Forum Moderators: buckworks
Usually my site gets 3 to 10 orders per day. This August, my sales has dropped so low that there are days that there are no orders at all. I realise the Olympic may have something to do with it, but this dry spell seemed to happen a little before the Olympic (about 9th August). I am really worried that if my sales continue to be like this my business will collapse soon.
How's everybody's sales?
[webmasterworld.com...]
[webmasterworld.com...]
Don't worry, happy days will be here again, soon :)
welcome to WebmasterWorld
apart from the advice given above...
were your 2-3 sales a day coming from "specific" keywords, for which you may no longer be getting any traffic, if so, do PPC on them.
shak
Don't be too worried, during August (at least here in the UK) hits drop to about a half to a third and sales even lower. Just take the opportunity to tweak your site and catch some sunshine until it starts to pick up again in September :)
James.
Can you sticky me the url too?
Will take a look.
Uniques has gone down about 35 to 40%, and conversion is way way down.
The site isn't making alot of money, but it manages to generate about a couple thousands a month (before August) and it was growing steadily.
I had quite high hopes with my site. I had already invested some money in the business, (getting a office, hiring a coordinator for shipping and inventory tracking and everything else, and getting myself a "real" supplier). I really hope the sales will be back or else I'll be in debt.
Take a good look at whats happening, have you dropped any positions? Have you altered the site in anyway?
If you answer no to teh above then I guess that its the time of year, just hang in there and wait to see what XMAS brings.
So maybe it isnt you.
Is your traffic lower or is it just sales? - our traffic is at an all time high with record numbers adding us to their favourites list but sales at (almost) an all time low - that won't continue - we're about 400% up on last year (starting 6th April) so Xmas will be like WOW!
We're taking the time to start adding the Xmas stock lines, tweak the site and are starting to up the marketing levels in time for Xmas - remember alot of businesses run all year at a loss and make their money in those vital few weeks so if you've been making money outside of this, you're looking good.
And you're doing what many people either sit on their backsides and say - i.e. I'd love to run my own business and/or I'd like to figure out how to make money on the internet - so stick at it!
In real terms, e-commerce is so young it's barely off the delivery table with the umbilical cut - if you're in it now, you're at the start of something really big!
diversify where you can also. we've made it a point to try to add sites that can bring in some income during traditionally tough times.
also, both direct and indirect competition can get tougher for small businesses over time so creativity and knowing is key.
You said you started your business about a year ago. Do you have results from last August you can compare this August's to?
I get some earnings as an Amazon Associate and I was interested to see that last year, September was a solid 75% better than August. I expect a similar pick-up this year.
Things are starting to look a little better this week (23rd to 26th Aug). We receive a 0.5% conversion this week, (came up from 0.2%, our norm was 0.8% to 1.2%). As much as I love watching the Olympic, it will end on the 29th Sunday. So I am crossing my fingers hoping things will get better after that.
