The Mallers of Neopia - Monopolizing Your Market Guild

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Guild Page Links:

Guild News:

* Council positions filled 3/26/09
* Guild Front restored 3/27/09
* Guild homepage updated 3/29/09

For Your Protection:

Beware that using more than one active (stocked and priced) shop account will get you frozen.

Interested in joining the guild? See if you qualify...

Everyone with a main market-sized shop (size 580) is welcome to join the guild - mall leaders and mall members alike. The latest mall news is always discussed, but anything goes on our chat boards. We're only interested in having members who are open to sharing their knowledge and expertise and not people who would blatantly try to undermine and destroy other malls. We would like to keep the friendly competition atmosphere and not introduce a hostile one.

If you would like to join the guild on a spare account and your main qualifies, please state the name of your main on your look-up so the council knows not to delete you. Thanks!

The Ranking System:

The ranking system is based on whether you are on your main account and how active you are in the guild. Being on a main account doesn't make you better than someone on their spare, it's just easier to recognize people this way :) The meaning of each rank is explained below

Iced Out: On your main account and active
Big Cheese: On your spare and active
The Donald: On your main account and not active
Mogul: On your spare and not active
Apprentice: People who haven't had their rank changed yet.

Please neomail one of the council if you think your rank should be changed.

Guild Rules:
Those who do not follow these rules will be permanently banned from the guild:

1. Do not join the guild if your shop size is under the minimum size requirement to show up on the main marketplace. You will be permanently banned.
2. Be polite and respectful at all times.
3. Do not speak rudely about a certain person or a certain mall. You can generalize if a specific situation has occurred and you would like to share. Take your personal issues to neomail or however else you wish to speak to someone about personal matters.
4. You cannot recruit members from the guild who are already in a mall. You may only recruit if someone has expressed a clear desire to change malls. This means that you cannot offer someone a spot in your mall unless you saw them post that they are looking to change malls, they contact you to see if you have an opening, or they are listed under the openings section.
5. Guild spies are not tolerated. What goes on in the guild should remain in the guild. If I get word that you are a guild spy - you will be removed without question.
6. Like neo, I can use my own set of rules and my own judgement while running this guild. If you don't like them, then you are free to leave and run your own guild. 7. We are here to help each other out and perhaps be an inspiration to one another. Plagiarism will not be tolerated -this shall include text, ideas, graphics and guide pages. If you blatantly copy other mallers work, you will no longer be welcome in the guild.
8. This guild does not support any form of cheating. We do not support the upgrades of spare accounts for hut manipulation, the use of hut scripts or having multiple shops stocked. If you participate in these activities, you will be banned from the guild, and neither you or your future mall members will be able to use guild services. Malls are tough competition as is - Let's keep things fair.
9. If you have a concern or suspicions about a certain member, please keep matters private and consult with a council member. The accused and the accuser always end up looking bad if such things are taken public.
10. All guild members in a mall must be treated with respect. If a mall leader is caught lying, using or mis-treating their mall members - you will be banned from the guild.
11. All neopets rules apply to this guild. Know the Neopets TOS!

Rules for people with admin powers:

1. Do not abuse your powers and let emotions rule you. Only apply powers when logic is 100% present.
2. Only posts against TOS or made by intruders can be deleted or if there has been a unintentional double post. Do not delete a post because you don't care for someone's opinion on an issue.
3. Only people with frozen accounts or people with the rank Apprentice can be sorted out by YOU. Everyone who has a rank upgrade have been personally checked by council already.
4. Read boards before deleting members. People often post their main account when introducing themselves, but do not state it on their lookup. If you have a question check with council first.
5. If a council member is not online when you feel someone needs to be suspended - please mail a council member with the events that occurred and your reasoning behind the suspension.
6. If you would like admin to help monitor the guild - Please mail zzzeresatay with your reasons.

