Rubbish April

[Esk247]

Crikey. What a rubbish April we had online. Anyone else found the same?

We started week one strongly and then it trailed off to absolute nonsense. Nearly 2k down on the previous month.

Hit targets in Jan, Feb and March and then April has come and slapped us round the face! Lets hope May gives us a kick.

 

[Igneous D]

Most of the businesses I have spoken to have said the same - people refusing to make decisions, using the 2 bank holidays as a get out. We were ok but the slump hit us around those 11 days. However, it has certainly picked up this weekend with a few nice orders

I am sure May will be a good month for many!

Igneous Marketing

 

[SBOnline]

Same here i'm afraid, the double bank holiday seems to have hit all businesses hard.

Visitor attractions were expected to see an increase in popularity because of the extra free time, but I here even some of those have suffered.

Heres to a better May!

 

[cjd]

Too many business days lost - many people took two weeks off. It actually performed worse than a December. But May will make up for it - for a start it's got 31 days in it ;-)

 

[tony84]

Apart from Nov/Dec last year our website had its best month. Not the same as a b&m shop but still relies on people dipping into their pockets.

 

[JohnLocke1]

I would like to report a fantastic record beating April 2011

Unfortunately I can't as it was dismal

 

[FaerieB]

At the start of April we had a few shops emailing for a password reminder as they NEEDED stock. None of them actually followed up with an order, despite a couple of emails from us asking did they need any help ... I'm guessing April was a bad month for them too x

 

[cjd]

You can measure UK business activity using telephone call volumes. It's actually used to track when a country is going into or recovering from recession as call volumes are the first to be affected.

We're only a tiny subset of UK business call volumes of course, but I'd say that this April business activity generally was down by about 12% - unless you sell bunting. On average, a December would be down about 10%.

 

[SillyJokes]

You can measure UK business activity using telephone call volumes. It's actually used to track when a country is going into or recovering from recession as call volumes are the first to be affected.

We're only a tiny subset of UK business call volumes of course, but I'd say that this April business activity generally was down by about 12% - unless you sell bunting. On average, a December would be down about 10%.

Ha ha. Bunting up! Other stuff, down. Booo.

Also good weather keeps people off computers.

 

[Top Hat]

You can measure UK business activity using telephone call volumes. It's actually used to track when a country is going into or recovering from recession as call volumes are the first to be affected.

We're only a tiny subset of UK business call volumes of course, but I'd say that this April business activity generally was down by about 12% - unless you sell bunting. On average, a December would be down about 10%.

Very Interesting.

How big was the dip in 2008 when the banks were about to collapse

 

[cjd]

Very Interesting.

How big was the dip in 2008 when the banks were about to collapse

Can't really say because we're a relatively new company (2004/5) that's still on a high grow curve, so even though the rest of the economy was collapsing, we still saw (and are still seeing) very strong growth. Added to that we are a telco that specialises in providing services to small and very small businesses and I don't think the recession hurt them as much as it hurt the corporates so we may not have seen it anyway.

I spent a happy few hours looking at our numbers awhile back to try to find any evidence of it but didn't see it.

We can really only play with month on month changes against our own trend growth - we can't see the total picture; you'd probably still need to be using BT numbers for that.

The biggest effect on our call volumes is the number of working days in the month and the time of year (the time of year effect is mostly to do with the number of people that are away on holiday). We can see one off things like that but not big trends or major shifts in the economy.

(I wish I still had access to all that gross data - in a nerdy sort of way - but I don't)

 

[ecommerce84]

Our April was down on Feb, March, but our new website is in it's first year.

My main guess would be the weather and the bank holidays. We were out as much as possible and I spent very little time in front of a computer (for once!!).

At the peak of my previous website I could be sat indoors on a sunny bank holiday cussing the lack of sales - not any more, you have to enjoy it when you get the chance.

However, in a couple of years if my new website takes off I'll probably be on here asking where all the sales are whilst all my customers are down the beach!!

 

[4little1s]

Yep same here, bank holidays and the UK whether being so good did not lend itself to people being on computers....saying that, and on a positive spin, we sold more kids sun hats and sunglasses !

 

[~serenity~]

I'm pleased to hear I'm not the only one, my shop takings were as poor as January this April!

 

[JohnLocke1]

And May isn't getting any better.

 

[poundcoin]

And May isn't getting any better.

Not wishing to renew my lease I retired from retail recently , largely due to the dramatic drop this year in footfall , on top of a disastrous year , last year .

Now on the other side of the counter , it just seems to me that there is a complete polarisation towards the large out of town "sheds" and supermarkets .

If plenty of others are like me ( now having a very limited income ) I begrudge paying excessive in-town parking charges and I am sure others are the same .
Every time I think what could I have bought with the money I have just fed into the machine ?

We now just stick to the basics...take this afternoon , a short trip to Truro :

Visit to Aldi - (free car park) very busy , long queues , 3 tills going
Visit to The Range-(free car park) just for one perfume oil ! , its seriously busy , probably 8 tills going.

Then park behind specialist quarter in town ( begrudgingly pay £1.20 for an hour ( TIGHTWAD !) )

Independent retailers all deserted , apart from hairdressers , most with just one member of staff leaning on counter ! Street dead as a dodo !

 

[FaerieB]

I wish I was a real faerie and could wave a magic wand for you guys ... it's gonna be another tough year with only very high end and low end doing well out of it x

 

[An Oasis]

we are a telco that specialises in providing services to small and very small businesses and I don't think the recession hurt them as much as it hurt the corporates so we may not have seen it anyway.

For what it's worth. The Real Oasis market.

B2B sector

Micros - dead
SME - dismal
Large Corporates - booming

B2C

See the above
--------------

Generally

Slow start to the year, but business is booming. We can barely keep up with enquiries, the phone never stops ringing and the atmosphere is so disruptive that I have to go and work in my wife's garden office if I need thinking time.

One observation that I constantly see with struggling companies (and badly run companies) is poor customer services, slovenly staff...keep the faith folks people buy from people. Keep it looking fresh, new ideas...keep them coming back for more.

 

[JohnLocke1]

Not wishing to renew my lease I retired from retail recently , largely due to the dramatic drop this year in footfall , on top of a disastrous year , last year .

I think you'll find your not alone, as leases end or breaks become due many retailers are just quitting. In our small town two have gone already this year and at least one other will go in the autumn.

And as you say, it is the footfall in towns that is down rather than the same amount of people but spending less. My average sale is actually slightly up, customer numbers are down though.

On the bright side I love a challenge

On the downside I like paying my bills as well

 

[Pap_sak]

Struggling with my main shop...slight increase in April, so am hopefull. I opened another shop a year and half ago that just went crazy...the rent is 1/4 of the main shop...and has beaten it in 1 month and came close quite a few times. Because of this I am opening another shop in June/july.....not sure how clever this is as the "second" shop seems to be struggling a bit this month.....Who dares wins???

 

[minz]

Its hard to say as I've only been in business for 3 months, however, I opened a fourth beauty room in April and still managed to fill it all weekend, every weekend thoughout April, Im a hotel spa so maybe that had something to do with it.

 

[crphillips]

We had a good jan, feb march and a bad April. 50% down compared to last year.

 

[Pap_sak]

We had a good jan, feb march and a bad April. 50% down compared to last year.

Wow...is that online sales or brick and mortar?

 

[justinshi]

I'm just testing the water here!

 

[crphillips]

Suppose it comes under construction.

 

[warnie]

We had a great march got all excited then april came and was 30% down

May is only just starting to pick up abiet slowley......