Welcome to the world of virtual garden retail

Luna Bliss (also known as Elaine Thompson) is the owner of a thriving virtual store, Bliss Garden Center.

Yeah. You heard me right. A virtual store. Bliss Garden Center is one of the many retail outlets in Second Life, a 3-D online digital world created and owned by its residents. Participants create avatars -- digital representations of themselves -- which they use to interact in this elaborate computer-generated world.

And, like the real word, residents can buy and sell goods using Second Life’s approved currency, Linden dollars. However, many Second Life residents will gladly trade real-life U.S. dollars to have programmers create structures and landscapes for use in their virtual world. Luna Bliss is one of the people creating these digital bits of paradise.

Today, Luna tells us more about how she got into the world of virtual retail.

Q. Were there other garden centers or places to buy plants in Second Life (SL) before you opened Bliss Garden Center?
A. There were a number of plant stores in SL when I first joined, and I bought many of their plants and landscaped for myself and others with them before learning to make my own plants and garden items.

Q. What prompted you to start the garden center? Did you see a demand for it in SL?
A. I didn't see a great need in SL to open a plant store before starting my own, but I love plants and was creating gardens for myself and others. (In SL you can own land and have a house and garden...even your own island). I wanted to use my own “paints” and so developed my own plants to create my landscape paintings.

Q. How long did it take to create/build Bliss Garden Center?
A. The creation of Bliss Garden Center continues to this day. I can't even remember how many times we have expanded and redone the store. We first began a year and a half ago, and our first store was very small, but now the store spans four islands or sims. We keep the store in the sky and our extensive gardens below on the ground.

Q. What kind of things are you selling?
A. We sell plants and other outdoor garden items such as gazebos, environmental sounds, garden seats, garden arches, bridges, prefab waterfalls, prefab ponds, butterflies and garden art. There are still so many things I'd like to have time to add. No. 1 on that list is wind chimes.

Q. How much does merchandise cost -- in Linden dollars?
A. The price of items in the store varies from 20 $L to 5,000 $L, though I may sell my new French fountain for more.

Q. What kind of customers are you seeing?
A. We see all types of customers, from the so-called newbies to people who have been there for years. All ages. Some are new to gardening even in RL (real life), while others are seasoned RL gardeners.
I have encountered quite a few aged and disabled gardeners who can no longer garden in real life and appreciate the ability to garden in a virtual world. The amazing thing we have all discovered is that you get the same feelings in a virtual garden as you do with a RL garden.
Another amazing fact of designing in a virtual world is that you can do things you can't in RL with the terrain. For example, I make huge waterfalls and terraform the land into mountains and hills. Virtual gardening can develop an appreciation of the RL environment...it causes people to look in a new way. I'm involved in a number of groups here that try to help the environment, and I'm pleased that my landscapes are used for this purpose.

Q. Can you describe how transactions take place?
A. Items can be purchased by right clicking on the item itself or a box placed beside it and choosing the “buy” option from the menu. Lindens are automatically deducted from their account and placed in mine.

Q. Do you have to be in-world to help customers? I mean, when you’re not logged on, is there any way customers can still make purchases?
A. No, I don't have to be in-world or in my store for customers to shop. It all happens automatically 24/7. I do get messages from customers that go to my e-mail.

Q. Is the garden center also a place to showcase your virtual landscape design capabilities?
A. I would say the garden center does showcase my landscaping abilities to a degree, but the terrain is needed to do that fully, and this is not available in my sky store, though I am able to simulate it with rock to a degree.

Q. My understanding is that you also create complete landscapes for others in Second Life -- and get paid real-world dollars to do it. Is that correct? If so, how did you discover this market?
A. Yes, I do have a landscaping business here. I design full islands or sometimes multiple islands for a project, for private home estates and corporations who have businesses here. Currently, I'm not doing the smaller garden jobs, and I have two new projects with RL colleges wanting a virtual presence.
I work about 12 hours a day doing this and managing my store and rental areas in the gardens below the store. The Linden dollars I receive can be exchanged for U.S. dollars. Everything evolved as I worked on my own island and people saw my work and hired me to do their projects.

Q. Can I ask you about your real-world background?
A. I have worked in real life doing landscapes for others. My experience in Web design has also contributed to my abilities here. Plant textures need to be created in Photoshop or another graphics program and uploaded to SL.
I have never worked in RL garden retail though, although one year I potted up numerous plants in my RL garden and had a big sale.

-- Sarah

Comments

[Gardening Seeds]

wow.. great post thanks!!!