The weekly member poll reveals small changes in COVID-19’s impact. By Dianne M. Pogoda

 

NKBA’s second week tracking member sentiments showed that some 700 respondents ranked  the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on business at an average of 7.8 — down 0.2 from the prior week.

While all four member categories — designers, builders, manufacturers and retailers — rated the impact a bit lower, builders reported the greatest drop, from an 8.5 impact last week to 8.1 this week. The rating is on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is no impact and 10 is significant impact. The impact for manufacturers and retailers eased by 0.3 points each, to 7.5 and 7.8, respectively, and designers reported a 0.1-point drop, landing at 7.8.

The NKBA Pulse provides a snapshot of members’ sentiments on the significance of the pandemic’s impact on their businesses, as well as the change in demand for their goods and/or services. The goal is to track these sentiments and create a flow of information, thus establishing a pattern of business activity and expectations.

The second question in the NKBA Pulse poll records demand for members’ goods and services — decreasing, staying the same or increasing. Overall, a smaller percentage of all member groups said demand was lower this week compared to last week. The average was 51%, compared to 62% last week,  who said demand was falling. At the same time, an average of 36% said demand remained the same this week, up from 29% last week. So, with 87% saying demand was decreasing or staying the same, that leaves 13% who reported demand was increasing. This is up 4 points from 9% last week.

While the slight downward movement in the rank of COVID-19’s impact, combined with the small gain in members reporting an increase in demand could be considered encouraging, it should be noted that this is early in the tracking and relatively early in the possible duration of the lockdown. Businesses won’t be on solid footing until weekly demand begins to increase steadily and consistently.

The NKBA Pulse will continue to poll members and report weekly. To participate in the poll, email marketresearch@nkba.org.