Has anyone else noticed over the last few months that internet sales have really slowed? I talk to my suppliers and they tell me it's not just my site, but virtually all the online people they deal with are WAY down in selling volume from the previous year.

My sales are down by over 1/2 this year compared to last. Increasing advertising doesn't seem to help sales, just squeezes the pocketbook.

Opinions?

That's my question above. I guess I logged in under a name I didn't even know I had. When I saw the posts=1 thing, it rang a bell.

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kjohnson
www.discount-leather.net
Pat yourself on the back before they kick you in the a__

Well, I just started my online business, The All in General Store, around this time last year, so any sales I get this month are a monumental increase over the number of sales I had in the same timeframe a year ago. I did note a rise in sales leading up to the Christmas season, and the decline afterward has taken me well below the sales that I was getting in August and September.

Everything that I've read indicates that online sales are rising at a startling rate. Here's hoping that the economists are right and we're just stuck in a short lull to begin 2006.

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kj is everything the same as last year?

Traffic levels the same?

Rankings the same?

Did you do any other marketing last year that could have helped sales?

Was their outside reasons that traffic could have been up in your specfic business last year comparable to this year?

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Well, there are many industries where Jan/Feb are very very slow. Are sales normally slow for you this time of year?

Are the others whose sales are down in the same industry?
If not are they in industries where sales are traditionally slow during the winter?

For my ecomm sites December was great as usual due to the Holidays. January was slow as usual. February was slow for the most part which again is typical for my sites.
March has been awesome and sales are up this month over the same time period last year.

If I were you I would review all of my stats and compare them to last year.
I would check my rankings vs. my historic rankings (assuming you have them).
I would check my competition. Look and see if there is maybe a new guy hammering adwords and YPN with really low prices on my top selling products.

Based on my network of friends who own ecommerce sites sales are good so this is not Internet wide.

Gl

John

Hi Kentj,

Hang in there, its a seasonal thing.

Jan - end of season pay

Feb - Regret and save

March - Still saving (For businessess in the UK, time to spend)

April -looking up (Its Easter continuing from Marend of March)

Then get worried.

Tweak, if it was working, do not change drastically unless you see a serious decline in visitors.

Else, look at your sales pitch and move things around

Advertising - Are you reaching the right people? look into that!

My thoughts and Opinions.

Keimos

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All the previous answers are very good … my site www.art-liquidation.com has slowed down in January compare to the previous years but the volume of customers has come back in the past three weeks or so and the sales average from January 1 is almost equal as last years at this point. I must admit that other companies have become very aggressive in marketing and money they spend in advertising … and all the new sites popping up every day … revisit your past customers they should be coming back to increase your business…
Wish you the best… Denis

Yes I have noticed a reduction, I never heve got a lot of income.

I used some Affiliated links, but have now changed to PPC type links because the Affiliated link payments have just about stopped paying out over 2005 (and because I have received a large TAX bill).

I have never got massive Traffic or payments.

According to research sales on the Internet are support to be increasing but I have not seen this.

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Now for my 2 cents.

World Wide internet sales.
If sales world wide are increasing on the internet and the “pie” keeps getting bigger, you have to remeber more and more websites are also being built every day with new faces in the market all grabbing a piece of the pie so while the overall pie size is larger, your slice could be getting smaller.

The affiliate game.
I have been in this game for almost 8 years and the affiliate game has changed dramatically. Conversions for me are less than 1/5th what they used to be. Cheating by sponsors, more traffic from countries who can look but have problems purchasing, cookie blocking and removal tools, and the over saturation of affiliates all add to these problems.

In my opinion if you are looking to make a living in this biz strictly as an affiliate and never want to start your own program you are making a huge mistake.

BTW has someone new entered your industry or changed their marketing to grab a bigger piece of the pie in your niche? I took on a client in September and have quadrupled their online sales and the competitors in his town are all bitching but he doubled his staff.

Are the offline sales in your niche rising declining or flat?

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I agree with everyone here. This is a bad time of the year and there seems to be more and more competetion everyday.

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Seems it gets harder and harder to make money as an affiliate, exspecially since Google changed the rules. But personally, I think it's a good thing. I, for one, was getting veeeery, veeeery tired of getting the same site on page after page for my inquiries.

