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Product lifecycle

The product lifecycle is the path a product's sales follow from launch through growth and a plateau to decline.

How it works

The textbook model has four stages: introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Sales are low at launch, rise as buyers find the product, level off, then fall as demand moves elsewhere. Marketers were already familiar with the idea when Theodore Levitt wrote about using it in Harvard Business Review in 1965.

In an online store’s ads, a product’s run of sales is often measured in months, not years. In our study of 1.4 million products, the median stable winner held that status for 3 months. Of all bestsellers, 71% were in the top for no more than 3 months out of 13. Product life cycle marketing shows how ads should change from stage to stage.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop launches a ceramic teapot in January. It sells 2 in January, 9 in February, 14 in March, 15 in April, 8 in May and 3 in June. Sales climb until March, hold at 14–15 in March and April, then fall. By June they are a fifth of the peak: 3 ÷ 15 = 0.2.

How GetProfit reads it

Instead of lifecycle stages, the portal gives each product a label based on its last 12 months in ads. The label can change as the product moves through its cycle:

  • Newcomers have no ad history.
  • Strong sell and hold ROAS without a long history.
  • Bestsellers sell in at least 6 months out of 12 and hold the target ROAS.
  • Loss-making spend more than they bring in.
  • Dormant spend without selling.

You see them in the portal’s Products and labels section.

Not to be confused with

  • Seasonality — demand that rises and falls in the same months every year. A Christmas mug that sells only in December peaks again each December. A product in decline does not return with the next season.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “These were our bestsellers last spring, so the campaigns should still be built around them.” Right: by autumn the top has likely changed, because the median stable winner held that status for 3 months.

Sources

  • Exploit the Product Life Cycle — Theodore Levitt, Harvard Business Review, November 1965. Checked 2 October 2026.
  • Product life-cycle management (marketing) — Wikipedia: the stages of the model and Levitt’s 1965 article. Checked 2 October 2026.
  • GetProfit study: 1,404,808 products in 130+ stores over 13 months — how long winners hold their status.
  • GetProfit portal: methodology of the eight labels.