POLL RESULTS: Can you survive the summer?

The results from our latest poll which asked “How much does summer make your sales dip?” are in.

We wanted to find out just how much the summer lull affects sales and it seems it’s not as bad as you might think. Some 44 per cent of the people that responded said that sales dipped by less than 10 per cent. The most popular reponse in the poll. A dip of between 11-20 per cent is experienced by 11per cent; while no-one, not one person, experiences a dip of between 20-30 per cent, which seems odd, but a decline of 31 per cent and above drew 33 per cent of the answers. Which is quite a lot.

So it seems that there is quite a varied experience out there during the summer and much of it, no doubt, depends on the location, type of shop and just how pro-active the staff are over the summer months. The good news is that none of the dealers that responded said “So much that I almost don’t bother opening”. However, 11 per cent of them said “See you at the end of August”. 

So, what have we learned? Probably that summer is difficult for everyone in varying degrees but surviving it may be down to attitude. And weather of course, can be a huge factor and no-one can do a damned thing about that. Keep equal amounts of brollies and sun cream in the stock room? Install a slush machine? See you at the end of August.