Thinking About Relying on the Marketplace for SL Christmas Gifts? Think Again. (Plus Five In-World Alternatives)

 

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

I've been an enthusiastic user of the SL Marketplace since before it was even the Marketplace. It's been a godsend for fashionistas, since it allows us to search and browse shops far faster than going to them in-world. And when you're in the middle of taking snapshots and realize that you've overlooked a crucial accessory, you can grab it without even having to explain your half-dressed ensemble to fellow customers. Up until recently, it's also been invaluable around the holidays as a tool for sending practically anything listed as a gift.

That said, here's my number one SL holiday tip this year: Do not rely on the Marketplace for your gift-giving. Here's why:

The Marketplace's appeal is built largely on being able to make immediate purchases without having to load a new SL location or even dress your avatar. In recent months, however, the Marketplace has become more and more unreliable,  with delivery times regularly exceeding an hour... or failing to deliver altogether. To be fair, this is almost certainly because of its increased popularity, especially as the holidays. approach Linden Lab has been trying to integrate the Marketplace more and more into the average SL user's experience, and it seems like those efforts have been successful. Unfortunately the service doesn't seem to be ready for all this new demand, and delivery rates have been suffering dramatically.

With the service growing less and less reliable, for me the Marketplace has become little more than a catalogue that I use to browse collections, since waiting for a delivery (that may never come) takes far longer than just going to the damn store myself. So how should you do your SL holiday shopping? Try stores with vendor systems that allow for gifting or transferable versions. Here are five of my favorite shops (for clothing, furniture, and more) with such options available:

• Alchemy's Attic [Click here to teleport to Alchemy's Attic in ALCHEMY IMMORTALIS]
• Illusions [Click here to teleport to Illusions in CARNIVALE]
• Mon Tissu [Click here to teleport to Mon Tissu in LULA]
• Stuff Store [Click here to teleport to Stuff Store in MEOW]
• Whippet & Buck [Click here to teleport to Whippet & Buck in IMOGEN]

And of course, when in doubt ask a store owner. Many creators will be happy to deliver non-transferrable gifts directly to recipients. Happy holidays!

Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Rowan Derryth]

Thanks for this, and if I may add one more crucial fact you forgot: when you buy at the store, content creators don't lose a percentage of sales to the marketplace. I think of it as buying local :-) I like the marketplace too for the browsing, but I always try to go to the shop to buy. It IS unfortunate that we often miss the gift/transfer option, but sometimes I'll just take the friend along, say SURPRISE, then dump the money on them to buy it! Maybe not quite the same, but still a fun experience.

[Douglas Story]

One problem with the process of finding an item on the Marketplace and then going to the in-world store to purchase it is actually FINDING the item in the store. This is especially problematic in very very large stores.
It was recently pointed out to me that the Firestorm viewer has a nifty feature called "Area Search." (It's an option under the "World" menu, I believe.) You type in the name of what you're looking for and the viewer will put a beacon right on the item itself. Handy!
Perhaps other viewers also come equipped with this feature, but I only know about it through Firestorm.

[EhrmanDigfoot]

I haven't had any problems at all in the past month, and I've been shopping like crazy. Let's hope that they implement direct delivery soon!

[elizabeth (16)]

hope one day ll will put the marketplace into viewer bc is easier to find stuff on the mp search than on the inworld search. like just have a marketplace tab

once b4 used to be a way to put a teleport coord for vendor box into the search. so could clikc the link and teleport right next to it. dont know why we cant have that anymore. hope ll will put that back one day as well

is quite bad the marketplace delivery now than b4. some days not get anything delivered

seems for me that it something to do with the shopping basket that not deliver stuff. so try not to use that anymore and just do direct purchase. i still forget tho sometimes not to do that and end up not get

bc it have probs i not buy costly stuff on the mp anymore. just only free and cheap now

[Pussycat Catnap]

I finally broke down a few days ago and ordered something on MP.

Only because I went to the merchant's shop and it was the only item on their MP store not in their SL store or their outlet...
- And it was cheap enough to gamble.

Sat there inworld the entire time, nothing came. But the site said it was delivered.

Contacted the merchant, who sent it to me manually overnight...

Lesson once again learned...

[Todd Borst]

As a merchant, I hate selling things on Marketplace ever since LL took it over.

Transactions are definitely slower and more unreliable.

There's no way to filter out zero dollar transactions like before. Therefore transaction history is practically useless to me.

Product reviews are also pretty useless now since they're on a separate tab that users have to click to see.. AND they only show 2 at a time.

Ug.. Since they have monopoly now on the internet purchases for SL, they don't really need to give a damn.

[foneco zuzu]

Well, they should, cause someday they can be ending with a big hand of nothing!

[foneco zuzu]

but i have to be fair, I only got free (Yes 0L stuff) from marketplace, and i feel the basket like with 8 itens before hiting it.
I got 6 or 7 of them, so i cant complain about that! (7 on 8 not bad, lol)!
But i can complain when i report a copy boot object being sold, the builder reports it as well, and it is still being sold 2 months !!!!! After.

[foneco zuzu]

So LL wake up!!! you cant be on the business like this even not having nobody agaisnt you!

[Robert]

My marketplace transactions are failed or severely delayed the majority of the time when I attempt purchases. I don't understand why there isn't more outrage about this.

[Noirran Marx]

I haven't had an issue with Marketplace delivery *knocks on wood*. I wonder, do people order from the inworld browser or go to their external browser to order?

[Robert]

More often than not, the items I purchase on marketplace take hours to be delivered or fail altogether. This is why I don't buy on Marketplace anymore. Here's the message I receive in transaction history:

1 item has not yet been delivered
This item is queued for delivery. Merchants cannot redeliver the item at this time, and have not been paid. If the item is not delivered within 8 hours after purchase, you will automatically receive a refund to your account. If you make a purchase while the transaction is in progress, the refund credit may be applied to your next order.

(Gotta wonder, if the system is "smart" enough to display the message above next to the details of my transaction, why isn't it "smart" enough to just deliver the item?)

[Pirmin Jupiter]

I haven't bought anything the last days, so i can't say. But since about two months (!) there are issues with HOURS long delayed deliveries between 1-5am SLtime. (evening in Asia, forenoon in Europe, night in the Americas)

There is a JIRA bugreport and many discussions in forums about this. (https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/WEB-4260)

Often the deliveries fail after hours, or arrive, you can't tell. The merchants have also long delays receiving the money and sometimes stuff is not delivered but payed or the other way around :/
There is even a reply from a Linden in the JIRA mentioned above:
"...identified a pattern ... are investigating the best ways to decrease this delivery time during the morning hours"

But since them nothing changed, and they even didn't put a notice on the MP main page, as they do often for other stuff. (like ^^now we got pr0n^^ when they added the adult filter :)

I find this as worse as haven't not foreseen to be run over by holidays :/

Please Lindens, repair the MP because else i can't shop naked on-line anymoar :)