Summer Slowdown - What is it? How do I avoid it?
Recently you may be hearing whispering of the dreaded “Summer Slowdown” from your favorite resellers or within your reselling groups and communities, but are new to reselling and don’t quite understand what it is or may be experiencing a slow down in sales over the past couple of weeks and you want to know why. The “Summer Slowdown” typically takes place after the U.S. Memorial Day (last week in May) to mid-August, and is marked by a significant decrease in sales in the reselling community. Sales slow down, because more people are on vacation, traveling, outside and just are not online as much. New resellers that have never been through a summer season, may get discouraged when their sales suddenly dip in June, but do not worry, there are ways to mitigate the “Summer Slowdown”. Here are ways that I have found that work to help keep sales up during the summer months.
Great 4th of July specific item.
Stock seasonally relevant items. If you are a reseller in the Northern Hemisphere, stock summer items. If you specialize in clothes, pick up sundresses, shorts, bathing suits, sleeveless or short sleeve items. If you do hardgoods, pick up things like picnic baskets, lemonade sets, gardening tools and planters.
Stock items that do not require a season. Electronics, appliances, video games and shoes are all items that are used year round.
Take advantage of sales holidays. In the US that would be Father’s Day and Fourth of July. Buy items that would be considered traditional “gifts for dad”, and American’s love their Red, White and Blue.
Diversify your selling platforms. I sell on Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Mercari. If you are worried about fees, I highly recommend Mercari, as it’s free to list, they have easy to understand shipping, and it’s a flat 10% fee when the item sells; however, you do have to wait for your money until up to three days after delivery.
Do Not Stop Listing! Even if you have items that are not seasonally relevant and you don’t feel comfortable purchasing items that are not in your area of expertise, keep listing. Almost every selling site uses an algorithm that prioritizes active accounts. I’ve sold sweaters, jeans and heavy jackets when it’s 100 degrees out, so you never know if what you have happens to be what someone is looking for that day.
Someone paid to have this plastic Gfuel shaker sent all the way to Australia through the GSP.
Take advantage of eBay’s Global Shipping Program. Every time I mention eBay’s GSP, I get flak saying that it’s more expensive than if you figured out shipping yourself, and it excludes some countries. If you are a new US seller on eBay, and don’t feel comfortable trying to figure out international shipping yourself, GSP takes all that guesswork out for you. They handle customs, paperwork, and calculating shipping cost to the buyer, all you have to do is mail it to the facility. To go from no international sales to GSP, will open up your store to millions of potential customers while mitigating a lot of the time and risk.
Sell local. If there are community yard sales, flea markets or craft fairs in your area, give them a try. If you have some heavy items that maybe you don’t want to ship, FB Marketplace, Offer Up and Craigslist are also good options to sell local. If you feel uncomfortable about a stranger being in your home, most localities will allow you to arrange for a meet up at a local police station or courthouse.
These are some of the things I do to keep my sales high year round. If you have any tips I didn’t mention above that you think would be helpful, please comment them below!
