Hundreds of thousands of companies are announcing short-time work, chain stores are reaching their limits - Covid 19 and its economic effects are no longer leaving anyone cold. And online, too, there is by no means only growth. But which sectors are on the upswing and which are also feeling the crisis online?

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We have analysed data from the loopingo network in the month of March and derived a few trends:

1) Who benefits?

On the one hand, this reflects the fact that many products are currently only available online, but that wine, for example, which is still available in every supermarket, is growing so strongly is something we would not have expected right away. For many shops, the current question is not so much "where do I get sales from?" but rather "will my supply chains / replenishment chains hold and how can I manage fulfilment?

We can clearly see that luxury food and stay-at-home products such as pet supplies, as well as of course everything in the health sector, are getting a tremendous amount of traffic. However, the enormous growth in health shops began more than a month ago, while the other sectors have only been rising strongly since mid-March.

2) Who also suffers online?

The travel and event industry is also having a very hard time online, as bookings are currently not coming in due to the uncertainty about the future. The hope here is that many people are currently only putting off booking their holiday or event and that the rebound will be all the greater as soon as there is clarity about the future again. However, a factor that should not be underestimated is how many families already need their annual leave or holiday money to bridge the school and day-care closures. It could therefore happen that although there is clarity again in the summer, there may be no more holiday days or no budget (keyword: short-time work) for holidays.

3) Ambivalent industries:

In the home & garden, leisure and fashion sectors, we do not see any clear trends in the network. What is apparent here, however, is that in the sports sector, for example, individual sports articles such as bicycles or running articles are clearly in demand, while team sports articles are less in demand. Despite the cocooning trend, the Home & Garden segment is well positioned in our view, but is not necessarily going through the roof. It is quite possible that many customers are currently putting off larger investments such as new furniture, but are still spending money to increase the cosiness factor at home.

Regardless of the sector, however, it will be important to maintain domestic purchasing power, i.e. consumers will continue to receive salaries that they will then also spend. At the moment, for example, the 40-49 age group continues to spend just as much as before the crisis and thus, of course, keeps sales going for many companies. (see pilot Radar: Consumers put brands to the test)

Of course, the same also applies to marketing budgets in the advertising industry. On the advertising side, we at loopingo are observing a slight change, which is also in line with Dr. Sepita Ansari's recommendation: shops with articles that are currently in good supply tend to increase their budgets, while shops that are currently struggling with the crisis also tend to keep their budgets together. (see 5 Strategy Recommendations for Marketeers in the Current Situation)

For us performance marketers, one thing remains the same: "In numbers we trust" - look for trend changes in your business data - be it in the performance mix of the individual marketing channels or in the product mix that is bought by your customers and adjust your activities accordingly. Perhaps the "classic top seller" is not currently in demand? Then it should not continue to feature as a hero on the homepage. Perhaps the online shop can support its franchise branches by selling locally redeemable vouchers?