Running A Successful Shop in 5 Essential Steps Hey guys. I poked around on the forums but didn't see any guides like this, So I'm gonna make one, since people keep asking me for advice on running shops. These five steps below are the absolute essentials, and even if you do everything else wrong, these steps should keep your shop running superbly. And yes, I know, it's not an in depth guide. It's only supposed to cover the most important parts. So here we go: Advertise, But Don't Spam By advertise, I don't mean go "EVERYTHING YOU NEED AT 2401" every ten seconds. I mean, if someone asks, for example: "Does anyone sell Nether Brick?" and you know you have it? You respond with "Nether Brick at 2401, second floor." Telling them the almost-exact location is enormously helpful as well and will encourage them to actually do it. Stay In Stock Most people seem to think that people want cheap prices. Some people DO want cheap prices. But most people just want to find a shop that doesn't say "Out of Stock" everytime they hit the sign. Keep everything in stock in decent sized quantites and people will keep coming back. I speak from experience on this. Sell In Reasonable Quantities I am all the time seeing new players with shops that sell things like cobble one block at a time. When people buy building materials, they are usually going to buy at least 16, most likely half a stack or a stack. Likewise, your everyday customer is not going to buy 64 doors, they probably only want a couple. People will go somewhere else rather than hit that sign 64 times for a stack of logs. Your Store Should Not Double As A Maze! Rather than stairs, I suggest using teleports. It's simpler that way, even if the rare complainer doesn't like it. But there's no point in using teleports if you're going to try to split your items in as many ways as possible. I've seen several shops with a teleport for ores and a teleport for redstone, or a teleport for misc items and then a teleport for crafted items. Just put those kind of things together, it confuses people otherwise. It's logical to have a few things in different departments so people aren't wandering an enormous room, but don't go overboard. Careful With Your Prices! Don't sell things too cheap or buy things too expensively. Your buying price should always be lower than your selling price. Also, the cheaper your items, the more likely someone is going to buy you out and sell it all for a higher price somewhere else. If you want to avoid that, stay within the average price range. People who sell for cheap and tell people not to resell are pretty much asking for it. Your prices, your responsibility.
Good point. I made the mistake of not doing that when I first started and ended up with a double chest of bowls that I bought for 2r each. x_x
also supply and demand if lots of people are buying your stock and u are running out make the price a little bit higher for example iron i m selling for 7r and its going pretty quick because of beacon pyramids and anvils etc so i raised it to 8r and when new items come out try and get them and sell them quick as the price of them will drop rapidly for example beacons and wither skulls
I thought that another tip for better customer service would be have some extra supplies and when someone says it is out of stock you can immediately restock it. But anyway epic tips!
I try to write all customer restockes on a word document or in my minecraft book so I know who and what, and try to get some more.
This is mainly sales ethics. To be successful you also have to make the money. Example: Buying things from another shop to sell in your shop will cause you to lower your margin. If you were to go out into the wild and mine the materials or chop down the trees etc... you would have a higher margin. Getting the balance right is just as essential as sales ethics. Also it's ok to become a wholesale/reseller. Specialising in one or two items can guarantee you a steady flow of rupees. I started out making my first thousand rupees by selling cobble, stone and stone brick. Soon 1K became 10K and I knew who my customers were and I knew that they would be there the next day.
Very true louiskw. My guide is not money-making oriented, but making money is a result of following these steps, if that makes sense. Basically, this guide will help your shop stand out among the thousands of other shops in the Empire. You shop will have a good reputation and your customers will keep coming back. Running a shop will make you money regularly, but there are other ways to make larger amounts of money, and the guide on that one is probably pretty in depth, were someone to write it. I may do it, I do like to help people. But you know, I think there's already a tutorial on money making in the Empire already. EDIT: And I can back you up on the specializing thing louiskw. Not sure if you knew about it, but a month or so ago I had a stocking biz that specialized in cheap wholesale. I could afford to go 10 or 20r below regular price, because they were buying things by the double chest. I made a lot of business and maybe 120k rupees, though a good portion of that went to other employees and to enchanted weapons to make the stocking easier. We had maybe a dozen very basic materials that we stocked. I had to quit though, because I'm too busy now to keep up with it.
