Seasonal Buying Trends and Patterns



Posted: Thursday, March 30, 2006

by
Firelight Web Studio

Every business has seasonal trends in customer purchases – peaks and valleys in sales or interest. They vary from product to product, but there are some general trends that I have noticed in my various business lines:

October through December is the Christmas Shopping Season. Certain things do very well then, others bomb. Non-gift items will not do well during this time, but everything which can remotely be considered a gift will sell better at this time than almost any other time of year. Business startups are hard to sell during the Christmas season when people are more focused on buying than on investing.

January to March are Lean Months. People are recovering from the shopping frenzy, and there are few things that do well during this time. You'll find though that home business items will do well during this time as people begin to make new year's resolutions, and financial goals are set (and they look around for a way to make more money). Home organization items, debt relief, weight loss, and self-improvement items also do ok during this slump time. It is also when people start looking for travel information for vacation planning for the following summer. Valentines Day presents some gift marketing opportunities.

March through May will get large sales from people spending their income tax returns. Computers, vacations, food storage, cars, home improvement items, and other large once a year purchase often happen at this time. Easter also presents its own season, and items which are related to spring, gift giving, or the holiday will experience a surge. In general, the sales market tends to stabilize and begin a slow growth to the next Christmas season.

June through August marks the summer selling season. Certain items do really well during this time, others don't. Computers sell well as people try to occupy students or prepare them for the next school year. Recreational items sell well during the first half, anything related to returning to school during the second half.

September is a transition month. Some businesses really gear up during this time, others face a seasonal slump because people are often very focused in getting readjusted to the new schoolyear or planning for the Christmas season.

The trends for the products you sell may show some of these trends, or not. It will take you a year or two to figure out what the full effects are, even though you can make some generalizations based on this information.

Written by Laura Wheeler, Mom to Eight, and owner of Firelight Web Studio - http://www.firelightwebstudio.com/ . Laura is an expert in small business startup, frugal website development, and cost effective SEO and marketing. She has published 11 books, and has been published in 3 books which were edited by other authors. Her web design firm does business differently - with policies and procedures designed from the ground up to benefit small business owners and first time website owners.
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