Summer slowdown
Sales down? Keep calm and carry on shipping...
Sales for my plugins is going through a slump over the past few months. I was getting concerned – Are my plugins getting pirated somewhere? Is the business no longer relevant? Are customers moving on to other website platforms? Are is it a summer slump? Recession? Mercury retrograde?
Then I tweeted to ask other makers if they’re going through the same thing, and it seems like I’m not the only one feeling the slump!
Someone mentioned that based on his sales data, Jul-Sep are always slow months. So I went to plot out all my sales data and voila – it’s a similar story!
So here’s the seasonal sales patterns and best guesses at why it happens:
Jan - Feb: Normal months, but sometimes might be slow due to recovery from holiday spending. Feb dip for me, could be due to shortest month of the year?
Mar - Jun: Spring season. Normal to uptrending sales.
Jul - Sep: Summer slowdown. Slow months for sales. People go on vacation – this is especially a thing in Europe it seems.
Oct: Brief uptick, or normal sales.
Nov: Crazy sales near end of month due to Black Friday, Cyber Monday.
Dec: Normal sales, or uptick due to holiday discounts.
So I guess there’s NOTHING to be concerned about? Just normal sales cycles through the year…
Just keep calm and carry on shipping.
I’m going to pin this reminder to my desk so that next year I won’t freak out again.
Does your business go through these sales cycles too?