Hold onto your hats, Commerce Team Linden (AKA CTL) has announced in the official forum that Direct Delivery will be launching on March 21st. CTL informs us:
“Beginning on March 21, purchases on the Marketplace using Direct Delivery will go directly to recipient’s Received Items folder. The Received Items folder will NOT be used for other inventory transfers at this time. Magic Box purchases will continue to go to the Objects folder.
“At launch, we will be sharing additional details as well as updated Knowledge Base articles in all four languages supported on the Marketplace. We will also provide more details on migration.”
CTL further adds:
“The Direct Delivery launch does NOT include sending items besides Direct Delivery items to the Received Items folder. Changes to send additional items to the Received Items folder are currently on hold.”
Hopefully we’ll see explanations in four languages and a blog post … yes?
Direct Delivery, for those who are unaware, means you’ll be able to have a marketplace store without the need to own any land whatsoever within Second Life, you will then be on the totally sink estate of having commission taken off you on your sales but this is as low cost as it can possibly get and with the way Linden Lab continue to push the marketplace as the place to shop, it’s an option that should give people some reasons to come to Second Life and sell their wares.
This is low overhead sales at its finest! There are of course costs if you want to upload textures or make your creations, but you don’t need to own land to create in Second Life, there are public areas where you can create items and with the launch of Direct Delivery, it should be a very appealing option for people who find the land costs in Second Life a turn off.
I’m not, and never have been, keen on this idea, but it’s coming and the Markeplace express train shows no signs of veering off track in its demolition of the inworld shopping experience. Times change, people need to adapt, you may find yourself waiting at the wrong platform if you don’t take notice of the new timetable.
There’s bound to be some wailing and gnashing of teeth over migration, one issue migration may deal with is old content because some people won’t port it over to the new system but there is as of yet no indication as to when magic boxes will be considered old hat, indeed that day may never come.
Keep your eyes on that forum post for further news.