Holiday Traffic... Has it gone down or up?

[Compworld]

Our traffic was doing great up until today. The traffic to our site has gone down. Can this be result of Easter and/or Passover hoilday's? Or am I unique in terms of this?

Thanks,

CompWorld

[Raymond]

My sales has vanished since yesterday. Traffic is about the same. I am not sure if it has anything to do with the holiday. What about yours?

[Compworld]

Up until yesterday (Wednesday), traffic and sales had been great. Today, the traffic is down 'bout 30% and orders are also down. So, I am curious if this could be due to the holiday's or something else.

Any ideas?

CompWorld

[eyeinthesky]

Definitely the long Easter holiday blues. Traffic and sales have plunged like a bungee jump.

Hopefully they will rise like a pheonix from the ashes next week ...

[gramski]

If your site is mostly visited by people browsing at their workplaces then your traffic will drop off dramatically on holidays.

However if your visitors tend to be at home then your traffic could increase at holiday time. Of course these generalisations may not apply to every site.

My site is mainly aimed at a hobby/recreation type of market so I often see an increase in visitors on the second or third day of a holiday season.

I might be reading too much into this but I always imagine that my site visitors are being good family people for the first few days but after a while get bored so go back to browsing/shopping for their hobby interests.

[Raymond]

I always thought that people are less likely to purchase online during holidays for my industry. They are all busy doing other things than shopping online.

We got alot of sales in Nov to mid Dec, then the sales dropped like a rock in Jan and Feb.

Spring break was the same, and now I am expecting similar situation with Easter.

[bufferzone]

Holydays, weather, television and other big events always effect the action in my sites. A really bad combination is holyday, weather is nice, and Denmark plays football against Sweeten and is winning. Days like this results in zero action

[blaze]

Yeah, I find I have been mapping Clicks, CTR, CPC, and CPA to the astrology section in my newspaper ... I think I have found a pattern! <squint>

Seriously though, I had a good day yesterday. I get a lot of people who purchase from home, though..

[hannamyluv]

Traffic for me has been going steadily down for the past two weeks. It did this last year before the holiday too. And about two days after the holiday, I will be back up to normal.

[andy_boyd]

I find that traffic declines, as do sales, during holidays. There is definitely a correlation with people working and the frequency of orders - I believe that people at work make up for a large number of my orders. When a holday finished I usually get a small peak as a backlog of orders is fulfilled.

So for me, slow sales / traffic during a holiday is normal. Anyone else?

[jsinger]

Our sales/traffic drop several days before a major holiday. Christmas day has always been the slowest of the year.

Things have been very slow this past 10 days, more likely due to spring weather. It is well known that TV viewing drops during the summer. I assume web surfing follows a similar pattern for many sites.

[Ledfish]

In addition to the Holiday being a factor, another factor might be the warmer, spring weather pulling people outdoors and away from their computers. Tax time of course is another factor that might pull thing either way depending on your industry.

[cgchris99]

This thread is very interesting. I too noticed a drop in sales over the last couple of days.

My traffic has been about average though.

Thanks all for the info. No I know not to panic.

[Essex_boy]

Sorry to revive this thread but today I spoke to two friends (yes I have that many) both have their own firms in the real world both sell to consumers on the street.

Guess what?

Both said trade had dropped off, one deals in Antiques and the other in used cars so you have a good spread of values.

Dont worry I think is the point.

[WebStart]

Traffic dropped, starting Weds, and has been slow since. I put it down to the news in Iraq catching a lot of attention. Now, maybe that still, plus Easter. Like most comments here, my traffic usually slows during holidays, and I agree, a significant number of my customers order from work.

[andy_boyd]

Further confirmation on Essex_boy's post ... I know several shopowners and they report report lower than usual sales over the last few days. Easter tends to get people outside, but when they visit shops they tend to browse and not purchase.

Interestingly, the word from a large number of customers in the 'brick & mortars' is that they are not taking a holiday abroad this summer. The Iraq war, and especially the recent Madrid bombings, really made people in the UK stop and think.

[lgn1]

Well easter tends to be slow, but this is the slowest easter yet. Sales were normal until Thursday, and drop like a rock for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

My traffic appears the same, its just that people are not buying over Easter.

I expect things will return to normal on Monday or Tuesday, but the sharpness of this years easter drop really surprized me.

[Sunshyn]

It's odd, but we've actually had an increase in sales over the past few days. All I can figure is that our younger audience is using the holiday time to show other family members items they are interested in.

[Raymond]

Sunshyn, that's interesting. What industry are you in?