A day or two of slow sales is to be expected here-and-there, but when you hit day #7 of slow you likely find yourself starting to panic or go stir-crazy.

I previously wrote a blog post called 50 Reasons Nothing is Selling That Aren’t Your Fault and all of those reasons are true across all industries. Sometimes it is slow and there really isn’t much you can do other than run a promotion or invest in advertising. The way we see it, those slow times are usually a blessing-in-disguise because it gives us a chance to do all the little things we have been forced to put on the backburner do to being too busy. So, if you find yourself losing your mind due to lack of sales, here’s how to occupy your time and improve your business:

Take inventory! Make sure what you have on your shelves is also listed, and make sure what you have listed is on your shelves! Over time your inventory will be on your shelf but disappear off your site because someone orders it then cancels the order / returns it / website glitch / whatever, and you end up with inventory sitting with no way of ever selling! Counting your inventory will most likely produce “free inventory” that you had no idea was no longer active on your site! 

Equally, mis-ships, damages, etc can create errors in inventory that is currently listed, so your site might say you have a quantity of 4 when you actually only have 2 sitting on the shelf. Thankfully you can adjust your inventory quantities and not have to deal with refunding a disappointed customer because you can’t locate the items.

Performing an inventory audit will also help you catch errors, such as incorrect shelf locations. And all of these corrections greatly help you long term!

Even if you use scan guns, quickbooks and other inventory management programs you should still be doing a full physical count at least twice per year.

Clean! Good Lord, I despise cleaning but I always feel so good when everything looks fresh. As online sellers we often end up with piles and stacks because we are trying to handle a billion things at one time. Knocking out that clutter not only makes you feel good but also helps you get a little more organized.

Motivate & Decorate. I have written about this numerous times because making some simple decor changes to your office can seriously improve your level of motivation, kind of like buying a new car or moving into a new home. Be sure to read my post How to Pimp Your Office. Grab some motivational decor to refresh your attitude. Here's a couple of my personal favs:

I have this piece in my living room, only $9 on Amazon:

Here it is on my shelf - so cute!

Redo Old Listings - Every online seller has listings that have gone stale. Most of us have 0 motivation to redo or refresh them but you may be surprised that when you redo the listing it might sell right away because people who have been watching it forever are clearly interested but something is holding them back. The updates to the listing can be the motivation they need. Personally, I prefer to create a completely fresh listing with fresh photos, new description, new price. Often I will find minor errors (wrong category, crappy photo, typo in description) in the original listing that explains why it hasn’t sold and as soon as it’s redone a happy buyer jumps on it.

Promote - If you have social media for your company (or a mailing list) and you find yourself not having enough time to communicate with people, spend some time updating potential buyers on what you just listed or what is coming soon

Look hard at analytics - Most site have some form of data that you can review that will show you traffic to your site / listings as well as other key factors. Knowing your data inside and out is imperative for being successful. When you know WHO and WHERE your buyers are you can determine WHAT to invest in and WHEN and WHERE to list it.

If you notice a sudden plummet in traffic I can almost assure you that SOMETHING went wrong. The “something” could be one (or more) of the 50 Reasons Nothing is Selling That Aren’t Your Fault however it could also be something you did or something you have control over.  Next Read:  Reasons Nothing is Selling that You CAN Fix