Difference between revisions of "Second Life Marketplace Direct Delivery FAQ"

From Second Life Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 1: Line 1:
===What is direct delivery?===
=== What is Direct Delivery? ===


''Direct delivery'' is the new, more convenient system for delivering Second Life Marketplace products to recipients as well as helping sellers more efficiently list products on the Marketplace.
''Direct Delivery'' is the new, more convenient system for delivering Second Life Marketplace products to recipients as well as helping sellers more efficiently list and manage items on the Marketplace. It is currently in development and will launch in early 2012.  


===What impact will direct delivery have on Marketplace buyers and sellers?===
=== What impact will Direct Delivery have on Marketplace buyers and sellers? ===


We have significantly enhanced the user experience to make it easier and more intuitive to purchase and receive Marketplace goods.  Some of the specific benefits of direct delivery include:
Specific benefits of Direct Delivery include:  
* Recipients will no longer need to accept delivery of an object in order for the item to be successfully delivered inworld. The item will be automatically delivered and the recipient will be notified of the delivery.
* Recipients will not need to rez unboxed items in world to use them. Merchants may still choose to box items for sale with direct delivery, but will not be required to.
* Rolling restarts will not result in failed deliveries.


===Will direct delivery affect a merchant’s personal inventory in the SL Viewer?===
*Delivery will be faster and more reliable than the current Magic Box delivery system. (And will not be impacted by sim instability or restarts.)
*Recipients will no longer need to explicitly accept delivery in order to successfully receive it. This will happen automatically. 
*Recipients will not need to rez boxed items in world to use them. One exception: merchants may still choose to box items for sale with Direct Delivery, but will not be required to.
*Item listing and management experience has been improved.


Direct delivery will access ONLY two folders in the merchant’s personal inventory. These folders will be system folders and appear under the root inventory folder in all viewers that do not provide special treatment for these folders.
=== How will Direct Delivery work for Merchants?<br> ===
* '''Incoming Items''': Items delivered to the recipient will be placed in a special incoming folder in the recipient’s inventory.Items will now be delivered to the root of the incoming folder in a folder from the Marketplace, as opposed to in a box as was required with "magic boxes."  Sale and delivery of boxed items will still be supported with Direct Delivery as well.
* '''Outgoing Items''': Items the merchant lists on the Marketplace will be retrieved from a special outgoing folder in the Merchant’s personal inventory and copied to the merchant’s Marketplace inventory. Note that outgoing items will be COPIED, except in the case of no-copy items. Merchants listing no-copy items (the merchant does not have copy rights) will be warned that those items will be moved as opposed to copied as an extra check to prevent accidental moves. When an item is delivered, it will be delivered from the merchant’s Marketplace inventory--in world inventory will not be affected.


===What about unboxed items inflating inventory size? ===
As a Merchant, you will send folders to your Marketplace inventory that you plan to list for sale. You will do this by placing items in a system folder called the Merchant Outbox and sending the contents to your Marketplace inventory. Each top level folder in the Merchant Outbox represents one sellable item in the Marketplace. Once all folders are successfully sent to the Marketplace, they will disappear from the Merchant Outbox.


;I’m concerned about unboxed items arriving in my inventory and inflating the size. Have considerations been made to sync performance and potential inventory loss issues?
Once those items have appeared in your Marketplace&nbsp;inventory, for each item you will be able to create a new listing or associate it with an existing listing. When one of your items is sold, the Marketplace will deliver the item (as a folder) to the customer's Received Items folder.  


Yes. For products listed on the Marketplace using direct delivery, the number of objects per folder will be limited. This will require merchants selling large numbers of objects in the same listing to box objects within their folder hierarchy.
=== Will Direct Delivery affect a merchant’s personal inventory in the SL Viewer? ===


===Will merchants need to keep adding one unit to no copy item listings each time one unit sells?===
Direct Delivery will access only two folders in the merchant’s personal inventory, Received Items and Merchant Outbox.<br>


No. We have simplified this process and created a mechanism for combining units that merchants may choose to use.
*'''Received Items''': Items delivered to the recipient will appear as folders, instead of boxes, in a system folder called Received Items. Some Merchants may choose to box certain items, which will appear in Received Items as well. The Received Items folder will be created for a user the first time an item is delivered.
*'''Merchant Outbox''': This folder is used to stage items a merchant would like to list for sale on the Marketplace. The Merchant Outbox will be created when a Marketplace user creates a store. If the user is already a merchant when Direct Delivery is launched, this folder will be created as part of the release.<br>


===Will it be communicated to purchasers whether an item will be delivered boxed or unboxed?===
When an item is delivered, it will be delivered from the merchant’s Marketplace inventory. Inworld inventory will not be affected.&nbsp;


Yes, a mechanism will be provided to allow merchants to communicate this information to the purchaser.
=== Will unboxed items inflate inventory size?<br> ===


===Will a Viewer update be required to view and access contents of the incoming and outgoing folders?===
For products listed on the Marketplace using direct delivery, the number of objects per folder and number of folders will be limited. This will require merchants selling large numbers of objects in the same listing to box objects within their folder hierarchy. The total number of folders is currently set at 20, and the number of total objects for each folder hierarchy (each set of items to list) cannot exceed 200.


