Indian River Consulting Group’s (IRCG) distributor Pandemic Revenue Index (PRI) showed modest improvement during the week of May 4-8 compared to the week prior, while also showing evidence of less volatile swings in gains and losses.
Last week's PRI showed a year-over-year sales decline of 14.77 percent, up from 18.92 percent for the week of April 27-May 1 and far better than when the index bottomed out at -30.48 percent for the week of April 6-10. Last week was the seventh-straight week of double-digit declines, which began the week of March 23 as nationwide factory and business shutdowns ramped up amid COVID-19 pandemic safety measures.
Last week's PRI sample size was 10 distributors, the same as the week before. Of those 10 distributors, three reported year-over-year increases and seven saw declines. IRCG noted that the results of participating distributors appear to be compressing, with the range of results becoming smaller. Last week, the greatest year-over-year decline an index distributor saw was 37 percent and the highest increase was 8 percent. That contrasts with the week of April 20, when the greatest decline was 52 percent and the largest increase was 26 percent.
IRCG hopes to expand the sample size of the PRI. If you are interested having your distribution firm participate, reach out to Emerson at [email protected].
The PRI was launched in late March to provide the B2B distribution space with a snapshot of how distributor revenues are doing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The chart below shows the percent change in sales in 2020 compared with the same week in 2019, helping to reveal how revenue declines may have driven by uncontrollable forces, such as the current COVID-19 global disruption.
