If anyone wants more analogs on how eCommerce is trending around the world:
Shopify reports tonight/(tomorrow morning US/Canada) but in the meantime...
Mercadolibre (the Amazon or Ali Baba of South America) put results out yesterday with some enlightening commentary on the impact of Covid-19: https://seekingalpha.com/pr/17859922-mercadolibre-inc-reports-first-quarter-2020-financial-results Net Revenues of $652.1 million, up 70.5% year-over-year on an FX neutral basis $8.1 billion Total Payment Volume, up 82.2% year-over-year on an FX neutral basis $3.4 billion Gross Merchandise Volume, up 34.2% year-over-year on an FX neutral basis
Recent COVID-19 related key trends Government-imposed total or partial lockdowns instituted throughout Latin America in late March impacted geographic segments and business lines differently. Additionally, the magnitude of negative impact was greater in the initial weeks following government mandated lockdowns, with gradual improvements as time elapsed. The marketplace KPI’s hit a low point during the week of the 18th to the 24th of March. Year-over-year growth for items sold during that week troughed at 3.3%, with Fx Neutral GMV declining by 1.4%. From then onwards, we have seen a strong rebound, with growth rates accelerating in April to 75.8% year-over-year in Items Sold and 72.6% Fx Neutral year-over-year in GMV for the full month. Initially, consumers seem to have pulled back on expenditures on non-essential items. This led to a mix shift in sales. Categories such as health, consumer packaged goods and toys and games showed strength, with volume growth in those categories exceeding 100% year-over-year on an FX neutral basis in some markets. Conversely, certain higher ticket, non-essential categories such as auto parts and consumer electronics saw marked declines in growth rates. Managed logistics network continued operating normally, guaranteeing timely deliveries for orders shipped through it. Warehouses remain with no significant disruptions, rapidly approaching having half of our shipments already running on our own logistics network, not only improving average cost per order and shipping times but also service levels. The fintech business also experienced an initial slowdown during the third week of March, followed by sequential weekly improvements through the last week of March and into April. Off marketplace TPV growth during the second half of March was 95.4% year-over-year on an FX Neutral basis, and TPN was 87.3% year-over-year. By April these growth rates had accelerated to 155.6% and 119.8% respectively. Deceleration in number and volume of payments processed was a consequence primarily of lower foot traffic in physical retail, which had a direct impact on lower mobile point of sale and QR total payment volume growth partially offset by the relative strength in Merchant Services. By the end of the quarter, the non performing loan ratios had not shown a deterioration due to the COVID-19 crisis. Nonetheless, to manage our exposure to merchant and consumer credits amidst a global pandemic, we slowed credit originations to both cohorts. In terms of liquidity and cash management for the fintech business, all relevant funding sources remained available, drawing on credit facilities to maximize liquidity at a local subsidiary level. The consolidated Balance Sheet currently holds approximately $2.3 billion dollars in cash, cash equivalents and liquid securities.
APT Price at posting:
$38.87 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