MON Tips Menu:

What is a mall?
How do malls work?
Why Join A Mall?
The Case For Malls
On Mall Prices
Joining a Mall
Locating Vacancies
On Malls and Categories
Questions to Ask
Common Terms and Conditions
Stocking Your Shop
The Four 'P's

What is a mall?
A mall is a group of shops whose owners have a shared banner to increase the number of visitors to their shop and hopefully their respective sales. While malls can have some benefit for players with smaller shops (sometimes referred to as "Mini-malls"), they are particularly effective with shops that are large enough to appear in one of

Neopia's three market places:

Neopia Central
Spooky Marketplace
Mystery Island Marketplace

How do malls work?
Items in Neopia typically fall into one of several categories (for example petpets or furniture) and a good mall will have member shops which stock each of the major categories. Typically, each member of a mall is assigned one or more category of items to specialize in such as toys or battledome equipment and is expected to stock a wide range of items within their assigned category(ies). Each shop in the mall displays a graphical banner which appears at the top of their shop and advertises the different categories of items available within the mall. Each category is linked to the shop specializing in that category so that clicking on the category brings the player to the relevant shop. Typically, these are done by having many "buttons" (one for each category) but there are several other variations of which the most common is to use a banner looking like a map.

Malls drive traffic to their members' shops in several ways but by far the most important is through the marketplace. When a player visits the marketplace and clicks on one of the "huts", they are able to view the descriptions of the ten shops contained within that hut. If a shop is in a mall, this means that when someone views their hut, the mall banner is displayed and the player could potentially click on the banner to enter one of the members' shops. If there are 10 members of the mall this means that your shop's banner is displayed to 10 times more people than if you were working on your own.

Why Join A Mall?
The most common reason to join a mall is, of course, to earn neopoints. Typically, mall shops charge a significant mark-up for items in their shops which can result in great profit for the store owner. Of course, its also a great way to develop friendships with the other members of the mall and build a network of contacts. You also get to join our guild and what better incentive is there than that? :)

A Case For Malls:
In addition to providing revenue for their members, malls serve several other useful purposes and are an integral part of Neopia's economy:

Faerie Quests:
Malls represent one of the few ways for players to complete a faerie quest. When a player is given a quest by a faerie, the shop wizard is disabled until the quest is completed. Consequently, they must use other methods to locate the item required and this is a role malls are uniquely suited to fill. Players can simply click on the button of the shop stocking the category of the item they need and, assuming it is in stock, make their purchase. A good maller would ensure that they never run out of times needed by questing players.

Choice and Convenience
A good mall shop will carry a very large variety of items within their assigned category(ies). This means that shoppers get a much greater choice of items when visiting a mall shop as compared with a regular shop. In addition, because through its various member shops a mall offers a huge variety of items in all categories, it is very unlikely that a player will not find all the items they need with in a particular mall. The greater choice and convenience of one-stop shopping are just two of the advantages of the mall concept.

On Mall Prices:
Despite all that malls offer, there is a small but vocal group of players that speak very strongly against malls because of their pricing strategies. In essence, their argument is that mall store owners ("mallers") are taking advantage of players who buy from their stores while being unaware that they could buy the same item more cheaply using the Shop Wizard. While malls generally do charge a premium for their wares, there are some very good reasons for doing so. Here are some points from a maller's perspective:

Upgrading shops is expensive and the need to upgrade is constant. By way of example, it takes approximately 33,698,000 neopoints to upgrade to size 580 and store owners need to be able to recover and justify this cost.

In addition to upgrading, many malls place weekly notices in the noticeboard. Each mall member must contribute his or her share of the cost. The contribution amount will vary based on the number of store owners a mall has but 300,000np would be typical. Again, a maller needs to be able to recover this cost which requires them to price higher than someone who does not.

Mallers are required to keep a very wide range of items in stock. This takes money, which must be recovered.

By now you have probably got the message. Running a shop in a mall is a more expensive prospect than running a regular shop and this necessitates higher prices.

Joining a Mall:
Eligibility:
Mall leaders are generally very selective about the people they invite to join their mall. Several factors can have a significant impact on your ability to obtain an invitation to join a mall. These include among others: (a) this size of your shop (bigger is often but not always better), (b) whether you have a good relationship with the mall leader or any of the mall members, (c) your reputation generally, (d) your willingness to abide by specific mall rules and guidelines (each mall has their own), and (d) your willingness to contribute financially to the mall such as paying for a share of notice board costs.

Locating Vacancies:
Before joining a mall, you will first need to know which malls have a vacancy that you can fill. There are several way to find this information the best of which is probably via the guild home page Mall Openings which contains a list of current openings posted by many of Neopia's leading malls. You should also browse through the marketplace, chat and notice boards since some malls occasionally advertise their vacancies there.

