Extremely slow the past 2 weeks...how about you?

Good... Not Great. We use live chat software on our site and we really see people price comparing lately, they come they leave they come they leave they come back and sometimes they order. We know we have the lowest price, we know MOST of our competitors do not offer free shipping, and we know we PUSH the 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Overall sales are up because of the quickly approaching holiday season and in the business world this means money, the later you wait the more money you spend so buying early saves money. On standard products sales are higher than last year but not by a huge amount. I think it's different selling business to business (b2b) rather than business to consumer. Our weekend sales are always low, usually just the startups and mom 'n pop shops. Overall it's still good so hang in there, everyone has a dry spell every now and then.

Thanks for the feedback - worst spell we've seen in 12 years online. No big worries though...it does happen.

Here are some points to entertain when it comes to retaining customers..
Do you send out any email promotions?
Do you offer any EXCLUSIVE discount codes in those emails?
Do you call or send a personal thank you card after an order is delivered?

Take product that you can mark 20% off of or something you can offer for free (that's even better, they love free stuff) Include this in your email with a promotion code, Deal of the Day, or Deal of the Month, week, etc. Get the word out, use twitter, facebook, myspace or a blog, and EMAIL IT to current customers. Tell them when they call in, we have a special on widgets this week, Two for one. Let them know what's going, what's hot, what's new, where and how they can save money.

Customers like the personal touch, our reps send out a catalog with their photo business card so the customer has a face to go with the voice and a direct extension to reach them. You'd be surprised how far the personal touch will go, typically the customer will contact that rep directly for other products instead of just calling and talking to anyone else. Rule #1 the Customer is always Right. Rule #2 If you don't take care of the customer someone else will, Rule #3 Go back to rules 1 & 2.

Here's an interesting article:
http://marketing.about.com/od/relationship...crmstrategy.htm

It's been unusually slow for us as well. Walmart marketplace?

Yes to all of the above.

I was just at a Google Adwords seminar in NYC, and everyone seemed to be struggling as of late.