Hello, Recently my boss gave me the task of finding out whether or not our companies SEM trends have been concurrent with those of other businesses. I figured posting a thread would be the best way to get the answer without asking for to much information. Over 2009, We have seen an increase in clicks, but a severe decrease in orders and average order value year over year. Could you please let me know if your company is following the same trend. Once again, I do not need a lot of information a simple yes or no will suffice. Thank you very much in advance.
I think a lot of ecommerce companies are hurting right now. It probably depends greatly on your market though. My market seems fairly stable. I'm getting roughly the same conversion rates that I was just a couple of years ago when the economy was better.
Thank you for the response. I probably should have at least given everyone the market that my company is in. We are mainly a B2B medical cataloging company. With over 70,000 products. We do also sell products to consumers, but our main market is other businesses. Thanks again.
Well, I can't imagine why your company would be on the decline. I'm sure there would be roughly the same amount of people would need healthcare in comparison to a couple of years ago. However, I have read somewhere that the dieting industry took a small hit in the economy because products are so expensive there and that is generally one of the first things on the list that people would be willing to get rid of when they lose their job. If this is your market, then I could perhaps see why you might be hurting some. Otherwise, have you seen what new competitors are in your market? I had a website where I was the only business with a certain type of product. Then, all of a sudden I had a competitor come into the picture that undercut me slightly and advertised on the same sites. They cut my business into about half, but then went out of business recently and my sales have gone back up. Your business might be in the same situation as well, but my traffic declined slightly too when that occurred. My conversion rate was a little lower as well. You might just look around and see what your competitors are doing and seeing if someone really is trying to knock you out of the market.
Thanks Again, I will definitely look into what my competitors are doing. Our market is competitive enough as it is. So it very well might be someone bidding on our trademarks and undercutting us.