Title explains it. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who struggles with this. So I'll often use a great listing resource, such as Azoundria's site to find listings of products that I'm looking to buy. Easy enough, I've gotten to the residence and it looks like a nicely organized shop complete with teleports, so I'm gonna assume it's reliable when it claims that it sells the product I'm looking for. But the most annoying thing out there to us consumers is when we get to that one magical store and then for some crazy reason we cannot find the product anywhere, at least not any on the floors that it makes logical sense to find them on. There's a lot of products that fit in this large gray area. Take the infamous Elytra. Found in the End, so you might find it on the End Floor. Can be enchanted and useful during battles, so you might find it on any given store's Combat Floor. Yet the MC Creative Menu categorizes it as Transportation. Many on EMC consider it to be a hard-to-find luxury, so you might find it on the Promo/Rares Floor, you'll honestly never figure it out. The list goes on. Boats? Rotten Flesh? Even Sticks? Yep, there's a lot of them. It's the kind of thing that drives shop owners crazy. I'm currently in development of my own mall, and it's been single-handedly the most annoying part of the process. You think about what products are designated to a certain area and then have to somehow compensate for all the in-betweens while thinking about the customers you might potentially lose simply because they can't find their product, even though your store has exactly what they're looking for. Item Frames have been a help, but having to place one of those nonchalant in-between products in an Item Frame just for reference almost defeats the purpose of having them there in the first place (Like who wants to see a Stick in a reference frame for the "Animal Supplies" section ). Multiple chests for the same product located on different floors doesn't work out well either, as stock control can get out of hand if you have to remember multiple chestshop locations for the same product. The good news is that after being on EMC for 4 years, I've actually learned something along the line. That's why I'm including an in-store directory for all of those "in-between" products that nag on you for ages. So now I get to my question: what products do you find taking forever to locate? And in what location of your perfect store would you hold them for sale in? I'm using your feedback to help decide which products to provide their very own TP's too in my 3794 directory as the shop develops. Thanks! Btw if this has already been mentioned in an older thread plz redirect me to it, I won't be offended
This was actually a very interesting read! Just to make a small note, if shops are not updated on Azoundria's site then you may not find the items you are looking for at all because they won't be there! I unfortunately can't provide very good advice in terms of shopping because, well because all I do here is like posts and breed animals. But I'd be interested in seeing what other people have to say. Good luck! PS: Be sure to keep Azoundria's site awesome by updating your shop! (Link in sig)
I've seen some mall where some items has a sign that says where to find it. For example lets take redstone: Some shops put this in the gems area others have it in the redstone area or both. The smart way I have seen shop owners do is only have it in one area and in the other have a sign redirecting to the area where the item can be found.
Kinda sorta want to bump this again. I'm at the point where I've gotta start construction on the directory soon. Anyone else got a list of items that are a pain to find?
As a (previous, it's temporally closed) mall owner can I tell I have had the same problems, I haven't got a list of items reddy (mostly because I'm typing on my IPad in a little apartment in France) but I do know how to make that list as short as possibly. First off, try to make a rough Idea of what items you want where, and mostly what floors do you want, and what items you don't want to sell (are you just a starter that is trying to beat a high-visited mall (like me with 2000), no one will say no if you kindly ask to copy what floors you want, it is easier for you, and it will make it more easy for new costummers to find all items, since it's about the same as the mall they used to know) you can, of corse make it the way the creative-inventory is sorted, but that will mean you've got a few really big floors (maybe make small sections in the big ones) and really small ones, can be a problem with the building, or you can design a building around it, of corse) But, I'd suggest doing it all yourselve, find out what floors you want, and just start sorting all, of corse, it will take some time, but that is what I'm doing right now for my new mall. But than you've got another problem, people tend to think differently than you do, so they might go to the wrong floor, this is the point most people think "I don't care" which leads to the problems listed in the original post, but there are a few tricks for it. Firstly, place redirect signs, I have made quite some of those in my previous mall, just think "where do I think this Item could be" to yourselve, and ask for support by other people "Aren't you able to find an item on the place you think it sound be, tell me and I will make a new redirect sign to mak this mall even better" of corse, not everyone will even read that sign, but the people that do usually are friends enough to help you. The nice thing about them is, you can place quite a lot of them, just place a teleport sign that goes directly to the actual shop at the place you'd originally place the shop sign. Another thing you can do actually is a quite that me taking one, but I'm planning to make one myself as well, make a system that makes you able to find every single item there is, this is how I picture sick a thing: make a kind of labyrinth with questions and answers as teleports, like a little room with a sign that asked you "is it a redstone Item" with "yes" as a teleport me o another room and "no" as a teleport to another room, and so on. The last thing I think can be useful is an apart floor only filed with redirect signs called something like "weird items" this is the kind of solution you need your list for, but I don't know how useful it actually is... Hope this helps ~Jelle
Different people organize their store in different ways. Some by minecraft creative menu, some by item types, and others by something entirely different. However the mall/shop(s) are setup, all shops should first take you to a "navigation" room/location. This navigation room should be easy to read the signage (not high up on a wall...more than 3 blocks high), ability to teleport to each section, uncluttered (keep the focus on your products), and the user should be able to understand how you're grouping your product (just based upon how you offer your products). Additionally, make navigating your mall/stores easy. I have multiple stores accessible through a navigation room with a map of my residence showing the location of each of my stores. Although I have multiple stores, the map is color coded so the user only needs to follow the yellow brick road..oops wrong show ...they only have to follow the colored clay to be teleported to the store. Most stores have this "initial" navigation room to get you to your first item. But what about follow on sells? Example: I have all of my potions, potion ingredients, enchantment books, and any magical items in my Mojo Magic store. This store is 3 floors and in the initial navigation room I list the products above the teleport/portal for that floor. That's great and get's the user to the initial product that they want. However on each floor of my stores I have a redstone block and a redstone torch above a sign that tells them it will teleport them back to the navigation room where they can then go to another store (or within a mall) to buy more items. Cha-ching! And don't forget about the user that is coming to buy a lot of an item (or multiple items). Right next to that teleport (back to the navigation room) I have on every floor, sits an enderchest with a sign over it "Got too Much? Use the enderchest to store items to buy more." Know your stock and it's location so when your see something in the chat like "Hey, anyone selling obsidian?" You can reply back with "Obsidian at /v +czarina" "Then go to Supreme Stone, basement, back wall" I know the following doesn't pertain to locating items in a store but these can kill your store quickly: The super majority of stores call themselves mega malls. Just because they have one huge building, it doesn't make them a mega mall. Think of how many stores you have gone to that have a bunch of chests setup, only to find out that there's nothing in the chest or only 4 - 8 items in the chests? Personally I do not place any new item out on my stores floors until I have, at least, a SC of the item (usually it's DC). We all have heard the cliché of making a first impression. You don't want to have users thinking "well that store never has anything in stock." And this leads into the 2nd thing about selling an item; keep it stocked. Yes there's times when you will run out but check your stock (I do it through this web looking at my rupees to see what has sold) and restock ASAP. Do price checking. Bounce around to other stores and check out their prices on the same items you're selling. Some telltale signs that you're prices are not competitive (too high or even too low) are: Do you have item that isn't selling? Price check it and it's probably due to it being priced to high. Do you have an item that is always selling out? Then your price is set too low. People will look for this, buy you out, and sell it to another store.
