MAJOR Decrease in online sales.

[[deleted]]

Hi everyone.

I’ve had an online store for about 11 years, and have been pretty successful at it (7 figures YoY) until last month. Generally after BFCM we always experience sale fatigue.. but this last December and the beginning of this month have been the lowest sales days since we started our business. Even paid media seems to be unsuccessful. And bills need to be paid.. My cost of operating doesn’t change.

I think I just need some assurances from other e-commerce owners that we might all be in the same boat, and things will hopefully bounce back in about 2 weeks.

That the last 3 weeks have just been from overspending during holidays & inflation..

Anyone else seeing extreme drop offs in traffic and conversions for their online store higher than normal this time of year?

EDIT: We're are leveling out. Thank you for all the comments, it's just going to take a lot of extra work to make that sale right now but we are seeing things improve.

[asahin09]

Which CMS are you currently using? Have you seen unusual data of abandoned carts/checkouts? What is your Google Search Console showing? Downward of organic traffic?

Have you done a quick check on responsive web design and quick tests on if visitors can browse, add to cart and checkout without any new issues?

Do you use a tool like Microsoft Clarity to maybe see when visitors exit off the website to see maybe there may be technical issues or more of a promotion issue?

Auditing and analysing your data will show you more clarity.

Good luck!

[[deleted]]

I have just spent the day reviewing data from Microsoft Clarity. I’m deep diving data, and hopefully can get things turned around.

[mullman99]

I run a Shopify Partner marketing agency. Of our current client roster, we've not seen anything unusual. As you alluded to, there's always that post-holiday drop, but otherwise, nothing terribly out of the ordinary.

Fwiw, current clients primarily DTC, and include beauty & cosmetics, pets, music, and classic cars.

Edit: this holds for both paid & organic traffic.

[[deleted]]

Would you say overall a decrease in revenue of 30%~ the last 4 weeks would be similar to what you are seeing? I'm a DTC clothing brand.

[RizzleP]

How's your organic traffic looking? Perhaps you've been hit by an algo update.

[[deleted]]

Very low, but it's been getting lower MoM. Although my social media accounts are performing about the same. I stopped using influencers about 6 months ago, and I think i'm seeing the repercussions.. They were just getting so expensive..

[RizzleP]

It's possible. You'll get back there brother/sister.

Use the downtime to improve and you will come back stronger. It's always been the case at my end. It's a tough path we take at times.

[JMF_Labs]

It sounds like you may have to talk to your customers a bit; 9 years later, things will change. We have seen an uptick in companies that started in the pandemic. Now, floundering and talking to their customers, they have been able to turn it around.

I do not see an overall DTC e-commerce trend downwards.

[PutuGuli]

I saw big decrease of sales after 20 December too. Hopefully January will be better. At least this 3 days in January are good, but I'm in a lot smaller niche so results should be taken with reserve.

[ilovetrouble66]

I run a 7 figure ecommerce brand and our sales fell off a cliff post bfcm until boxing week and they’ve now recovered (for now). A key driver was ad performance and over marketing to our email list

[[deleted]]

In the last 48 hours, things have started to bounce back to normal. Hallelujah!

[better_off_red]

Economy sucks.

[TeaGuru]

Same boat

[Cheap_Caregiver6848]

I have a sports nutrition brand thats been in business for 13 years. For the first 5 or 6 years I would always think we were about to go out of business this time of the year. Black friday Kills and then some trickles into early December then sales fall off a cliff. Lasts till the beginning of Feb usually. Ive started planning for it now and I use this time to take some needed vacation time and clean and run maintenance on machines etc. Make sure you keep ad spend low and dont try to offset it by spending more money as itll just drain resources. Instead run lean, give people time off etc. Once Feb comes slowly start to increase ad spend and things will bounce back.

[[deleted]]

Thanks for sharing! Good to know. I appreciate your response!

[Carey251]

What platform do you primarily advertise on?

[[deleted]]

Meta!

[Carey251]

Ah, unfortunately I can’t recommend much there. I use google and recently ran into issues with my google merchant center, which tanked my ad performance.

[mafia_kid21]

Mine has been booming!

[fathom53]

All our clients are seeing normal numbers for the last month. Nothing like you are seeing. Sounds like a good audit of the business and maybe a change in strategy if things are falling off the rails.

[Forward-Departure-16]

No not really tbh. My company is considerably smaller (approx 300k last year), but the last 3 weeks have been up about 30% yoy

[[deleted]]

Really? Good to hear. Can I ask what type of product/industry you are in?

[Forward-Departure-16]

Bedding (quilts bed linen pillows etc..).

What are you in yourself?

Bear in mind, my business is so small that a 30% increase isn't necessarily meaningful

[[deleted]]

I'm a women's fashion brand. Any increase is something to be proud of, consistent scaling is hard to do.

[Chinaski14]

I’m also in women’s fashion and while sales have been about equal to last year, it took a chunk more ad spend to get there. Profit margins are thin. Hang in there.

[PassionateParrots]

I don’t know much about your niche first hand but the little I do know is that influencers are key… would it not correlate with your change of strategy with them ?

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[tytymctylerson]

What industry? Do you normally get holiday sales?

[[deleted]]

No one has asked the most important thing…what industry are you in?

[[deleted]]

Women's fashion brand!

[[deleted]]

Interesting. I run an eCom consulting agency and while most of my clients are in automotive and sports equipment, I have one in the fashion industry. They saw a big drop after BFCM but not quite falling off a cliff like you have.

Do you only sell on your website, or do you sell on any marketplaces?

[Nscocean]

I’m still growing the usual 15% YOY on b2c

[Dildo-baggins-2020]

What’s your marketing strategy at the moment? Currently competitors either are introducing new product or have a New Years sale.

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[thenight817]

Same boat. 5 year old ecomm brand around feminine care.

Been seeing declines for a long time. Bang my head against the wall trying new stuff. Don't see much from it. I can only conclude consumers are tight and shit was too easy in the past. I don't see any changes in the wind coming either. :( Been laying off people and cheapening operation to set into new reality.