There’s one thing that spells trouble for eBay and ecommerce sellers. And that’s sunny weather and the August Bank Holiday Weekend. It used to be the nadir of the ecommerce year. Hopefully that is less of a problem with the increasing use of mobiles for shopping but I still reckon the ecommerce seller prayer should call for rain.
How seasonal is your business? And how much does the weather affect it? It would be interesting to hear your views.
eBay is on the record in saying that dodgy weather in August could herald the start of the Christmas shopping spree.
Phuong Nguyen, director of eBay Advertising UK says: “If our Christmas Tracker shows one thing, it’s that there’s no longer a set gifting season in the months preceding Christmas. Consumers are shopping how and when they want to, and if bad weather turns shoppers’ attention to Christmas in the summer, they expect the freedom to start their purchase journey there and then.”
He’s referring to trends last year in the midst of Hurricane Bertha when Christmas searches spiked with an 82% surge in searches for ‘Christmas stocking’ on the 9/10 August 2014.
The weather looks mixed this week so we’ll see. And the August bank holiday may yet be a summer scorcher but an ecommerce wash out. But the good news is that it’s all uphill to Christmas after that.
If the August bank holiday is the low point, September, October and November should be peak shopping time. And remember it is only 136 days until Christmas.
Are you ready? Ho, ho, ho.
2 Responses
Its always winter somewhere , most of the planet has important celebrations other than Christmas for buying gifts ,and seasonal items, if your an internet retailer and you dont sell internationally its like shutting your shop six months of the year