IDEAS: How to fail when running a shop

How to FAIL when running a shop

Hello people. Special greetings to potential new shop owners!

Please call me Miner. Or M1ner. The M4ster in my name means (wannabe) teacher.
I actually like to dig and find buried treasures. Out of necessity, because back then practically all of the shops tried to rip me off when I was selling stuff, I've become a shop owner and I'm trying to do that the best I can.

A recent discussion in this forum shows that there are quite some misconceptions and misunderstandings around shops on EMC, for example the idea that many shops fail because the economy on EMC is somehow not good. This is, of course, not the case. I hope this thread will help clarify at least some of those misunderstandings.

Over quite a few years there is a lot of experience collected, so I'd like, with your help, to give that to (new) members who might think that they want to run a shop.

Top line: Don't start a shop unless you know what it takes to start and run it. Really.
2nd line: Running a shop is all but easy. There are no easy rupees here. If you want easy rupees, look elsewhere.

Please write from your knowledge and experience about how to fail when running a shop. I'll do the same and I'll make an index with links to your posts.

Please use different (new) threads for broader discussion about distinct ideas and, for example, of what happened in the past and then post summaries to this thread. You're welcome to edit your posts, but please notify me if a change in the index is needed. I'll ask moderators to clean up the thread from off topic postings if needed.

I hope many potential new shop owners will thank you - and me.

