The Mallers of Neopia - Monopolizing Your Market Guild

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Introduction
The Case For Malls
Joining a Mall
Stocking Your Shop
- What Should You Stock?
- Tips for Stocking Your Shop
The Three 'P's
The Marketplace
Leaving a Mall

Introduction

What is a mall?

A mall is a group of shops whose owners have agreed to work together 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:

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 common variations.

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? :)

The 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 items 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 in comparison 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 within 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 perhaps buy the same item more cheaply elsewhere. 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 16 million neopoints to upgrade to size 400 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 members 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 including stocking many items which sell only infrequently. This takes money, which must be recoverd.

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) the 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 our guild home pages which contain a list of current openings posted by many of Neopia's leading malls. (A link to the openings page can be found at the top of this page.) You should also browse through the marketplace 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. Joining 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 offence 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 and the evenness of the distribution of categories among the members of the mall.

Questions to Ask

When 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, (e) anthing else that is of particular concern to you.

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 contributions to shop upgrading funds.

* 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.

Another good place to look is neopets.com/~stole_my_drink which contains a (possibly incomplete and/or outdated) list of basic items to stock for each of the major categories. The list was prepared with a view to stocking both quest items and items that sell well in a mall environment and is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every item in every category. To get that information, visit neoitems.net which contains a current and well-organized database of all the items in Neopia. You will need to register before gaining access to the database and we strongly recommend that you do so.

Finally, think creatively 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). If your mall has rules about stocking outside your assigned category you may need to clear some items with your mall leader before stocking them.

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.

Check the shop wizard 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.
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. :)
When you find a shop like this, add them to your browser's favourites 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.
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 of a particular item they know exactly how many more they need to buy.
Depending on your browser and your connection speed, the "triple return" method can greatly speed up the time it takes to buy multiple items from one shop. Click on the item you wish to purchase and, when the pop up box comes up, hit return, then hit return again. It is the same as clicking on the item again. Hit return again. You've just purchased 2 items. You can keep on hitting return untill you've "counted down" the items, or hit 50. Use "quickstock" to put the items in your shop or SDB and return to the shop to repeat the process until you have bought as much as you need or the store has.
Some people choose to do what is called SDB stocking. With SDB stocking you buy many of each item you stock in your shop at one time and store the extras you don't need in your safety deposit box (SDB). It's unwise to keep more than you need of a particular itme in your shop as this reduces the total number of different items you can stock. As items sell from your shop you simply replace them from your SDB. Then you frequently review your SDB for items that are running low and buy them in bulk again.

The Three '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 simply 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 (assuming 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 scratchards. 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.

Pricing

As with presentation, pricing is a critical factor in your success. Set your prices too low and you will sell lots of items but for very little overall profit. Set your prices too high and you will sell very few items for a larger profit on the individual item. Either extreme is bad and usually results in reduced profit overall. Instead, you should experiment to find the price at which you can still sell a reasonable number of items at a decent profit margin.

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 throughout 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 artifical feeling that can put potential customers off. Unfortunately this is very tempting because it saves considerable time and thought on a store owner's 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 combinations 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 generaly 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.

Promotion

You've stocked your shop and set your prices but now you need to sell some stuff or you are really going to regret the millions you forked out on upgrades. It's time for you to learn how to promote your store so that you can attract customers and win their business. Recognize that there are many other malls and independent shops in the marketplace and everyone of them is competing with you for sales. This section will suggest some ways for you to make your shop stand out from the crowd and help drive your sales.

Probably the most important ways to get customers into your shop are (1) being top of your marketplace hut and (2) having a paid notice board. Since these are such major considerations for your success we will devote an entire section to each of them later in this guide and concentrate instead on other techniques in this section.

Shop Descriptions

There are any number of ways to promote your shop. The first one you should look at closely is your shop description. We discussed in the section on presentation the importance of focussing on your shop description and making it look attractive. Having an attractive shop description however is insufficient, you want one that sells.