As noted above, relationships are a very important part of the courtship process and you should cultivate good relationships with other mallers. In many instances this could be the difference between finding out about a vacancy before others or securing a place ahead of someone else when there are multiple applicants for the same spot-blocked-ing and participating actively in the guild is a great way to build such relationships.

On Malls and Categories:
If you haven't already, you will quickly realize that membership in some malls is viewed as being more desirable than others and that certain spots within malls are similarly viewed as more desirable than others. More often than not,"desirable" in this context can be freely interchanged with "profitable" although that should never be your yardstick for evaluating an offer.

In general, faerie quests items (books, cards, grooming, clothing, magic and toys) together with petpets and battledome supplies are often viewed as being among the better categories. It is possible, however, to do very well with any category if you market your shop and price your items right.

It probably isn't going to be possible for you to secure a petpet slot in Neopia's most profitable mall on your first attempt but this does not mean that you should accept the first offer that comes along either. Evaluate any offer that comes along carefully from as many angles as possible. Don't be afraid to canvass opinions on the guild forums but be careful that you don't cause offense or publish information given to you in confidence.

Before deciding whether a particular mall or slot within a mall is the right one for you, there are several important things you should consider. These include the mall's reputation, whether or not they have regular notice board advertisements, who the members are and how many of them there are, the marketplace hut positions of the various members, the evenness of the distribution of categories among the members of the mall and the quality and quantity of stock in each shop.

Questions to Ask:
Before deciding to accept an offer to join a mall, ask as many questions as you need to until you feel comfortable that you are making an informed decision. A good mall leader will be happy to answer such questions and to provide as much information as you need. If you are considering a position vacated by someone, it may also be a good idea to contact that person and politely ask about their experience with the mall and their reasons for leaving.

Things you should ask about include: (a) whether there are notice boards and, if so, how much your share of the cost would be as well as the method and timing of payment, (b) any specific rules and guidelines the mall has for their members, (c) how the mall handles vacancies (do they look within the mall or outside the mall, etc.), (d) what they would expect of you in terms of upgrades.

Common Terms and Conditions:
As noted above, many malls have rules and guidelines they expect their mall members to abide by. Every mall is different but here are some common ones:

No links to shops outside the mall.
No links to guilds or guild banners above the mall banner.
No music or backgrounds.
Guidelines on the look, feel and placement of individual shop banners.
No stocking of items outside your assigned categories.*
Requirement to keep your shop fully and regularly stocked.
Mandatory contributions to notice board funds.
Mandatory shop upgrades.
* Some malls will allow you to restock and snipe such items and price them below the shop wizard price to move them quickly.

Stocking Your Shop:
What Should You Stock?
Now that you have found a slot in a mall, one of the first things you will need to consider is what items to stock. In most cases you will have a vast and often confusing array of items within your assigned category to choose from. While having a variety of stock for your customers to choose from is a good thing, it is probably neither necessary, desirable nor practical for you to attempt to stock every possible item.

Probably the best way to decide what to stock is to find two or three shops from other malls that stock similar items and spend several hours examining them closely. You can begin by simply stocking the same items and in similar quantities. As you develop a feel for which items in your store are popular with your visitors you can adjust your stock accordingly. Don't be afraid to try out new things. If it doesn't sell well, price it at shop wizard prices to get rid of it and try something else.

Finally, think carefully about your category and the kind of items that would complement it. For example, a petpet shop could also sell petpet supplies, petpetpets, petpet paintbrushes, etc. A food shop could and should also sell drinks (especially water).

Tips for Stocking Your Shop:
You will quickly discover that unless you are well organized, restocking your shop can become a very time consuming task. This is particularly true if you stock categories that require you to have a large number of different items in stock at any one time. In this section we provide a few useful tips that should help make the task of restocking your shop a little easier.

First; check the wiz a few times to get an idea of the price of an item (note that the row with usernames beginning with s and f is often a good indicator). Identify shops selling more then 10 of the item you want and buy as many of them as you need from those shops. Note that you will almost certainly be able to buy the items individually at cheaper prices but this will take a considerable amount of time. Most mallers quickly decide that paying a small premium to buy in bulk is well worth the additional cost for the time they save.

