Experiencing a sudden drop a sales.

[chodges84]

Hi,

Just a quick post really. I'm just wondering how everyones sales are doing. Mine were strong up until about 5 days a go, when they started to go down hill, and today I've had 3! One of which is a discontinued Item, so I have a sales total of £8.98 (before the £1.99 refund of the discontinued item, and 2 other £10 + refunds I have to do).

Obviously I'vwe checked the Shopping cart, and all seems in order. The traffic coming to ther site hasnt changed, in fact there have been more vistors to the site than any other month so far.. My products aren't seasonal, so I dont know whats happening. Is it just a blip? or the time of year?

Thanks,
Craig

[andy_boyd]

We always find January to be the slowest month of the year. I wouldn't worry about it.

[bekyed]

Yeah January is the worst month for e-commerce, has been for us for the past 5 years.
It's to do with xmas and the sales - people are now paying off their debts.
First thing you think if you are new to the game is there is something wrong, dont make changes, dont check the site, go on holiday or something for a few weeks.

Bek.

[Phil_C]

Obviously depends of what you sell, mine is a "good weather" product range, and January is completely dead for me. I've experienced sales in July 3 times that of the quieter months. I think that the middle to the end of the month is when many people received credit card bills, and what with xmas just gone...

[Import Export]

First. It really is impossible to answer without knowing all of the specifics..

Without getting into that, have you ever though about looking around? Not you're site. Competitors. Maybe one of them is offering a drastic discount? Maybe free shipping? Maybe something else, encouraging the traffic that usually flows in the direction you are accustomed to, to change. Ya dig?

[CernyM]

It takes a LOT of traffic to keep daily conversion rates from bouncing all over the place.

Not saying that something else isn't going on, but it may be as simple as "nothing's wrong."

[derekwong28]

I agree, we cannot comment unless we know the average no. of orders you get per day and the standard deviation. If you want to look at this in a scientific manner, I suggest the following.

Work out you mean no. of orders per day and the s.d. using data from the past 30-60 days.

1. If it is out by 2 sd (p<0.05) you should be alert as to whether there is something wrong.
2. If it is out by greater than 3 s.d. (p<0.01) then you must investigate.
3. If you get 10 consecutive days with sales less than the mean, then you should investigate

[fiu88]

I have noticed the following as a Jan. 2004-Jan.2005 comparison..

Jan. 1-17 Sales have been equal to all of Jan.2004
a positive but....
Since Jan. 17th, sales have slowed to a trickle...I thought we were gonna easily double year over year...now...I'm not so sure

[desertjedi]

Fiu, I could have said the exact same post as you word for word so realize that we're all in the same boat.

[OlRedEye]

Have been looking for a problem on site, in cart, everywhere since mid-Jan. Found absolutely nothing.
The site sells a non-seasonal, unique product. No competition. Yet sales just evaporated mid Jan. Traffic good. Some inquiries, virtually no sales. Now I feel better. Not so alone... :)

[multitaskerVic]

Many of our clients see a slow down in ecommerce sales during this month. If you've double checked to make sure your shopping cart is working properly then I wouldn't worry too much about it .. tis the after xmas season :)

[andy_boyd]

Still getting it really slow. Personally, I think that people are broke after Christmas and are eWindow Shopping. Once the pay cheques come in, things will liven up again.

[fiu88]

Yeah....my PPC shows same daily impressions/clicks...but virtually NO sales....we'll just wait it out I suppose...

[bekyed]

Yes i agree you get a lot of ewindow shoppers and tyre kickers, but in our experience they will be back, there just not buying at the moment.
In the middle of Feb is the normal time for things to pick up for us.
Anyway the pyramids are waiting for me in Egypt for the week.

Bek.

[incrediBILL]

When sales slow to a crawl I always:

- Email previous customers and offer them a time limited discount to come back and buy something

- Put up a coupon for first time shoppers that expires at the end of the month

Usually gets a little more action.

[fiu88]

We had alot of success with coupons as well...Too bad the MAP programs dont allow it with our products....
Coupon codes on the entry page work!