Let's begin by paying attention to a couple of details that many experienced mallers forget:

Shop Name: Your shop name is displayed at the top of your shop but also appears in the market place huts. In fact, its the first thing that a potential customers sees in either place so make sure it says something that would encourage a potential customer to visit your shop. If you sell furniture, don't call your shop "My Shop" try "Furniture and garden supplies" - let them know what you are selling. Better still, try "Furniture and garden supplies - Sale now on!". You have a limited number of characters so you will have to be creative in deciding what to put there but it is well worth your effort.
Shopkeeper: You have a very large number of shopkeeper images to choose from. Most people just choose one that looks pretty or that matches their pet. (Avatar collectors will likely choose that awful usuki shopkeeper.) Instead, search through the available options and try and find one that has matches your shop's theme so, for excample, if you sell books you should find a shopkeeper image that features books or a pet reading, etc. If you can't find a shopkeeper you like that matches your theme, look for one that advertises bargains or sales. I am partial to the yellow blumaroo with the "huge bargains" sign.
Welcome Message: Another area many people don't pay attention to is the part of your shop description where you name your shopkeeper and give him a message for your customers. Far, far too many people leave this blank, put spurious messages or try to put something funny, cool, clever, etc. Instead, try creating some text that sells your products. I like to call my shopkeepers "The shopkeeper" since this reads well. So a food shop could end up with something like ... "The shopkeeper says 'Pages of delicious food. Come back whenever your pets are hungry'". Again space is limited so you will need to work on how to compress your sales pitch into the space provided.

NB. The part of shop descriptions people normally focus on and where we will look next is limited to 4000 characters of text including all your html code. The items above represent additional character space you can use to market your shop over and above these 4000 characters. Do not waste them.

Next we will look at the part of your shop description where you can enter your text, shop banners and mall graphics. This is where you are going to want to spend most of your time. Again there are several points to make:

Text links: I strongly advocate including a small amount of text at the top of your shop description which will link to your shop when clicked. There are many reasons for doing this: (1) shoppers who visit the marketplace often click on the shop owner's username instead of on the banners which brings them to your user lookup instead of your shop and could cause you to lose a sale. Putting "Click here" in nice bold text at the top increases the chance they will instead click on that and go straight to your shop. (2) Text loads before graphics. Having some text in your shop means that while a person is waiting for all the graphics in your hut to load they could be reading your text and clicking to visit your shop allowing you to "steal" customers who might otherwise have clicked on the banners of shops which load faster than your own. This is particularly true for shoppers with slower connections. (3) From time to time servers hosting graphics fail. If you are reliant on graphical banners no-one will know what is in your shop. If you have some text, you may still attract some visitors.

NB. Obviously make sure that your text is brief, to the point and "sells" your shop. "Click here for battledome supplies" would be better than simply "Click here". "Click here for cheap battledome supplies" would be even better.
Shop Banners: If you have any skill with creating graphics take the time to prepare an individual banner for your shop. If not, you may need to search for someone willing to make a banner for you. A good banner will usually have attractive, images related to the items it promotes and brief, easily readable text advertising the shop. Some kinds of images are more visually appealing than others and will attract more visitors. A little bit of animation (if you can find someone who knows how) can make a big difference. There is a link from our guild home page to a list of people available to assist with creating banners.

NB. Be aware that TNT specifically forbids someone from charging to make banners. If someone does try to impose a charge and you agree you are putting your account at risk. It is generally viewed as being polite to offer a tip once the work is done but this cannot be a condition of the work being performed.
Hooks: Its a very good idea to create a special offer (commonly referred to as a "hook") which you advertise from your shop description. A typical hook would contain a picyure of the item together with some text that advertise a great deal on that item. Both picture and text are linked to your shop in a way that makes the item show up at the top of you shop in the same way items appear when clicked from the shop wizard. Choose an item that is visually appealing and popular with your customers. Select a price that will make people feel like they are getting a great deal. The idea is that people will click on your "hook" item and once in your shop may browse around and perhaps but one or more additional items.
Navigation Helps: The more pages of your shop your visitors view, the better chance they will buy something. Find ways to encourage your visitors to view all your pages. Consider a banner that reminds shoppers to "click onthe next 80 items" links for "more great deals". Also consider implementing a page navigation menu ("Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | etc") which would allow your visitors to more easily navigate between pages. If you sell a different kind of item futher down your shop try something like "Candy items on sale beginning on page 4". Try promoting an item on your final page.
Encourage Repeat Vistors: Lastly, encourage your visitors to come back again. Consider a small banner that asks your visitors to bookmark your shop so that they can return often.

