How is your sales?

[Raymond]

September sales was not as great as I was hoping, actually it could be considered a very bad month. It was slightly better than August, but that is about it. I wonder how is everybody doing?

[diamondgrl]

Fine. Not quite as good as April or May but much better than summer. Then again, that is mostly to be expected given that we cater to professionals who may be distracted (on vacation) in summer. What kind of site are you?

[Raymond]

My target is 16 to 25. Mostly students and fresh grads.

Our sales in April and May were strong, not as good as November but they came close. I was expecting a strong rebound from August with the Olympic out of the way. It is sad to see it is not as great as I expected. What happened to FL this month hurt us a little too. We normally have about 3 to 6% of sales from Florida. This month we have 0.

[shigamoto]

It's quite bad for September so far, just a couple of days left so hopefully we'll make some sales to polish the numbers.

I don't know what happened but the sales in July and August were great and now the plunged.. Hoping for an October and Nov recovery.

[lgn1]

It all depends on what you sell. Last year, the third week of august sucked for sales, this year its the middle of september, and there was no slow down in august. You think that by selling on the web, that you are hitting a wide geographic area, and factors such as weather can be factored out of the equation.

However, I am amazed by the amount of varibility, from month to month in online sales, even after factoring in seasonal variations.

We thought as we grew, the varability would become statistical noise, but it has only resulted in wider swings. Really makes cash flow management a challenge.

[pdivi]

September wasn't that great for us either. It was HORRIBLE the first week, only slightly better the second week, and it's really started to ramp-up since. We'll probably end up just above August levels, but week-to-week trend is upward.

[philbish]

Very bad for me as well. I also have a 16-25 market

[derekwong28]

This month is the most erratic that I have seen for a long time. The first and last week were quite weak, whereas the 2nd and 3rd were good. I have really expected a bumper month after the Olympics.

I cannot see any particular events. Can anybody offer any explanation i.e. interest rate hikes, high fuel prices, feeling of insecurity?

[andy_boyd]

September had been going according to plan until last week, when sales evaporated.

My take on it is that people in my industry (regional gift / food) have no reason to buy. Most weddings have passed, there are no big events coming up, people in the USA have an eye on the elections, general instability etc. I think that above all else, Joe Average basically has nothing to buy for now.

A couple of weeks down the line and we'll be in the Christmas buying period when things should pick up.

[eyeinthesky]

Can anybody offer any explanation i.e. interest rate hikes, high fuel prices, feeling of insecurity?

How about US elections, 4 hurricanes, Google dances & more and more competition and undercutting online?

I've been hit hard by Google in Sept and had to spend more on PPCs adverts.

Sales down about 10% from Aug.

[hannamyluv]

Our company did an in depth look at all sales (web, mail and phone) and determined that the hurricanes in FL had hit us for a decline of 12% in Aug/Sept.

[bekyed]

We have had a record month for sales in September in our industry.

Bek.