Second; you will frequently find that a shop that stocks a particular item you need in quantity will often stock other items you need in bulk too. Always double check to ensure they are charging is "reasonable". Some stores use on low-cost items as a "hook" which is when one item is priced low and the rest are obscenely high. This is a classic Mall technique (more later) and you should not fall for it. :)

Third; when you find a shop like this, add them to your browser's favorites and then revisit them when you need to stock again. Assuming you sell the volume of items to justify it, it's a good idea to neomail the store owner and let them know what items you will need on a regular basis and how much you are willing to pay for them. Often the owners will undertake to buy the items in bulk and put them in their shop at the agreed price. You should consider building up a network of several such suppliers.

Fourth; The faster an item sells the more of it you should stock. In general, stock 5 to 10 of items that sell quickly and 3 to 5 of more expensive and slower moving items. A handy tip is that stocking in certain multiples makes it easy to quickly determine what needs restocking. For example, if a book store always has five of every common book in stock and they notice they have only two left or a particular item they know exactly how many more they need to buy.

The Four 'P's:
Presentation:
Presentation is a vital part of creating a successful mall shop. Remember that in a mall, you are not competing on price as you do in smaller shops located via the shop wizard. How your shop looks and feels will have a direct impact on your sales. If your shop doesn't look attractive, people will not buy.

Keep your shop's appearance simple and clean. Do not use fancy backgrounds, fonts, animated pictures, moving or flashing text or anything else that could distract your visitors and draw attention away from your inventory. Avoid putting music in your shop like you would the plague. In general your mall banner, a shop banner (or banners) and a limited amount of clickable text is all that you should need or have.

Next remember that first impressions count for everything. How your front page looks and in particular how your first three rows appear is vital to creating an immediate, positive impression. Avoid crowding your front page with items outside your assigned category (if your mall allows you to stock these) since this can create the impression that you are poorly stocked in the kind items they have come to purchase. Also, remember that most people won't scroll down past your first three rows if they are extraordinarily expensive. Instead, ensure that your first three rows of items are priced relatively cheaply which will create the impression that your entire store is inexpensive.

Another thing to consider when fine tuning your stock is whether similar items appear together or not. For example, there are four buyable terror mountain scratchcards. These look a lot better and will attract more buyers if they all appear on the same row rather than split across two rows. Two similar items look better in the middle of a row, etc. Sometimes you will need to adjust which items you stock to manipulate how such things work out.

To give an illustration ... you can make 10,000np by (1) selling 100 items for 100np profit each, (2) selling 10 items for 1,000np profit each, or (3) selling one item for 10,000np profit. The first scenario is a lot of work and the third is unlikely. A good mall owner would adopt the second approach and then experiment with varying prices. For example, if you dropped your price so that you only made 750np profit per item but doubled your sales as a result to 20 pieces, you would make a profit of 15,000np or 5,000np more than at the higher price.

We have already mentioned that lowering the prices on the first three rows can create the impression of lowered prices through the store. It is important to note that prices in malls can impact the perception of shoppers in other ways too. There are a couple of very important things to consider:

Pricing similar objects at the same price throughout the store creates an artificial feeling that can put potential customers off. Unfortunately this is very tempting because it saves considerable time and thought on your part. Before falling for this trap, consider when was the last time you walked into a grocery store and noticed that every single piece of fruit was exactly the same price. Some common items to be careful with include bottled faeries and codestones. It's also common to see fixed pricing schemes in stores selling books and cards.

Another thing to note is that certain numbers and combination of numbers appear "cheaper" to the majority of people even when they are not. In general, even numbers are better than odd and lower numbers are better than higher numbers. In the case of "1" it being very low makes up for it being odd which means that prices containing the numbers "0", "1", "2" and "4" are generally good. To give an example, the number 2,021np looks cheaper than 1,999np even though it is not. A good mall owner will think carefully about their prices and the impressions they create.

Advertising on the Notice boards is one of the easiest ways for customers to find you. You do not have to be a participant in a 4 million nps ad to see good results, Notice Board Ads can be purchase for as little as 1000 nps. Attractive, well-placed ads throughout the Notice Boards can be a great boost for sales.

Mall Banner Help:

This section is to help mall members find people who are like to make graphics. No one should pay or request payment for graphics!!

Please follow the rules listed in the TOS.

Available Designers:

Guild Banners:

If you would like to advertise the guild on your account, feel free to use these buttons. You can also upload them to your own server if you wish :) If you would like your banner to be posted here, simply upload them to a petpage and mail zzzeresatay

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