Bank Holidays eh? I just can't figure them out.
OK I expect traffic to be lower than normal due to the fact that people are off work and quite probably out and about enjoying themselves or even on holiday. And I'm right, traffic was about 25% down on a usual weekend.
But what I really can't fathom out is how much conversion rates plummeted too. As a very general rule of thumb conversion rates stay between certain percentage brackets across a week, or a weekend. Yes there can be peaks and troughs but when you've been doing this as long as I have you come to expect some averages.
So when my conversion rates dropped by over 50% this bank holiday weekend it was quite a surprise (but not the nice kind). So why is this? Do more people go online to browse (and not buy) at bank holidays? If so why? Are they going online to browse then nipping down to the retail park to purchase? OK but what about products that you can't buy in the shops? Like loans, credit cards etc.
Does anybody have any opinions on why this happens? Any experiences to share? The good news is that today has been busier than ever and conversions are right back to normal. Go figure!
What I'm listening to right now: Koffee Brown - "Mars Venus"
7 Responses to Bank Holidays
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Very interesting, on my affiliate side I actually had very good conversions following a poor weak and a half. The advertising side of things turned out nicely too.
Personally I think the whole bank holiday thing is really window shopping, especially as the sun has been out a bit. Peoples routines are broken so the daydreaming starts…
Can we afford that home extension/car/holiday? Do we need a new blender/HDTV???
Then back to the normal grind….
I’ve found that holiday weekends do slow down a bit for clicks and sales. I thought it was mostly due to people going outside and enjoying the weekend rather than being in front of a computer.
I’d have to agree with what Lyndon said about the whole surfing/daydreaming of their next big purchase (if your visitor stats aren’t down). I think more people aren’t on a mission to buy when they’re on holiday – more likely to browse because they have time.
I get kind of the opposite to that in a way – the number of page views halves, but the conversion rate goes up by about 1/3!
I can only assume that some of the weekday traffic is people surfing at work that don’t actually intend on buying in this case – perhaps window shopping.
I’m unsure as to why it would drop significantly though in your case. We’re in different sectors though so perhaps it just down to that.
Odd that people are experiencing different things over the bank holiday. Ian, I’m active in *lots* of sectors and without fail they all bombed over the bank holiday. Weird!
I’m only really active in tech sectors at the moment – and it seems Tuesday is the best day each week for around 90% of the time. I’ve got no idea why that is either, but my traffic is always up around 3-5% more than other weekdays.
It’s sad, but I hate Bank Holidays. My restaurant sales are always down (because they are located near offices) plus my affiliate sales are down.