Demand for groups of goods by season. Planning sales of seasonal goods, taking into account changing economic conditions. How are warranty periods calculated for seasonal products?

25.04.2021

Seasonal items- these are goods intended for use in a certain season of the year: spring, autumn, summer or winter. There is no special list of seasonal goods. In accordance with the Rules for the sale of certain types of goods, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of January 19, 1998 N 55, clothing, fur products, footwear and other goods used in certain climatic conditions are classified as seasonal goods.

How are warranty periods calculated for seasonal products?

For the specified goods warranty periods are calculated from the date of the corresponding season, determined by the subjects Russian Federation based on the climatic conditions of the location of consumers.

So, for the calculation of warranty periods and service life seasonal goods on the territory of the city of Moscow, the following dates for the onset of seasons are established:

winter season - from November 1;
spring season– from March 1;
summer season - from May 1;
autumn season - from September 1.

(Decree of the Government of Moscow dated July 16, 2013 N 466-PP "On establishing the timing of the onset of seasons for calculating the warranty periods and service life of seasonal goods in the city of Moscow")

For example, if a down jacket was purchased at a spring sale, then the warranty period will begin to be calculated not from the date of purchase, but from November 1.

The warranty period is set by the manufacturer of the product. If the guarantee is not established by the manufacturer, then the seller (trading organization or individual entrepreneur) can give a guarantee. Also, the seller can give an additional guarantee for the goods. The seller has no right to reduce the warranty period given by the manufacturer.

Features of replacement or return of seasonal goods

If during the warranty period a defect of the goods is discovered that was not specified during the sale, the consumer has the right to demand either a refund for defective goods, or a commensurate reduction in its value, or its replacement with a similar product or a product of a different brand, model with a corresponding recalculation of the price, or the consumer may agree to the free elimination of the identified defect (repair).

Money for low-quality goods must be returned by the seller within 10 days. The exchange request must be completed within 7 days, and if necessary, additional quality control or examination, - within 20 days. The term for the repair of goods is established by the contract, but cannot exceed 45 days.

The consumer has the right to contact the seller (manufacturer) about the quality of the goods and after the expiration of the warranty period, if it is less than 2 years and the defects of the goods are discovered after its expiration, but within 2 years. In this case, the consumer has the same scope of rights. The only condition stipulated by law: the consumer must provide evidence that the defects of the goods arose before the purchase or for reasons that arose before that moment.

That is, if a defect is detected after the warranty period has expired, the consumer has the right, within 2 years from the date of conclusion of the contract, to contact the seller, for example, for an exchange of goods, providing him with evidence that the causes of the defect arose before the purchase (manufacturing defect).

If the seller gave false information about the consumer properties of the goods, which does not allow right choice, then in this case the consumer has the right to terminate the sales contract within a reasonable time and return the goods to the seller. However, it is necessary to have evidence of the provision of false information.

If a seasonal product is of good quality, but does not fit (in shape, color, size, style, color), then it can be replaced with a similar product within 14 days. In this case, the period is calculated from the date of purchase, and not the onset of the corresponding season. This is also possible provided that the thing (clothes, furs, shoes, etc.) has not been used, its presentation, consumer properties, labels, etc. have been preserved. If there is nothing to exchange the thing for on the day of the request, the seller must return the money within 3 days.

However, it must be taken into account that the Government of the Russian Federation approved the List of goods that cannot be exchanged or returned due to the above circumstances. On the this moment the list is not food products of good quality, not subject to return or exchange for a similar product of a different size, shape, size, style, color or configuration, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 19.01.1998 N 55.

What is "locust strategy" and "range adjustment"? How does the seasonal factor affect retail sales and how to maximize revenue during this period? Find answers to these questions in our next article.

Seasonal factor in trading

All companies have different business strategies, but it is not uncommon for stores when sales are affected by a seasonal factor.

At different times of the year, demand for certain products drops to zero, and then novice entrepreneurs start to get nervous, but experienced retailers are no longer surprised by this seasonal factor in trading.

Some stores rely specifically on the high season: for example, a fireworks company, just a few weeks before and after the new year, can make revenue comparable to the year of operation of the trade enterprise.

At the peak of consumer activity of seasonal goods, businessmen receive "surplus profits". Other stores are trying to sell goods in accordance with the season or switch to other activities.

