First off from the extended Chinese New Year lock-down, we began to see normality return some 2-3 weeks later than usual. We were at the level of 70% return to normal expectations for March, with an increase to virtually 90-100% for April.

Since then, COVID-19 hit Europe hard, with a change in direction, bringing April back down to 80%.

It’s, without a doubt, we have had cancellations from customers ordering stock from China, SE Asia, USA, and India, but perhaps overall not to the levels we first feared…

We seem to be spotting a trend that can place into 3 categories.

 

1) Those who have canceled orders waiting for the worst of social distancing measures to pass, where walk-in customers are the main income.

2) Importers that have decent stock levels, and have slowed down ordering for a few weeks (still importing but not as much); so a more cautious temporary measure.

3) Importers that are doubling-down on eCommerce spending, and stockpiling where they have enough cash and storage to do so, getting ready for a sudden surge of high sales when things return to normal.

 

It often feels like we are on the front line of where an economist would want to be, and whilst we certainly don’t claim to be one, the insight is sometimes fascinating, even if trying to make sense of it.

It doesn’t give us a clear conclusion of course, but it appears that since the government measures on Friday, there is a lot more confidence from business owners that survival chances increased ten-fold, and the opportunities that lay ahead of ‘when’ not ‘if’ the recovery comes, is somewhat a river of gold.