How to Calculate Cold Products

In order to operate a successful ecommerce store, it is important to know which products in your store are slowing down in sales. By pinpointing your cold products, you have the opportunity to make improvements and increase future sales.

Why is it important for ecommerce stores to find Cold Products?

In the ecommerce industry, cold products are defined as the products with the largest drop in orders period over period. These are the items that are selling at a lower rate, producing the lowest gross profits, and having the lowest sales margins. Your most abandoned products and most refunded products can also be classified as cold products.    

You want to be aware of the products that are making you the least amount of money or, even worse, costing you money. Once you have identified your cold products you can revise your sales strategies and tactics. To help unfreeze your cold products, there are several valuable steps you can take. First, ask yourself two important questions.

Is poor product placement the problem?

There is always the chance that certain products are not selling simply because customers cannot find them or are not seeing them. If they have to scroll through 10 pages of clothes just to find a white t-shirt, they are likely to give up. Features like an enhanced search where shoppers can search by various criteria may be just the solution for increasing your sales. Additionally, you can also take the approach of showcasing some of your cold products as “featured items” to see if this helps to boost sales.

Could product listings improve?

Some products may not sell because you aren’t giving shoppers the information they want and/or expect. Make sure that you are telling and showing everything about the product that would be important to a buyer. Remember, you are trying to make a sale! Include high-quality product images, an accurate product description, and special features of the product that potential buyers should know about. Don’t be afraid to use adjectives! Would you be more tempted to purchase a shirt made of fleece or “Soft fleece with heavy interior lining”?

Strategies to Unfreeze Cold Products

Hurry! Create Urgency Before It’s Too Late!

There is a popular saying that goes, “Nothing haunts us like the things we didn’t buy.” Use this to your advantage! By having your cold products on sale for a limited time or indicating that you only have a few items left, buyers will be more compelled to go ahead and complete their purchases.

Put Cold Products on Sale

If you have some items that are not selling like you would want, you may have to reduce prices. Selling a product at a discounted price is far better than not selling products at all. Use a flash sale to your advantage to move inventory quickly. Read our strategies for successful discounts here.

Create a Designated Area for Discounted Products

Shoppers appreciate good deals. By creating a special “sale” or “discounted items” section within your ecommerce store, shoppers can easily find deals to get the most bang for their buck. They save money, and you start selling more of your cold products.  

How to Calculate Cold Products  

To calculate your cold products, you simply need to compare the sales made from a product during any given period – weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc. Once you know the number of sales that were made during the two periods you are comparing, you can determine the Difference PoP (Period Over Period) to see how sales increased or decreased.     

For instance, the sale of a certain purse may have decreased from 500 in Q1 to 250 in Q2, so the Difference PoP would be -50%.     

Cold products are the products with the largest percentage of negative change over time.    

Glew Finds Your Store's Cold Products

Glew simplifies all the calculating for you and makes it easy for you quickly see which of your products are not performing their best. How does it work? Glew pulls all the important data from your ecommerce platform, Google analytics account, and primary advertising sources into a single platform. Instead of having to check each of these sources individually, you can now see all the important numbers in one spot.    

For ecommerce stores, it is especially helpful to see all the data in one platform. Essentially, Glew helps you to connect the dots and make sense of the numbers. The Glew platform displays the number of orders, quantity of a product sold, quantity remaining, difference period over period, revenue, gross profit, and more. By being able to see the big picture of your ecommerce sales, you have the opportunity to unfreeze your cold products.    

To learn more about the benefits of using Glew, we invite you to get started with a free trial.