or models. Others thought that the MP is an important option that offers an easier buying experience and contributes to bringing people to inworld stores. Despite the fact that lately the MP has been undergoing a lot of criticism, several discussers pointed out that difficult store layout and poor commercial skills on the part of owners drive many residents to the MP where products can be searched more easily. Wrong keyword categorization, poor organization in terms of relevance and images of the products that have been modified in digital image editing applications made the other discussers prefer inworld stores so they can see the products firsthand.  London, our moderator, concluded this week’s discussion saying that in “LnL’s opinion, the MP can be a very useful tool if created and managed well, certainly used as a search engine out of SL to find things that many times are impossible to find inworld and give more chances to more people to show their products. What is really important though is that if people don't buy inworld many places will keep closing and the grid will be a little bit emptier. So let's create incentives to the inworld commerce and keep enjoying the grid we all know today before it is too late. Thank you for your participation, you have been awesome!!” Join us next week, Thursday at 2pm SLT, in LnL’s Discussion Lounge for a new topic and an fantastic time with a great group of people!