Rolling Average of Retail Sales from DAVO Customers
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Sales revenue crashed by over 58% in just a few weeks. Now it’s down by 14% and steadily improving.

The chart above shows DAVO Automated Sales Tax (davosalestax.com) brick-and-mortar merchants’ daily sales revenue since early March (blue line) and then a rolling 7-day average of those sales (red line). The high point of the red line was on March 5th, 2020 while the low point of the red line occurred on March 31st, 2020. At that point, sales revenue had crashed by over 58% in just a few weeks. Now it’s down by 14% (June 11, 2020) and steadily improving.

DAVO’s customer base is a great view of Main Street America

DAVO’s customer base offers a great view of Main Street America. As an automated sales tax service that integrates with cloud-based Point-of-Sale terminals such as Clover, Square, and Toast, DAVO uses sales data from these terminals to set aside, file, and pay sales tax for their customers. These merchants are a mix of quickserve and dine-in restaurants, bars, retail establishments such as clothing boutiques and gift shops, small grocery and convenience stores, automotive repair centers, and other SMBs across the United States. The majority of DAVO’s thousands of brick-and-mortar customers bring in under $2 million dollars in annual sales and therefore represent a large chunk of the businesses hit hardest by COVID-19.

The data above includes a mix of businesses that are fully open, partially open, or have closed down completely due to COVID-19, so you’re seeing an average of all of DAVO’s customers.

38% of Main Street Merchants were Completely Closed Down on March 31st

We can also see how many businesses generated no sales revenue on any given day or were essentially closed for business. On March 31st, for example, when sales revenue was down 58%, 38% of merchants were closed and bringing in no revenue. Oddly, we see that the 38% number holds for a couple weeks until it dips to around 42% of businesses closed on April 12th. From there the number of businesses reopening and generating revenue has climbed, with around 85% of DAVO merchants bringing in revenue as of June 11th while 15% remain closed.

Sales Revenue for Operating Businesses are Now Even With Early March Numbers

For businesses that have been open and generating revenue, we saw sales revenue dip down by 34% in late March compared with early March. Now our mix of operating businesses are flat as of June 11th compared to the high point in March.

We will continue to monitor the numbers and you are welcome to refer back to this post to see how the data is tracking. The graph at the top will update daily. With any luck, we will soon see the numbers climb back to where they were or maybe even surpass the early March numbers which could be a sign that Main Street is bouncing back.

About DAVO

DAVO Automated Sales Tax (davosalestax.com) integrates with many popular POS systems such as Clover, Square, and Toast to set aside sales tax daily and file and pay it when it’s due, on-time and in-full. Put your sales tax on autopilot and never worry about it again. Visit davosalestax.com to learn more.