Talk about a heatwave! The temps are up everywhere and folks all over try to stay cool while still enjoying the sunshine. Usually, the hot weather means shoppers will be out and about, with no time to check out your store. And while some have been choosing to stay indoors in the air conditioning (and the computer offering up tempting Christmas in July sales), ecommerce stores are still experiencing the dreaded summer slump.
What is the summer slump? If the holidays are the biggest time of the year for online stores owners, the summer slump is the anti-holidays. Along with the post-holidays “everyone is broke” period, the slump is a time when nobody seems to have time to visit your store. This means you’re stuck sitting at home twiddling your thumbs, waiting for a sale or two to come in.
So how to deal with the summertime blues? Besides pulling your hair out, you have plenty of things you can do while you wait for things to pick up.
Take a Look at Your Inventory
Instead of focusing on what isn’t selling, take a look at what IS selling. Is there a reason for why that product is moving over others? Perhaps you can exploit this and make a little bit more money.
At the very least, you can move the successful product to your front page. The shortest route you can provide for your customers to the shopping cart the better. Or, instead, create a separate page for those items – call it “Huge Summer Sale!” or something like that to attract attention.
Now for your “dead” inventory – what to do with it? Most of it probably has its own day in the proverbial sun, just not now. Should you take it all down for now? If it’s costing you money to host it, then the answer is “probably.” If not, just keep it in the background for now until Christmas or next spring.
Cut Costs
You may think you’ve cut every single extra expense out of your store already, but that’s probably not the case. Usually, if you look hard enough, you can find several things you can cut back on that will save you money when it comes to every day expenses
Do you have extra photos for each of your products? They may be cutting into your bank account. If you cut down on extra pages for underperforming product, would it drop you down a hosting price model? Finding places to cut costs don’t all have to be giant slashes – they usually come from doing a little here and a little there.
Prepare!
Since you’re not running to the post office or counting your money right now, take this time to prepare for the upcoming months. Christmas and the holiday season in general is, again, one of the biggest for ecommerce pros. You need to be ready!
The “most wonderful time of the year” comes sooner every year, so don’t think it’s too early. Look for trends, think of marketing angles, and start on a redesign of your store. Or, instead of Christmas, why not think of a spooky sale you can run for Halloween? With some preparation the dip in sales from the summer slump will soon be forgotten in the rush of the colder months.