Five Important Insights from Online Marketplaces’ Deep Dive Survey

Online Marketplaces just launched its second Coronavirus Impact Survey – this time taking a deep dive into revenue, traffic and cost impacts.  

Here are five early and important insights from the Coronavirus Impact Survey launched yesterday. If you would like to participate, please click here.

Register today for a FREE webinar on Monday 6th April where more results will be discussed. In addition, those that complete the survey will have a special webinar on the 8th to discuss the results in full. 

There are many more insights that will be shared.

Since January / February, the following changes have already happened for portals and marketplaces (on average):

1. 19 percent decrease in customers/advertisers

C-Level leaders are reporting that there has been a significant decrease in customers in March with the second half being significantly worse than the first half. The main cause is advertisers temporarily closing their businesses or choosing to stop advertising – very few have actually gone out of business already. Leaders are expecting the churn of customers to continue for the next two to three months.

2. 15 percent decrease in listing numbers

Overall the C-Level leaders are reporting that the number of listings from advertisers has decreased by around 15 percent.  This seems in line with the number of customers ceasing to advertise with the portal. It is expected that this will accelerate as housing markets around the world slow down.

3. 17 percent decrease in revenue and this is expected to increase to 28 percent 

The average month on month (Feb to Mar) decrease in revenue was 17 percent. However, leaders reported up to a 70 percent decrease in revenues.  Most leaders expect this to get worse and compared to their original budget, expect revenues to be off by 28 percent for the last 9 months of the year.  Most of the decrease in revenues is being driven by customers proactively decreasing their listing and VAS (value added services) packages.

4. 73 percent of respondents are offering some form of financial assistance

Most portals and marketplaces are offering some form of financial assistance to their customers. The most popular types of financial assistance are discounted listing subscriptions (with an average of 33 percent discount), deferred invoice payments, free listing subscriptions, and discounted depth or value-added services.

5. 24 percent decrease in total enquiries

On average, enquires are down 24 percent over January and February while visitation has decreased by similar numbers.  It is expected that this will decline even further as buyers and renters cease to enquire about properties as their own personal financial situations worsen.

These are just some of the many findings coming out of the 60-question Coronavirus Impact Survey.  If you would like to participate, click here to complete the survey.

During the FREE webinar on the 6th April, these survey results will be discussed in further detail while people that complete the survey, will be invited to a special webinar to discuss the survey results in detail.