Have your sales been slow this month? Excruciatingly slow? If the answer is yes, you are not alone. July is notoriously the slowest month for online sales. It is important to understand that sales occur in cycles. Right now we are in a valley. Everything comes to a screeching halt in July – home sales, car sale, and retail sales. It is the nature of the beast. Understand that this too shall pass and avoid going into panic mode.
I see many sellers panicking right now. They are drastically marking down their inventory as if buyers will never come back. They have stopped shopping for inventory. Some have even contemplated quitting their online business altogether. This is not necessary! Take a deep breath and repeat, “This too shall pass.”
Your panic is understandable if you rely on eBay and Amazon to earn your living. The best course of action right now is to regroup and get ready for fall and holiday sales. Also, remember this time so that next July you will be prepared and know that the slowdown in sales is only temporary. There is really nothing we can do to make buyers purchase our items. But, we can use this time wisely to grow our businesses and prepare for the busy fall season. Here are some suggestions on how to pass the time while you are waiting for those “Your item has sold!” emails:
1. Organize your inventory. Are your shelves and bins a mess? Use this time to get organized so that when you start shipping 10-20 packages a day, everything will be in order.
2. Stock up on supplies. Go to USPS.com and order free Priority supplies, look on Craigslist for ads for free bubble wrap and boxes, make sure you have plenty of shipping labels and printer ink. Take an inventory of your supplies and restock for the busy months ahead.
3. Investigate or read about something new you have wanted to try. Maybe you have been thinking about selling on Amazon but don’t know where to start. (Now is a great time to learn about selling on Amazon – come join my Facebook group and chat with us!) Maybe you have wanted to try international shipping but need to learn how it works. Expand your horizons. Take this slow time to learn and grow, rather than waste energy worrying and fretting about not getting sales.
4. Explore consignment arrangements. There are many benefits to selling on consignment. The most appealing (to me) is the fact that you don’t have to buy inventory. You sell things for other people for a commission. You put in the time and work, but it doesn’t cost money out of your pocket. Click here for a complete course on how to expand your online business to include consignment clients.
5. Shop for inventory. Stock up on items to sell whether you are selling on eBay or Amazon. Regardless of if people are buying now, you are going to need inventory to sell in the coming months.
6. Read books that will improve your business skills. I recommend:
Keep yourself busy doing productive tasks over the next 2-3 weeks and don’t worry! Back to school and holiday shopping time is just around the corner.
3 comments:
This is my first year selling! And I have noticed that my sales are low. Is business this slow in August?
It is possible to make $ in July! I do ebay full time and I was able to make my monthly "quota." The reason is I knew summer was going to be tough so I ramped up what I was doing and worked extra hard - don't go down without a fight! If you stop listing new things it will just make it worse. What works is to keep infusing newness into your ebay store - new things continually being listed drives it. Plus whatever was "old / slow movers" I deeply discounted to move out and create cash flow to buy new inventory / write my paycheck. This helped move out a lot this month and keep my quota. I normally don't run autions but I ran a few and I think this helped drive traffic. Plus I try to advertise some too. Diversification helps also. I sell clothing and collectables so being in both areas helps balance things.
I have lots of new things to sell in my store thanks to some great estate sales, but I hesitate to list them because of slow sales. By the time the market comes back (will it now that the stock market has crashed and the massive drought has affected much of the US?) should I hold back so it will fresh or just put it in the store and hope it won't wilt on the vine?
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