The Shopkeeper's Handbook

by millenium97

Want tips on a good shop? Want to know why nobody is buying things from your shop? If you answered yes to either of the above, then this is the article for you.

Part 1- Tips on a good shop.

Tip #1: Put items in your shop people want like books, grooming products, and of course FOOD!

Tip #2: Don't put in items like Codestones, Faeries, and paintbrushes at first. You probably won't make a profit and they are expensive to get in the beginning.

Tip #3: Find out what the people who come to your shop are looking for by looking at your sales history. If lots of people buy your food, then you could probably say it would be safe to put more food in. If they aren't, lets say, buying your beauty products, have less of them. You could even make your food a little bit more because people would probably buy it anyway.

Part 2- How to price your items.

Tip #1: Price your items for at least 50% more than you got them to guarantee a profit.

Tip #2: If people haven't bought your item after, say a day, don't make it half as much as it is. You won't make a profit. Just lower it by 1 or 2 NPs.

Tip #3: Use the Shop Wizard to your advantage. This can be a bit confusing at first, but you'll get the hang of it in no time. Say you are going to put a Black Boom Box in your shop. Go to the Shop Wizard and search for a Black Boom Box. Refresh a couple of times and put your item 1 NP lower than the lowest. If that is too little to make a profit, don't panic. Just put it a bit higher. I did that with a bunch of my items and I made 730 NPs in about one school day. I was so surprised since I usually make about 200 NPs a day from my shop.

Part 3- How to fix your shop if people aren't buying anything.

Tip #1: Does your shop have a lot of huge images and graphics? If it does no wonder people aren't coming and buying stuff. Yes, it may look flashy but it's much easier just to put in a horizontal line (that's HTML in case you didn't know). Remember only 5% of the population have cable, DSL, or T1 lines which make those images take a few seconds. That means 95% of the population has slow 56k or so modems and they aren't going to wait forever to buy something while those huge images load.

Tip #2: Your items might be too expensive. Just use the shop wizard trick to price them fairly.

Tip #3: Read the Neopian Times. They have loads of good articles full of tips for a better shop. If you have questions or comments Neomail me with them. This is my first article so it might not be great. Sorry! ;) Oh, and one last thing please check out my shop! ^_^ Happy Shopkeeping!!!