April has been really down for my shop, how about you?

[piecesofjayde]

We have been extremely slow this month, and I just looked at last year's April numbers...we're down over 50%! I am not even sure I will be able to pay all my bills this month. This is the beginning of my third year in business. What am I doing wrong? The number of customers coming in is literally half of what it was last year, too. I do classes and events as well as google and facebook ads, too. Is anyone else experiencing a big decrease?

[JK_Fiber_Art]

Hey there Piecesofjade,

Don't get discouraged - don't think you're doing anything wrong.  Just curious, do you have a physical location or sell online or both ??

There are ways to promote your business if physical or online or both.  Social media works for both.

I've posted similar suggestions before, here's a few:

Start with the basic social media sites, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flicker, Pinterest, YouTube, Vimeo, Google Maps, Google Places for Business and Yelp - the more you get your name out there the better and you can setup these accounts at little or no cost - it's just your time. Take your time and take lots of product pictures. Creating a video about your business or blogging can be helpful. You have your skill set and experience, share some tips with others.

Advertising in your local paper may promote sales too, but you need to consider the additional costs to do this. Cross selling via other sites like Etsy may increase interest even if you just list a few items.

Another option is to spread the word via friends and family as word of mouth is very effective and free.

Depending on your budget, online ads may drive sales however, it's a challenge to determine your ROI - over the years we have spent quite a few dollars doing advertising however, we really don't think it was worth it as compared to word of mouth.

Best of luck moving forward !!

jk

[DinaLRosenberg]

this is such great advise.

we are also down... I think a lot of it is the economy.

I always look as economic downturns as a time to build relationships with new and existing customers.... what is your social media  strategy?

[Candlestore]

@piecesofjayde ;

Our sales are down over all, not down 50% though.  Now this month we are actually ahead of what we were April of 2022.  Everyone's situation is different for the items they sell.  With the economy and prices of necessities higher people do not have as much $$ for Wants and are paying for their Needs and not having the disposable income right now.  As with what @JK_Fiber_Art said word of mouth right now is helping us out.  In 2016 the previous owner wanted to retire and ran the business online and the retail shop was only open 8 hrs a weekend (4hrs Saturday and 4 hrs Sunday).   Our 'Local' regular customers and some businesses have been recommending our products to their friends and customers.  This is great free advertising.  Take  for example a Tree farm about 5 miles from us.  The owner and an employee came in and bought a few candles.  We did not know they were a Business.  A few weeks later one of our customers who was vacationing here in the Poconos visited the Tree farm and smelled the best Christmas Tree scent and wanted it for their house and asked about it which tree was giving that scent.  The employee pointed to our candle.  The customer asked the employee where those were in the store to buy and gave them directions to us.  The customer then when they got here to me about smelling our candle at a tree farm.  I was confused since I did not know a local business was buying our candles to scent their business.   I was told which one it was and thanked them and will be talking to them again come fall about fall scents besides just our Christmas Tree Scent.

Not having a big budget I advertised in a local vacation magazine for our Vacationers to look at and had coupons in there.  This brought me customers from the locals and farther away since they saw the ad while on vacation.  They would come in try our products and now our shipping is not just NY, NJ, and PA.... but has now been reaching across the country.   I have been running the ads now in that magazine for the last 4 yrs and the previous owners customers are slowly coming back realizing we are open again full time.  So advertising is a necessary evil, You need to spend $$ you may not have to hopefully get customers, but now with online you can do ads there for less and reach more people farther away.  My area newspapers are hard to find and most people seem to use computers and electronics for news.  So I have not tried ads in a newspaper yet.  My other problem is that my main target customers do not order the daily newspaper since this is a vacation area.  So my advertising strategy would be different if I was not in a vacation area.  Another thing with being a vacation area is, my sales increase June through Christmas, then slow down from January to June.  

So it probably is nothing your doing wrong but just takes time for people to realize the quality of your products and start telling others about your business.  I have talked to some of the local resorts to maybe give a discount to their patrons to get more people in the door to try our products.  We do a loss leader, meaning you show us the coupon you can have a Free votive of your choice from our 150 different scents.  People see Free and come in, sometimes this works to sell more items other times people come in and just ask for the free candle and leave.  To me the Free candle is an advertising / Sample expense.  Let these people try it while on vacation and then I may get an online order when they get home.