When Is The Best Time To Sell WordPress Themes?

Like any other product, the demand for WordPress themes does have seasonality. In our observation, theme sales do well from January to March then slows down from April to May. Summer months are usually slow while sales pick up in the fall with a dip around Christmas time.

Seasonality in any product or service is determined mainly by socio-cultural factors in the marketplace. In most markets around the world, economic activity is dependent on holidays or the absence or presence of school. There is also the aspect of climate, where people tend to stay indoors more during the cold months.

In the case of theme sales, it can be said that this phenomenon is mainly driven by the level of activity a person has during a season. Great sales during the first quarter of the year may be attributed to more free time for buyers to stay online as the kids are still in school and most folks prefer to stay indoors during winter. This means people have more time to tinker with their websites during this time and spotting opportunities for improvement or change could mean upgrading to a newer WordPress theme or buying and installing a new plugin. The spring slowdown correlates to the physical activities associated with this season: spring cleaning, gardening, putting away winter stuff, etc. Sometimes the lure of the outdoors is greater than staying inside the house, what with the weather becoming more pleasant and warmer. When summer kicks in and as the kids are out of school, that’s when all the vacations, trips and out of town activities happen. People tend to relax a bit more and work on websites take a back burner during this time. As kids go back to school in the fall, sales gradually picks up as people find more time to focus on work before the next big holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, roll in. Spending patterns during Thanksgiving and Christmas usually turn towards gifts, gadgets, and other stuff to buy online unless WordPress authors take their cue from the season and create enticing special prices for WordPress theme packages or bundles.

Knowing these patterns, how do you align development and marketing activities for your themes? It would be wise to have your development activities lie heavily during the spring and summer months. That way, your resources do not have to compete with the demands of development and marketing at the same time. The best time to strengthen core technology, respond to emerging design trends, is during these lean months. As fall comes, resources can be shifted to marketing and after sales support as sales starts picking up. This is the right time to introduce new products and manage customer satisfaction as they adapt to your new themes.

Recognizing these consumer patterns may help you plan your annual business cycle as you make those critical decisions to save time, effort and money in your WordPress business.

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