Our Trends community on Facebook is full of entrepreneurs whose businesses have been forced to pivot in short order. Their survival is at stake.
We asked them to tell us more about how their companies have been affected by the pandemic. The news was grim, but not universally bad (see: the startup accelerator program that was built with remote connections in mind, the CBD biz whose average transaction is 3x what it was in December).
Here are a few of their best stories.
Ollie Fairweather, Nursem (skincare): “I work on a skincare brand that recently launched, which was originally developed with a group of British nurses to help combat the effects of relentless hand washing (pretty topical!). We sell hand cream and hand wash and it’s fair to say we’ve seen increased demand the last few weeks.”
Ariel Ratz, Ratz Pack Media (marketing): “A client emailed me this week that their wholesale buyers aren’t buying as much due to fears of coronavirus. In order to cut costs they are turning off their PROFITABLE FB ads with the hope of being able to start again in November. One bad wholesale month put them back months.”
Allen Walton, SpyGuy.com (ecommerce): “Sales haven’t taken a hit just yet, but we are at the point where we’re having trouble forecasting both demand and inventory. Our China factories are coming back online (skeleton crew), while South Korea never even left. I will admit I’ve been extremely hesitant to send a $50k wire, not knowing when I’ll get my inventory.”
Ben Bailey, PopColors (novelty goods): Surprisingly up, we sell novelty colored pencils with puns on them and sales have gone up about 40% over the last few days. I think a lot of people are stuck at home therapy shopping. If this shit gets worse it will probably stop though. We are also relying on Amazon and Shopify Fulfillment to keep shipping out our orders.
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