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Has everybody elses sales dried up?

  • Thread starter Thread starter plymgary
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plymgary

My website, which sells giftware is having the quietest January ever.

Just wanted to see if this halt in sales is being experienced by others too? I'm hoping things will pick up after payday. :)
 
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Christmas was good for us and January has not been too bad but like you said, will be good to see payday.
 
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Our sales were OK until the 10th BUT have really dropped since then (-25% year on year for the past 7 days across 3 online channels). I can only think the pre VAT increase purchases in Dec/squeeze on households/public sector job loss threats/bad press about Royal Mail are playing a part but too early to say whether this is a longer term trend.

The other thing to bear in mind with comparisons is this time last year we had the bad snow (19 Dec to end Jan) and online sales prob increased exponentially.
 
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Most likely a combination of economic factors, and that more and more businesses are coming online, pushing the prices of goods and services down. How competitive is your giftware compared to online competitors?
 
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Jan is set to be my best month in the 18 months my website has been online. I introduced some low price items - not what I normally sell - and they're flying out the door
 
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Starting to dry up. We are very seasonal anyway, so every year is about trying to drag it through the NY for aslong as we can. This year its bit more of a struggle.

I think this is common for a lot of people, sign of the times really.

There are and always will be exceptions in an economic crisis, so dont worry about some people saying they are the busiest they have ever been, the tables will turn.
 
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Our sales this month are slightly up on last year but that's only due to more aggressive marketing. I suspect without it our sales would be flat or worse.

Some of our competitors appear to be resorting to increasingly desperate measures, almost giving stuff away or covering expensive shipping costs to drive sales.

I've said it before and its important enough to say again, this year will be the most difficult in retail for a decade. Its all about increasing market share, innovating through imaginative marketing, product line-ups and being the best option for your customers.

For most of us, do not expect a bumper year of sales.
 
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We're not doing too badly, year on year we're up 67% over the last 7 days and up 38% over the last 30. Neither of these are covering costs though and never do in January. It will pick up I'm sure.
 
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Until the global economy gets stimulated again businesses should plan on treading water for at least the early part of 2011. Put on a happy face :) and do what you can do promote your site though!
 
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We do SEO for a large online retailer in comparison to this time last year they are well up, however compared to the huge growth they were seeing between Oct - Dec it has dropped off slightly.

I would certainly expect something like gifts to drop off in January.

Maybe look at changing your marketing techniques, focus on promotions for the next main area you would sell for eg. Valentines.
 
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December was bad, and January has been very good so far.

Which strangely enough is the complete opposite to last year.
 
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We expected a completely dead Jan but have had a pleasant surprise with orders coming through albeit at much lower levels than Dec. My main problem is that we sold out of some of our popular items in Dec which we get from the USA . You can bet I won't be making that mistake next year!

Hopeful that some new lines added for Valentines day will keep things moving, also expanding the overall range which we needed to do anyhow so I am hopeful we can keep improving month on month.
 
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Anticipated a January slump, dropped prices and saw a rise in sales. Overall, evened itself out on last year.
 
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iworkonline said:
Anticipated a January slump, dropped prices and saw a rise in sales. Overall, evened itself out on last year.
Click to expand...

Excellent move! I've been selling cheaper products the last few weeks which has been a great move - I was very reluctant to sell 'cheap stuff' but am not looking back now. The returns I get are very low, so my customers like the new items. Seems that people are after bargains at the moment...
 
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ninjaneen said:
Excellent move! I've been selling cheaper products the last few weeks which has been a great move - I was very reluctant to sell 'cheap stuff' but am not looking back now. The returns I get are very low, so my customers like the new items. Seems that people are after bargains at the moment...
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure iworkonline doesn't sell retail - have you dropped the price of your products just as a VAT increase has come in :eek:
 
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Our sales are up 20-25%, but in order to achieve this we've had to be quite smart, and plan ahead. Certain product lines we do have been in short supply since September, so we bought as much stock as we could possibly fit in our warehouse, and extended our overdraft to facilitate this. It means on a few products we're the only people in the UK with stock.

On other products, we've had to absorb the VAT increase and take a hit on profit to maintain sales and stay competitive.

Overall, sales are well up around 20-25%, but profit is only up 10-15%, mainly due to seemingly 'desperate' competitors giving free delivery and dropping their pants to get a sale.
 
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andy_kos said:
Overall, sales are well up around 20-25%, but profit is only up 10-15%, mainly due to seemingly 'desperate' competitors giving free delivery and dropping their pants to get a sale.
Click to expand...

Its quite nice in a vindictive sit-in-large-leather-chair-stroking-white-fluffy-cat evil way to see competitors obviously resorting to desperate measures :D:p
 
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This Christmas seems to be better than last year (which was horrible). January so far seems to be keeping up with expectations but its a very hard market out there. We are having to do more newsletters and short promotions. Our Sale will end next week and I wonder what will happen then.

Nick
Love Those Shoes
 
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andy_kos said:
Overall, sales are well up around 20-25%, but profit is only up 10-15%, mainly due to seemingly 'desperate' competitors giving free delivery and dropping their pants to get a sale.
Click to expand...

This is our first year trading so I'm maybe misunderstanding you but surely if your profit margin has dropped then you too are one of those "desparate competitors" If you have dropped yours then you are adding to the general downward cycle of prices. Or have I missed something?
 
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