Gone very quiet

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Discussion

red_slr

Original Poster:

18,177 posts

196 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
Anyone else noticed a big drop off in trade the last couple of weeks over and above all the COVID issues?

This year has been a very bad for many people but we have tried to battle through but the last 3 weeks I have seen a big down turn.

My year on year is looking like:

Jan +26%
Feb -74%
Mar +7%
Apr -58%
May -53%
Jun -4%
Jul -5%
Aug -76% <<<<< OUCH!

Jan and Feb are very quiet months for us so easy to get big swings if we have 1 busy week. We do 90% of our business March to October.

The rest of the year much more accurate as many more data points.

85Carrera

3,503 posts

244 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
Wow! What is it you do out of interest?

red_slr

Original Poster:

18,177 posts

196 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
Similar to builders merchant.

Mr Overheads

2,489 posts

183 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
Not even vaguely in the same sector, but I'm finding almost everyone seems to have gone on holiday (might be staycations, but certainly not working)

MOBB

3,812 posts

134 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
Our year on year turnover looks like this;

Jan +6%
Feb +8%
Mar +2%
Apr -68%
May -37%
Jun +21%
Jul +35%
Aug +31%

SME trade/retail flooring company.

Order book is strong but the next couple of months will be interesting.

April & May - with furlough, rates reduction and grants the company was pretty much unaffected profit-wise.


Edited by MOBB on Thursday 20th August 11:06


Edited by MOBB on Thursday 20th August 12:20

red_slr

Original Poster:

18,177 posts

196 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
Interesting thanks. I have never known it this quiet in August.

jammy-git

29,778 posts

219 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
Mr Overheads said:
Not even vaguely in the same sector, but I'm finding almost everyone seems to have gone on holiday (might be staycations, but certainly not working)
I think this could explain it. Everyone trying to get some sort of holiday in before schools go back/second wave hits/more lockdowns/redundancy.


Do you break down revenue into any sub-categories? Anything you can look into to see where exactly you've lost sales or whether it's just right across the board?

jonamv8

3,192 posts

173 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
I work with a lot of companies and get to see their online customer interactions, 95% are quiet.

We normally have 4-6 pending decent projects at anyone time, currently we have 1 LOL

Also everyones going away, me included.

red_slr

Original Poster:

18,177 posts

196 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
jammy-git said:
Mr Overheads said:
Not even vaguely in the same sector, but I'm finding almost everyone seems to have gone on holiday (might be staycations, but certainly not working)
I think this could explain it. Everyone trying to get some sort of holiday in before schools go back/second wave hits/more lockdowns/redundancy.


Do you break down revenue into any sub-categories? Anything you can look into to see where exactly you've lost sales or whether it's just right across the board?
Ecom is up. Everything else is down. C&C is pretty much zero. I think we did about £300 last week.

Phones are quiet, account holders are dead too. Easily 80% down.

MOBB

3,812 posts

134 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
red_slr said:
Interesting thanks. I have never known it this quiet in August.
I'm half expecting a bit of a crash September/October, hope I'm wrong.

We seemed to have had a bounceback period where fitters that didnt earn in April/May worked all hours when things opened to catch back up.



Audicab

484 posts

254 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
We work with a wide variety of businesses providing B2B lead generation and marketing services. We have seen

Jan + 5%
Feb + 10%
March - 50%
April - 50%
May - 40%
June - 30%
July + 5%
August + 10%
September + 5%

I had one day in March where we put 60% of our revenue on hold, that was an exciting day!

We are still down significantly on last year but have signed up 3 new customers in the last couple of weeks, the first new customers since lock down.

It's been an interesting period.

Phil Dicky

7,164 posts

270 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
I think everyone is getting away for a week or so, we are next week and so many of my friends are away or going,
I expect everything to return to some normality when the schools return.

covmutley

3,125 posts

197 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
Yes. It seems everyone is on leave.

red_slr

Original Poster:

18,177 posts

196 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
Yeah its normally a quiet month anyway but to be 75% down on where we would normally be, thats amazing. (ly bad)

clockworks

6,135 posts

152 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
Jan and Feb were about 15% up on last year, first couple of weeks of March were also up, then the phone stopped ringing.

April and May - absolutely nothing at all.

June and July, about the same as last year.

August, a bit down so far. I guess the prospect of job losses is making people stop and think now.

dazmanultra

443 posts

99 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
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We traditionally have a slight lull in August followed by a surge in September.

tattarrattat

84 posts

53 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
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2020 was already looking ropey, so hard to tell what's what, but here is ours. Back office support.

Jan -11
Feb -16
Mar +14
Apr -18
May -29
Jun -13
Jul -23

DSLiverpool

15,119 posts

209 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
Hi Red, I have visibility over many sectors and sized operations its polarized, either stupidly busy or very quiet - not much in between.

House, garden, camping, walking, cycling are on fire

Happy to get the team do do a free health traffic check if your concerned on anything.


red_slr

Original Poster:

18,177 posts

196 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
Cheers DS will see what September brings hopefully things pick up our e-commerce is doing great but we could just do with some of the bigger building sites getting going again.

DSLiverpool

15,119 posts

209 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
quotequote all
red_slr said:
Cheers DS will see what September brings hopefully things pick up our e-commerce is doing great but we could just do with some of the bigger building sites getting going again.
You’ve got a week! biggrin I’m still able to intro / get help after I’m gone so no problem.