Two new female footwear ranges @ Zanzo

We've added some new sculpted boots for gals to the Pink Bubble area of our main store at Zanzo. Two distinct ranges each with five colour choices. Here's a sampling of each...

Asterix Suede Boots

Mock Croc Boots
All $200L each with mod/copy/transfer permissions. Shoe base included and they are sized for female feet size 0 so should fit anyone. There's a demo for each range available too, so try before you buy!

Psst!

This is a coup for anyone who reads the blog (or is in the LE.LOOK group).

We've slashed prices on our Gen-X men's skins until February 1st. The catch? The offer is only at the LE.LOOK fashion district where we rent a wall in the men's wing skins area (ours is the first on the right).

That means every individual skin in the range is only $450, which is less than a shape, and fatpacks are cheaper than what you'd pay for an individual skin in many places.

So head on over to our wall at LE.LOOK! and check 'em out. Remember, only good till the start of the new month!

New Pink Bubble tanks @ Zanzo!

With so many skin releases now out, we are finally getting more time to put into other stuff at Zanzo, hence a lot of releases lately. Today we've expanded Pink Bubble even more with the addition of eight tanks. These are halter top style, with the strap connecting around the back of the neck, leaving the upper back uncovered. They compliment the sixteen Kawaii tees we have on sale, so are placed just above them on the same wall.

At the same low price as the tees, $70L, they're available in eight designs, including two Hello! Kitty styles, 'cause everyone loves HK~!

Come and have a look!

New legwarmers and shirts @ Pink Bubble!

We've added two new ranges to the Pink Bubble area at Zanzo today.

Firstly, cutesy legwarmers~! At only $90 each are plain wooly legwarmers, including Hello Kitty styled ones. And at $98 are accessorized legwarmers with sculpted hearts, ribbons, and cute sh-t like that wrapped around them. Take your pick, they are all kawaii. :P

Secondly, a small range of cute tops we call Gypsy Disco shirts. Each come with sculpted sleeves and a cute sculpted bow attached. They are just $64 each and have two pattern styles - pearl and gold!

Do want? Come and see!

8 new "Union 82" tees @ Zanzo!

Seemingly we never stop working at Zanzo. Anyway, we decided to upgrade our stock of t-shirts in the Union 82 area of our main store today, taking out the old ones and adding the ones you see above. Stylish designs, high quality textures, and optional sculpted sleeves. Come and see~!

New "Pink Bubble" skyboxes @ Zanzo

Three new prefab skyboxes are available in the Pink Bubble area of Zanzo now and they super kawaii!



Like? If you aren't sure, we have demos above the store that you can reach by clicking the teleporters below the displays. Quick info on the skyboxes.

- Only 65 prims each
- Fit on a 1024 sq. m parcel
- Spacious and unfurnished with two floors and stairs
- Copy/mod/no trans, so you can change whatever you want
- Linked, no complex rez-faux stuff, just rez it and place
- All textures are custom made
- Realistic shadowing for added ambience

Also released two new boy shapes optimized for the Gen-Y skin range, so come and see~!

New "Harajuku Doll" skins @ Zanzo!

Zanzo presents its funkiest skin range yet, the cutielicious "Harajuku Doll" for girls. Inspired by the wild streets of Harajuku, or more specifically the famous Harajuku Girls, this pale skin comes in 15 variations. Each pack also contains a natural "Porcelain" skin for those days where you just don't wanna wear makeup and want the clean look.

At $900, they continue Zanzo's great value for money policy and if you're a serious Harajuku Girl, we also have a discounted fatpack featuring two extra skins.

Oh yeah, we've also created six cute shapes that are fully optimized with it, for those wanting a quick H-Girl look.

Subscriber Kiosk vs. Subscribe-o-Matic

I've noticed Subscribe-o-Matic is the group update-that-doesn't-take-a-group-spot of choice in Second Life, and Zanzo has been using it for a number of months. But as your subscriber base goes up, so does the cost. With recent group freebies and subsequent blog coverage, we've have tons of new subscribers and were edging in on 500 total, which would have cost us around L$2,000 per month. Then if we'd gone over 1,000 subscribers, which we're pretty sure in time we would have, the cost would have gone up to a hefty L$5,990 per month. Such costs wouldn't exactly cripple us like it would a brand new business, but is still a heck of a lot of money, money that could be used on rentals or classifieds.