A decrease in demand for goods under the influence of seasonal factors is noted by almost 90% of stores in various directions.

“Seasonality” in marketing refers to an economic process that is directly related to the change of seasons, as well as holidays, weather factors, shopping habits and consumer stereotypes.

Marketers distinguish three main types of "seasonality":

"hard" seasonality - is directly related to certain events, events, dates, and after their onset, the product loses its relevance.
For example, this is the Easter holiday, when the population buys Easter cakes and chicken eggs in large quantities, or Valentine's Day, when valentines are popular, Stuffed Toys, image of hearts, etc.;
"moderate" seasonality - does not cause significant damage to the business, since the decline in demand within the framework of such seasonality is no more than 20%, and the enterprise will remain "afloat".
But in any case, it is correct to take into account moderate seasonality in the annual accounting planning of the store;
“Bright” seasonality is the most common type of seasonality among stores. The decline in demand in such a "bright" seasonality can be up to 40%.
In this case, it is necessary to take measures to increase sales in the off-season, so that the store remains afloat and does not go bankrupt.

During the season, it is important to serve customers quickly and without errors, the program for automating the work of the Business.Ru store will help you with this. Thanks to it, you will be able to sell both in stock and arrange goods on order. Automatically calculate sales prices, set individual discounts and markups for products.

How to manage sales in a seasonal business. Video

Sale of seasonal goods: how to support sales in the off-season

We diversify activities

One of the most effective ways to support sales of goods in the off-season is to reorient business, markets, expand the range of products in order to obtain economic benefits.

In order to survive in the harsh conditions of the economic crisis, a trade enterprise today needs to sell goods in several different directions, in other words, the business needs to be diversified.

But in order to make sense of business diversification, the entrepreneur initial stage must assess all risks, set clear goals and determine the resources that are planned to be attracted. A good example of diversification are shops that sell Christmas trees in winter, seedlings in spring, and flowers in summer.

Keep in mind that seasonal items may lose demand. This risk is especially true for food products that will expire if they are not purchased on time.

Notify customers about the seasonal sale through the built-in email client. This service is available in the Business.Ru store automation program. The system will prompt the results of the mailing - the number of sent letters, the percentage of delivered and read.

Launching new items for sale

If you are facing a problem seasonal recession demand for products sold in your store, it is not a bad option to take care of the launch of new products or unusual seasonal offers in advance.

July and January are considered the best months for this - they are the most "dead" in the winter and summer seasons, there are no special events and events, which means that your new bright product or product will attract more attention from buyers.

It is during these months that you can try to interest buyers with discounts or gifts, drawing their attention to the fact that the sale of a unique new product begins, accompanied by pleasant bonuses. By “promoting” new items in this way, it will even be possible to overestimate their prices a little.

We hold sales

It is also widespread among businesses retail method of selling goods during the off-season. Many retailers believe that it is better to sell all goods that are “dead weight” in warehouses during the off-season, put them into circulation even at a slightly lower price.

Bright signs: "Sales of seasonal goods!" will attract the attention of buyers and it will be possible to sell snow shovels in a non-food store in the summer, and swimwear in a clothing store at attractive prices in the winter.

Adjusting the assortment of goods

Another rather profitable way to stimulate demand for goods in the off-season is to adjust the assortment. To do this, the company must "adjust" its range of goods for each season.

For example, for an enterprise Catering this is the introduction of "warming" drinks and dishes in the winter, or vice versa, the sale of cooling drinks, okroshka and jelly in the hot winter months.

That is, a trade enterprise should not focus on selling "illiquid" goods during the off-season, it is necessary to devote all its efforts to the sale of "trading" products. It is due to its sale in the off-season that the store will be able to stay afloat.

Get your sleigh ready for the summer. This folk wisdom, well known to everyone since childhood, acquires special connotation for business owners. It is believed that the seasonal lull is natural and inevitable.

Each product has its own season

It is difficult to name a business that would not be influenced by the time of year on production and sales. The factors that shape this kind of market trends are numerous: ranging from trivial weather conditions to religious fasts.

The sale of consumer goods in summer is less active due to vacations and trips to the country.

