SALES TO ASTONISH #26 - OCTOBER 2024
I remember reading a story a while back about a book shop near to a station from which people commuted into London. I’ve no idea how well established the book shop was and what their regular trade was like but one day (possibly as a result of a general down turn in sales) they put a Tweet out that they had sold one book during the entire days trading. This tweet got traction. It was picked up by The Metro who ran a piece on the book shop and a follow up where the owner of the shop indicated the Tweet raised awareness amongst the local commuter community, visitors (and presumably sales) increased as a result of the Tweet and subsequent media exposure. I’ve no idea if this coverage kickstarted an upturn in fortunes for the book shop, or whether it’s still in business, but I hope it is.
The reason I remembered this is that the first half of October was horrific. Easily the quietest part of the year so far and I’ve no idea why.
Traditionally October is a solid month for me as people tend to start planning a bit for Christmas and getting a few presents banked. The start to October ‘24 was anything but solid.
Perhaps it was down to the fact that the new stock I dropped into store wasn’t of interest to people who buy regularly but then I would be overlooking new visitors to the website and what they collect.
Perhaps it was due to eBay dropping fees for private sellers and as a result there was even more choice and availability there.
Or perhaps it was the anticipation of a first Labour budget in years and the hope that everyone might have a few more quid in their pockets as a result of it.
I’ll never know. And to circle back to the story about the book store, I put a tweet out (and an Instagram post) asking if any other online retailers had experienced a slow down in sales but neither gained any traction or much of a response so I’m still in the dark. 😂
Which leads me on to the one of the continued challenges of running a small business solo.
I worked for two large companies for 17 years developing and selling residential and commercial property in London before starting The Unreality Store. It’s fair to say that I learnt a number of skills outside of the sales role I was employed in, many of which stood me in good stead when I started out on my own. However when you are a sole operator you are responsible for everything relating to your business. Gone are the days of a Marketing or Customer Service Department and one of fundamental challenges to a sole operator is how to utilise the time you have most effectively. I could break the essential functions of the Unreality Store down into buying, selling and sending out comics and other items. That however does simplify at times what can be quite a complex process and does not account for all of the other peripheral tasks associated with a small business.
Furthermore there’s a natural default setting with a small business to concentrate on the processes that will generate cash flow and pay the bills to the detriment of trying to improve marketing, update the website, explore other sales opportunities and so on. I would love to spend more time on the enhancing the functionality of the website, blogging or going back and resurrecting the YouTube videos I was doing but at present time does not permit it. This month more than ever this year has been spent trying to get product uploaded in the hope the item or items will connect with someone browsing the store and result in a sale.
Not only was revenue down in October but all the other metrics that I look at such as website visitors, average order value, repeat buyers and so on, were down in comparison to the first nine months of the year. It would be unrealistic to think that I can expect to experience month on month growth ad infinitum but October’s metrics stick out like a sore thumb.
The end of the month saw the opportunity to generate some much needed revenue with a comic con double header at Newmarket & Market Harborough. The less said about the disaster that was Newmarket the better. Although post-con I did agree a deal on a low grade copy of Amazing Spider-Man #300 & mid grade copy of #301 for a combined price of £100. Market Harborough was better and I sold a wide range of items. One thing I have noticed at conventions is when I am selling sets I need to label up how many issues are in the set as I feel that people are sometimes reluctant to ask how many comics are included in the asking price.
The last day of October fell on a Thursday which meant that I had the usual new releases hit the store along with the annual Halloween 50% off sale on horror comics. I sold a few bits and pieces in the sale but the highlight of the day was the sale of around a dozen issues of Marvel Transformers from late in the run including the final issue. Whilst I enjoyed the cartoon I was never a huge Transformers fan and never read the Marvel issues. I was surprised at some of the prices the later issue command and how few were readily available for sale on eBay. The issues were literally snapped up as soon as they hit the website and I don’t doubt that I could have sold them over again a number of times.
October very much felt like a month where nothing I tried really gained much traction. Nevertheless if it was just a blip and things get back on a more even keel in November and December I’m happy to take one bad month out of twelve.
Who wouldn’t????