No. These folders will appear as system folders under the root inventory folder on viewers that do not treat these folders as special.
=== Will merchants need to keep adding one unit to no-copy item listings each time one unit sells? ===


===Will direct delivery be supported by third-party viewers?===
No. We have simplified this process and created an optional mechanism for combining units.


Yes, it will be supported by approved third-party viewers, in terms of delivery. (In other words, no third-party viewer development needs to occur for direct delivery to successfully deliver items to consumers.) If third-party viewers choose to support listing items on the Marketplace, they may use the API that will be provided to allow this. Third-party viewers will not need to use the new API if they just want to treat the incoming and outgoing folders as regular system folders.
=== Will it be communicated to purchasers whether an item will be delivered boxed or unboxed? ===


===When will direct delivery be available?===
Yes, merchants will be able to communicate this information to purchasers.<br>


Direct delivery will be entering beta this summer. We expect the beta period to last one to two  months. Once it is completed, direct delivery will be available to all merchants. We will be sure to keep merchants updated on the upcoming launch on the commerce forum. No direct delivery changes will be deployed to production until the launch of the beta.
=== Will a Viewer update be required to view and access contents of the Received Items and Merchant Outbox folders? ===


===Can I choose between direct delivery or "magic box" delivery?===
No. These folders will appear as system folders under the root inventory folder on viewers that do not treat these folders as special. In the Second Life Viewer, these folders will be shown as separate sections within the inventory. In order to push folders from the Merchant Outbox to the Marketplace, a viewer that supports this action must be used.


At launch time, merchants will be able to choose whether items will be delivered via direct delivery or "magic box" delivery. "Magic boxes" will eventually be retired, but there is not a firm date set yet.
=== Will Direct Delivery be supported by third-party viewers? ===


===What about gifting, ANS, and so on?===
Yes, all third-party viewers will automatically support delivery of Marketplace purchases to the Received Items folder. Third-party viewers may choose to support sending items to the Marketplace from the Merchant Outbox using the new Marketplace API. If they do not choose to support the Merchant Outbox, it will function as a regular system folder. <br>


Working with the beta merchants, we are reviewing and testing the way various current functionality will be addressed with direct delivery:
=== When will Direct Delivery be available? ===
* Automated Notification System (ANS): ANS allows you to integrate Marketplace notifications with your back-end operations either via your website or scripted object in Second Life. It will be replaced with a similar functionality in direct delivery to address the same goals and will use the same format as is currently in use to ease migration.
* Gifting: gifting will be supported with direct delivery.
* Limited quantity items: sale of limited quantity items will be supported with direct delivery.


===When will Linden Lab provide more details on direct delivery?===
Direct Delivery is entering Beta in the November/December time frame. The production launch will not occur until 2012.


At least two weeks before the beta starts, we’ll provide more details about how direct delivery will work, including details on the API.
=== Can I choose between Direct Delivery or Magic Box delivery when I create a listing? ===
[[Category:Marketplace]]
 
[[Category:Pre-release feature documentation]]
After Direct Delivery is available in production, Merchants will be able to choose the delivery method until Magic Boxes are retired (over time, using a phased retirement process). More details will be provided closer to the retirement of Magic Boxes.
 
=== What about gifting, ANS, and so on? ===
 
Working with the beta merchants, we are reviewing and testing the way various current functionality will be addressed with Direct Delivery:
 
*Automated Notification System (ANS): ANS allows you to integrate Marketplace notifications with your back-end operations either via your website or scripted object in Second Life. It will be replaced with a similar functionality in Direct Delivery to address the same goals and will use the same format as is currently in use to ease migration.
*Gifting: gifting will be supported with Direct Delivery.
*Limited quantity items: sale of limited quantity items will be supported with Direct Delivery.
 
=== When will Linden Lab provide more details on Direct Delivery? ===
 
We will be opening up Direct Delivery on Aditi for Beta testing in December to all merchants, which we expect will answer a lot of users' questions regarding Direct Delivery. We do expect additional questions to come in. We will be using [[https://jira.secondlife.com JIRA]] to track bugs and feature requests. Surveys and feedback threads on the [[http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Merchants/bd-p/Merchants Merchants Forum]] will be used for questions and comments. See the [[http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Aditi preview grid wiki page]] for instructions for filing Beta Marketplace JIRAs.  
 
[[Category:Marketplace]] [[Category:Pre-release_feature_documentation]]

Revision as of 15:00, 3 November 2011

What is Direct Delivery?

