Excellent Stores is reporting a surge in their online sales as they surmise people are shopping as a way to pick themselves up from the difficult year caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was last December, Excellent Stores closed its Excellent City Centre Branch in Downtown Port of Spain.
By April of this year, they also permanently shut down their branches in Arima and Trincity Mall.
The closures, the brand said, was connected to their transition to online shopping.
Chief Executive Officer Alex Siu Chong said the company had held an online presence for several years, but with the COVID-19 pandemic’s stifling physical interactions, it was an option that they decided to push even further.
“I mean we’ve been transitioning. We’ve been online since 2014, right? You know, and I think what most of the public, you know, were going is more of a cultural shift,” said Siu Chong in a phone interview with the Business Guardian.
“Everybody was still going in the stores and the COVID really drove online into the forefront, but we’ve been doing online for a while. So online continues to be steady, and growing, you know, particularly from last year.”
The company has continuously worked on its online platforms since those physical stores have shut their doors as they try to ensure they can properly handle the increased demand.
“We had a significant increase in online sales. So that’s that’s going quite well. We are in our third upgrade of the website, right? So we can handle, continuing handling more volume and adding more features and that sort of thing,” he said.
That steady increase has seen an uptick in the past month or so, as Siu Chong explained that there had been a surge in sales heading into the Christmas period.
And this surge has not been just on their online platform.
This surge may be linked to Excellent Stores’ reputation as a Christmas powerhouse, but Siu Chong said they had seen similar surge earlier this year, prior to Divali.
Siu Chong explained that sales for Divali were usually similar to those of Christmas, but with the pandemic there was an expectation that shoppers might be more reserved.
Instead, the opposite has occurred.
“Customers who just celebrated Divali, you understand, changed out a lot of the furnishings are saying you know what, I need another another sort of pick me up. Right?,” said Siu Chong who theorised that many of the shoppers were using the period to break themselves out of negativity imposed by the COVID-19 situation.
“We found that that some of them would come back and say I just need to get as much Christmas items just to keep the mental positivity” he said, “ so the mental health really (has impacted) and I think that what many people are not realizing is the mental health aspect is most probably, one of the major factors (driving sales).”
However while sales are up, especially in comparison to last year, the situation is still not ideal for Excellent Stores and other businesses.
Some business owners in San Juan also noted increased business, but in some cases lost out on business because of the uncertainty caused by the supply chain.
With the challenges in mind, business owners opted for conservative orders and yet have been faced higher demand for some products.
Siu Chong has similarly seen this challenge, as he sometimes has to struggle to replace stock.
“Everyone is inconvenienced by the whole logistical challenges but we are doing better than last year, but which actually is, you know, thankfully,” said Siu Chong, “We’re very grateful for every dollar that comes right, Thankfully we’re performing. As we you get a new shipment coming, they’re flying off the shelves and we cannot actually replenish fast enough. So, you know, as soon as our shipments clear, we just get it into the stores. One time, clear shipment and just get it in, get it in as soon as possible.”
However, not all businesses have been as lucky. Several clothing store owners have complained about slow sales. However many admitted that traditionally the Christmas period is notorious for last minute shopping.
“We all wish that things were better than they are...I think Christmas started off a little slow. Primarily a lot of it was because of significant amount of logistical challenges that everybody’s facing right now. We were no different than many people. So our Christmas actually started off with not our full range right off the bat but we still got good responses from the public”
Siu Chong was unsure if the uncertainty with freight clearances also prompted shoppers to return to local businesses, but he did explain while sales were up, traffic at store was definitely down as more of the public were taking precautions as a result of the pandemic.
“What we found is that actually during COVID the average basket size has been increasing. So we did find that people are reducing their visits because when they see a line and say, you know what, I am not able with this long line, so they would go online or they would stock up, right. So on average, we are seeing some increases in average basket sizes,” he said.
He said over the course of the year he had seen this change in behaviour in shoppers, particularly at groceries.
“You would have seen that with the grocery, people didn’t didn’t want to go to the grocery as frequent. So therefore, what they did is that they just took the opportunity to stock up,” he said.
But he believes that there was extra push due to the Christmas season and the general feeling of COVID fatigue.
He felt that this surge, whatever the cause of it, was a positive sign for an economy that had largely struggled since the pandemic hit in March 2019.
“I think overall, not just for excellent stores, we’re continuing to bring goods out and replenish as we clear the containers, but also I think that even though things have been tough, there’s still hope I think for the country,” he said,
“We’re still moving and and I still see so we still have a long way to go but but the fact is that I think the economy is still working and still moving, right? So I think for me that this that gives me a little bit of hope going into next year.”