The holiday hit that never came

Where'd everybody go?

[dpd1]

Well... Got slammed last year with more than we could handle. This year, traffic was double across the year, economics seemed to be a little better... So I decided to prepare for the same, if not better. Nothing... This month has been a total dud. We're at 1/4 of what we did last year at this time. The strange part is that I don't think I've had one email yet, asking if we can get something to them before Christmas. It's just bizarre and dumbfounding. I don't think I'll ever exactly understand sales.

[Seb7]

Sales are down for me from last year.

I think demand has increased from last year, the problem is that supply has increased more. So we are all now getting a smaller piece of a bigger pie.

Also, more users have now been stung by rogue websites, leading to people generally being more picky about where they are buying from.

[jsinger]

I see that Amazon stock was a big winner today hitting $132.

"Investors are betting the Internet site benefited from the wicked winter weather that left millions snowed in this weekend – and not shopping at their local malls."

[CarlaR]

Sales are up for me this year, but that's mostly because my site was brand new during the start of the holiday season. SEO, marketing, etc wasnt kicked into gear. Sales are still lower for me than expected. I think Amazon.com for us smaller online retailers is like the Wal*Marts of the mom & pop brick and mortar stores. They are drowning us out!

[mkroon]

My holiday results look to be on par with last year. However, holidays don't really impact our sales as much as other markets.

Amazon is the lazy man's Christmas shopping mall trip. Keep in mind, that alot of those amazon boxes could be attributed to them splitting up packages all willy nilly.

Remind me to buy stock in Amazon before next Holiday season if everything stays constant.

[mikeclover]

My sales are down about 75% this year compared to 2008. This has a lot to do with the current economics. Tough times out there for most. It will get better

[Gomvents]

Anyone have sales fall though the floor today 12/23/09? We average $1,500 - $2,000 in sales a day and can spike to over $5,000+ on a weekend often hitting $8,000 - $12,000 on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and other large holiday shopping events. today we did less than $300 in sales! And no, nothing is wrong with our site, server, payment processor or anything like that...

[dpd1]

I've noticed things online seem very slow today, which is usually an indication of people leaving town. My speculation is that people actually WERE less fearful of spending money this year, which means more trips and vacations that they weren't doing the previous couple years. So it might just be everybody bugged out... Just my guess.

[rachel123]

I think I'm the only person in the entire midwest on a computer right now.

People traveling for Christmas is racing to get to their holiday destination before the snow starts in earnest.

Everyone else is at the grocery store.

[jsinger]

Very slow the past few days here. Still a good month.

[dpd1]

Well, now that Christmas is over, I'm getting more sales than before it... Wacky internet.

[dickbaker]

Same here, dpd1. Very busy day today.

[dpd1]

Yeah, pretty decent day here too. I had a feeling... Traffic was good all weekend. My stuff can accessorize other gifts, so maybe that's it.

[HRoth]

Today was a seriously great day business-wise for me, thank the gods. I had about four times my average day. People taking it easy on their first day back at work, I think.

[CarlaR]

Traffic slowed down for me starting Dec 24 - go figure!

[jsinger]

Traffic slowed down for me starting Dec 24 - go figure!

One of the web's few certainties is that traffic (and sales) slow on holidays. Christmas day is probably the internet's slowest day of the year. Our traffic plummeted around Dec 18th and is just now starting to pick up. Sadly New Years Day and Eve will be dead again.

That is all quite normal, although the degree of slowdown for us right at Christmas was worrisome. But as with almost everyone else, yesterday was excellent. We're going to have a nice December gain over our weak '08 numbers.