Horrible start to the year

[dpd1]

So far, this year has been horrific. Sales are way down. I have no idea why. Saw numerous people on Reddit saying the same thing. Did a search and found a thread on eBay, where page after page of people are saying they're seeing some of the worst sales they've seen in years. WTF? I don't get it. What has changed? Last year was smooth sailing the whole way. This year, it's like somebody hit the off switch. I'll never understand this stuff.

[engine]

Oh, sorry to hear that.

What's your traffic like, compared to last year?
What level of cart abandonments do you have compared to last year?

[dpd1]

Traffic pretty much the same. Abandonments pretty much the same. Ranking seems about the same. The traffic actually went down a bit overall between 14 and 15, but 15 was still fine. I don't think it's me, I just think there is some sort of terrible lull going on right now. It's just weird that it is so drastically different as soon as the year starts.

[RhinoFish]

The middle two weeks of January was funky slack.

[engine]

What about the fact that people overspend at Christmas and all those bills have to be paid. January, particularly, is a tough month.

[anneconq]

Same case. All were affected.. We are trying our very best to gain back the rank and sales..

I saw many conversation regarding of dropping sales and traffic.

[tangor]

It's not the web, kiddies, it is the economy.

The magic machine of web biz is firmly linked to the real world. Take a look at what is happening around you in real life and you'll see the same effects on the web.

[dpd1]

Back up to speed for now. Will I make up for that first 5 weeks or so? Doubt it. Might be from election BS? People wondering which nut is going to run the country next? Who knows. I'm going to try and add some new items this year. Hopefully that will make a dent. Maybe this is the universe's way of reminding you not to take anything for granted.

[tangor]

Not sure about the universe thing, but ordinary business? Yeah, that part would be true! :(

[anneconq]

Maybe I understand if this is slowly decreasing..

[PeterJohnsons]

Hope things had already changed about your sales...

[dpd1]

Well, March was crazy busy. Like, off the hook. Never will understand how all this stuff works.

[tangor]

It's the Martians. They fine tuned their diabolical Spend Ray.

Mass market fluctuations are normal and the web, if nothing else, is a mass market even if you (meaning any website) are a minuscule part of it. Year on Year sales are down every where. And I mean globally, not just USA. All markets are soft. Consumer spend is down due to uncertainties which are outside the scope of ordinary capitalism (terror, regional conflicts, supply lines affected by natural disasters, price of oil, all that kind of stuff).

Your crazy March will likely be a nothing in April and May if USA centric. Why? Filled out your (as in the consumer/buyer, not the webmaster) tax form and figured out how much the feds will return and then spent it up front with buyer's remorse soon to follow when the rent goes up. Normal cycle ... with a difference, those other things are having a general declination impact on ALL transactions worldwide and, in particular, the USA. And an election year is not helping things.

Some will be tempted to slash profits just to generate sales. I'd hold off on that for a bit.