Entrepreneurs planning their business in seasonal conditions, are obliged to pay attention to trifles, and even for obvious trends, accuracy in calculations sometimes plays a key role.

Let's start with the "pleasant" products that are gaining special popularity in the summer:

Ice cream- the undisputed favorite among delicacies in the summer, as well as a textbook example of seasonality. According to Romir, 77% of Russians admit that they like to eat ice cream in the heat.
Russian kvass It is also extremely seasonal. In January, less than 4% of households bought this drink at least once. However, already in May the share of such families increased to 22%, and in June it was already 28%. It is noteworthy that Muscovites consume kvass more often than residents of other large cities: 42 and 7.36%, respectively. In general, the trend is that the larger the city, the more popular this soft drink is in it. Most of all, during picnics, people aged 35-44 drink kvass.
Along with kvass, the demand for bottled water- 47% of households bought it in June against 32% in January.
Summer sales skyrocket beer. In June - July they increase by 15%. At the same time, people are beginning to give preference to drinking beer outdoors, while in winter they consume it mainly indoors.
At the same time, the summer season is traditionally characterized by a decline in sales. chocolate products. So, with the onset of warm weather, the volume of consumption of bars decreases - in June, the share of buyers of this product amounted to 22.5% against 25% in May.
And the ranks of lovers chocolates in boxes thinned from 10% in May to 8% in June.
In the heat, there is a decrease in consumption coffee. For example, in Moscow in July-August, the volume of home consumption of this drink decreased by 31% compared with May-June. The same figure for last year was 11%. A similar situation was observed in St. Petersburg, where coffee sales fell by 39% and 21%.
Sales decline in summer dairy products(although sales of milk-based refreshments with added juice are on the rise).
At the same time, prices are falling eggs.
Many of us use hygienic lipstick, sales volumes of which are also subject to seasonality. In January, in large Russian cities, 3% of households buy this lip product, in May - about 2%, and in December - almost 5%.
Igor Berezin, member of the board of directors of the Romir holding and president of the Marketers Guild, added to this list tires, which are sold exclusively in April - May and October - November, and it is almost impossible to force anyone to buy them in August.
He also points out that sales meat population during Lent fall by 10-12%.
Guild President bakers and confectioners Marina Lyutikova said that January and February are the off season for her market segment. Revival comes only in March. peak sales bakery products falls in May, when people leave to live in the country.

Summer recession for business

Despite the fact that seasonality for each of the markets its own, general trends can be identified. The sale of consumer goods in the summer is less active, including due to vacations and trips to the country, warns Igor Berezin.

Indeed, if we look at the statistics of the Romir holding, we will see that the expenses of Russians in June-July decreased both in absolute terms and in relative terms. In June, the cost of purchasing food and consumer goods decreased by 9.5% compared to May, and in July - by 7.5% compared to June.

It should be remembered that excessive heat in summer makes seasonal trends more pronounced. It allows you to trace the market trends and habits of buyers, which have become aggravated in extreme conditions. There is no consumer revolution to speak of, and the data is easy to use when planning sales adjusted for cooler weather.

At present, in a tough competitive market, each entrepreneur relies only on his own resources and capabilities. Hoping to earn maximum profit, many businessmen rely on seasonal sales. And this is quite justified, because, as marketing statistics show, sales volume is directly related to a short-term rise or fall in consumer activity. This fluctuation in consumer interest is commonly referred to as seasonality.

Seasonality is a periodic change in the demand for a product, depending on certain factors, usually the time of year. However, seasonality is not always tied to any single factor. The presence of seasonality can be said only in the case when the maximum peak and decline in the sale of the product is observed for 2-3 years in a row, and the difference in the cost of the product at the peak and decline in sales is 30-40%. Usually, the cycle of seasonality is 12 months, although significant demand fluctuations can occur both within one week and one day. However, such fluctuations in consumer demand are not usually considered seasonal, since no additional measures are required to equalize demand. It is enough for an entrepreneur to understand these features of the market and take them into account in business planning.

Types of seasonality

As a rule, there are two types of seasonality:

production;
consumer.

Demand for seasonal goods depends on natural (climatic) factors. Classic examples of production seasonality:

cultivation and sale of fruits, vegetables and berries;
earthmoving activities;
landscaping work on household plots.

