SALES TO ASTONISH 32 - APRIL 2025
This is late. It went through so many re-writes and other things took up more time than I had planned so apologies but here it is and I took some inspiration from a favourite Marvel title of mine….
What If?
I’m pleased to say that April showed an improvement over February and March and perhaps most importantly I began to see an influx of new buyers a couple of whom came back and bought a second time in the month which was awesome
However, as we get to a third of the way through 2025 I’m around 10% down on the same period of 2024 and April’s revenue is somewhat skewed by running a 25% off sale on Easter Day. Which by the end of the month got me thinking What If?
What If the successes of 2024 were about as good as it will ever get and how I have fared so far in 2025 is the new normal. What If there was anything I could do about that and in a moment of reflection What If I could wind the clock back to May 2020 would I have done anything any differently?
The answer to the last question is almost certainly yes. I would have done more pre-launch marketing, I would have tried to identify what would likely be the best selling titles so I could have launched with the website full or those items, I would have tried to do more on social media and so on and so on. I can’t turn back time (neither could Cher), but what I can do is try to learn some lessons of the past few years of trading and implement them over the coming months
But to track back to the first of the What If questions, as regular readers of the column will know I love a bit of data 😳😳🤣
Therefore know that comparatively year on year I am around 10% down on 2024 already this year and that’s before we head into the notoriously difficult summer months of trying to sell comics when people are away on holiday. I appreciate that I cannot do anything about wider economic factors such as rising utility bills, council tax, food and energy costs but thankfully I do sell in the main a second hand vintage product that is safe from Trump’s tariffs. However I have noticed that postage costs have increased, the cost of packaging materials have increased but at the same time I haven’t increased my postage costs or put prices up and whilst some may say this is bad for my business I lose enough sales from people baulking at paying £5 postage so I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. So frankly if 2024 was as good as it got and 2025 is the new norm then despite trying to get more stock listed each week to provide a good product offering the future for the Unreality Store looks a bit unrealistic.
But that’s not to say I’m out of ideas and the determination to change things for the better!!
Still musing on the What If questions I had noticed recently that I was appearing on the first page for a lot of Google related searches for comics. I’m almost certain I could do more SEO and the ‘free’ search traffic it generates but I did wonder whether a percentage of my traffic is people searching for new comics (those Wednesday Warriors looking for the latest releases) who visit the site and have a look around only to see I sell back issues. I’m not sure that there would be enough people out these specifically searching for old or back issue comics so in the event that I might pick up a few sales for people searching for new comics but ultimately picking up a couple of back issues I’ll leave things as they are for now.
April was the best month so far in 2025. I ran a sale on Easter Day and sent out an emailer to my subscribers announcing there was 25% off everything in store for the day. It generated around 30% of the total months income. However and most importantly after the sale I started to see both an upturn in daily visits to the website and also sales, I love a bit of momentum and I finished April on a high and ready for May where six years ago it all began!
See you in the back issues bins next month
