Shopping Spree 2!

We had another shopping assignment(: But this time, we were supposed to shop in second life instead of at shopping websites like the other time. It was definitely a new and unique experience for me. It was generally fun but there were some parts that kind of made the shopping experience less fun such as navigating from place to place. This may be because I'm really new at this. It got quite frustrating at times but the ambiance and products sold made up for this. So, first up, we had to choose to visit one of the shopping sites listed and I chose Farrah Island.

Farrah Island houses JCNY Collection which offers mostly accessories such as necklaces and earrings which are chargeable. The store is really huge so it's no wonder that it offers almost all the different kinds of accessories. The picture above is, I think, the help desk. There are captions above each object to provide you with some help when needed such as "Click for HELP", "Touch me for Hyper-Gems Guide Book" and etc. It's really useful because things are pretty confusing for me. From the picture, you can also see how well-decorated and beautiful the shop is. It's really soothing to the eyes as there isn't anything glaring. It also somehow makes the shopping experience 'real'. 

Right next to the help desk, there's a directory of the shop. It shows the ten different departments found in the shop such as watches, wedding services, men jewelry and many more. And the cool thing about this directory is that you can click on the individual departments and you will be teleported there. This feature is really useful especially since it's quite difficult for me to navigate around the shop. Also, I like how the shop is organized in such a way that each kind of product sold has its own room. This makes shopping there more convenient and you can just go into the watch department if you're looking for watches instead of having to browse through the whole store.

In this picture, my avatar is looking a poster which shows FashionForLess, which features items sold at a lower price. However, as I am without any Lindens (the second life currency), I am unable to purchase anything. This part of the shop shows how it is similar to a shop in real life as a real life shop will also usually have a small part which features the items on sale.

The two pictures above shows a vending machine which dispenses JCNY shopping gift cards which I assume can be used to purchase items from that store. The vending machines are found all over the store and it's relatively quite easy to use. I think it's a perfect gift for someone on their birthday or some other special occasions. It's really good when you dont know what to get for that someone. So, by giving this gift card, she will be able to purchase whatever she wants. This is really similar to what the shops in real life offer for shoppers. It's really cool that you have to purchase it from a vending machine and not from an avatar.

Next, I'll show some of the different products sold at the JCNY collection.

I think it's not that clear but this picture shows some of the earrings sold at this store. Most of them are really pretty and there's a wide variety of earrings. They have a few different colours of each design so shoppers will have more choices.

This screen shot shows the shoes sold at JCNY. They're mostly high heels, and like the other products sold, there's a wide range of designs. But one thing that could have made this better would be having the shoes standing on it's own rather than having it appear in pictures. That would really make this store cool. 

Another feature that I really like about this store is the pictures which shows all the different products are big so it's really easy to see from even from a distance. And it really catches your eye. You can see how big the pictures are from the screen shot below. 

  Lastly, the last thing that made this shopping experience enjoyable is the rest areas located around the store. It's really nice and convenient as your avatar can rest whenever you want it too, though it's not really needed. If there are rest areas in stores in real life just like in this store, I'm sure there will be lesser complaints about customer service in Singapore.

Though the shopping experience at JCNY was pretty fun and enjoyable, I still prefer shopping at shopping sites as Second life is not user-friendly. it's really difficult to move around the store especially when you have not done this before. Shopping sites, on the other hand, are really simple to use and doesn't take as much effort as shopping at second life. Also, if you were to really buy the products sold at JCNY, you can't really use it as it's only a virtual item for the enjoyment of your avatar. This will definitely make the shopping experience less fun. The things that you buy from shopping sites however, can be used in real life.