 Talking Shop With Pizzaroo
by indebtedness
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Everybody dreams of being wealthy, having enough money to pay for all their dream pets and paint brushes and morphing potions, being able to fill their stamp albums and take their accounts to the next level. There are a lot of ways to do that, like restocking or playing lots of games, but one way is through shopkeeping. Running a shop takes a lot of work, finding an inventory that works for you and sells in high demand, keeping consistant traffic coming in to buy your goods, and keeping enough of a profit margin that it isn't a waste of time. There are lots of different ways to do that and we wanted to talk to one of the best in the industry: Pizzaroo.Pizzaroo is a friendly green Blumaroo who sports a fancy mustache and a puffy chef's hat. He runs the pizza shop that sells a huge variety of crazy flavors such as Yummy Muddy Pizza and Banana and Kiwi Pizza. He has evolved his taste buds so much that he can go crazy gourmet, or he can tone is back for the regular Neopians that visit his shop every day. He's learned that sometimes people want slices, but he's able to make a bit of profit off selling whole pizza pies, and he knows how to keep repeats coming back. He's here today to share some tips with us about how to run the most successful shop possible. Reporter: Pizzaroo! It is very nice of you to talk with the future shopkeepers of Neopia. Welcome, welcome. How are you today? Pizzaroo: I'm great...as long as you all don't go into the pizza business and steal my customers. *Pizzaroo laughs to himself* I love helping Neopians achieve their goals and I think it is important that we always keep shops open and around. Reporter: Why do you think it's important to have a lot of shops? Aren't you scared that will hurt your sales? Pizzaroo: Not at all. I believe having a consistently stimulated economy is the key to spreading the wealth. If we create a market where Neopians are freely spending their money, where their demand is constantly supplied, it will create a stimulus where people are more willing to spend money on many things. Having a lot of shops means there will be many sales. People love to shop, people love to browse, and people like options. And even if there are more pizza shops competing with me, sometimes competition is a good thing. It lets people pick and choose their best and creates more temptation for goods. Reporter: Wow, it is fascinating that more shops create more sales. It gives people more freedom in their purchases and when they feel free they are more likely to buy goods. Pizzaroo: Exactly! Reporter: Can you give some tips on how to get a shop started? For someone who is new to shopkeeping. Pizzaroo: Yes. The first thing you'll want to do is upgrade your shop size to a level where you can hold a lot of items. Ideally you want to start at size 100 and go from there. That will allow you to have a wide variety and also multiples of every item to keep you from selling out too quickly. Reporter: What size do you need to be for main market? Pizzaroo: Main market is the nickname for an area of Neopia Central properly called the "Marketplace". This is where the largest shops in the world are displayed, bringing in a little more business. Most shops need to be around size 600+ to get in, but this isn't essential anymore. Back in the old days if you wanted to be more successful, it was all about having a large shop size. Now it is about products and carefully pricing things for the Shop Wizard. Reporter: Careful pricing? Could you elaborate more on that? Pizzaroo: Yes! So if you want to make a profit, you are going to want to sell items for more than you paid. Unfortunately, having very expensive items means you won't show up on the Shop Wizard when people are searching for items. To combat this, you'll want to price around 10% of your stock at Shop Wizard prices or a few hundred neopoints over. This will get eyes looking at your shop, and looking at the other items you sell, and tempting them into buying the items that are marked up higher. You'll also want a portion of you stock priced within 1,000 NP from the Shop Wizard prices for the same reason. Of course, if you have items that vary widely in the results then you can price a bit higher. Reporter: Do you think the Super Shop Wizard is helpful for this? Pizzaroo: The Super Shop Wizard is a premium enhancement that lets you see the lowest prices on the first search, unlike the regular Shop Wizard which only shows certain shops. Using the Super Shop Wizard allows you to always buy at the absolute lowest price and then mark the prices up a bit where you appear as the lowest on the regular Shop Wizard. If you want to be the most successful shopkeeper, you will definitely want to invest in premium membership. Reporter: One last question, how do you recommend stocking shops? Any items whatsoever, or is there a trick to it? Pizzaroo: I always recommend sticking to a theme. For example I sell pizza, and I only sell pizza. Pizza loves come to me because they trust me to have the best and most diverse selection of pizza. Sticking to one item category helps because collectors will also find your shop and be tempted to buy many items at once, since they are all in one spot and it will save them time from hunting around for different items. Plushies, stamps, collectable cards, battledome weapons, those are all great categories because people want a range of those items. Food is also great. However, there are some categories that have so few items that just isn't great to stock those, or they may just not have wide appeal enough that you'll sell a lot. Reporter: Wow, a lot goes into making a living off of a shop. Thank you again for talking to us. That wraps up our segment on shopkeeping! Best of luck to all the future entrepreneurs of Neopia!!
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