However, it is worth noting that the production seasonality related to the cultivation of crops is smoothed out due to the development and improvement of technologies for processing, storing and harvesting products, as a result of which the entrepreneur has a unique opportunity to sell his goods throughout the year.

Consumer seasonality is directly related to the following important factors:

Season.
As you know, significant fluctuations in consumer demand are associated with seasonal changes in climatic conditions. For example, in the spring people begin to prepare for the summer season and the demand for summer clothes reaches enough high level. In addition, in the spring, many people consume the maximum amount of foods rich in vitamins: juices, fruits (mainly citrus fruits), vegetables. Also at this time, various construction and agricultural equipment is in great demand.
Holiday period.
Everyone knows that the time for gifts comes closer to New Year holidays. On most trading floors, the maximum peak of sales is recorded in the first winter month. As a rule, the most profitable market at this time is the market for gifts, Christmas tree decorations, various drinks, food products, clothing, cosmetics and household appliances. The Easter holiday has a particularly serious impact on food sales. During the Easter period, various social events, such as weddings and corporate parties, are significantly reduced. Accordingly, the demand for wedding services is significantly reduced, the sale of meat and alcoholic products is decreasing. Accordingly, the level of sales of eggs, fish, cottage cheese, vegetables and many types of grain products is increasing. The next peak of sales falls on the last winter and first spring months. It is in February and March that the main male and female holidays are celebrated: February 23 and March 8, respectively. If consumers start buying gifts for the New Year at the end of November, then the demand for gifts for men and women begins to increase 2-3 weeks before the holiday date.
Other significant dates
Another period big sales fall at the end of August - beginning of September, i.e. back to top school year. The maximum peak of sales occurs in the last days of August. At that time most in demand uses such school products as: notebooks, pens, pencils, textbooks, rulers, satchels and other school and stationery, as well as clothes and shoes.
Business activity.
General business activity is one of critical factors, which can significantly affect the level of sales. Business activity is not only the ratio of vacationers and people working in a certain period, but also the general atmosphere and mood that stimulates people to work or rest. Marketers note 3 periods of decline in business activity during the year. Such periods are: — the end of December; - mid-January; - summer months. Of the above, the period of the New Year and Christmas holidays is considered the largest decline, when most people have 10 days off. Quite seriously, the volume of sales is affected by the "May holidays". Despite the fact that there are only two days off during this period (May 1 and 9), however, quite a significant decline in sales is regularly observed in all markets. In addition, a large percentage of consumers go on vacation at this time of the year. Also low business activity recorded from March to April and from October to November.
Influence of budgetary possibilities.
As a rule, many state-owned companies have a rather rigid budgeting framework. The main task of budgeting is the competent systematic organization of work activities. However, as practice shows, this results in a situation where at the end of the year (quarter) the clients of these companies need to “master” the budget and they spend a lot of money on purchases. Often, thanks to such customers, most trading companies experience a peak in sales. But even here there is a “but”: there is a big decline in the first quarter of the year, because during this period the new budget has not yet been approved and, as a result, funding has been closed.

For entrepreneurs, it is no secret that dealing with seasonality problems is very difficult. This task requires additional financial injections, which many companies cannot afford. Such measures can only be taken by a self-confident entrepreneur who has a well-thought-out business plan and has enough funds to resolve this issue.

Hello dear reader! I am glad to welcome you to the vastness of our business magazine.

Recently, my colleagues and I thought about the question of what is the most popular product in Russia. I think every thinker sooner or later comes up with this question. Personally, he began to torment me from the moment we decided to launch our online store, but that's another story.

Usually one question causes a series of subsequent ones, so today there will be not only the top-selling goods in Russia, Ukraine and the CIS - we will also consider with you:

trending goods in online sales;
what is in demand on bulletin boards (www.avito.ru);
top 10 purchased goods worldwide;
what is currently being bought by the Slavic brother in China (using the resource ru.aliexpress.com).

Purpose of this article- general development, expansion of consciousness. You will learn how to analyze the demand for a product and its seasonality using publicly available Internet tools, and most importantly, you will be able to show off your new knowledge to your comrades. Let's start!

The best-selling product in Russia and Ukraine

This information is unlikely to help you find a niche for your store, but at least it is interesting. You have a minute to think for yourself which product is the best-selling in Russia.

