I have apparel retail website where I get orders in clusters. 5-6 orders in a day & nothing for 4-5 days. HELP

Question

For the past 3-4 months, I have been getting orders in clusters on my clothing website. There is no regular stream of orders. For e.g. for the past 3-4 days, I had no orders on the website and today I ended up getting 6 orders. This pattern has been repeating for quite some time and I do not know if this is due to some technical issue. I only advertise via Google Adwords. Rest of the website traffic is through organic search only. I havent made too many changes to the website either recently. Any insight to help me solve this mystery will be really appreciated.

Answer 1

Like other posters said, it sounds like the normal ebb & flow of business. Have you thought about exploring other advertising avenues?

A few free resources – check out the sources box for links:

1) Create a blog pertaining to your field

2) Use Yahoo! Local & Yahoo! Groups – Be sure to read the TOS for each one!

3) Write articles pertaining to your field and/or expertise.

4) Advertise on Craiglist

Also, consider signing up for an affiliate program. These programs enable you to advertise on other's sites (your affiliates) and once a sale is made to you, your affiliates & the program are paid a commission.

Associations may be a good avenue to explore. These organizations will address many of the thoughts, questions and concerns you'll inevitably have about the clothing industry as well as many you haven't anticipated yet. See the source box for some relevant links.

I listed a few handy sites & articles relating to marketing, promotion & advertising. Here are some book titles that are relevant:

* 301 Do-It-Yourself Marketing Ideas: From America's Most Innovative Small Companies by Sam Decker
* Off The Wall Marketing Ideas: Jumpstart Your Sales without Busting Your Budget by Nancy Michaels, Debbi J. Karpowicz
* Guerrilla Marketing for Free: Dozens of No-Cost Tactics to Promote Your Business and Energize Your Profits by Jay Conrad Levinson
* Entrepreneur Magazine's Ultimate Small Business Marketing Guide: Over 1500 Great Marketing Tricks That Will Drive Your Business Through the Roof by James Stephenson

Hope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!

Answer 2

normal for any type of business; esp web business. Bec u dont own a store front and therefore dont offer that much exposure. But u can ask ur web designer to add to ur metatags - its where u put some words your customers could possibly use to get to ur website. You can also join affiliates programs too.

Answer 3

I think it is normal. When I worked in restaurants or in retail stores business came in clusters too.