Second Life Fashion Study Finds SL Consumer Behavior Parallels RL Spending (But Market Is Still Under-Served)

Market Truths, a research firm that does reports on the Second Life economy, has an extensive study on the state of the Second Life fashion market, on who buys what, how much, and why. Research director Dr. Mary Ellen Gordon (PhD) shared a copy with me recently, and it's full of fascinating details. Her own three key takeaways from the study are just as interesting:

Second Life consumer behavior parallels real world consumer behavior:

"We see that often in our research in SL," Dr. Gordon tells me, "but when it comes to wearables, the differences are particularly tangible. For example: The more people browse for hair in SL, the more they spend on hair care in RL; the less they browse for underwear in SL, the less they spend on underwear in RL." This opens up the possibility of Second Life as a prototyping space, for as she puts it: "[F]or real world apparel marketers, the link between SL style and purchase behavior and RL purchases creates a lot of potential for using SL as a venue for testing and promoting RL clothing (and other personal appearance products and services.)"

There's still many under-served fashion markets in Second Life:

"From the perspective of content creators and even Residents in general," Dr. Gordon tells me, "I think it’s interesting that the set of unmet needs identified this year is identical to that identified in 2008 with a different sample. Given the large number of talented designers in SL and the fact that sales to existing users have stagnated somewhat and growth in new users is not that rapid at the moment, I would have thought that by now there would be more people creating niches within the SL wearables market targeting these different customer groups."

However, the problem may largely be a technical one: "[I]t’s likely that this and the search problem are inter-related," she speculates, "in that some of the things that people say they can’t find actually are available, but they’re just not finding them because of the limitations of the search functions both in world and in the marketplace."

Finally, a third takeaway of particular interest to Linden Lab, which purchased the online shopping site XStreetSL, and to content creators who sell their items there:

Consumer satisfaction is higher from in-world fashion shopping, not on the web:

"[T]he proportion of people doing at least some of their shopping for virtual clothing via the Web has increased since our 2008 survey, and yet satisfaction with the styles available in SL is greatest for those who shop only within SL, and least for those who shop only on the Web." This is surprising, because "[t]heoretically, it should be easier to find things using the Web than by teleporting around in-world." With that in mind, Gordon recommends that Linden Lab greatly improve the website's search function. "That’s especially true since ‘ease of finding what you’re looking for’ is one of the aspects of the SL wearables market with which customers are least satisfied."

The full report is here, and sells for L$5000 -- not a bad investment for SL fashionistas interested in boosting their sales and finding markets to expand into.

Pictured: Iris Ophelia's coverage on SL boots.

Comments

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I'm curious about these underserved markets. Mens' wear is a perennial favorite, but what other market segments are being neglected? Opinions?

[Knusper]

ah.. i think thats bull

[Rawst Berry]

I'm dying to know what these "under served markets" are, but hell if I'm paying $50 for it. v_v

[Medhue]

Are you serious? Pay for that? Guess what, in a couple of weeks, any decent merchant in SL could put together a much more comprehensive and extensive survey using a 100 linden survey system found on Xstreet. I can hardly even believe that any1 would think this is a serious survey. I'm sorry, but this is rubbish.

Tho, I would agree that there are still many markets that are not served. Seems to me that every1 shoots for the same market, barbie chicks. Well, and maybe goth.

Still tho, what logical person would think for 1 min that a 400 person survey can tell you anything, unless it was highly targeted.