Ads and sales regarding personal protective equipment have been banned on major online shopping and social media platforms. With a global shortage of masks and other protective medical accessories, platforms worry sales and ads of these products will exacerbate the market instability. What can we do to cope with these policies?

 

Ads and Sells policy online

 

Since early March, major social media platforms and search engines have stopped displaying sponsored content related to personal protective equipment of coronavirus on their website, including Facebook, Instagram, and Google. Major online shopping platforms followed this trend as well, eBay, Amazon, and Shopify have banned their sellers from selling mask, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant wipes, etc. The nuanced difference was eBay and Shopify pledged to pull down all the ads related to coronavirus. However, Amazon said they will keep the existing products, but not allow sellers to upload new products regarding that matter.

 

 

As for March 19th, when journalists from CNBC checked for how these platforms implementing this new policy, journalists still can find many ads that were displayed online and products were displayed for sale. These platforms claim that they haven’t developed a comprehensive algorithm to completely eliminate these ads and stores.

 

 

Some sellers have been developing a new way to promote their product, to bypass the ads ban. One way to do that is instead of posting ads, they ask influencers to promote their products on the post.

 

It is a much more subtle way than blatant ads to be detected by platforms. However, these platforms say they will extensively detect this new form of promoting and delete the related posts as well.

 

Why do platforms pull down ads and products related to coronavirus?

 

There are 3 reasons that platforms decided to pull down ads and products related to coronavirus.

 

Firstly, many users take advantage of the epidemic and deliberately increase the price of these products dramatically. According to the Fair Price Policy on these platforms, this kind of action is not allowed.

 

Secondly, many personal protective medical equipment has not been approved by the FDA. There are many products on sale that do not meet the standard of effective protection. This market is out of regulation right now.

 

Thirdly, some argue that selling these products online indirectly causes the shortage of protective equipment for health workers who work at the front line of combating coronavirus. Sellers may hoard products for a higher price, instead of sharing this already scarce resource.

 

 

Supply and Demand worldwide

 

The situation of short supply of these medical accessories still prevalent. According to Christopher Dobbing, the CEO and founder of Cambridge Mask Co., a small producer in Britain, the price of masks were up to 15 times higher than before, and demand had increased twelvefold.

 

 

Switching to the demand side, according to Daniel Koch, head of the Swiss Federal Office of Health, Switzerland alone, a country of 8.6 million, needs 1.2 million masks per day. According to the American Hospital Association, hospitals need up to nine times the protective equipment they do compare when dealing with normal flu.

 

What are the reasons for the short supply?

 

There are many obstacles right now for everyone gets the amount of mask they want.

 

Number one: few people might hoard too many masks at home because they worry about the situation could be lasting a long time or they trying to create a shortage in the market, in order to raise the price;       

 

Number two: many factories have not back to their normal operation yet because they worry about intensive labor space while operating will deteriorate the situation;       

 

Number three: many countries have posed export restriction on these products;     

 

Number four: shipping costs are on rising because of international flight restriction ;     

 

Number five: the raw material of mask, filter fabric, is in the shortage of supply.  

 

What can we do?

 

So, what can we do while both types of platforms banning ads and sales?

 

Firstly, we can mobilize our existing mail subscribers and Facebook group. Send them a notification and let them know that you have the product they may looking for.

 

 

Secondly, choose alternative products to sell, our winning product videos will be your best reference on what to sell.

 

Thirdly, selling your product on smaller-scale, and regional platforms, which still allow sales of these products.

 

Fourthly, since Amazon still allows existing listing of these products, connecting with shop owners of these listing, to see if they may need to add some stock to their inventory.

 

 

 

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