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Vending Systems in SLST
Finding out just how unlimited your options with SLST are.
Monday, June 04, 2007
By: Zimbit Vidor
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Of course, running a business and selling items to other Second Life residents can be boiled down, in its simplest form, to them supplying you with lindens and you supplying them with a product. We like to add all kinds of complexities to that simple scenario which makes business well business. For example, you could stand guard at your shop all day when a customer walked in you would show your wares and tell them the prices. They would make their decisions, buy or not buy your product and you would give it to them if they choose the former. That is not how it really works though…
In a typical SL product based business, you spend a lot of your time setting up vendors. You pour hours into getting your product line just right or getting the pricing the way you want it. Those are hours well spent of course because they allow you to do something which otherwise would not be possible. Sell while you are not tending the shop!
That’s right you can sell your product while are aren’t even logged into the world of SL. Nothing new you say, well we didn’t think so either. The need for a vending system within Second Life is obvious. We all use them at one point or another, and as we all probably know, they come in any number of verities.
Big, small, complex, simple, full-featured or lacking, you can find the entire gambit with out even really trying. Vending systems come in all shapes and sizes but ultimately they all do the same thing: Sell your product for you.
With SLST, vending systems play a pivotal role. Not only do they sell your product to your customers but they also log that sale to an underlying data source, which then allows you to view your sales in all of the interesting ways you probably have seen by this time.
Ok, ok you say. I have read over 300 words and you have not told me what vending system I have to use to get all the great features of SLST. Get to the point already!
Well, here at SLST we are not in the business of selling vending systems. We are in the business of making the SL Sales Tracker service work with your existing vending system! That’s right there’s a good chance that the vending system you are using right now offers SLST support. If not, we will be happy to go ahead and add it!
The rest of this article will look at some of the systems currently supported along with the full featured API, which will allow scripter’s to attach their works to the SL Sales Tracker service.
Easy Buy
The easy buy system offers the easiest way to setup a vendor to work with the SLST service. Persons that use this system will likely be those that were previously selling using the Second Life Buy feature embedded within every prim. The easy buy tool gets you pretty much the same sort of behavior but with tracking. Simply dropping your product into a prim along with the Easy Buy scripts and then setting the price of your product within the Easy Buy script is all it takes. One can be up and running in less then a few minutes! It is that easy.
Easy Free
The Easy Free scripting system is almost identical to the Easy Buy system with one major difference. The script gives the items to the person when they click the prim instead of having to pay the prim. This is a great tool for distribution systems. If you are providing a book or magazine free of charge, you can use this script to give that book or magazine to your customers and still track how many copies went out. Simply setup a newsstand, place a copy of your book into it and drop the Easy Free set of scripts into the prim. You are done!
Simple Vending Systems
Vending systems are not always as simple as selling one item from a single prim. That is where the simple vending systems come into play. These systems allow one to sell a range of products from a limited set of prims. Place your product into the vending unit, setup a simple configuration note card and sell away. Setup is easy but flexible enough to hold many items.
JEVN systems
The JVEN system is the premier in vending systems. Its widespread use has made the de facto vending solution used by many businesses. Using the JEVN system and SLST is very easy. Simply drop a plug-in script into your server and you are finished. The server will maintain your list of items, their prices and keep a log of your sales by reporting transactions to the SLST service. For all around usability and easy maintenance the JEVN vending system is the way to go.
The SLST API and custom vendor support
Along with the above options comes the promise of support from SLST. Not only will be do anything it takes to help you and your business use the SLST system to it’s fullest but we will often write custom integration scripts that you can use with either your custom or third party scripting system for free. Rest assured that you will not be ignored.
With the current vending solutions offered, more solutions devised every week, and a promise to offer free integration assistance you can truly see why with SL Sales Tracker your options really are unlimited.
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