Sales for Jan after a week holiday have tanked.

[musicyouneed]

I have been having consistent sales over the last few months.  Sometimes there is a dry spell but this is bad.  I had to go away for a week in Jan to spread MIL's ashes in Hawaii.  I closed down for a week and sales have tanked.  

Take a look.

[ricarmic]

If it is any consolation this is the "grumpy weeks" timeframe anyway when folks are choking on their Xmas credit card bills.

So far in my world it's been less grumpy than normal, which is great, hopefully I didn't gynx myself!

I have been doing a lot of experiments in the last couple months, I suspect they've been successful in keeping me more visible as my sales are trending higher than last year at this time. So far.

I am surprised that when you reopened you didn't have a surge of sales, I'm presuming you closed your store and "hid" your listings right? In my world normally that causes a surge when I reopen...

[femmefan1946]

A butcher friend calls January 'hamburger month'.

Doesn't matter how comfortable their customers are (and his customers are very comfortable) he doesn't cut as many steaks and roasts in January.

Interestingly, he doesn't have any discounts on hamburger either. Because that's gonna sell anyway. It feels budget.

I'm finding January pretty good so far as usual. It's been my observation that collectors spend their collecting allowance on others in December and then indulge themselves in January.

Looking forward to the Victoria Stamp and Coin Show January 27, and hoping to prove the point to myself.

[momcqueen]

I was flush with sales after Christmas and into early January but this is the first week it has begun to slow. It will pick up again shortly, no doubt. I agree that buyers are being now besieged with post-holiday-shopping consequences, I know I am. My spending, however continues as I have  eight birthdays within my immediate (and extended family) in January and February. There is always that, and ebay is particularly good for sourcing birthday gifts at this time of year because store shelves are still bare from plague of Christmas shoppers. 

I do find that closing a store kills momentum. I've had rashes of sales while on 'holiday' with the banner running only and items still visible but the one time I think I 'hid' listings, it took a long time for me to recover that placement in Best Match lost my a week of buyers not giving a hoot that I existed. 

[jt-libra]

I'm sorry for your loss.

With respect to slow sales, I think that many of us are in the same boat.  I had terrific sales in October, November and December, on both selling accounts, but this month is very, very slow.  I go days on end without a sale.

I checked my sales for January in 2017, 2016 and 2015 and expected to see the same thing but, in fact, sales were very good -- at this point in the month, they were 3 times what they are this year.  I believe it has to do with visibility.  I know that when I make two or three sales quickly, more follow -- almost as though all my listings are coming to the forefront.  For me, there seems to be a pattern.  I'll have a flurry of sales for three months, then crickets for two or three months and then another flurry.

Hopefully sales will pick up for you.

[femmefan1946]

I believe it has to do with visibility.  I know that when I make two or three sales quickly, more follow -- almost as though all my listings are coming to the forefront. 

Current sales are apparently a metric with Cassini.

[mcrlmn]

Speaking from 44 years of Canada Safeway employment, January and February have always been the slowest months of the year. That trend carries over to mail order, just as it typically does for many other retailers, and for many obvious reasons.

As usual I agree with momcqueen, this time regarding temporarily closing a store.

Whenever I've put my store on vacation, I killed momentum and lost placement. Upon re-opening it's always taken at least a month to resume normalcy.

[ricarmic]

The experience many of you are having when reopening your stores is interesting and opposite of my experience!

Normally I try to have a life for the month of August and I close my store, hiding everything during that time. I reawaken the store on September 1st and each time there is a surge of sales during the first 3 to 5 days. Interestingly at this time it is often stuff that has been sitting for a long time that is selling, so I've always presumed that everything I have up and running is getting at least temporarily better visibility.

I have had to close my store temporarily for some emergency situations over the last few years, but I don't recall what the effect was upon reopening.

About a decade ago, one could cheat the system so to speak, close ones store for an hour an reopen it again and one would see increased visibility from that. I suspect a long time ago that loophole was closed, it seems especially true given what most of you are experiencing.

I would be interested to know if anyone in the stamps world is seeing the loss in visibility after (hidden) vacations. Perhaps I'm just "special"....

[musicyouneed]

What I have noticed is the more sales you have the more sales you will have.  Sales = more sales. 

Putting my store on vacation for 1 week reduced my visibility in an already saturated dying market for CD's.  When I put my store back, I did have a couple of sales 7 total for the week.  But, I usually have about  12 - 15 in the same period.    Yesterday and today, I had 3 sales to the US.  It is starting to pick up again but that week off set me back a lot.

I am going away for 4 weeks April/May so that will kill sales for another time period afterwards.