Is the 2004 Christmas rush done?

[Raymond]

My sales has dropped like a rock since Dec 17. It was almost like a switch that was turned off. The day before everything was fine, but since 17th, sales is very bad.

Are you still getting the rush? Or things have already slowed down?

[Phil_C]

My experience is exactly the opposite - had no sign of Christmas orders until last week when sales started to double.

[Essex_boy]

Orders dropping but the orders we are getting are bigger, it like oh heck what can we get whats his face Oh I know Ill try the net.

[tigger]

dropped off Friday, thats it for 2004 although I've had a good run this year

[beautifulname]

Same to us... dropping since Dec 17...

[otnot]

My sales peaked on the 14th and then dropped like a rock after the 17th.

[webwoman]

I thought it was over and didn't expect much after Friday. But then lots of sales still pouring in over this weekend. It may have something to do with a large button I placed on the home page labeled "Holiday Shipping". It says that all orders over a certain dollar amount will be sent Priority Mail (which is 2-4 days here in the US). This means that they can still get stuff in time for Christmas if they order by Monday evening latest.

[andy_boyd]

Same thing here, sales were strong up until late last week and have dropped off significantly. It's over for us.

[fiu88]

in comparing to last year...we are up 50% through the 17th.......
The Weekend before xmas eve was terrible last year, and virtually the same this year....we'll see how the next few days play out.....
OH THE STRESS!

[percentages]

Christmas is now a done deal!

It is generally ThanksGiving to the last Saturday before Christmas.

Now it is time for people to get back to their regular surfing habits!......Thank God :)

My wife hates me for this, but, I hate Christmas! It distracts people from their regular shopping life, and that really hurts me in the pocket!

[nipear]

We're still rocking as of Monday morning. We've heavily promoted our last shipping day as Tuesday the 21st to get it by Christmas. You've got to assure your customers that they will get it in time to keep the orders going up to the last minute. If you don't have a big banner or something saying order by x date and get it by Christmas, visitors will click on to the next site....

We're also sending out an email today and tomorrow to get those last minute gift buyers.

[Rugles]

We are at the tail end today. Good weekend but it is slower today.
Lots of rush, air shipping going on. All hands in the shipping department.

[coconutz]

>> You've got to assure your customers that they will get it in time to keep the orders going up to the last minute.

;)

We're still enjoying the Christmas rush - lots of last minute orders requesting express shipping for delivery by Christmas. I imagine it'll slow down after today - I'm ready for a rest.

[Essex_boy]

Looks like im going to have to drive through the night on Tesday just to get stock! oh why do I do it...

[ecommerceprofit]

Our DSL line went down today! We had to use dialip to get our orders - then the credit card machine did not work - bad day - looks like orders slowed a bit so we lucked out :-)

[lloyd]

I'm waiting on the weekend order report (antiqued system here) but the traffic is barely down. In fact my Google Adwords CTR is slightly up on last week.

We are getting those last minute shoppers. Probably.

[mahlon]

Slowing down here, faith in overnight shipping is lacking or cards are maxed is my guess.

[Receptional]

14 sales on one site yesterday, only 1 today... WAKE UP AMERICA

D.

[fiu88]

It looks pretty over for us.....not seeing much traffic or sales ....disappointing when compared to last year as we were still going strong on the 22nd....

[Rugles]

Done, done and done.

See ya next year... thanks for coming out!

[lecaptain]

Same here, goodbye 2004 and hello 2005. We've offered a VERY expensive 'Before Christmas' delivery price this week, and 70% of people have paid for it.

You want it, we got it, then pay. Earlier price mattered and we got hit as the cowboys took the business, but over the last few days we've taken on good business previously we wouldn't have by making people aware that if they want something delivered in the last week they have to pay.

Sure, things have flattened out, but it seems to me for fast delivery people have been prepared to pay well over the high street price.

[otnot]

Well I thought it was all over till next year but the 20th was my largest day ever. Today is dead dead dead.

[fiu88]

I actually broke down December sales patterns by week year over year...
Week 1....+10% (Dec. 1-7)
Week 2....+89% (Dec. 8-14)
Week 3....+10% with 2 hours remaining(Dec.15-21)
Week 4....? Week 4 ( Dec.22-31) was 27% of our December totals last year....If patterns are anywhere similar , we'll have a +30 - 50% December
.....Our products aren't usuallygiven as gifts, its more of a " Im gonna blow 500 bucks on myself"! type of item....

[Sunshyn]

I certainly hope it's over with!

We don't want the last minute orders. In fact, for months we've been announcing that we wouldn't have time to handcraft the last minute orders placed right before the holiday. Yet, no matter how big or often we write it, there always has to be a couple who will somehow manage to selectively ignore every single such notice. Of course, it would suddenly be our "fault" (and our wasted time when we could least spare it) should we accept such orders and it doesn't arrive when they mistakenly expect so we try our best to weed them out before that happens.
Hopefully the ones earlier marked the last of those attempts for this holiday because I'm tired, my hands hurt, and I never even liked this season. Bah Humbug :-P

[superfang 2000]

Might also want to check out this thread, where people are busily screaming bloody murder about a recent google index update that has caused a lot of peoples' traffic to decline (or so the theory goes...)

[webmasterworld.com...]

[gopi]

Traffic is dead , i dont see much traffic even in non-shopping categories ...

Time to start/plan for new projects i guess :)