[Archived - Polystyrene] Drastic drop in sales

Posted by “Maio” on May 20, 2022.

This sudden drop hit me too.

Has anyone seen their sales return to how they were? Or has everyone gone down and stayed down?

Posted by “Sylaraia” on May 20, 2022.

To be honest, I don't put much stock in these reports of people changing their income equations between credits and dollars and having it affect their sales somehow, which would mean catalog page placement, but I'll soon have to tone down my earnings to restock credits anyway, so I tweaked them. But that kind of thing would take a lot more than a few reports to substantiate empirically. It's a bit too much in the wheelhouse of, 'I had a stroke in a department store, so department stores cause strokes,' for my liking.

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 20, 2022.

I'm so sorry this is happening to you and others I've enjoyed deriving from over the years

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 20, 2022.

None of this is going to end well. Not for the creators and in the end, IMVU. They've been so focused on attracting mobile users they lost sight of those who've supported the company for years. And I have more bad news because even with the new "shine" feature IMVU isn't close to having the same capabilities as some of the other virtual worlds. I've been checking things out elsewhere and in EVERY other virtual setting, avatars can walk like real people. There are things happening elsewhere that make this place look like 1st Grade while all the others are High School or University level. If the mobile users are looking for an immersive experience they will not find it here and that's probably why they don't stay. Not to mention IMVU touted that Carmen person to pull in the mobile gang and her big thing on YouTube is popping into and out of various games/worlds, wreaking havoc and leaving. How was that supposed to help? When IMVU started to consider replacing the desktop client they should have actually invested in the company and found developers who could literally take IMVU to the next level but they did not...they made a lateral move that hasn't vastly improved anything and is chasing off those who've spent years and tons of money here. I hate to say it but if they don't do something different soon (it may already be too late) it's going to be all over for IMVU and as others have said, it has nothing to do with the economy.

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 20, 2022.

I don't even have to look. I can tell you those using promo credits are hit-and-run users who don't stick around. Some time ago I spent HOURS and pulled all my promo credit sales for a year, then checked every single user that had purchased using promo credits...not a single one of them was still active on the site and none of them ever bothered to make a profile.

Posted by “Roy” on May 20, 2022.

Good luck, I really mean it. Your products have always been amazing. It really hurts me to see creators that I always admired like yourself hurting in this climate of things.

Posted by “NewGen3D” on May 20, 2022.

I have been silently stalking this thread for a while now, and I couldn't agree more with all the issues mentioned above. IMVU has been declining even before the pandemic. The pandemic did give it a boost due to more people spending time at home. But now we're back to where we are. The promo credits situation has been brought up in the past but IMVU made it clear they don't care and they will continue providing free credits. My alt accounts (texture and mesh accounts) are earning too much promo credits than real credits. I believe it's a similar case with other creators too, and yet IMVU refuses to address what's slowly killing their creators' income.

IMVU is focusing more on the quantity of users rather than quality. They prefer the users who log in and play for 30 mins and never log back in for months, rather than those who actually "lives" in IMVU. With the amount of promo credits they are giving away for new accounts, why would people buy real credits if they can just make another account to have new outfits?

IMVU used to be a second home to everyone, a safe place where everyone can escape from real life, and now we are just witnessing it turn into a dress-up game app. Roleplay communities are gone, IMVU Groups in website are dead, mobile killing the room and furniture market, creators getting capped on their earnings, excessive promo credit giveaways, new tier system that requires creators to work more (creators now also have to make sure their product is working in Client, Next, Desktop, Studio, Mobile), and more expensive VIP prices, but sure let's just blame it all on the worldwide economic issues.

Posted by “RainEvenMorn” on May 20, 2022.

and IMVU wonder why some of us are salty.... this rampage by ONE user. idk how many times ive asked and begged that users cant be able to spend limitless promos on one creator OR buy bundles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sorry i get so damn ****** angry.

https://gyazo.com/2bcea5ba04220310725182075e10f255

https://gyazo.com/b861807597e2b4008e60995b80c4b90d

https://gyazo.com/e5ed52f1192293516d30359513d0b9cc

https://gyazo.com/11116e50d37e8168a2f023d9ba081196

Posted by “LestatDeLioncourt” on May 20, 2022.

I am doing a study for this thread and would hope maybe a few others will join

in. It is not easy with the tools IMVU gives and it will be time consuming BUT!

I believe it will give light down this dark dreary tunnel... Want some truth?

My income has changed from 5 years ago. This is not an economic or "pandemic" issue.

Tons of Promos are being spent and by whom?

Open your "Credit income event listing" report.

Go back a couple of weeks at a time for 3 months.

Find those users who used Promos to buy your items.

Use Gaf210's Profile Viewer

See what percent of these promo spenders... logon more than once.

You will be surprised...

Posted by “DONATELLA” on May 20, 2022.

Hi everyone, I didn’t want to post about this here I thought it was only me, but when I saw this thread! Now I think it is alarming! I have been watching my sales » pending amount » every single day, believe it or not I have gone down by 1700 dollars, it’s going lower every single day I don’t think I will have enough to withdraw my masa imvu has forced on me! This is so scary and worrying, it’s hard to work when ur under such a pressure, I hope I imvu will do something or maybe they did that’s is why sale are so low and we don’t know anything about it, my sales are almost 40% down, tbf I am freaking out by now.

Posted by “slance1” on May 19, 2022.

For me this is not the reason.Never had many promo sales anyway.

Its the count of the sales - 70-80% decrease.Its not normal.

Posted by “Polystyrene” on May 19, 2022.

IMVU have definitely been giving away a lot more promos over the last year :/

Posted by “Yannomi” on May 19, 2022.

It hit 1st pages last year, but i don't remember when exactly : <

Posted by “Polystyrene” on May 19, 2022.

How long has the product been popular? Has it become more popular this year? Popular products always pick up many more promo sales from being on the front pages. I'm not doubting you, just trying to figure out the details.

I'm not seeing the same thing - I'm keeping track of my sales as well as income and both are down.

Posted by “Yannomi” on May 19, 2022.

I wanted to check on something.

Checked Creator Reports in one of my best selling product - compared 2021 April/May to now...

And there is HUUGE difference in balance - promo/real credits purchase.

Maybe this is the issue?

Now - most of the sales are with promo credits.