Drop of sales because of War talk?

[irock]

Hi, I run a PC hardware content site and I've noticed a huge drop in traffic to my Amazon links and other CPC paid text ads start Saturday. Has anyone experienced the same thing? Could it be the war that drives people away?

I welcome any feedback.

Thanks.

[Mike12345]

Im in travel, so theres a massive dent in business, not happy, but its definatly the war thing.

Hope its a quick one.

:)

[europeforvisitors]

I have a European travel-planning site, and--oddly enough--my affiliate bookings have been holding up remarkably well. Things slowed down somewhat in February, but bookings have been strong in March except for the past 48 hours or so. And traffic on editorial pages has growing at a nice clip, which suggests that a lot of people are at least thinking about travel to Europe. IMHO, whether the lookers turn into bookers will depend on the length of the War in Iraq and whether this leads to retaliatory attacks elsewhere in the world.

[edited by: rcjordan at 3:42 pm (utc) on Mar. 18, 2003]
[edit reason] edit some catch-words [/edit]

[martinibuster]

Business has been good for me.

I've been picking up a variety of new clients this past couple weeks. Some want to expand their businesses while others are opening a new business.

I sense that people are feeling that now is the time to move forward with their plans.

[onlineleben]

Same thing with amazon for me. also since saturday.
Traffic to site is the same as before. Clickthru rate is also similar. but the buy rate has dropped to about 10% to what it has been a week ago.

[EliteWeb]

My sales have been about the same recently. We will for sure see the outcome over the next few days. Personally I have strayed from buying things recently as I'm saving money incase bad things happen ;)

[freejung]

I'm in travel too, in Central America, and I've seen a noticable drop in sales in the last 48 hours or so, no bookings and no emails whatsoever today, in fact. If I was planning a vacation now, I would wait for two days to make reservations, it would be silly to make them now. :(

[pmac]

We used to have a saying in the brick and mortar business for when it was slow.

"It's so dead you could fire off a canon in here"

Truer words have never been spoken.

[AthlonInside]

around 24 hours to go for the war ... :(

[ScottM]

The uncertainty is what keeps people from buying.

Same with the stock market...

[cpmguy]

We work with tons of corporate customers and I can almost assure everyone that if the war goes well things are going to boom.

[chiyo]

>>if the war goes well things are going to boom.

Depends on your area. The war is distracting people from realising that eeconomies in US and Europe remain not good at all - regardless of any war.

No way that any war can "go well". This one will destablise the world economy for sure no matter the result. There is no way things will be back to normal after the Amercians or Iraquis win, maybe some release of pent up demand, but there will be continued problems with instability.

Dont listen to your clients too much!

[msr986]

*hoping I won't get booted for violating the TOS*

>after the Amercians or Iraquis win

I think that if the Iraqis win, the world economy will definitely go down the tubes. :)

[Marcia]

Folks, it's a serious crisis situation with emotions running high, but we don't do international or political topics here at the board per the TOS to avoid unnecessary volatility.

While we'd all like the opportunity to express our anxieties and concerns, it's in everyone's best interests, in order to keep keep peace here and be able to continue to engage in productive discussions, to stay away from what's controversial and keep the focus on the business and financial issues many of us face are or will be facing in days to come.

[freejung]

I agree with chiyo, esp if there is terrorist retaliation, there will be economic upset and general destabilization. Rough waters ahead, boys, hold on to your seats! It's particularly bad for travel, of course, and the new disease spreading out from asia is probably not helping either.

I think the key to surviving this is diversification. I bet some particular areas are selling hand over fist right now. Unfortunately, I'm not in those areas :(

[Namaste]

I think it is ok to let this thread run...we need to see the "elasticity" of global factors to the Internet. As long as no-one makes political comments and just shares actual results it's fine.

Interesting to see Travel hold up...

[eclipx]

300 to 600 dollar luxury item sales down, traffic seems about right though.

[Crush]

Same for me. No decrease in traffic but people are not buying. I guess it will be like this until things clam down.

[freejung]

Still the same results for me, no reservations or inquiries but continuing traffic. Everybody's just lurking out there...

[europeforvisitors]

Thinks have picked up quite a bit yesterday and today. Traffic is off slightly, but my affiliate bookings are noticeably higher than they were earlier in the week. That could be pure chance, but it also could reflect a widespread and rather naive belief that the war has finally started, it will be over soon, and everything will be fine by the time vacation season arrives.

I'm really a little surprised that so many people are booking vacations now--I'm spending a lot of time looking at news sites, and I'd expect my readers to be doing the same!

[freejung]

We've had some inquiries now, and some bookings, though some were later cancelled. Looks like consumer confidence is returning but tentatively.

[europeforvisitors]

I'm seeing a definite uptick in traffic and bookings. Maybe people are getting tired of watching CNN--either that, or they've decided the war won't be over for a while and they might as well return to their normal activities.

[corpuscle]

For the past two weeks, my travel conversions have dropped massively to about 10% of normal conversions.

What's interesting is that usually around 50% of my traffic consists of US people looking for US hotels - so even US national bookings are down for me.