Sections on creating your own HTML and graphics will be added to this guide at a later date. In the meantime, ask on the guild boards if you need assitance with implementing any of these suggestions.

User Lookup

People will check out your user lookup for any number of reasons ... you bought an item from their shop, they are a member of your guild, they are in a thread you are active in on the chat boards, they saw your shop in the marketplace, etc. Put a banner advertising your shop in your user lookup which will dramatically increase the chance that such a visitor will also check out your shop and make a purchase. Since you will be creating a banner for your shop, put it in your lookup too.

Chat and Guild Boards

Add an advert for your shop to your signature for the chat and guild boards. This is particularly important if you post a lot on the various boards. Everyone that reads your post will see your advert and could possibly decide to check out your shop. Once you are happy with your signature, consider posting regularly in popular chat boards. Make sure your posts are meaningful or you will be accused of spamming which could place your account in jeporady.

Become Famous

Seriously. The more well known you are, the better the chance that someone will check out your account and perhaps your store. There are many ways to do this in neopets but some can require you to spend significant time and/or neopoints so may not be right for you. Having a really buff pet, being active on the chat boards, winning a beauty contest or spotlight, having an article published in the Neopian Times, getting a top score on one of the many games, and any number of other methods. All these will increase your exposure and the number of visitors.

The Marketplace

Overview

[To come]

How it Works

[To come]

Selecting a Hut

[To come]

Upgrading Strategies

[To come]

Leaving a Mall

Practical Considerations

The decision to leave a mall is not one that you should ever make without first giving it careful consideration over a period of time. Of course nothing obligates you to stay with a particular mall but once you have announced your departure there is usually no turning back. Note that people who change malls frequently quickly develop a reputation for such and mall leaders will generally be wary of recruiting them. You do not want this to happen to you.

An obvious point is to make sure that you have secured a spot in another mall before jumping ship. When evaluating potential new malls and spots you should go through a very similar process to that outlined on our section on Joining a Mall. Make sure that you are absolutely clear in your mind that the new mall offers you better long-term prospects than your current mall.

Etiquette

As we have said, nothing obligates you to stay with a particular mall. However, there are several things you should take note of before deciding on and anouncing a move:

Firstly, don't be too quick to form a negative opinion. A bad first week of sales is not necessarily indicative of what the future may hold. Always try to give a mall at least a month to get a feel of both sales and how the mall is run before making a decision to leave.
Secondly, if you are unhappy for any reason, contact your mall leader and let them know your concerns. Its both good manners and common sense to give them the first opportunity to find a solution to your issues and in many cases the two of you may be able to find away to address them to everyone's satisfaction. Don't make the mistake of immediately blaming the mall for bad sales -- think about what you could do differently, try experimenting with alternative pricing and / or prommotional techniques.
Thirdly, take note that leaving while the mall has a noticeboard up is viewed very negatively. Once placed, noticeboard ads cannot be changed and your existing mall members will not be happy to see their well earned neopoints being used to send players to your new mall even if you have paid your share of the noticeboard costs.
Fourthly, always let your mall leader know your intentions before you change your shop banners and give them some time to change their mall HTML to take account of your departure. Its is not necessary to give huge amounts of notice but try to give as much as you reasonably can (minimum 24 hours). Failure to do so can cause a similar situation where your previous mall members are linking to your shop without those links being reciprocated. That is bad.

Don't Burn Bridges

As we have already mentioned, it is important to let your mall leader know beforehand that you are leaving. Take the time to explain your reasoning but make sure you read your neomail through several times before sending it to make sure that it will not cause offence. Don't focus solely on the negative - let the mall leader know the good things too. It's important that you do your best to maintain the relationships you have formed with the members of your mall because you never know when you might need to capitalize on them.

Last update: December 1, 2005