How are your sales this time of the year?

Have they slowed?

[Compworld]

Sales were pretty good from March until June, and now they have tipped off a bit. Thought it was due to poor targeting or something, so we signed up with Bizrate & Dealtime. So far this month, zero conversions? Bizrate was doing pretty good for us for the last few months, and as soon as July hit, it's been going down hill. We just went live a few days ago with Dealtime, and a lot of clicks, just zero conversions. Any idea on why the downturn in the sales? Is it just us, or is it that time of year?

Thanks,

CompWorld

[robotsdobetter]

I think it really depends on what market you are in. For example let's say your company/website is about traveling, this is likely the best time of the year for companies like that.

Example 2) Let's say your site/company is an online store, the best time of the year for you is likely Christmas.

For me it's been slow and I think it's because people are traveling and staying outside because it's (At least here in the US.) nice, but maybe a little hot, but sure is better than the cold.

[robotsdobetter]

All I forgot to add that most people in the US are saving their money to travel.

[jouwpagina]

In West-Europe the weather is very very bad. It's the whole month like this: [weeronline.nl...]

I see my pageviews skyrocket compared with the nice-weather-days.

[Essex_boy]

Im up about 20% although im in teh UK I sell outdoor gear to the US.

goes quiet in december.

[Compworld]

Yeap, all over our sites on onlien stores (electronics, games, clothes, etc.) Strange. I mean, if the traffic is coming from shopping sites like bizrate and dealtime, wouldn't you think after they clicked through they would purchase? They have all of the information on those sites before coming to ours. Why come to our site and then not place the order? Makes no sense. For instance, today, we received 78 clicks from dealtime, zero conversion. I was shocked when I ran the reports. Any ideas on how or why something lik ethis could happen? First day zero sales with such targeted sites? Bizrate did great for us from March to May, and that started to slow also. Could it be that we only ship to US and they are all foreign customers? If so, is there anyway to just have our results displayed on dealtime and not their partner sites with only US customers?

Thanks for the input.

CompWorld

[robotsdobetter]

Maybe you should leave and try something else because that's real odd not to get any sale after 70 something clicks.

[kodaks]

My sales are down 10% from where they were last year at this time, but my number of page views have increased.

[Compworld]

I wonder if dealtime or bizrate have some sort of click through fraud dectections? Like I said before, the down turn has just started and I am not sure if it is the season or the leads.

CompWorld

[WebStart]

Well, I hate to be the odd ball here, but my sales have gone up, and not just up, but way up-- since July 8. I suppose it goes back to that old statement -- what businiss are you in? That accounts for a lot. As for me I suspect I am getting business from after the July 4th holiday in the US when people return to work and home, and start shopping again. But -- I do not know that for sure.

[derekwong28]

I have the same problem with dealtime and bizrate, and also other PPC engines. Their conversion rate has almost halved than it was.

In our case, although there is no doubt that summer sales are always slow. We found new competitors on Bizrate and Dealtime who are undercutting the prices of our bestselling products by a large margin.

[Essex_boy]

I spent some of yesterday asking friends with non internet based businesses were they busy.

All without exception said no.

The trades covered varied from art to cars so its quite a wide sample

[fivaxis]

All of June was horrible for me. July is already doing pretty well - I've already made more in July than in all of June.

[percentages]

>Is it just us, or is it that time of year?

You have to compare year on year sales for anything remotely seasonal.

In almost every category year on year sales should be up. This is simply because of Internet growth. If you are falling short of July 2003 you have a problem.

For me, my sales are a tad down on June 2004 so far, but they are way up on July 2003, so who cares! My category goes to pot after June, by December I don't give a hoot and I'm usually found sunbathing in Mexico for a few months.

A lot of categories are very seasonal, although some "experts" will claim otherwise :(

My advice is only look at year on year results, and if you see 30%+ growth, be happy and go party in Mexico :)

[edited by: percentages at 10:48 am (utc) on July 11, 2004]

[tigger]

summer slow down happens every year, I've been monitoring my stores for 4 years and so far this year is no different from the last, it normally starts to pull back around Sept

[derekwong28]

Two years ago during the World cup, I thought our business had collapsed. I expect the same thing will happen with the Olympics this year. I am bracing for a 30-50% drop.

[eyeinthesky]

Two years ago during the World cup, I thought our business had collapsed. I expect the same thing will happen with the Olympics this year. I am bracing for a 30-50% drop.

... the World Cup has always been held during June/July (hot months) so therefore the effects tend to be huge.

We've already seen how Euro 2004 has affected sales badly last month (June) -- sales plunged 30%

I hope the Olympics will be not so bad as August will be cooler?

[Raymond]

I believe the sales during the Olympics will be even worse than Euro2004. The people from the US do not care much about soccor (sorry for those who do), and about 80% of internet sales originate from the US, the Olympics will probably have a much bigger impact on internet sales for the majority of the websites.

[percentages]

>about 80% of internet sales originate from the US, the Olympics will probably have a much bigger impact on internet sales for the majority of the websites.

Look at US TV viewing figures! The most popular program in the US in the last 12 months was "The Apprentice" with 25 to 28 million viewers. But wait, look at the UK market and "Coronation Street" can beat that easily, even though the UK has less than one fifth of the population!

So, the lesson is: The US has a huge audience, but not a huge TV audience dedicated to anyone one show or event. Europe has a smaller TV audience, but a much more dedicated one.

What does that mean for websites? If your sales primarily come from the US, you should not notice the Olympics is happening :)

[bekyed]

Our worldwide ecommerce sites are doing pretty well, but our UK only sites have slowed a little yes.

Bek