In addition, I think, it helps to sort out the ernest entrepreneurs from the, imma-gonna-give-this-a-try-and-keep-doing-it-as long-as-I-don't-have-to-work-for-it people, lol

I agree with suesheboy: "In my opinion if you are looking to make a living in this biz strictly as an affiliate and never want to start your own program you are making a huge mistake."

Years ago I started out online marketing aff progs. Never made any money with them. Many don't pay or they simply disappear before you can even dream of a check. If you want to make someone else rich.... Keep working at your job! You'll find it more rewarding and you may even get a turkey for Thanksgiving to boot.

However, I found them to be a very good tool to learn the online "ropes". And in my mind, that's the end of the rope for me, as far as Aff progs are concerned. Have a couple of quality aff links on my site http://www.BlockTar.com because they compliment my product. Do I expect them to make me money? Probably not.

After I switched to my own product in a niche market, I suddenly not only saw the light, but dough in my account as well. Sales go up every year, Jan was great, Feb is slow.

I suggest, do what I do: Have a slow month? Grab your customer or lead list and HAVE A SALE! Design a special sales page, a great looking email and off you go, increasing your sales to make up for any slump. Take a look at my "Slump Sales" page for this month: http://www.BlockTar.com/spring.html Betcha I'll make just as much or more than last month, even DURING a slump! Try it - you'll like it : )

Your e-business can be as good as you dream it! It just takes ALL your blood, sweat and tears, in addition to eating up every little grey cell you possess and turns your day into 28 hr days, lol. But hey, I'd much rather be a rich, tired idiot, than a smart, alert loser, wouldn't you?

Got to go now, must fire off those emails : )

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Sorry I haven't replied back sooner, for some reason I didn't get any notice that folks had been replying.

Anyway, I did reduce my ad spend this year as compared to last, mainly because I lost money last year just due to advertising. My ad spend was running about $4-6K per month last year and this year I've dropped it to about $1500-2000/month (adwords).

Christmas season wasn't all that great, but I had some hosting problems that cost me an estimated $16-20,000 in sales over the course of 2 weeks.

I might note, that last year sales hovered in the $20,000's in Feb & March, January I have too many returns to from Christmas to be profitable, so even though sales were in the $30's, no profit was made. This year, sales are bearly breaking $10K/month, Feb, March. So roughly 1/2 the amount of last year, however, the ad spend is a much more reasonable percentage of sales.

I talk to a lot of people to find out how my competition is doing and they tell me all my competitors are down in sales also. It appears that my suppliers are selling much more to Brick & Mortar stores than to on-line stores, including E-Bayer's this year.

I'll admit, competition has picked up quite a bit with a lot of competitors selling at prices so low, I know they can't make any money at it. I'm going to assume that in time they will be weeded out, like many others I've seen come and go, however with all the hype about how easy it is to be rich opening an on-line store (hah!), I expect to see continued competition, even if each competitor only last 6 months to a year on the net.

I have noticed a VAST increase in returns this year from last. Normally I would get about 15% of the items I sold returned for size exchange, and another 3% for refund. This year, size exchanges have jumped to about 25%, and refunds to about 5%. I lose profitabilty and wind up with inventory (a drawback of the dropship model). The items I am selling have not changed, just peoples ability to measure themselves.

I am planning on changing my business model somewhat in 2006, by opening a brick and motar storefront to get rid of inventory that has been returned. Over the last three years, I have accumulated enough inventory to completely stock a 1500 square foot store (which is money just tied up). Also, I have some niche markets which I should be able to get enough capitol to purchase more inventory for and capitolize on my unique networking position to supply these markets.

When I compare Year to Year sales, I expected a dropoff in sales after Christmas, and this ususally keeps dropping to it's lowest point in July (June, July & August are terrible sales months for me). Sales begin to pick up again in September through Christmas, with Christmas being roughly 2X my next biggest sales month. 2005 followed late 2003 and 2004 completely. 2006 is a whole 'nuther game though.

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kjohnson
www.discount-leather.net
Pat yourself on the back before they kick you in the a__

Actually, this time of the year in the US is traditionally slow on average. Uncle Sam is taking his piece of the action and we'll see some recovery after April 15th.

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More returns, more competition, less ad spending on AdWords...sounds like great reasons there why sales might be down this year KJ.

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