Every year I go through the same depression.  From the week after Thanksgiving to Christmas week, our sales drop in half.  Our company is mostly a B2B operations.  We are mainly electrical distributors selling wire management products.  We also sell some B2C products to manage home theater installations such as Flat Screen TV wall mounts, and other cable products.  Recently, we’ve added HDMI cables to the mix because so many of our customers demanded them.  So far, we’re doing really well.  This year, our sales are over $13MM and our growth was close to 28%.  So you would think I would be happy this time of year — Wrong.

Being mostly B2B, many of our best customers are on vacation during the last two weeks of the year.  Schools are very important for us and they are always closed.  This year, a lot of manufacturers decided to close for a month starting last week to slow down production and reduce their expenses.  And the weather is not cooperating either.  I can always tell when there is a snowstorm in the Northeast because of our sales.  It seams as if many organizations simply shut down when the first flake of snow hits.

I guess if I had full faith in the analytics, I wouldn’t be worried at all.  After all, if I look at previous years’ stats, I see that this year is not unusual at all.  Our traffic always drops this time of year.  Furthermore, if I look at last year, our sales for Christmas week are actually up this year by 14%. 

But given all the doom and gloom in the media, I can’t help but wonder about next year.  Will all our customers return next year?  If they do, will the average order size stay the same?  Will our conversion rates hold?  Let’s all hope so.  My sincerest hope is that 2009 will be a good year.  I hope our economy turns around and employment rises; but most of all, I hope that all of you reading this have a great year and you prosper in everything you do.  Best wishes for the new year.