Online sales explode but markets for holidays and high fashion collapse

DutchNews, April 28, 2020  

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Online shopping has exploded since the corona crisis but shops selling holidays and luxury goods have seen a huge drop in revenue, new figures show. 

Market researcher GfK, which only looked at the non-food sector, found that Easter week was particularly busy ,with with peak growth of 72%, representing tens of millions of euros in extra earnings compared to the same week last year. 

‘Before coronavirus many online shops saw growth of 16% to 18%, now it’s 60% to 70%,’ Wijnand Jongen, director of Thuiswinkel.org, told broadcaster NOS. 

Most of the purchases have to do with the fact that consumers are living and working at home. ‘Everything to do with entertainment, DIY, the garden and exercising is doing really well,’Jongen said. Working from home has increased the sale of computer mice, printers, chairs, laptops and headphones. ‘Some online shops can’t source the stuff quickly enough,’ Jongen said. 

By contrast, online outlets for holidays and tourism in general have seen their businesses collapse. Expensive fashion items have had to make way for comfortable clothes, like pajamas and jogging trousers, underwear and comfortable shoes, GfK found. 

Among the shops profiting most are highstreet staple Hema and cosmetics chain Rituals, which saw their online sales triple. Hema has been grappling with a 30% fall in physical sales.

Supermarkets take on more staff as home deliveries soar

DutchNews, April 24, 2020

Photo: DutchNews.nl

Dutch supermarkets are taking on hundreds of extra workers to cope with the increasing demand for home deliveries, broadcaster NOS said on Friday. 

Customers are not only ordering online more frequently, but are buying more food as well – because they are no longer eating out at the office or in cafes and restaurants, NOS said. 

Demand for home deliveries from Albert Heijn and the Coop supermarkets has gone up five-fold. Picnic, which only offers online shopping has seen demand triple while Jumbo reports a 50% increase. 

Demand is so high that customers are being faced with delivery delays stretching from several days to two weeks. Picnic has been forced to drop its pledge for next day deliveries, NOS said. 

Market research group IRI suggests that supermarket turnover so far this year has reached €11.4bn, a rise of €1bn on 2019. This, according to the CNV trade union federation, should encourage supermarkets to give all staff a bonus. 

‘A lot is being asked of staff,’ spokeswoman Jacqueline Twerda said. ‘They are facing increasing pressure, they have to be flexible and they are coming into constant contact with others. Supermarket sales are soaring, but they see nothing back.’ 

The FNV trade union says it would prefer a structural pay rise for supermarket staff. 

The current supermarket sector pay and conditions deal expired on April 1.

Dutch see apps as key to relaxing lockdown, tracing corona suspects

DutchNews, April 7, 2020

Reporters listen during the press conference. Photo: Bart Maat ANP

The Netherlands is looking into introducing two apps as a key part of controlling the spread of coronavirus, prime minister Mark Rutte and health minister Hugo de Jonge told a press conference on Tuesday evening.

‘Experts tell us that identifying sources and tracing contacts will be crucial for relaxing the rules, without over-taxing hospitals,’ Rutte said. ‘But it is still early days and privacy is key,’ the prime minister said. 

The apps, one of which would alert people via bluetooth if they had been in contact with someone who had coronavirus, and a second which would keep potential patients in touch with doctors, are currently being further researched, Rutte said. 

The apps will form part of the more intensive testing strategy which is currently being introduced. They would, in effect, take over some of the work of local health boards which do not have the capacity to trace all potential coronavirus contacts. 

Compulsory 

Asked if people would be forced to install the apps on their phones, health minister De Jonge said it would be important that as many people as possible used them.

‘There is no point in carrying out all the testing if you don’t do anything with the results,’ he said. ‘We are looking at whether you can require everyone to do it.’ Contact tracing is still being done in the north of the country where there are relatively few coronavirus cases, the minister said.

Government press conference in the Netherlands on Corona measures. Announcement of contact tracing app which 'will have to respect privacy', but no explanation of privacy engineering that can/will be applied. Only specialists understand, so now good chunk of NL freaks out...

— Joris van Hoboken (@jorisvanhoboken) April 7, 2020

Both Rutte and De Jonge emphasised that despite promising figures in terms of hospital and intensive care admissions, it is still too early to say if the ‘intelligent lockdown’ in the Netherlands will be gradually eased from April 28, when the current deadline expires. 

