As the business cycle turns

October and early November are busy times for myself and other Shopify consultants. Our busy cycles start as stores are prepping for their own cycle.

And some stores operate on completely different cycles. A swimwear customer has peaks in spring and summer.

Cycles happen, whether you like them or not.

What's important is to know your own business cycles and to prepare for them. The more experience you have, the more ingrained the cycles become and you just feel them starting.

But it still bears reminders about them and about preparing for them.

Very few stores are able to say with confidence that they were 100% prepared for any major cycle. Most exist in the continuum between caught unaware and rushing to wrap up in time.

The holiday cycle is about to start so preparation time is running short. But you can always start planning for the next cycles now. Maybe even save some ideas for a later cycle instead of rushing it out now.

At the very least, remember that you'll get another shot in the next cycle.

In Repeat Customer Insights the new Customer Cohort Report lets you see the cycles your own customers are going though.

It's cycles within cycles... and now I'm dizzy.

Eric Davis