[Archived - Polystyrene] Drastic drop in sales

Posted by “4u” on May 19, 2022.

@RigsK​  @Shannon Mac (IMVU Senior Community Manager)​ @TauntaunTonic​ 

Inflationary issues are surly there but please don't solely blame these on IMVU sales decline.

After IMVU destroyed my alt income with their assault on generic name accounts and any products they had, I wrongly decided my way to fight back was to embrace Studio and presumed any short comings it had and classic user usage hesitation would be over come. Sadly more than anything my move to Studio development is what killed my 4u account.

More than 2 years into studio and it still can't even render a basic icon for a large percentage of my products, recent changes have improved that but yet again that entitles going back through every product I've made in Studio, recapturing the icon. Problem is even that only gets 40% of what I make.

Be clear I'm not complaining of how good or bad the icon is, just that they don't show my products at all. I gave up making my own icons for classic catalogue.. because classic users can't use my studio products so if I make a nice icon, then classic client users end up buying and me having to refund them. Adding to this is the way new clients totally strip out any previous creator branding if you want that now you need to buy it from IMVU, which is kind of hard for me when users just see page after page of blank icons, leaving me with a product I can't sell or promote. So what did I do about it?... I waited, I suffered and watched my income decline 60% because I believed my issues would get resolved and I still do! however after nearly 3 years of waiting I can't wait any longer.

I think Studio is AWESOME, my particles are more amazing than ever! but its a losing battle for me with the team in charge of icon rendering and the clowns in change of catalogue search algorithms.

The dilemma right now is if you adapt.. you die, if you don't adapt.. you die

Wish me luck, job interview number 3 in 40 minutes.

Posted by “Roy” on May 19, 2022.

Oops, I missed expanding this before I replied. I wonder if it was actually an item granted from the "free spin" which I am sure does not show up as a sale.

Posted by “Roy” on May 19, 2022.

I have seen products have "0" sales in my catalog by the number. If you check the extended reports on the product page and change the date to about when you published the product, you can see some sales show up with who purchased it. It also shows if they used credits or if it was promo or a combination of the two. This includes if the product was gifted.

I am not sure if wheel spin rewards are listed since they were not outright purchased. I remember YEARS back I had a product that was granted to new users that was included in one of the outfit bundles. I registered a new account and chose it and it did not show up as a sale. (It was in my shop. This was years back)

It is weird to think that users could have our products without us being notified of it being granted to them since the wheel spin is not something creators opt in to.

(I used to think it was a paid promotion like VIP gifts lol)

Posted by “MsPixelicious” on May 19, 2022.

i'm sensing a definitive need for a more transparent cash payment scheme here!

if imvu cant figure out whats troubling the amount of sales 'exactly', the least they can do is demonstrate the mechanics of BALANCE in everyones sales!

isnt that a fundamental right for workers?

• from use of promo credits to credits to cash percentage balance as an income
• to their need for a '4-5 working days' to put in a cash request (nothing worse than a month that starts on a weekend at imvu)
• and their mind numbingly annoying ability to 'refuse payment' depending on their mood or need

throw us a bone here imvu!!!

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 18, 2022.

Oh, and just to be sure the item hadn't ever sold I downloaded sales reports from the beginning and searched them using the item name, item number, etc. and not a single sale for that item was recorded.

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 18, 2022.

Sales not counting is definitely a possibility and I know because it's happened to me. I had items showing zero sales and thought I would update them because many were made back when I started and I knew I could do better. After updating some of the items I got a message from someone asking why I'd changed item XYZ. I told her I showed zero sales for that item on my end and she promptly sent me a screenshot of the item in her inventory in the client. This is proof there are sales we're not made aware of or paid for. I don't know how often it happens but it obviously happens. I changed the item back for her of course but I have to wonder how many times our items have sold and we're none the wiser.

Posted by “slance1” on May 18, 2022.

This is getting ridiculous.

As I said before,Easter was my last good day and then all of sudden the sales totaly sank.Like someone put a line between the good and the bad days (no idea how to explain it).And there is no recovery since then.Something happened that day i guess.

To me it doesnt seem to be because of the economy,because it happened so all of sudden.

80% of my last 90-100 products are like they dont exist.And I am a mesher or at least trying to be one.

And just a thought:what if we have sales but they just dont count somehow.

Because I dont know what to think anymore,but no one can convince me its because of the economy.Part of it maybe,but not completely.

And every day is worse.

Whatever it is its killing us.

Posted by “MsPixelicious” on May 18, 2022.

worse every day

Posted by “weo” on May 17, 2022.

I have noticed this as well. Though I was the only one, IMVU needs to get it together as we are the ones who do most of the work with all of our creations. I don't feel motivated anymore to create because of this.

Posted by “slance1” on May 17, 2022.

The sales are a joke.Rooms and furniture are dead.

Thank you IMVU!

Posted by “LovedWarrior” on May 17, 2022.

Then, that's exactly what IMVU should look into!

Posted by “Ahndante” on May 17, 2022.

Yup. Happens to me everytime. That sounds like a buggy algorithm to me, not economy issues.

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 17, 2022.

Okay then, I switched back to 100% credits on my sales about 4 days ago, and wouldn't ya know, my sales have picked back up. They're still in the toilet but there's a vast difference from when I was doing cash.

Posted by “Roy” on May 17, 2022.

I remember back when IMVU celebrated 300k users on at one time haha. That was years ago though.

There are a lot of bots as well..though there are probably not many on at the same time, sort of popping in and out. This could artificially inflate the amount of "new" users signing up. This could skew the amount of users signing up and not spending.

Posted by “RainLTD” on May 16, 2022.

Oh I see. Then I would love to see a counter on the new Desktop version.