Our globe is literally reeling under the disastrous consequences of the Coronavirus pandemic. As of now besides taking claims on thousands of lives around the globe the virus also could completely stall the regular lifestyle and businesses across many parts of the globe. No wonder, the World Health Organization already declared it as a pandemic spanning across continents.
Before we go deeper into the understanding of the impact of Coronavirus on lives, businesses, and movement of people, let us have a quick look at the stats and facts that unveiled the disaster created by this lethal virus.
Counting the Business Impact of Coronavirus in Different Countries
As the immediate outcome of the Coronavirus outbreak, the shares of Wayfair hit at least a 26 percent lower price as of Feb.28 on top of the loss suffered by the share this year. According to a Bloomberg report, the furniture eCommerce retailer giant that tremendously relies on the Chinese market experienced a huge setback in terms of slowed down revenue growth in the current financial year and the current crisis made a drastic kick on its already receding revenue line.
On the other hand, some reports suggest that thanks to real-time Coronavirus reporting some mobile apps continue to get huge traction and become popular within a short span of time. According to CNN Business Report, some mobile apps because of their real-time updates on the virus outbreak is experiencing huge popularity in South Korea. One such app is achieving around 20,000 installs in every single hour. The app providing detailed stats about the Coronavirus affected patients across gender, age, nationality and also medical parameters such as treatment stages, has already become popular all over the country.
As a major step to embrace preventive measures to combat the disastrous effect of the virus outbreak the global leader in e-commerce, Amazon already advised its employees to avoid traveling without emergency needs. According to a Reuters report, the company made the announcement for all its employees to stop traveling except for absolutely essential reasons. The company boasts of a staggering 798,000 workforce comprising both full and part-time employees is one of the few big employers who took such a proactive decision to control the outbreak.
As a major blow to the development and game app business, the annual event Game Development Congress is now facing uncertainty as most of its organizers are pulling out one by one. As per the reports of TechCrunch, after leading game and gaming console development giants like Microsoft, Unity, Epic Games, Sony, and Facebook pulled out of the event, Amazon also joined the league of companies in deserting the event because of the Coronavirus outbreak. Only Google, Intel, and Nvidia are the major companies that didn’t pull out of the event.
Increasing Risk Impact Across Countries
As the outbreak now took the shape of a disastrous pandemic covering several countries across continents, business suddenly has lost its priority while keeping people safe and controlling the outbreak became the primary focus. Keeping tune with this emergency World Health Organization (WHO) has declared it as pandemic considering the death toll and the spreading of the disease at lightning pace around the world.
As per the latest reports from WHO, the pandemic already infected more than half a million people and is still counting. The death toll has already crossed the 50,000 marks and is still counting. Several countries that were traditionally the business hubs and destinations for global business brands are worst hit by the pandemic now. All the countries on the Mediterranean coast have been the worst hit along with Germany, Iran, and the US. Even China, where the pandemic took shape after nearly two months of successful battle in controlling the virus once again has been hit by a spree of new cases. On the other hand, the US registered the largest number of cases crossing 120,000 marks.
Naturally, businesses around the world have been hit like never before. Even the emerging economies like India, Brazil, and South Africa have been hit by the pandemic and the governments in these countries are imposing lockdown to control the spreading of the virus in public. In most countries around the world, the primary concern now is to strengthen the public health response to the pandemic and control the spreading of the contagion.
All the financial planning, business maneuvers are now on the back seat and instead, most governments are busy spending on public health infrastructure and taking all types of measures that are discouraging for businesses. In complete conformity to this alarming condition, consumer spending on daily needs and various product categories tremendously slowed down sending further shock-waves in the socio-economic parameters of many countries.
After the panic buying took place in the departmental stores and shopping malls of many countries in recent years, there is now a confirmed report of pharmaceutical products and drugs in many countries. According to a CNN report, many states in the US have such a shortage already been experienced. As China has been a key supplier for much medical equipment and emergency supplies, the shortage seems quite obvious.
Both Traditional Retail and eCommerce is Facing a Drastic Downturn
Both the traditional brick and mortar retailers and the e-commerce stores are now facing a drastic slowdown in terms of sales. Many cities in China and Europe are now facing complete lockdown resulting in grave concerns for the supply chain of retail stores and e-commerce stores. As China holds some of the world’s biggest manufacturing and warehousing facilities and as many worst affected European cities such as Milan are responsible for producing great many fashion and luxury brands, the Coronavirus impact is making a disastrous impact on the retail and e-commerce industry.
The leading Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba, has experienced the first impact of coronavirus disaster followed by many other brands in China and elsewhere. According to leading Chinese experts and business luminaries, as Chinese ports and shipping facilities will take months to come to normalcy, the situation is likely to continue for another 4 or 5 months before the situation turns to normalcy.
Conclusion
Movement and social mixing of people are irreplaceable for business functions and that is exactly where this Coronavirus pandemic hit very badly. From literally stopping the airliners from functioning to closing down the retail outlets and supermarkets to complete standstill in the production of many commodities, for e-commerce and travel businesses this pandemic is really making a disastrous impact.
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