Babele Fashion Resellers Program FAQ

ou can become a Babele Fashion reseller in Second Life and earn 60% on the gross of your sales! Sell L$5,000 and you have an extra L$3,000 in your pocket. (You`re responsible for paying any rent on your store.) And it`s easy and fun.

To get started, visit the Babele Fashion Resellers Center and pick up a starter kit:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Babele%20Fashion/100/187/33/

Here are some quick FAQs that may answer many of your questions, and we are always happy to help our resellers inworld.

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Q: Do I need to meet anyone at Babele Fashion in person before setting up my store?
A: No, but we like to know our resellers. If you are interested in becoming a Babele Fashion reseller, please stop by and say hello to Babele Fashion owner Pinco Janus, who may often be found at our flagship store on Babele Fashion Island.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Babele%20Fashion/41/20/33/

Ziki Questi is also available to assist resellers.
You are required to become a member of our resellers group, Babele in progress, to ensure you are receiving updates and communications from us.
You will be added to the Babele Fashion Hippo resellers group as soon as you rez a Babele Fashion vendor from a reseller kit.

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Q: Where can I find updates and new products for resellers?
A: Visit the Resellers` Center at the main Babele Fashion shop:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Babele%20Fashion/100/187/33/

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Q: How do I find a good location for my store?
A: There are many good locations for stores, but it can take time to find them. Don’t just open a store at any location without first doing some research to help ensure your store will be successful.

We strongly advise against purchasing land for your store. Instead, find locations within malls or near other successful stores. See where other quality merchants are selling, and look through Showcase location in SL search.

When you search for store locations, check to see if the area has good traffic -- a measurement of how many people visit the area. You can see this easily by clicking on the land location at the very top of the Second Life window. An “about land” box will pop up, and within the first tab you will see a number for Traffic. A higher number is best. If you see a low number, say 100, then very few people are visiting the area. A higher number – they can range into the thousands – indicates more visitors. Be careful, though, as many malls and shop areas employ campers or bots to drive up their traffic number. Spend some time looking around to make sure that the traffic isn’t all from campers or bots. You also want to make sure that visitors to the mall or shops are actually shopping near your store location. Visit the area at different times of day.

Each rental shop location will have a prim limit. You can probably assemble an effective store with as few as 20 prims, but around 40 will provide you with more flexibility.

Of course, you also need to be certain that you are renting space in the right kind of area. Renting a shop in a mall that specializes in weapons is probably not the best location for ladies fashion.

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Q: How do I pay rent?
A: Rental locations usually have small rental boxes. Simply pay the box for the length of time you would like to rent the store. (If you don’t see a box, contact the mall or land owner for more information.) We recommend you not rent for more than one month at first, so that you can evaluate the success of your store location.
Remember to pay your rental on time. Babele Fashion is not responsible for paying your rent.
We also recommend that you get to know your landlord. Most landlords are happy to meet their tenants and can help promote the presence of a new store, and many prefer that you talk with them before renting a location.

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Q: How do I get paid?
A: When a customer makes a purchase, Linden dollars are automatically deposited into your Second Life account. If you are online when the purchase is made, you will be alerted to the transaction with a popup blue box. If you are offline, the Hippo vendor box will send you an IM. If your IMs are capped, you will not receive notice of the transaction, but you will still receive your money. You can see all of your transactions by viewing your account history.

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Q: How do I pay the 40% due to Babele Fashion?
A: As soon as you are paid by the hippoVEND "catalog" (or "vendor") (the thing that sells the items of clothing) for a customer’s purchase, 40% of the sale will be automatically deducted from your account. A very small fee is paid to Andy Enfield, owner of hippo, for the hippoVEND transaction. (Just like a credit card fee in real life.)

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Q: How do I set up my store?
A: Setting up your store will not be difficult as long as you have basic facility with editing objects.