Direct Delivery is the new, more convenient system for delivering Second Life Marketplace products to recipients as well as helping sellers more efficiently list and manage items on the Marketplace. It is currently in development and will launch in early 2012.

What impact will Direct Delivery have on Marketplace buyers and sellers?

Specific benefits of Direct Delivery include:

  • Delivery will be faster and more reliable than the current Magic Box delivery system. (And will not be impacted by sim instability or restarts.)
  • Recipients will no longer need to explicitly accept delivery in order to successfully receive it. This will happen automatically. 
  • Recipients will not need to rez boxed items in world to use them. One exception: merchants may still choose to box items for sale with Direct Delivery, but will not be required to.
  • Item listing and management experience has been improved.

How will Direct Delivery work for Merchants?

As a Merchant, you will send folders to your Marketplace inventory that you plan to list for sale. You will do this by placing items in a system folder called the Merchant Outbox and sending the contents to your Marketplace inventory. Each top level folder in the Merchant Outbox represents one sellable item in the Marketplace. Once all folders are successfully sent to the Marketplace, they will disappear from the Merchant Outbox.

Once those items have appeared in your Marketplace inventory, for each item you will be able to create a new listing or associate it with an existing listing. When one of your items is sold, the Marketplace will deliver the item (as a folder) to the customer's Received Items folder.

Will Direct Delivery affect a merchant’s personal inventory in the SL Viewer?

Direct Delivery will access only two folders in the merchant’s personal inventory, Received Items and Merchant Outbox.

  • Received Items: Items delivered to the recipient will appear as folders, instead of boxes, in a system folder called Received Items. Some Merchants may choose to box certain items, which will appear in Received Items as well. The Received Items folder will be created for a user the first time an item is delivered.
  • Merchant Outbox: This folder is used to stage items a merchant would like to list for sale on the Marketplace. The Merchant Outbox will be created when a Marketplace user creates a store. If the user is already a merchant when Direct Delivery is launched, this folder will be created as part of the release.

When an item is delivered, it will be delivered from the merchant’s Marketplace inventory. Inworld inventory will not be affected. 

Will unboxed items inflate inventory size?

For products listed on the Marketplace using direct delivery, the number of objects per folder and number of folders will be limited. This will require merchants selling large numbers of objects in the same listing to box objects within their folder hierarchy. The total number of folders is currently set at 20, and the number of total objects for each folder hierarchy (each set of items to list) cannot exceed 200.

Will merchants need to keep adding one unit to no-copy item listings each time one unit sells?

No. We have simplified this process and created an optional mechanism for combining units.

Will it be communicated to purchasers whether an item will be delivered boxed or unboxed?

Yes, merchants will be able to communicate this information to purchasers.

Will a Viewer update be required to view and access contents of the Received Items and Merchant Outbox folders?

No. These folders will appear as system folders under the root inventory folder on viewers that do not treat these folders as special. In the Second Life Viewer, these folders will be shown as separate sections within the inventory. In order to push folders from the Merchant Outbox to the Marketplace, a viewer that supports this action must be used.

Will Direct Delivery be supported by third-party viewers?

Yes, all third-party viewers will automatically support delivery of Marketplace purchases to the Received Items folder. Third-party viewers may choose to support sending items to the Marketplace from the Merchant Outbox using the new Marketplace API. If they do not choose to support the Merchant Outbox, it will function as a regular system folder.

When will Direct Delivery be available?

Direct Delivery is entering Beta in the November/December time frame. The production launch will not occur until 2012.

Can I choose between Direct Delivery or Magic Box delivery when I create a listing?

After Direct Delivery is available in production, Merchants will be able to choose the delivery method until Magic Boxes are retired (over time, using a phased retirement process). More details will be provided closer to the retirement of Magic Boxes.

What about gifting, ANS, and so on?

Working with the beta merchants, we are reviewing and testing the way various current functionality will be addressed with Direct Delivery:

  • Automated Notification System (ANS): ANS allows you to integrate Marketplace notifications with your back-end operations either via your website or scripted object in Second Life. It will be replaced with a similar functionality in Direct Delivery to address the same goals and will use the same format as is currently in use to ease migration.
  • Gifting: gifting will be supported with Direct Delivery.
  • Limited quantity items: sale of limited quantity items will be supported with Direct Delivery.

When will Linden Lab provide more details on Direct Delivery?

We will be opening up Direct Delivery on Aditi for Beta testing in December to all merchants, which we expect will answer a lot of users' questions regarding Direct Delivery. We do expect additional questions to come in. We will be using [JIRA] to track bugs and feature requests. Surveys and feedback threads on the [Merchants Forum] will be used for questions and comments. See the [preview grid wiki page] for instructions for filing Beta Marketplace JIRAs.

Retrieved from "https://wiki.secondlife.com/w/index.php?title=Second_Life_Marketplace_Direct_Delivery_FAQ&oldid=1157194"