Index

F1 Start a shop without sufficient capital
F2 Build while ignoring the effort needed to set up the chests and the signs and actually run the shop
F3 Think that you can produce enough stuff to stock a mall yourself. And then run the mall at the same time
F4 Fail to distinguish between "playing shop" and needs of people who really want to buy and/or sell products to save their time and effort
F5 Try to rip off the customers and/or suppliers or try to exploit their lack of knowledge or try to mislead them
F6 Treat suppliers as slaves, make them look dumb
F7 Waste the time of your customers and/or suppliers
F8 Fail to advertise
F9 Run and stay out of stock for a longer period of time
F10 Fail to be able to buy stuff in bulk when someone wants to sell
F11 Fail to monitor the market and know and adjust the prices
F12 Fail to know in time what changes the next update will bring
F13 Fail to place shop signs in a proper way / miss to study how the shops work
F14 Fail to double-check your shop signs

~~~

Reserved

FAIL: Start a shop while being poor / start a shop without enough capital.

In a shop you can sell or buy stuff or both. To sell something, you need it in rather LARGE quantity. To buy stuff, you need a LOT of money, a lot of rupees. People mostly won't waste their time buying or selling only few blocks at a time no matter how cheap. If you start a shop while you neither have enough goods nor enough rupees, it won't work.

Or, spend all of your stuff and money building the shop, leaving you with nothing to actually run it.

As an exception, the start capital might consist of your reputation and of contracts with reliable producers who will give you their products before you pay for them ("commission"), but this is very rare on EMC, it happens almost only between (IRL) friends. (Because they know where you live and they or their mother can talk to your mother if you misbehave... )

FAIL: Build while ignoring the effort needed to set up the chests and the signs and actually run the shop.

Many people on EMC have built shop buildings, some of them large, luxurious and with a magnificent design just to realize how much effort it takes to really set up a successful shop, and they've stopped there. The building stands there - empty. A nice and wisely organized building is important, but the core of any shop are the chests and the signs - the stuff and the free space in the chests, and the prices. This is the main effort needed, the building is secondary.

FAIL: Think that you can produce enough stuff to stock a mall yourself. And then run the mall at the same time.

You can't. Nobody can.
There are (too) many examples for this kind of fail on EMC. You will see signs on shop entrances (shop spawn points): "Sorry for the low stock! I'll restock during the next school break, I promise!" and "Please come back soon and check again!"
To run a mall you need suppliers and resellers. Many suppliers and resellers!

FAIL to distinguish between "playing shop" and needs of people who really want to buy and/or sell products to save their time and effort

Many people like to "play shop", they actually like to build a "shop" and come into social contact with the "customers". In that game, the actual buying and selling - and saving effort and time isn't important at all. If you want to build a shop, be sure to know if you want to "play shop" or really want to provide a good service to the shop users. The first one is easy, the second one is hard. Don't advertise "playing shop" and pretend that you have a "real" shop, you will only waste peoples time and they won't be happy.

FAIL: Try to rip off the customers and/or suppliers or try to exploit their lack of knowledge or try to mislead them.
Or decline to roll back a deal if requested within reasonable time.
Or refuse to refund the mistakes customers make - for example when they accidentally buy when they wanted to sell and vice versa.

It is neither cool nor good in the long run. It won't bring you customers nor suppliers, respectively.
Not only you will make people sad, you will make them angry.

FAIL: Treat suppliers as slaves, make them look dumb.
Think that your suppliers shall sell you stuff at the half of your sell price or even lower. Give them breadcrumbs, keep all profit for yourself. This makes them look dumb.

Of course, they will seek another shop to sell their products or they will start their own outlet.

Sounds very good, well-written!
I feel like you won't need other players to weigh in. I might be mistaken, though.

Oh, there is so much to add, I hope I don't have to do it all by myself!

FAIL: Waste the time of your customers and/or suppliers. This will frustrate them for sure.
This is a big one:
1. Fail to provide clear and easy navigation. Make your shop a labyrinth where most people will lose orientation.
2. Fail to provide a good shop index / TP area and /res loc tags. Make them run around again and again like mad.
3. Make it too dark to see where to go or to read the prices. Make it too multi-colored and chaotic so they get dizzy.
4. Fail to organize products, make it hard for them to find and to remember where the chests are
5. Don't place item frames with items or blocks above chests, make them read through 100 signs to find the chest
6. Sell / buy everything 1 item at a time. Make them click 64 times when they want to buy or sell a stack.
7. Hide your stock, especially hide the available empty space from suppliers. Don't enable /tpreview (/togglepreview). Make them come over to your shop to buy or sell one block. Or none.

Great thread. Thought I could maybe add a couple things that helped me with my shop.

First, I have found it huge, particularly when a new shop is building a customer base, Promotion, Promotion, Promotion! Advertise your shop on the forums and Advertise your shop in game. This is not entirely unlike irl. Have special deals, limited time promotions to bring people in. Once they come for the special they might buy other things and will remember your shop and will come back again later. People can only remember a certain number of shops and become loyal to a shop fast.

Second, and related to a loyal customer base is, don't run out of stock! You will frustrate your customers and they will leave you fast if they go to your shop only to find they can't get what they expected they could. People tend to buy something because they need it for something they are working on or doing right at that moment. They are on a mission and don't want to mess around searching for something they need. Most people will pay a little extra for that convenience.

FAIL to be able to buy stuff (for big shops / malls)
Miss to be ready to buy, in-game or in an auction, when someone sells in bulk.

When people produce stuff in an efficient way, they won't and simply can't efficiently produce small quantities. A big shop / mall has to be able to buy in bulk at bulk-buy price. Producers want to concentrate on producing, not on going through endless defunct shops and wasting time trying to sell their product.
For example, for normal mined blocks, a shop which is buying should at least have empty space for a SC (27 stacks).

A "one round" mining trip where the miner (almost) uses up 1 dia unbreaking 3 pick produces 3 SC (around 80 stacks) of blocks. On some mining trips, a very industrious miner will make 2-3 rounds and return with 160 to 240 stacks of diverse blocks. That miner is tired and wants to dump the blocks into chests and be done with the work. A good shop has to provide that opportunity.

FAIL to monitor the market and know the prices
Let changes in price always surprise you and put you out of business.

If you don't follow prices you will soon be either too expensive or too cheap - either unable to buy or unable to sell. Prices WILL change for various reasons, that is normal. As a shop owner you simply have to be informed. You have to watch other shops, talk with the people, know about new big projects which will need a lot of stuff to be built and then produce a lot. You must adapt to survive.

Some shop owners try to solve that by having a big or even very big margin (difference between the sell and the buy-price), but that is just another fail that deserves a separate posting.

FAIL to know in time what changes the next update will bring
Similar to the fail above: stay uninformed. React far too late after the update has come and everyone else is already up to date. Simply: let the changes surprise you and put you out of business.

Replying to your comment from the other Thread here... Where it appropriate and not off-topic

I take your point that you make here based on economy, but I respectfully disagree with it because of the intent. If the intent is to make money for your time, then a zero-markup will fail, just due to the effort and resources put into the shop. But this is a game and I have no rent to pay, nor utilities to pay, nor employees to pay. Just my own game time, which is well spent being helpful and offering an additional option.

I have always said that I am not in this game to make money (rupees) and it is my choice to not charge a markup (or much of one) for buying and selling items. I don't think that it is a "fail" to act as a "holding company" and hold goods that someone has sold until another player comes along and buys those same goods. [The only downside is the inability to sell at a discounted bulk-price without losing rupees in the deal. But that is a "me" issue and doesn't really apply, as I have said, not in it for a profit; I am in it for the game.]

Before the update to 1.15, there was so much demand for buying goods from players that I opened a second shop on smp8. Now that the global chat has happened, I don't find the same need and desperation is existing for the buying of goods from players. I have had time to finish work on the renovations in a more relaxed way and am enjoying my time in the game. The 2 shops are becoming divergent and each specializing in their own items. It is too much work to make 2 carbon-copy shops and take care of them both equally, while also playing in the game. Anyone who manages to do it is not playing the game for fun, nor enjoying themselves doing it.

Interesting thread that you've created...

I disagree with some of the points. Azoundria is a testament to disprove some of these.

Thank you for replying, I was looking forward to it
In my comment i wrote "could".

I understand the intent of trying to run a zero-margin shop. In fact, I think making money should never be the (end) goal.

Besides the needed effort on your side to constantly adjust the prices in order to keep your service usable - the effort that you're doing for fun and to provide a good service - you will inevitably make losses, because when new stuff arrives, the demand for many old items drops and their price falls, leaving you with stock you can't sell, i.e. stock where you have to reduce the price. With a considerable count of items in the zero-margin shop, you could run into a situation where this is no longer sustainable. That's meant by "could fail".

Nevertheless, I like your way of doing that. You're not the first one to try something like that, but you're doing it your way. It is a game and a great opportunity to learn something, to make some experiences while having fun. This is, of course, of much higher value than any amount of rupees.