Forum Moderators: buckworks
My question is, how are your sales? How's your sales compared to the same period last year?
My sales are bad. Way bad. I have been running my site for a few years now and this is a really bad sign going on at the moment. This is the first year that we experienced negative growth. We continued to hit record high sales earlier this year then it started to take a nose dive since around May. Similar sales drop DID happen last year and the year before, but no where near as severe as this one (percentage wise). We basically expected a sales drop already, but this is beyond what we expected.
The odd thing is, our traffic hasn't dropped. In fact traffic is more than the same period last year, Search engines are bringing more visitors and our site ranks just as well as last year, if not better.
Some of you may question, did we change anything to the site that triggered this drop. No, we did not. Our last major change to the website was in December 2005, and we had record sales in Dec, Jan and Feb. So I assume the change is not the trigger for the sales drop since May (or late April).
I am sure you guys must see alot of posts like this complaining about sales, and I am sure some of you are having record sales as well. I am just looking to see if anyone here sees similar sales pattern. Maybe we can try to figure out the reason behind this.
Thank you and have a good day.
[edited by: Badmojo at 9:52 pm (utc) on July 15, 2006]
However, our traffic did suffer. Our main problem is that our sector is declining rapidly and there has been no major product introductions for the past 6 months.
After several years of 300% growth, we had a year that went down about 20% - no real rhyme or reason.
Next year was our best year ever.
This was all a few years back when things were WAAAAAY less complicated (no adsense to deal with, fewer competitors, etc.)
Just keep doing what you're doing, and remember you may not be able to continue HUGE growth numbers forever. Your business has now matured - now is a good time to rethink what you are doing, products you are carrying, etc.
Also, (although getting a bit off topic) - be concerned with what you put in your pocket, and don't get hung up too much on 'gross sales' as you grow.
It's easy to sell more stuff - sometimes harder to make that translate into more profit by the time you factor in extra employee costs, advertising, etc.
You've got millions of people who have great jobs at really large well known corporations who over the last couple of years have become 'job scared'.
They're still making the $$$$, but becoming a bit 'tighter' with big purchases.
Don't worry though, I think slowdowns are the way the e-commerce gods force us to fine tune our business when we get too comfortable.
We're still trying to figure out how it got in their DB that way since there are no hard coded https links in the code.. only on a form submittal. Something keeps itching in the back of my mind that this is something a competitor did. Just one link on a forum or anywhere and bam you get spidered under SSL.
I wish google could find some way to stop those pages from being spidered or filter them out to start with.
We have 13 ~500k per year Shopping Carts that have reduced their Xmas pricing.
Age 50 to 60 Boomers have a 28% unemployment rate for the first time in their life. They will not be spending.
The war appears to now have three fronts.
Interest rates are going up
Gas prices are going up
GM and Ford will have layoffs
And we have a mid term election that will be a coin flip ( bad vs. worst)
So it has been below last year across our clients and will not get better.
One note: We have been testing to what SERP page people are searching to. Women appear to be going to page 7 (70 SERPs) and men are going to 5. They are looking for the lowest price even if it means spending more time doing it. Last years shipping charge games won't work this year.
It will be the lowest total that wins. Two of our clients had their pricing + shipping higher than what we could get the same thing at Target for.
We feel that ~Nov 1st Shopping Carts will need to adjust their pricing down to match the big retail stores sales. The retail stores do not want inventory this year.
But to limit the pricing drop is the fact that there is a 18% increase in shipping cost the the retailers that was unexpected.
So you figure --- Down by 20%
nice informative post
I just ran the lastest #s on our ecom site (~1.5m)
and we are projecting a drop of 19% this year
---
a little of the drop is on purpose since we are cutting back on ppc and eliminating overhead (about 50%) to prepare for what we feel is going to be a bit of an industry shake up in our neck of the internet woods
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These clients are TOTALLY committed to their business and most have some brick and mortar establishments or prior retail experience.
Huh? I'd like to know where these figures came from as it sounds far off base. That's almost as bad as the depression of the 30's. Most or all the people I know in that age group are employed and doing quite well.
Btw, business is basically flat compared top last year.
[edited by: LostOne at 12:10 pm (utc) on July 28, 2006]
Age 50 to 60 Boomers have a 28% unemployment rate for the first time in their life. They will not be spending.
Where is this number from?
Gas prices are going up
Higher gas prices eat into about .5 to 1% of disposable income for the average family. Only the very poor, who probably do not shop online, are crippled by high gas prices. This does not mean poor people don't count, it's just not the discussion here.
GM and Ford will have layoffs
When have they not in recent years? Plus, Honda and Toyota are opening new plants here in the US.
And we have a mid term election that will be a coin flip ( bad vs. worst)
True, but will it effect people's spending?
One note: We have been testing to what SERP page people are searching to. Women appear to be going to page 7 (70 SERPs) and men are going to 5. They are looking for the lowest price even if it means spending more time doing it. Last years shipping charge games won't work this year.
I'm going deeper in the search results as well but it's becuase the first page or two is all junk shop/compare sites that are useless to me and I've learned to ignore them.
It will be the lowest total that wins. Two of our clients had their pricing + shipping higher than what we could get the same thing at Target for.
I think this is the key, if your selling broad items that people can get anywhere, your going to maybe see a slowdown. If your selling unique products well suited to the internet, you will see gains.
Just my worthless $.02
"Age 50 to 60 Boomers have a 28% unemployment rate for the first time in their life."
Nonsense, at least in the U.S. That's called retirement. That age bracket is well fixed. Kids out of college in many cases, and homes paid off and appreciated. (about 25% of homes are owned clear, a fact that few people know)
Even if Dad's out of work, often mom is hauling in $50,000 or more. I can't believe how much my college son is making working at a summer job.
Biggest gripe of the near-senior set: where to store all the cars and other possessions. Heck, there's nothing I need anymore.
Consumer priorities change. Spending continues. Found out yesterday that a near-50 year old mom I know reportedly spent $6,000 on a boob job. No scrimping there! I saw her recently and she certainly went for the deluxe model.
We made most of are changes from advice posted in this forum most were related to webdesign.
We searched under conversions and came up with all kinds of good posted info.
Well after a ton of WebmasterWorld tweaking we're doing very well.
