How coronavirus is impacting the retail sector
RTIH rounds up feedback and comment from OnBuy, Farmstead, Drakes Supermarkets and Wilko.
Cas Paton, Founder of UK-based online marketplace OnBuy.com, reports that his company has seen a 60% drop in sales from sellers that are based in China alone.
“We can see that the 40% that has maintained sales dispatch orders from outside China, predominantly from the UK. This constitutes a drop in sales of around £1 million since the Chinese New Year and the virus outbreak,” he comments.
“When you consider that OnBuy is a startup marketplace and the huge volumes that other major marketplaces must have dropped, it's clearly a large amount of sales that have disappeared.”
This is not just affecting retailers but also postal services, channel systems, logistics companies, collection points and fulfilment companies, plus search engines, price comparison websites, and no doubt even more companies in the funnel of buying and selling products, Paton adds.
“With fewer companies to buy from, consumers are left with less choice and higher pricing. When you factor in that other countries are also seeing high illness rates, there's significant potential for this to affect more retailers around the world. We hope that things will improve over the next few weeks/months - but if we are to believe the media, this could get worse before it gets better,” he concludes.
More positive news from US online grocer Farmstead which says that delivery volume is up 30% this week over normal levels, most likely due to coronavirus concerns.
“Many people are working from home, and everyone is trying to avoid crowded places like supermarkets,” says Pradeep Elankumaran, Co-founder and CEO, Farmstead.
While the pureplay ran low on certain staples earlier in the week, it says that it has now tweaked its predictive models to better predict demand during this “unusual crisis” and now inventory levels are back. “So far, we aren’t having any supply chain issues,” Elankumaran states. “Our staff is keeping quite busy but we’ve been able to maintain delivery commitments across the board.”
Loo rolls
From Australia, meanwhile, a timely reminder of the abuse that retail staff deal with on a regular basis.
“Whatever happened to common respect? With the hysteria of coronavirus turning people into toilet paper hoarders, our team are copping abuse as stocks are depleted. Abuse against retail workers has got to stop!” John-Paul Drake, Director at Drakes Supermarkets, says in a LinkedIn post.
Also on the issue of toilet paper shortages, props to Wilko and their attempts to look on the bright side of life. We salute your social media team!
