How would you handle slow sales or seasonal slump? 📉

[tranguyen]

Hey everyone 👋!

Today, we would love to learn...

How would you handle slow sales or seasonal slumps?

Can't wait to read everyone's replies!

[Candlestore]

@PartyMania;

Thank you for the response and I was not thinking of paying the Blogger to write something for advertising, but paying them a commission for each sale from said Blogger.  On my website (not through Square) I can have affiliates.  The affiliate gets a link to my website and within 120 days of someone clicking the link that was given to the affiliate the credit for the sale is represented in their account.  Each sale would have a $$ amount associated or the quantity of sales would also show.  So if I would agree to this with the Blogger and no one clicks their link that the blogger is not generating any sales they get paid $0.00.   I am more so trying to figure out if it should be based on number of sales or commission based off the $ amount of a sale.  I know advertisers pay per Click of their link on someone's website.  Meaning if I let Nike put an ad on my site and someone clicks it, Nike would pay me 10 cents or 25 cents.  But I do not want to pay per click but per Sale, that way I made $$ and can afford to give the blogger a commission for the sale.   

To me it sounds as its free advertising unless a sale would be made.

Here is a picture of what my Affiliate screen is.  Currently I have no affiliates.  Would be nice if Square could have something like this.

I just started looking in to this and I could be wrong, which is why I was asking.  I appreciate the advice and will not be paying a blogger or other type of online advertising thing without getting a return first.

[ecole75689]

Since my business is home-based, I do some of the same things mentioned here. But for me, it's a slow time for my business, but it's a busy time for my business fundraising. I seek funds for the kids in foster care in my town. And I usually begin the first of February until about a week to 10 days before Easter. It's called Easter Bags for Kids in Foster Care. So that part of my business is busy; I've been learning to make shorter videos and get views. I am struggling a bit with connecting to new potential donors. Last year I could fundraise on Facebook, but now I can't do that any longer. So just trying to figure out how to connect to those who have reached out and helped in the past now that I'm in Facebook Jail. Ugh. But since my central part of the business has slowed since Christmas, I'm focusing on my new video skills, learning with the help of Grammarly to improve my letter writing, etc. Since I can't get onto Facebook, where I do my main connecting, I've made 95 videos since the end of January, when I lost the ability to sign onto Facebook. So I'm now going back through my older videos to shorten them and possibly update as long as we still sell the products. 

[BlackPowerBunny]

During the slow seasons/slump, I work on personal projects and my own continuing education. I also look at offering VIP clients special events or offers to create buying opportunities. 

[gripglobal]

Spends the time on where to focus for the next season

[DLRosenberg]

so I'm looking year over year and we're already softer than 2022 which is concerning. 2021 to 2022 we were only down 1%- it was a dog fight to keep it that way- lots of creative sales, repackaging, etc.

We're in the process of remerchandising the shop- moving merchandise around giving customers a fresh perspective when they walk in always helps.

We're trying our hand at some paid posts on Instagram... I'll also pull the trigger on some paid TikTok as well. We're upping our content creation on TikTok trying to get up to 3 posts per day. The idea is the spaghetti on the wall theory- hopefully something sticks and we get a little virality).

We did reduce payroll slightly but are absorbing *some* of that savings into raises for our long-standing associates...

[ASPettus]

I use the time to work on continuing education, learn new skills or improve my systems to prepare for the busy season. 

[donfirst87]

Try to keep positive and look forward and keep knowing it will turn around again soon

[Whoa]

Pivot + Try Harder 

[Bronze_Palms]

I relax during a seasonal slump and slow sales day! Ask any seasoned business owner out there - they will say "everyone has a slow season" or "there are highs and lows to every business". I choose not to stress about it.

We do operational clean up like counting back stock, reordering, deep cleaning to pass the time!

[gduncan229]

We have two seasonal slumps one happens after the summer is over and one happens from jan-march. Summer and the holidays beat us and the store up. We have a small foot print and sales that match other stores I know that are 4-6 times our size. So usually after the summer when it dies down we relax a bit, survey things that need to be repaired, improved, etc and come up with the game plan for that jan-march time and do all that stuff then.

[SVLFever]

We take advantage of the slower time by doing the "one off" projects that we don't normally get a chance to do.  Examples include;

• Refreshing the paint and the fixtures in the facility.
• Deep cleaning of things, such as the walk-in cooler, the trash cans, power washing the sidwalk, etc...
• Training time for staff.
• Refresh of the marketing/promotion of my business.