In March almost all countries have decided to impose restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
After 8 weeks EU countries started to ease their lockdown restrictions: businesses and schools are reopening, people are allowed to gather in small groups outside.
However, restrictions are easing gradually depending on each country. The fewer number of cases each country has, the more restrictions are to be lifted soon.
Map of restrictions one month ago (April, 2020)
Germany re-opened stores and resumed football.
The government allowed all stores to re-open, but with introducing extra hygiene and social distancing measures. The first big Bundesliga football match took place on May 16th, no spectators were allowed in the stadium. Borders due to reopen, initially to Switzerland, France, and Austria, from June, 15th
By NSYS clients statistics, German retailers and wholesalers have never paused their business processes. As you can see, the amount of processed devices is almost equal in April (before restriction ease) and in May (after).
Also, the main reason for their sustainable work is using the NSYS Tools solution for remote work.
In early May, some restrictions were relaxed in Italy.
People are now able to travel longer distances, as well as visit their relatives in small groups. Most businesses in Italy, including bars and hairdressers, were opened on May 18th.
Our statistics of processed devices show that Italy, like Germany, switched to remote work and have been showing stable indicators before and after restrictions ease. This is one of the brightest examples of business flexibility – due to the pandemic all employees were switched to remote work and have been processing the same volume of mobile devices as before.
Spain, meanwhile, has slightly eased restrictions for small businesses.
From May 11th, customers can use a terrace bar but bars and restaurants will not fully re-open until June 10th. People living within a kilometer of Barcelona’s beaches will be allowed to visit them to sunbathe from Wednesday, May 20th.
The restriction ease officially started on May 11th. However, the activity peak was seen a week earlier. It’s connected with the de-escalation, which officially started on Monday, May 4th. It’s a great example that shows how the ease of restrictions influences the secondary mobile phone market activity.
One of our French clients who deal with BuyBack and Trade-In programs, shared his opinion about his business development, sales growth, and the end of quarantine:
Samuel Joseph, VOLPY
1. We have been receiving requests throughout all quarantine. One day we noticed that majority of the received phones were really old. People shared that during lockdown everyone started cleaning up, and as a result, a lot of old phones were found and sent to us for buyback. Our Government announced the ease of the restrictions on May 11th, but I can’t say it brought to my business any actual changes. The amount of requests has increased, but not so much. 2. Moreover, I see how the movement of goods within France is reestablishing and it has already helped our business. Recently, we finally got an iPhone 11 and used A-grade phones, which we’ve been waiting for over a month. 3. Secondary mobile phone market is stabilizing now and I believe that it will start recovering to its normal state in June, when most restrictions are lifted.
As we can see, retail business offline activity is bound by the restrictions and even their partial ease has a direct positive effect on the companies working with mobile phones.
In order to keep your business up and running regardless of the circumstances, you can implement NSYS Tools solution for remote work and wireless device activation, diagnostics, and data erasure of your mobile phone stock.
