An “emerging risk” survey found the “renewed” spikes in COVID-19 cases in many regions was a top executive concern as Q2 drew to a close, reported Gartner Friday. It canvassed 131 senior executives “across industries and geographies on the top concerns facing their businesses,” it said. Most cited the pandemic’s “second wave” as their top worry, “even as many regions are struggling with the first wave of the virus,” said Gartner. “Concerns related to the financial implications of the pandemic were present throughout the top 10, with executives in particular expressing concerns about their organizations’ new working conditions and strategic responses to the crisis.” Senior executives are “grappling” with their companies’ reopening plans, “complicated by different stages of the coronavirus in different regions,” said Gartner. “It’s now becoming clear that a ‘re-exit plan’ will also be a required part of any such strategy.”
COVID-19 lockdowns sent Q2 sales in the Philips consumer products “portfolio” plunging 19%, with all personal health businesses declining by double digits, said Chief Financial Officer Abhijit Bhattacharya on a Monday investor call. Consumer sales through digital online channels grew by mid-single digits in the quarter to about 46% of total sales for the personal health businesses, compared with 33% in Q1, he said. In-store consumer sales declined by “strong double digits” in Q2, he said. “We have witnessed gradual improvement of consumer demand in the course of the second quarter, with a comparable sales decline of 11% for the personal health businesses in the month of June, he said. “We currently expect consumer demand to sequentially improve in Q3 and personal health comparable sales to be back to modest growth in the fourth quarter.”
Smartphone shipments in India fell 48% in Q2 to 17.3 million units due to a “complete halt in production” and lower demand due to COVID-19, said Canalys Friday. Third-place Samsung, whose shipments dropped 60% to 2.9 million for 16.8% share, also had exports hit “as its largest manufacturing plant outside of Vietnam shut down for most of Q2,” said the research firm. Xiaomi led the market with 5.3 million shipments for 31% share, followed by Vivo shipping 3.7 million units for 21.3% share.
GameStop joined the growing list of retailers requiring customers to wear masks inside stores, saying Friday the “safety measure” will take effect July 27 in all U.S. locations. The 10-day lag will give GameStop time to inform customers of the change, post signage and train employees on the new protocol. Best Buy, Costco, Target and Walmart are among the growing number of retailers requiring mask use in stores (see past two issues of this publication). GameStop didn’t respond to questions.
T-Mobile and Sprint customers can get MLB.TV for free beginning Tuesday, said T-Mobile Friday. The perk includes a free one-year subscription to The Athletic; both services are regularly $59 annually. Spring training games will be played Tuesday and Wednesday; regular season games begin Thursday in the COVID-19-shortened MLB season.
About 12 million U.S. students pre-COVID “were in households without adequate internet access,” Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., told an Axios webinar Friday. In her travels around the country, Meng met “one too many kids who were unable to do their homework at home,” she said. “Much of the assignments, unlike when I was a kid, are given online or completed online.” When the pandemic hit, 55 million students were “not able to physically go to school, and many were not able to do their homework,” she said. It suddenly became “a very dire and time-sensitive issue,” she said. The Moving Forward Act (HR-2) would establish a $2 billion grant to localities for lending devices and hot spots to needy students, said Meng, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. “Because of the coronavirus pandemic, we are trying to figure out the fastest and the most efficient ways” of getting relief to students in need “without having to reinvent the wheel,” she said. It would allow students to “get online as soon as possible” after the legislation is signed, she said. It has bipartisan support and the backing of more than 50 organizations, she said.
LG Electronics Chief Technology Officer Park Il-Pyung will keynote the global news conference at IFA 2020 Special Edition, said show organizers Friday. The sharply downsized in-person event is Sept. 3-5 and will be livestreamed (see 2005190035). IFA didn’t say what date Park will appear or whether he will attend physically or virtually. Organizers didn’t respond to emails Friday. “LG will take part in IFA 2020 Special Edition and focus on the consumer situation in times of the new normal,” they said. Rival Samsung announced this month it was pulling out of IFA and will stage its own virtual event in early September (see 2007020030).
Effective intellectual property protections “enabled the rapid private sector response to the pandemic,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and sister business groups in Canada, France, Germany, South Korea and the U.K. wrote “world leaders” Thursday. “These protections will be essential to support the rapid manufacturing and distribution of safe and effective treatments and vaccines when they are approved,” said the groups. “Our associations urge you to recognize the critical role effective intellectual property protections have played and will play in defeating the virus, in helping to drive economic recovery, and in enabling the private sector to make sustainable contributions to solving this crisis.” They also urged leaders to “rally the world” to urgently remove “unnecessary supply chain barriers that are hindering the efficient distribution of COVID-19 technologies.”
Target will require customers to wear masks or face coverings beginning Aug. 1, it said Thursday. The new policy is in keeping with "guidance" from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "on the role masks play in preventing the spread of the coronavirus," emailed a spokesperson. Target will exempt young children and customers with underlying medical conditions. This "builds on the more than 80% of our stores that already require guests to wear face coverings due to local and state regulations," said the spokesperson. Store employees already wear store-provided masks. Target will provide disposable masks at store entrances. It will add signage and overhead audio messages and station team members at entrances to remind customers to wear masks. The retailer will steer shoppers to its "no-contact fulfillment options, including Drive Up, Target.com and Shipt, if they’d prefer," she said. Walmart and Best Buy announced customer such requirements this week (see report, July 16).
June retail sales at electronics and appliance stores increased 37.4% from May but declined 11.7% from June 2019, reported the National Retail Federation Thursday. Sales through online and other non-store channels were down 2.4% month over month, but up 30.2% year over year, it said. Total U.S. retail sales in June were up 7.5% from May and up 1.1% from June 2019, the first year over year increase since February, said NRF. Retail sales “have been climbing back upward” after a record 14.7% decline in April, “the first full month that most stores were closed” due to COVID-19, it said.