• 1. After you have paid your rental fee, the owner of the property will invite you to join a group. (You may need to be proactive and contact the owner.) This is necessary so that you can rez items at the store location.
• 2. Activate the group. If you rez items without your group tag turned on, and the parcel has items set to auto-return, all of your objects will be returned to you. Remember any time you return to your store to make changes to have your group for that store activated.
• THIS IS IMPORTANT: Your hippo vendors will operate ONLY when they are set to the same group as the land. What does that mean? Let`s say you`re at the Babele Fashion main store in Constantine. Click on the land info bar at the top of the Second Life window -- it will say something life "Constantine 36, 16, 50 (Mature) - Babele Fashion italian style dress bikini stockings miniskirt". The "About Land" window opens. Click on the General tab and see what the Group setting is. At this location, it`s "Babele in progress" -- it will be different in other locations such as your stores.
• Let`s say you rent a store in Gotham City. There the land group is Gotham Island. If you rez a vendor without activating your Gotham Island group tag, the vendor will not work -- it will go offline. (When you rez an object, if you`re wearing a group tag, the object remembers the name of the group tab you`re wearing.) That`s why you must join the group and activate that tag BEFORE you rez your store.
• 3. If you haven’t done so already, unpack your resellers kit.
• 4. The resellers kit includes textures for the floor and walls of your store. (It also includes an entire physical store, if your rental area has space for it.) Create a prim, resize it to fit the floor, and apply the floor texture. Do the same thing for the walls. (Keep in mind that the walls and floor to your store may use up 4 or more prims from your prim allowance.)
• 5. Now you can drag items out for placement. Please be careful to make sure they are well aligned and attractively laid out, and remember to watch your prim limit.
• 6. As you drag each item out, a yellow box will pop up asking you if the item has authorization to deduct money from your account. Click yes. This enables the automatic transactions so that Linden Dollars can flow into your account (from the purchaser) and from your account to Pinco Janus (for her 40%). After you click yes, the item will contact the Hippo system and will go online. If you move a box, it will go offline momentarily and will then resume operating.
• 7. When you rez an item, it will have a hoverscript that you will need to turn off. Left-click on the item. A blue box will pop up. Click on Options, then Hovertext, then Off.
• 8. Not all items from your resellers kit will fit in every store. Consider rotating your inventory so that your customers see new items from time to time. Some of the multiple hippoVEND items contain copies of those that you have as singles, so be careful not to duplicate the inventory in your shop.
• 9. Some malls require that "show in search" be checked on each item. To do this, right-click on each item, select Edit, and then make sure the "Show in Search" box is checked.
• 10. If you need assistance setting up your store, please contact Pinco Janus or Ziki Questi and we will help answer questions.

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Q: How do I see my transaction history?
A: To see your complete transaction history, log in to the Second Life website (not into Second Life itself) at http://www.secondlife.com. From the pulldown menu in the upper right corner, select My Account. Then, select Account History from the left hand column and select Linden Dollar transactions.

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Q: Can I make purchases from my own store?
A: No, resellers cannot buy items from their own vendors.

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Q: Do I need any skills to build my store?
A: Yes. You need to have some facility with basic editing. You need to know how to move, rotate, stretch and align objects. You need rudimentary knowledge of working with textures (to assemble the floor and walls). You also need to be able to cam around and to zoom in to ensure items are properly aligned. These are easy skills to master. If you are unfamiliar with them, we suggest learning them at the Ivory Tower of Primitives -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Natoma/209/164/27/ -- or by viewing Torley Linden’s numerous how-to videos, which you can find at http://secondlife.com/showcase/tutorials/ or on YouTube.

It is important to Babele Fashion that our resellers maintain our high standard of quality. We expect that items in stores will be neatly aligned and presented. If you need assistance with this, please ask us and we will be happy to help you.

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Q: How old do I need to be to become a reseller?
A: You must have been a Second Life resident for more than one month.

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Q: What do I do if a customer says she didn’t receive an item?
A: This is a very rare occurrence, but can sometimes happen. Please contact Pinco Janus at Babele Fashion directly. Ziki Questi can also assist.

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Q: How do I close a store?
A: We hope your stores will be successful, but if you choose to close a store, notify your landlord that you are not renewing the lease, and then simply delete all the items from the store. You do not have to notify Babele Fashion, although we would appreciate knowing if you close a location.

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Q: Can I resell Babele Fashion items within another store? Can I sell someone else’s products inside my Babele Fashion store?
A: No. Babele Fashion resellers agree to set up and maintain their stores so that they appear to be Babele Fashion stores, not as Babele Fashion items sold within another merchant’s store. Additionally, only Babele Fashion items may be sold within your Babele Fashion store.

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Thank you for your interest in the Babele Fashion Resellers Program.