‘The figures show we are not doing this for nothing, but we could not make a bigger mistake than to relax the rules in one go,’ Rutte said. ‘We will then hit a new and bigger peak in infections.’ 

What we are doing now is crucial for our economic recovery, he said. ‘We are looking at scenarios for an intelligent way back. Everyone should start thinking about how we can further adapt to the 1.5 metre society. The way back will be step by step and based on science.’

Virus breaks the mold for telework in office-bound Japan

Yahoo - AFP, March 31, 2020

Japan's government has struggled to induce firms to offer teleworking, but the coronavirus
epidemic means many are now experimenting with working from home (AFP Photo/
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)

The longstanding stereotype of Japan's office-bound "salaryman" is being tested as companies cautiously embrace working from home in a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Japan's government has for years been trying to encourage firms to implement "flexible working patterns", hoping that less demanding office hours will help women return to work after having children and men share more housework and childcare.

But uptake has been slow. A survey published last year found around 19 percent of companies offered a telework option, but just 8.5 percent of employees polled had tried it out.

Experts say part of the challenge is the social stigma attached to deviating from the "salaryman" stereotype of the suited-up office worker who proves his dedication by spending long hours at his desk.

Polls show "the Japanese still have this image that telework isn't real work because you're not physically in the office," said Haruka Kazama, an economist at the Mizuho research institute.

That's a view familiar to Yuki Sato, 35, currently experimenting with teleworking for the first time.

"The image of going to the office is very strong. You have to show that you work hard and long hours and that you help your colleagues," Sato told AFP.

"With telework, we can't show our goodwill and motivation," he added.

Yuki Sato has been working at home since February, and has more time to spend 

with his two daughters and wife (AFP Photo/Behrouz MEHRI)

'It's actually nice'

But the spread of the new coronavirus has forced employers and workers to give telework a try in Japan, and Sato for one has been pleasantly surprised.

"Unlike I'd expected, it's actually nice. Much easier than going to the office," said Sato, who has been working at home since February when the government began asking workers to telework to avoid spreading the new coronavirus.

He works for a Tokyo start-up, Phybbit, which offers services to counter digital fraud, and had never before tried working from home.

"This experience has completely changed my image of teleworking," he told AFP in the small office he has set up in the family home he shares with his wife and two children.

For a start, it saves him two hours of commuting a day, meaning he has more time with his daughters, whose schools are currently closed.

"I can also give them their bath in the evening, something I could never do during the week before because I was never home before 8pm."

Sato's wife Hitomi takes primary care of their daughters, six-year-old Yurina and four-year-old Hidano and said she has welcomed the helping hand at home.

"I'm glad that he's here, and the girls are happy to spend time with their dad," she said.

The Japanese government has renewed its push for teleworking and off-peak commuting in recent years, hoping to ease the burden on the notoriously congested Tokyo public transport system, particularly ahead of the Olympics.

But there hasn't been much enthusiasm.

Japan's government hopes telework can help mothers return to employment after

 having children and ease the burden on Tokyo's notoriously congested transport 

system (AFP Photo/CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)

'Mindsets are changing'

Kunihiko Higa, a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology who specialises in flexible work options, attributes that to reluctant managers.

Many of them "consider teleworking only as a tool for workers," he told AFP.

"In other words, they don't understand that teleworking, if used in the right way, can be a management strategy tool."

The coronavirus outbreak appears to have achieved what government campaigns could not, forcing the hands of firms who may previously have been reluctant.

"The situation has put their backs against the wall. They've been forced to give their employees the choice to telework," said Kazama.

A poll carried out at the end of February by the Keidanren business association of nearly 400 major firms found nearly 70 percent had already begun implementing teleworking or were planning to because of the pandemic.

The switch hasn't been universal. Workers still cram onto commuter trains -- albeit in smaller numbers -- and Japan's parliament is hardly setting the tone, continuing to hold sessions and ministerial press conferences.

And there is no guarantee yet that companies will continue to allow teleworking when the crisis eases.

But experts said being forced to try teleworking was likely to leave a lasting impact in Japan, with companies beginning to see working from home as a feasible and even attractive option.

"I think mindsets are changing," said Kazama.