Monday, July 23, 2012

How to Beat The Slowest Week In Online Retail Sales


The week of July 23rd is the slowest week for online summer sales. In Will the Summer Sun make your Sales Shine or Fade Away blog, I talked about some tips for brick-and-mortar stores to help with the summer slump. For you online retailers, most of those tips are not going to work, so I am going to talk about measures you can take that will.
Shoppers will occasionally spend big bucks online throughout the summer; the key is to catch them at the right time. One simple factor that can help increase your revenue and help you focus your marketing efforts is considering what day of the week it is.
Fridays are the slowest when it comes to sales; the average dollar spent goes down by $6! People go away for the weekend and aren’t worried with spending the big bucks before they depart.  We have all rushed home from work on a Friday, quickly packed our bags and hit the road for vacation.  There is no room in that equation for online shopping! Don’t waste your efforts trying to reel customers in on these days.
When people get back from vacation they are thinking about the stuff they forgot to get over the weekend. Mondays account for buyers purchasing the most expensive items. The average dollar spent goes up by $4. This might also have to do with the ‘Monday Blues;’ shopping is seen as a ‘cure’. Wednesdays are the top sales days; meaning the overall total of purchases are higher.
Draw consumers in by adding sales incentives. For example, free shipping for orders of $100 or more on Mondays would help push consumers to make higher-value orders since they are already purchasing costly items. As an online retailer, online marketing is imperative- more than 50% of people with a social networking account check it daily. Take advantage of this by posting updates about new products, a special events and sales.

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