Is August slowest month business-wise?

Just curious, my business is down quite a bit in the last month or so...

it is at my stores..... LOL

Sales seem to be regulated by the weather & time of the year.

I notice a drop off in nice weather seasons when people would spend less time indoors in front of their computer.

There are also those that are going back to school to, so they will be more thrifty during the nicer summer months in general... Unless RL you deal in computers or school/office supplies, then you get a surge.

Mine is way down too. I had incredible sales in June and July, so I'm taking the time to create some new things and coming up with some new promotions.

Agreed. While business is slow, now is the time to create like mad so that when things pick up again you have a good stock of new items to sell.

My business is slower than usual this month as well.

It's all the new pragmatists replacing the pioneers and looking for brand names instead of our 'cottage industry' products. (^_^)y

/me looks for an associate application for SLal Mart? (o.o)

I have comprehensive sales data covering four years.

Sales were down 52 % in Aug 2005 compared to July 2005
Sales were down 41 % in Aug 2006 compared to July 2006
Sales were down 22 % in Aug 2007 compared to July 2007
Sales are down 9 % in the first 3 weeks of Aug 2008 compared to the first 3 weeks of July 2008.

I had predicted a decline of 10% - 15% For Aug 08 and am happy that i've only seen a decline of 9% so far.

Historically my business has improved month on month from Sept to the end of the year in the past four years so I can reliably say that you should see an increase in sales/traffic come sept.

One of my best months will be October

71 more days till Halloween, folks!!!!

what thems said I'm not sure what you do for your business, but if you do clothing, or skins, or even prefabs, maybe put some together as a "fall/winter" line, hang in there, and then when the end of this month hits, put them all out there. Summer is rough for SL business, but it'll come back! (oh, and to prevent the conversation going the way of a similar thread on slex) Fall in relation to the Norther hemisphere, not southern

Expect another slump in December on normal sales. You maybe able to overcome that with holiday specific items and as Skell said, now is the time to create.

December has been my strongest month of the year for the past four years so dont take this comment for granted.

I sell prefabs by the way (as appossed to christmas trees or other seasonal items)

My "cottage industry" is just that...renting cottages. And business sucks hard vacuum lately.

This will be my third August in Second Life, and all three have been slow times for business and for land sales. People are on vacation or doing outdoor things, not spending time in Second Life, and students are still away from their ultra-high-speed connections at the university.

As for December, my recollection is that it's a good time for business. But a lot of that is probably holiday-related sales (gifts, holiday outfits, decorations, etc.) so it might not be a good time for businesses that don't have any holiday-related things to sell.

Way to go on the hard sales data Porky!

I have noticed a slight drop as well, I would also guess people are getting out in the sun this month while they still have a chance. I know I have.

Is 2008 the slowest year business-wise?

We've had a few slow weeks, but also some really good ones in July and August. Not sure if I really see a true pattern, though. Most of our customers are the more seasoned SLers, though, so might not be as flighty in the summer.

Ah who knows....

All these downfalls are also increased by the proliferation of that sub-culture of freebies and free-gifts

Eh. I dunno how much that really impacts the higher end markets. I know that I personally got pretty discontent with the quality of freebies in a very short period of time after joining. Whatever impact it has I think is minor, and temporary.

I'm not talking about the huge freebies dungeons but the freebies that are given by almost all shops (mine included)

If you're moving alot of those, you could consider the possibility that there's a hidden ROI - Exposure. Avatars walking around the grid modeling your stuff for free is kindof a good thing. If you feel it is cutting too deep into your potential revenues you could put a modest, attractive price on it to offset that.

I think in general, people who are seeing a fair amount of traffic, but not seeing actual sales, should probably consider a simple revenue management strategy - In the hotel business we generally lower room rates dramatically during seasonal down time, mid week, etc. It costs about $30 to clean a room, so if we sell it for $35 we've made $5, as opposed to the cost of an empty room - negative impact on RevPAR. (We don't actually go that low, but to illustrate the point)

Most SL business could possibly benefit in the long term by lowering prices during the non-peak seasons. If your product is sitting on the sales floor and not moving, you've really got nothing to lose.

Seeing as how i have onl been in business all of say three months- I have nothing to compare it to- but... I have succumbed as well and am lowering prices Thing that bothers me is- I have not blinked at paying $600 L's for agown- and my stuff is not shabby - it's pretty decent really- so why sales are nonexistent at $400 to $500 L's is beyond me- realistically we are talking less than 3.00 US - much less- grant u I am working on exposure and getting my name out there- but damn- good thing it's just plain fun

I think the distinction here lies Ama in that most places that you drop 600L for something are quite well known with great reputatiions etc. They are at the point where their product, reputation and range are so good you are more inclinded to buy. I will easily drop 1000L for a dressat blaze... becuase the items are amazingly detailed (and i mean amazingly), they have a great reputation and are well known.... Ohhh and Blaze himself is a wonderfully generous man

Wasn't the extreme Atlantic hurricane season (the one with Hurricane Katrina) mainly to blame for the massive drop in sales that year? And isn't August, in general, the most active month for hurricanes?

And while we are on topic about shortages of sales, I can see that people do take advantage of the very nice weather during the summer months. Which explains why there is not much in terms of sales during the months of July and August. And that said, next summer I should take advantage of that opportunity and create some buildings that I will probably sell in SL come Fall 2009.

In fact, next week on SL, I will see if I can attend a SL building class somewhere. I do have a week off from work next week, so I can take advantage of that time while I have it. And maybe, I can start selling the houses sometime in the fall.

BTW, it does make sense that December is a very active month for SL sales (for "obvious reasons"; but after that, isn't January the start of the "winter doldrums" for shopping (not just in SL, but in RL) which lasts through later in March?