So Averie over at Hourglass Shapes brought to my attention an alternative called Subscriber Kiosk. Basically, you pay a one time cost and then that's it, unless you wanna upgrade to more members - then you pay the difference. We maxxed out and splashed $2,350L for the "Pro Combo", which allows us 10,000 members - a number we're not likely to get to any time soon... in 2010 maybe, if we're lucky? But that price is only a little more than 500 to 1,000 members would cost us per month with Sub-o-matic.

So after that, we tried it out, and it has its pros and cons in comparison to Sub-o-matic. One thing I'm not too keen on is it doesn't tell me when someone subscribes or their name and the only way to view recent subscribers that I can tell is to view the WHOLE list in world - so in my case, if I want to see who joined in the past 12 hours, I have to have 400+ names thrown at me (and that number will go up as the subscriber count does). The online database (and other tools) that Sub-o-matic has is an advantage, but not sure if such little luxuries are worth the cash unless its rolling into your business.

One feature I do like is that if we decide to send a freebie, the gift is sent to group members, then... thats it. No group history, no join and grab, you have to BE a member to receive it. One thing that has bothered me is people joining our Subomatic just for a hot freebie, grabbing it, then leaving the group. People joining for a freebie and staying in the group doesn't irk me, as at least there is the pretense of showing some interest in the shop rather than raiding it dry and heading to the next store of choice to do the same (imagine everyone did that... SL economy collapse, anyone?).

Overall, it has been a positive and much better value for money experience so far. Sub-o-Matic does have more polish and professionalism, and messages/items finishing sending quicker, but its a sacrifice we're willing to make. So, yeah... Subscriber Kiosk, yo!

King's Road launches @ Zanzo!

We live in a beautiful world, yeah we do, yeah we do. Zanzo is pleased to present its latest sub-brand, King's Road, which can be located at the bottom of the street at the main store. This menswear line is inspired by many different cultures and locations, from the high street of Rome to the markets of Mumbai, and we are launching it with nine unique ranges. They are,

- Beaux-Artes Shirts
- Bella Figura Boxers
- Edo Jackets
- Fifth Avenue Denim (jeans)
- Merino Turtlenecks
- Nehru Jackets
- Pampas Dress Slacks
- Rajasthani Sheer Shirts
- Somerset Jerseys & Scarves

Each item features rich, detailed textures and many are enhanced by easily resizeable sculpted prims.

Third lucky chair added to main store

We've added a third lucky chair at our main store, packed with six new items. You can get a glimpse of them above, and they include another female Fae skin, several men's clothing items, some strapless tops (the full range has been off shelves for a while now, but thats because we don't know where to put them right now, and they will be back!), and a unisex scarf. Come to the store and see if your letter comes up on any of the three chairs!

Coming soon to Zanzo...

"The Fae" event area closed

The other day we closed our specially themed event center for "The Fae" at Zanzo. The whole area stayed up for about a month, which is a fair bit less than we planned. As a new brand, there is a lot of trial and error with what we produce - luckily for us, most of our stuff so far has worked well and been popular, but after three months working on "The Fae", it didn't garner much interest and used almost a quarter of the prim allowance for our main store.

Most of our sales were to men and even then it was the "Basics" (Bare, Freckly, three eyeliner variations) that sold, rather than the makeup styles. Oddly enough, people have queued up at the Lucky Chairs for the two Fae skins in them, which both have makeup. I don't know if this means we promoted and branded the concept wrong, or if its just the idea of getting a $950L skin for free that has caused that.

Despite the lack of interest in "The Fae" as a concept at large, we're really proud of our work on it. In downsizing it, we've removed a large chunk of the makeup variations (some may go in the Lucky Chairs over time) and kept only the best ones, plus the "Basics". In total, male and female, there are still 120 skins from the range on sale, plus the optimized shapes we made. The men's skins have a small area added to the skin section, while the shapes are over in the shape section. The girl's skins and shapes are combined in their area, upstairs.

A post featuring "The Fae" by my friend Takeshi Ugajin at his blog, Shop With Takeshi, will hopefully open some eyes to the concept, even if a little late for some to see the original vision, story and all.

It certainly was an experience for us creating a fresh spin on a popular race and we learned a lot by it. Hopefully in future we can create more cool themes for the event center!