Thought it would be interesting to have a thread in which we share trends we have noticed as we track our ports.

It's hard to see trends if you have a small port.  But as my port has grown, I've seen consistent trends emerge and thought I'd share them to see if you spot the same trends in your port.  Some if it is common sense stuff... others, chalk them up to "interesting observations."

(Of course, there are anomalies like EL sales that can throw everything off, but the bigger your port and overall sales, the less wildly an EL or two will throw off your numbers.)

- Sunday is worst day of week for sales   -   I know, DUH!   I used to think it was a toss-up between Sat and Sun, but as my port has grown and overall sales reached a certain level, I now see it as a rule... Sun is typically about 20% lower than Sat... at least, for me.)

- Friday is worst weekday  -  For a while I thought Mondays were also slow, but with the previous two Mondays each reaching BDE levels, I now see Mon - Thurs as about equal in sales, and Fri about 25% lower than the weekday average.

- The weekend begins around noon ET on Friday  -  I've seen this each Friday for the last few months... Friday mornings are a bit weaker than other weekdays, then there's a pronounced falloff in activity after about noon (ET time in the eastern US).

- "Siesta time" each weekday from about 1 to 3 pm ET  -  I guess I'm really showing how worn down my F5 key is!  I think there's a definite fall-off in buying activity during the early afternoon hours.  North American workers don't really take siestas, so maybe it's just extended lunches?  But I routinely see things pick up in late afternoon and slowly taper off.

- Buying slows/stops around 8 pm ET.  I'll still see some sales at night, but I definitely see the faucet shutting off right around 8 pm.  This could be the west coast of the US calling it a day at 5 pm their time.

Do you see the same trends?  What else do you see?

My only questions is how much sales are coming from rest of the world?

That's another interesting point... about how much of your daily sales have happened by the time you wake up?  Of course, if you're in the US, this reflects sales in Europe, Africa and Asia.  For me, when I check my numbers at 7 am ET, about 30% of my daily sales have already happened.

Also, something I've seen as a general rule... whatever sales I have at 1:00 pm ET, I can double it and that's a good guess for where the day will end up.

Sunday is better than Saturday.

When my port was small, I generally saw higher Sundays than Saturdays, but my numbers were all over the map and thus less reliable to deliver meaningful insights.  As time went on and my numbers became more predictable, I saw a pattern emerge that Saturdays are better than Sundays as a rule.  But that's just me.

I agree with your trends in general, but like Dook, Saturdays are consistently worse than Sundays for me. 

I always guessed it's because late Sunday in North America is actually Monday in Asia and Europe, so I think my better Sunday sales are actually European Monday sales.

This would also explain why Fridays are so dismal.

Same here also

Quote from: lisafx on March 12, 2010, 16:36

I agree with your trends in general, but like Dook, Saturdays are consistently worse than Sundays for me.  

I always guessed it's because late Sunday in North America is actually Monday in Asia and Europe, so I think my better Sunday sales are actually European Monday sales.

This would also explain why Fridays are so dismal.

Ditto.

For forecasting/analysis purposes I lump Friday, Saturday and Sunday together to form the weekend.
It's fairly typical for Avg(Mon:Thu) = Sum(Fri:Sun).