This is a message primarily to Marketplace sellers, although if anyone from the Lab is listening in – it wouldn’t do any harm if you took note as well. And the message is a simple one… Stop it! Right now!
It’s annoying, it’s sneaky, it’s unhelpful, it’s offputting to customers and it’s harming your business. And, once you’ve stopped it, go back to your listings and remove all the offending items!
What am I talking about? The various devious methods that sellers use to force their demo items into the spotlight, deliberately subverting the Marketplace search criteria and thereby forcing potential customers to wade through masses of meaningless, unwanted results, wasting time and getting endlessly frustrated in the process.
What sort of logic is followed by content creators who deliberately go out of their way to alienate customers who have specifically opted to exclude demo items from their search criteria – and who have checked the box expressly provided for that purpose – yet are still faced with a screen full of demos, when the results appear… or worse, only find out an item is just a demo on opening its listing? It makes no sense to me at all. What is so difficult to understand that when someone checks a box saying ‘Do not show demo items’, they really don’t want to see demo items?
Imagine ordering a pizza and clearly specifying on your order ‘No anchovies’ and you open the box to find your lunch completely smothered in anchovies! Is that good customer service? Does it make you want to order from that pizza parlour again? Are you going to give them a 5-star review? No, of course not, and whether it’s pizza from the local takeaway, or searching for a pair of boots on MP, if there’s something you’ve asked to exclude that persists in rearing its ugly head anyway, you are going to be an unhappy customer.
Despite which, MP merchants are determined to find ever more devious ways to ram their demos down customers’ throats, no matter what the preference expressed. Whether it’s taking advantage of MP’s ropy search functionality by wrapping the word ‘demo’ in other characters… /DEMO/, *demo*, -demo, and so on; slipping naughty threes and zeroes where they aren’t warranted… D3MO, DEM0; or the downright blatant avoidance of search filters entirely by sticking the word ‘demo’ on the image, rather than in the item name. Finally, having negotiated the full gamut of these sneaky descriptors, the poor consumer is often then misled into clicking on to a bargain, only to find that what they thought was a great deal, is actually not what it seems, thanks to the indication that it’s only a demo item being buried somewhere deep in the small print of the item description.
There’s no excuse for it. It’s a deliberate ploy by sellers to mislead potential purchasers. Now, I can hear the howls of protest at that statement, but I’m right. No matter how clearly ‘demo’ is shown in the search results, the fact is that these items shouldn’t be showing in those results at all, and it’s not because MP search is rubbish, it’s because the seller has deliberately chosen to list the item, rather than set it as a demo when creating the listing.
Perhaps, it would assist if we were to ponder a moment about why customers might specifically want to exclude demos from their searches, and why it’s so irritating when it doesn’t work:
- Bargain hunters: Many people rely on Marketplace as their first port of call when it comes to finding freebies and cheap items. It’s quicker, easier and less hassle than trying to find them inworld, especially when so many find themselves frequently in the position of needing to quickly cobble together outfits, last-minute, and cheaply, as costumes for events. Nobody wants to be spending a fortune every other day on new outfits for superhero-themed events, ‘best in leather’ competitions, or ‘dress as a pot plant’ contests. That can get very expensive, very quickly, and MP can be a lifesaver when it comes to throwing together a cheap and cheerful, single-use outfit, without breaking the bank. Then, of course, there are those who love a bargain or a freebie, or who are simply on a limited budget. So, searching for these sort of things can be immensely frustrating when half of the results that come up are demos, particularly if you’re in a hurry or are trying to stick to spending limits – you just want to see what you’re looking for, not a whole pile of stuff you’ve absolutely no interest in!
- Shoppers on a mission: These are people with a specific item in mind. They don’t want to be sidetracked with irrelevant results, and they don’t want to waste time trying to find exactly what they’re looking for. They are people who tire rapidly of wading through pages of demo items, particularly when they’ve already indicated they’ve no interest in them in the first place. Shoppers on a mission come to Marketplace because it should be easier to find what they want, and far quicker than hunting around in multiple locations inworld. They certainly don’t want to face a mass of irrelevant search results thanks to inconsiderate sellers trying to hype their merchandise.
I struggle to understand why sellers think this is a legitimate practice that shoppers will appreciate. By all means, get your samples and demos out there, and I’m sure that will generate passing trade – people find it far easier to part with their cash if they see something they fancy and can try before they buy. However, don’t lumber us with unnecessary search results that we’ve specifically said we don’t want to see, because that’s almost certainly going to lose you precious sales. Worse still, dumping mislabled, incorrectly categorised items all over Marketplace is just going to clog the system up, leading to frustration and increasingly innacurate search results. It annoys me that purchasers and sellers alike complain bitterly how badly MP search is broken, but there’s actually not all that much wrong with the system: It’s the merchants manipulating search terms, or listing items under completely innacurate key words that’s really making a mess of it.
Let me give you an example, by way of illustration. I searched Marketplace for ‘Denim jacket’, specifying no demos. Of the 96 items that came up on the first page of results, over half were totally unconnected with either denim or jackets, and more than 20 results were for demos, every one of them the results of incorrect use of key words, or sellers subverting the system to push their demos, at the expense of search accuracy. It sucks, and it could all be so easily fixed, if only sellers on Marketplace were prepared to play fair and treat their customers, and the system, with a bit of respect.
There’s no need at all for Marketplace search to be so broken, but it’s nothing to do with the search engine, or – for once – the Labbies not doing a great job. It’s purely the fault of indisciplined sellers trying to bend and break the rules for their own benefit.
So, if that’s you, I’ll say it again, just stop it!
Because, you can bet your bottom Linden Dollar, not just me, but lots of other potential customers are going to stop it too… that is, we’ll stop buying your goods and stick with sellers who don’t mess us around instead.
s. x
I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
U2 – I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Serendipidy Haven's Musings 