And no, the answer is not food, not cigarettes, and not even alcohol, but we buy it almost every time we go shopping to the store or to the market. In general, the purchase of this product occurs on the machine. Guessed?

So, the title of the best-selling product in Russia is the usual plastic bag. Even on such a seemingly insignificant product, you can make millions of rubles.

The world has already begun to realize that polyethylene products cause great harm to the environment. The problem is that polyethylene does not decompose for a long time, and this leads to the death of 1 million birds, 100,000 marine mammals and a huge number of schools of fish. In the US and Europe, plastic bags began to be abandoned.

What to look for when choosing a product for sale?

If you are interested in a product for sale, you should go the other way. You should not look for the most popular product that is bought by the population in “cars”. First of all, we need to look at the prospects and profitability - our product must also be ready for adverse conditions, since economic crises are not uncommon now.

The list of the most purchased goods in Russia includes the following:

small household appliances;
electrical goods;
sanitary goods;
everyday tools;
household chemicals;
clothing and footwear;
children's products;
other goods of daily use.

Let's go through the list of the most popular products:

meat (beef, pork, chicken, turkey);
semi-finished products;
chicken eggs;
frozen seafood (fish);
vegetable and butter;
cow's milk;
flour and pasta;
sugar and salt;
Black tea;
cereals (buckwheat, rice, millet, oats);
vegetables (potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage);
apples, bananas.

Some have more demand, some less. How to decide?

Focus on your interest and think about what is closer to your heart.
Everything is known in comparison: in order to make a choice in favor of a particular product, analysis is needed (this will be discussed in a separate article).

It is beyond the scope of the article, so we will consider this problem in more detail another time. And now we will begin to rank the most purchased goods by Russians on the Internet. Go!

Top best-selling products on the Internet in 2017

The Internet is a large and interesting market, for three reasons:

now the Internet coverage in Russia is about 74%, while there is a constant growth;
the share of users of the older age group is also increasing;
mobile Internet audience rushes at space speed (30-40% of people access our site from smartphones or tablets).

70% of all Russian Internet users logged in at least once from a mobile device - a year ago, for example, this figure was 56%.

What is the reason for such a rapid growth of the Internet? Along with it, the demand for goods and services is increasing, and this is what we need. Next, we'll look at:

the most demanded and popular goods in online stores;
the most trendy and popular products on one-pagers for today.

1. Search for a product in demand for an online store

In an attempt to keep track of the most popular and popular products in online stores that are best bought by the population in 2016, we came up with the following top 10 list.

Small household appliances today are the leader in online sales. The low price and compact dimensions make this product almost ideal (but this product is not suitable for sale in your online store).
Perfumes and cosmetics .
Mobile devices.
Laptops and tablets.
Internet gifts and toys.
Licensed software.
Clothing and footwear.
Books. Surprisingly, paper books are still popular. It would seem that they are expensive, besides, there are many sites where you can download literature of interest in electronic form for free. However, this does not prevent paper books from being sold.
Booking tickets online. You can't imagine how many planes are in the air right now (whenever you have a free moment, go to flightradar24.com - this will expand the boundaries of your consciousness).
Large home appliances.

Most of the listed products will not work if you are going to open an online store from scratch. Problems and breakdowns can arise with equipment, and in order to earn normally, you need to order in bulk. It is unrealistic to compete with big players who take goods in bulk and sell them at a price typical for ordinary stores.

2. One-pager: what is it and why is it needed?

One-pager, landing page, landing page, landing page - these are all synonyms.

There is such a category as wow-goods (in Russian wow = wow) - goods of impulse demand. Have you ever walked past a store or kiosk, saw an advertisement for a product on TV or the Internet, and you immediately wanted to buy it, although before that you didn’t even know it existed? It is highly likely that this was a product from this category. TV stores also often sell wow goods. Here are some examples:

effortless slimming belt;
simulators that pump muscles without your participation;
all kinds of savers of water, light, fuel, etc.;
creams to increase something;
copies of branded watches, iPhones.

