Great Minds Think Alike...perhaps they should join forces

So there I was in Seraph City...was I watching a Burlesque show at the New Champagne Room where you can always find retro-lovin gals and get more ideas on things to buy? maaaaybe. One of the audience members was wearing what looked like Icing's Puma Jie puffy sleeved blouse and pencil skirt combo...but it wasn't....it was a puffy sleeved dress with a pencil skirt combo named Guro from Ivalde. The lady told me it was a giftie...and turned out...I already had it. So here's a comparison, that's the default red bloused Icing Puma Jie on the left and the Ivalde Guro on the right.



Great minds think alike...red blouse/bodice and black high waisted skirt is a classic look and it makes perfect sense that both would do a version of it, so no saying that one stole the "idea" from the other because they did not. That look is a fashion archetype.

So that got me thinking. If one shops at Ivalde, one probably shops at Icing, and vice versa. (and probably Ingenue, Jet Doll and Donna Flora as well) Same people shop at both...they appeal to the same market segment. So...what if they joined forces or merged. It might be an advantage..focused marketing...larger inventory...more frequent releases because they have TWO people doing stuff so if one takes a break the other is still doing stuffs. It might help with customer service as well, if one isn't online, the other might be. Their skill sets might also compliment each other, say if one doesn't do jewellery but the other does or if one does shoes and the other doesn't. You never know...such things with similar businesses/markets might work in SL....or not. I have been told that one reason they don't is that there's the "trust" factor to deal with. SL doesn't have the trust mechanisms that RL has, so people don't do such things. Too bad...it might be a great way for smaller or medium sized design houses to compete with the larger super shops.


SLURL to ICING main Store in Mischief
Icing Blog

SLURL to Ivalde
Ivalde and L'Abel website