How is everyone's traffic from August into September?

Just was wondering the averages out there. I own a commercial sim, my traffic just dropped into oblivion since September.

During August it was about half my previous averages. I know this is one of the worst months for retail, period. But September dropped me to about 1/4 my normal capacity. I was just wondering if anyone else noticed this.

I mean back to school is a finantial shock for most of us, both students as well as the parents. So I just am wondering if it is just the norm or if I did something really offensive, lol.

Glad it wasn't just me. I was starting to worry. My August sales were off by 50%, I blame the Olympics. September is looking a bit better so far, but not up to what it was over the summer. My September 07 was a slow month as well. October is my big month for some reason. I do about 35% higher business than my average.

Bizarre is all I'll say. Some days traffic doesn't work at all, as in it doesn't change for three days or so.

Some days it's in the how low will it go stage and other days it's "Whoa where did that come from".

I am not really bothered by traffic. That is just a number.

What counts for me is sales.

Many people pop to my island knowing in advance what they want (like from SLExchange or becuause a friend has it and they want one too) . Therefore they don't necessarily stay very long - but they do buy!

It is easy to inflate traffic figures - but unless your sales are going up too, what is the point, really?

Anyway, that is just me being me, hehe

i have low-lag visitor counters on my commerical plots and most malls that i'm in. August traffic figures dropped by roughly 20+% across the board...which reflected in a 25% drop in sales overall. Mall sales dropped off the radar screen, whilst Main Shops were down by 20%.
The first week in September seems to be marginally better than August but not approaching anywhere near the levels of pre-August. I think it might be October when things pick up properly.

As of April 08 sales in SL generally declined because ( IMO ) of the nature of the client, transaction failures, log in failures bugs etc etc etc
Then there was a lift around June ish...things seemed to be returning to steady again..
Although it was still up & down..used to be very steady from one day to the next week month etc...but over a monthly period it was still steady.
Then August and it went down again.
So in answer to your question....its not just you.. I noticed at SL Index 2 things
The price which has been holding steady at 264 for 7 or 8 mths went down to 263 and the volume was very down.
I dont go there every day but It does often give a reflection of whats going on grid wise and on 2 occasions when I visited there was 2 million in the 263 brackets..that was the highest volume compared to an average previous amounts of approx 20 million in the highest selling bracket.
So I think its fair to say SL has been hit hard with lack of sales. That said...traffic logged in is still holding around 60,000 at its peak so not sure what all that means.
People logging in but not spending?
Or people just not logging in?

Of course what % of ppl logged in are peoples traffic bots and camping bots is anyones guess..still if the average logged in is 60K and that figure didnt change then it suggests people are logging in still but simply being careful with their money.

The credit crunch has hit the UK now following on from the US 7 mths on. It all plays a part

Hope that helps ?

LB

Traffic has started to recover in my neck of the woods (aside from the Saturday night fireworks, of course), but sales have been way way down. They're in the "can we even keep this going?" range right now, and more than a little worisome.

Oh I know that traffic is not a direct representation, but it is a good barometer of a few things. It is odd because I started more advertising around this same time. And traffic did a lil boom for a few days. I just look at my traffic for the week really. Day to day is unpredictable, it can go up and down overnight. But the larger curve is definately useful to figure out a thing or two about who is visiting.

So basically I should just open my Halloween and Christmas shops now, lol. Because that will be the next spending boom on the grid~ Kidding, sort of

My sales are still nearly non-existent. I'm starting to get pretty nervous about the whole thing, and contemplating renting out one of my sims.

My sales have consistantly increased month over month for the last year....but i also promote the heck out of my store consistantly. Aug was great and sept is so far even better. I don't find that on a month by month basis there is much that effects sales overall except how much i promote or not.

Do what you need to do but you need to do but keep your eye on ideas. I think you may benefit from not having so many separate parcels at your mall.

I'm going to spank your arse Bailey! When I'm not half so busy of course