A Letter from the CEO: COVID-19, Hardship, Optimism and Action

Team Dsco knows that I am an undying optimist, yet even optimists have moments or even days filled with sadness. The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked our world in a matter of weeks, personally and professionally. Jobs have been lost, but even worse are the lives we’ve lost. There have been many moments of sadness.

Our hearts go out to those who are sick and their families. We are so grateful for the health workers and many public servants who risk their lives to take care of us all. At Dsco, we are committed to doing our part to flatten the curve through social distancing and other safe practices.

The economic impact of COVID-19 is broad, spanning all industry segments. As a technology partner to the retail industry, we’ve seen the economic devastation firsthand. Stores and warehouses have been forced to close. Workers have been furloughed. Inventory is frozen. Consumer demand is frantic.

We had the best Q1 in company history, with triple digit growth on all the best metrics, but we still felt the impact, including saying goodbye to a few members of our team. We cut costs and revised our plans for Q2, while preparing for a strong rebound shortly after.

Rest assured, Team Dsco isn’t slowing down or sitting down. We’re just getting started.

The world needs e-commerce now more than ever, and we see how much this current opportunity is further strengthening our relationships. When a customer-partner of ours is pivoting in a crisis, we choose the road of forgiveness, patience, and collaboration, instead of holding their growth hostage with threats of their service being turned off, like we’ve seen from others in our industry.

Now is when true leaders and true partnerships emerge, and it’s when the fear mongers and low-minded salespeople crawl out of their caves making puerile attempts at opportunism.

Dsco is committed to making an impact on the industry and helping the thousands of companies connected to our platform. We know there are hundreds of thousands of retail employees behind those companies and millions of consumers. We’re proud of our recently launched offering for Ship from Store, partnering with retailers to free inventory that has been frozen by the virus. And we have more great things planned.

Hellen Keller once said, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”

Like I said, I am an undying optimist. As a company, and together with our customer-partners, we are coming out stronger on the other side.