I am an online retailer of printed t-shirts. I started the business in
2004 and since it's launch (from the first day) completed at least one
sale a day. With all the online marketing we did (which wasn't too
much) we pulled out about five sales a day.

In 2006, quite dramatically, the sales dropped quite substantially and
now we barely get one order every three days. Traffic levels have
dropped slightly but they do not explain why sales have been so
dismal.

No reports I have read indicate that the apparel industry is slowing down.

I believe it could be due to the following things:

1. The market saturation of other online t-shirt retailers.
2. Saturation due to sites like Cafepress.

However, I have yet to determine a reason for this grave decrease in
sales as compared to the same time a year ago.

I am interested in knowing how I could find out this information.

There is nothing against your posting your website so that Researchers
can evaluate it and your products.  My first thought when reading your
question was if you were keeping abreast with the market.

good luck.

Hi there,

Since I am providing some sensitive information about sales figures I
would rather not provide specifics. Needless to say the actual content
and type of shirts is quite standard to what was sold before, among a
great variety of categories. So even though it is possible some
popular items may have lost demand the dramatic change is unlikely to
be topical in nature.

Thanks.

Think about this for a minute. You don't think it's the T-Shirt
market, so, it must be something that the other companies are doing
that you are not. You ask what it might be, but you won't show us your
site.

How are we supposed to answer? With all due rwspect, you are asking us
to take a guess.

The Researchers here don't guess when posting an answer, it's backed up with proof.

If you don't know much about the online apparel industry, there is
little point to you tryiing to provide an answer. Individual store
sales may be dwindling even if the whole market is increasing. As
well, there may be certain sites that are monopolizing the market
using a gimick or service that I seem to have missed.

That being said, the priority is determining a macro-economic view of
the online apparel industry to find out what changes have ocurred, and
why individual companies like mine find it very difficult to accrue
sales.

Cirrus,

Yes, I can understand; you have sort of painted yourself into a corner
by mention sales figures, especially if the website suggests something
else.

One alternative could be to ask the Answers Editors (click below) to
have this question removed and to start all over.  Sure, some of us
will remember, but the numbers won't be there any more and won't be on
the same page with the name of the website.

If you want to do this, but still are a little leary of the
competition seeing it, pick a "subject" that doesn't refer to the type
of product or suggest the problem.

Several questions have asked Researchers to review a marketing website
and evaluate it.  There are Researchers with expertise in this field.

Good luck.
Myoarin