Are you familiar with the concept of CPA networks, affiliate marketing and traffic arbitrage? If not, this will be a separate detailed article. In short, a CPA network is an intermediary between a webmaster (a person who works with sites and traffic) and advertisers who have a product. They are ready to pay a commission to the webmaster for promoting and selling the product. CPA networks sell wow products through one-pagers. Remember the phrase that demand creates supply? In the case of these guys, it's the other way around.

Here is one of the many Pater networks - http://m1-shop.ru/. After registration, the offered goods will be available at the link http://m1-shop.ru/ofers, which you can familiarize yourself with (about 300 offers). I will give 10 of them, which were top at the time of this writing.

So, your attention is presented to the top of the most popular products that are sold through one-pagers in large volumes.

Mask from black dots and acne Black Mask.
Solar power bank.
Army wrist watch amst.
AB Gymnic belt.
MAC corrector.
Corset Waist Trainer.
Mangosteen is a slimming syrup.
FishHungry Biting Activator.
Spray for hair Ultra Hair System.
titanium gel.

Some data from Avito - the largest bulletin board in Russia

I tried to find information for 2016, but only came across the official report from two years earlier. Since there is fish for lack of fish and cancer, we will continue to talk about 2014. However, the information is interesting and useful, so there will be something to think about.

Conducting a study, Avito analysts found that site users were stingy with 34.4 billion rubles in product categories such as:

personal items;
goods for home and garden;
hobbies and recreation;
Appliances;
goods for pets.

A third of the turnover was taken over by the categories “Personal belongings” and “Products for home and summer cottages” (6.5 and 5.5 billion rubles, respectively). Funny thing: Compared to the previous year, sales in these categories grew almost equally - by 38.6% and 38.3%.

And the best-selling category of goods was " Consumer electronics”: laptops, computers, video and photo cameras, smartphones and other gadgets for 15.2 billion rubles were sold on Avito. The amount is not small, but if compared with the previous year, the growth is only 13.2%.

3.5 billion rubles were spent on Hobby and Leisure, an increase of 47.4%. And they did not spare money on pets and spent 4.7 billion rubles: the annual growth was as much as 82%.

fan;
netbook;
swimsuit;
smartphone;
prom dress;
tent;
Yorkshire Terrier;
video card;

From this list, we can conclude that the demand is strongly influenced by the season.

How to analyze the seasonality of a product?

If you are reading this article because you are going to open an online store or start a business, it is important not to miscalculate the seasonality of the product.

Let's look at a product that is at the beginning of the top on Avito - a fan.

To analyze seasonality and demand, we will use the well-known service https://wordstat.yandex.ru/. It is designed to evaluate the user interest that can be applied to the product we have selected. Before starting work, you must register / log in to the service. If you don't want captcha popping up all the time, it's better to immediately disable adblock or its equivalent.

Next, we select the region that interests us (in my case, I look at data for Russia, Ukraine and other CIS countries). Next, in a special field, I enter the query “buy a fan”, as it more accurately reflects the intention of users than just “fan”.

The service shows that for the last month there were 236,554 impressions for this query (wow, not bad!). It can be concluded that the product is in demand. And I'll check the seasonality of this product! I just did a search for "By words", now I'll switch the checkbox to "Query History" and see what happens. The graph shows that in 2016 the demand for fans increased by 2 times compared to last year (apparently this year is VERY hot). Thus, if you bought fans and started selling them in the winter, most likely nothing would come of it. Therefore, never buy a product without testing the demand!

Of course, the example I gave is obvious - it is clear that it is hot in summer, and the demand for fans will be greater than in the cold season. However, not all products are so obvious. It is also better to look for such niches where the chart is just starting to rise - it is better to prepare for the season in advance.

Rating of the most popular goods from China

It is difficult to determine the sales leader of the Chinese market, because it buys anything and in huge quantities. Have you ever ordered something from China? Personally, I ordered a watch, scales, a case for e-book, a bag, a UV lamp and all sorts of other things. If anyone does not know, here are 2 sites where the bulk of the population of Russia, Ukraine and the CIS orders goods from China:

Aliexpress is more designed for retail purchase - here you can easily order goods in one copy. However, sometimes it is more profitable to buy goods in a regular online store than here.
Alibaba is a large wholesaler: prices for goods are much cheaper, but you have to order in bulk. Often the delivery of goods is several times more expensive than its cost.