At this point I am 30% less in sales vs same timeframe last year with November 40% lower and October 82% lower. Most months are more or less the same as last year but the ones that are lower are catasrophically lower. March, June, October, November were super underperformers. I did have a fandful of months that overperformed last year but only by like 5-15% each which doesnt make up for the 40-80% underperforming months I mentioned.
Views/ impressions are also like 3-5 X lower this year too. I wonder if this is because I switched from .com to .ca back in the early spring? It is weird that my sales while they are about 1/3 lower my views are 3-5X lower. The math doesnt add up on that one. You would think if my views were that much lower sales would also be similarly lower? Weird.
If I had to predict I will end this year at around 25-40% less in sales vs last year. I was aiming for only 15-20% less and that is after listing a lot of new products throughout the year (including entry level cheaper products), running sales throughout the year and jumping through CUSMA hoops. I knew I would be in the red but was hoping it wouldn't be on the higher end red. Was hoping for a softer landing with all of the work that I have been putting in.
Ill finish off with a handful of new products to garner more buyers and then list some stuff on etsy to hopefully pick up 10% more in sales maybe but after that the writing is on the wall that I will need a part time job. Even if things get better it will take a while and there is still the chance that CUSMA sinks and that would very likely zap away 60-70% of my sales vs a normal year like 2024. (instead of the likely 25-40% that im likely facing this year 2025).
Rough roads ahead for small businesses in North America, especially ecommerce small busniesses in Canada.
Hopefully with the supreme court striking down the tariffs, trump forced to focus on the midterms (that he will likely sorely get clobbered in!) and us having a calm and collected leader in Carney we will avoid losing CUSMA. So I am hopeful but trump and his gang of criminal circus clowns are hard to predict.
Mainly what I want is to find out where the chips are going to land and what I can expect as the "new normal" so that I can plan. I am in my mid 30's and at a stage where I am trying to make longterm life and career plans. This isnt a little sunday hobby for me and all of this chaos is very hard to plan for.
I very likely will pull the last handful of tricks up my sleeve to rake in and retain as many sales as possible but the rest is up to fate and ill try and pick up some sort of side income somehow to makeup for the losses.
Good luck to all and would love to hear how everyone else is doing and how you guys are planning!
