Summer Slowdown: How to Prevent a Sales Slump This Season
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May 31, 2023Worried about a summer slowdown? The hottest months of the year often lead to a summer slowdown in sales for business owners — but it doesn’t have to be this way.
If you’re an online retailer, you have a unique opportunity to capitalize on the summer months and boost your online sales. After all, online shopping is a fantastic (indoor) activity for consumers when the temperature gets too high for outdoor fun.
Keep reading to learn how to ramp up sales this season and encourage customers to spend more.
A Summer to-Do List for Small Businesses
The kids are on break, the sun is shining, and everyone is booking beach vacations — but that doesn’t mean your sales have to slump.
Check out the five ideas below for some effective ways small business owners can boost slow online sales this season and persuade new and existing customers and clients to buy.
1. Refresh Your Marketing Message
Whether your products change seasonally or not, you can update your marketing message to match.
For example, say you sell homemade blankets (a decidedly un-summery-sounding item). In the winter, you might market them as a “cold-weather must-have.”
But, in the summer, you can market them as the perfect picnic companion. Or as a great take-along for hot nights spent under the stars.
Remember, it’s not always what you sell; it’s the words you use to sell it that will make all the difference.
Most businesses keep the same product descriptions and titles year-round, but you can update yours seasonally to help make them more persuasive.
If that’s too much work, you can just update paid ads and social media messaging to ensure they help bring in more customers or clients when sales get slow in the summer months.
2. Entice With Seasonal Discounts
Whether you’re online only or have both a brick-and-mortar and an online shop, stay competitive by offering some tempting sales.
Maybe it’s 20% off or free shipping when temperatures hit over 100 degrees in your city… whatever you choose, there are plenty of fun, persuasive ways you can play off the hottest months of the year. (Just make sure you stress that these sales are time-sensitive.)
Many small businesses offer sales during the summer, but you can go one further by using Instagram Stories and Reels to promote flash sales and engage your audience.
When sales get slow, the best thing you can do is remind your target audience that you’re there by reaching them where they hang out the most.
3. Try Bundling Up
Bundling up sounds pretty awful right about now, but that’s what makes this marketing strategy fun. No, you’re not asking your consumers to put on sweaters and scarves; you’re bundling up some of your hottest items to boost your sales and encourage customers to spend more.
Say you make handmade jewelry — why not put together a bundle of your hottest sellers? It could be your most popular necklace, earrings, and bracelet, all sold together for $5 to $10 less than a consumer could buy each piece individually.
Or how about putting a few of your best-selling bracelets in a bundle so your customers can get your most popular items at a discount?
Market them as “summer must-haves,” “pool-party essentials,” or “sizzling accessories for summer nights.”
4. Hold Social Media Contests
Social media contests are beneficial for a few reasons: they engage current fans, help you get new fans, and enable you to build an email list.
If you want to keep it simple at first, hold a contest on Facebook or Instagram where you post a picture of one of your hottest summery items, and then let your fans post a comment of why they like that particular prize (or how they’ll use it, where they’ll wear it, etc.) as an entry.
Once a winner is chosen, ask them if they’d mind taking a picture with their prize and tagging you in it. This will validate that your contest is real — and real people win your prizes — and will help you get even more entries and exposure for your next contest.
When you announce the winner, let anyone who lost know they can still buy that item on your site and include the link and a discount code. P.S. this is also the perfect time to offer a one-day sale to help entice those who didn’t win to go ahead and buy from you anyway!
5. Use Email Marketing to Your Advantage
As your online sales have grown, you’ve naturally collected quite a few consumer email addresses. This can be a great thing to help boost your seasonal profit — if you use them wisely.
Email newsletters that are filled with great product photos of what you have to offer are a very persuasive way to snag some additional profit.
If you haven’t created a newsletter for your business before, start out with a user-friendly email program like MailChimp (it’s free if you have fewer than 1,000 monthly email sends) that will easily let you create a beautiful, visual way to remind your consumers about how great your products are.
Use fun, friendly, seasonal language in your newsletter to highlight categories and product descriptions. Do the same with your email subject lines to help you get a good amount of opens.
Here are a few examples you can use:
- Be the first to rock these hot summer looks
- Sizzling seasonal must-haves 👙
- Your pool party won’t be the same without this…
- 10 hot essentials you need this season
- Smokin’ hot summer must-haves ⛱️
- The remedy for summertime sadness
Depending on how many subscribers you have, you might decide to email them weekly, biweekly, or even just once a month to drive your online sales. This should help you stay forefront of your consumers’ minds during summer and beyond!
Final Thoughts
A summer slowdown can happen for a few reasons: kids are on break, people are on vacation, and everyone is out having fun instead of shopping online at home. Yes, a summer slowdown happens to the best of us, but there are things you can do to combat it, no matter your industry.
With just a few simple tweaks of your marketing message and a little creativity, you can make old products seem new again and show your consumers that your business is relevant year-round.
If you look at the big picture, you will see that seasonal marketing is actually very easy and just takes a few minor tweaks to ensure your products stay top of mind and seasonally relevant no matter the time of year.
What’s your best tip for boosting slow online sales during the summer?
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