Flooring performance outpaces pandemic

65% said that 2020 had finished much better than they had expected at the height of the epidemic back in the early Summer and it was encouraging to see that 77% had been able to end the year with the same staff they started with and 15% had added staff.

In the race to complete Q4 installations before Christmas, 39% of retailers said they weren’t sure they would be able to get all the orders they had received fitted in time but readers were positive about the performance of suppliers in getting stocks through to them with 60% saying flooring manufacturers had risen to the challenge well and 79% that underlay suppliers had overcome the logistics challenges of the Summer lockdowns.

Looking back at all the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020, our readers were also in a positive mood. Over 75% said that customers had behaved well regarding social distancing and the popularity of in-store appointments was clear from 68% of respondents who have increased their use of the sales method.

Even the Government got a thumbs up! 85% said the Government’s financial support to business was “generally good” and 70% thought its policies on retail safety, lockdown, and health communication was satisfactory.

The behaviour of chain stores at the start of the second national lockdown in England was criticised by many with 45% saying too many stores had behaved badly. However, 26% said all flooring stores should have been allowed to stay open in lockdown 2.

In terms of prospects for 2021, the honest answer from retailers is that they’re not sure. About a third reckon sales will be better that 2020 and about a third expect them to be about the same. Only 19% were expecting a drop in business.

We asked our readers to rank the challenges for the first part of 2021 and recession/unemployment came top (47%), Covid restrictions second (26%) and Brexit a poor third (16%).

And to think that this time last year, we thought 2020
would be all about Brexit again. If only!