While the scope and scale of the economic impact of Covid19 on small business activity in the US has been qualitatively obvious, getting a clear quantitative measure has been difficult. CardFlight, a provider of point-of-sale terminals to small businesses, has been releasing weekly reports about how its customers have been affected since the beginning of the crisis.
Notably overall it seems that total sales have stabilized over the last three weeks at around 27% to 29% below the beginning of March.
The deepest affected merchants seem to be clothing and apparel merchants (-87%), salons and barbershops (-85%), and organizations (-75%), likely reflecting consumers seeking to delay non-essential purchases.
Towing and Trucking revenues have been mixed since the beginning of the crisis down as much as 25% in the most recent week and up 12.4% the prior. This could relate to dislocations associated with uncertainty in housing or business real estate.
Looking into professional services we see travel agents have suffered a calamitous decline down 98%. Photography studios, child daycare services, and advertising have also experienced deep declines from 88% to 60%.
Accounting and tax preparation services have seen a smaller decline of -16%, but this may also be affected by the extension in filing deadline for individual filers to July 15th from April 15th.
Protective and security services have also seen a decline to 16% but since many customers are on subscription plans, the impact may tend to be progressive.
For more details see the full report at cardflight.com.
