Table of Contents
- Take These Measures to Protect Yourself and Your Family
- The “Time Difference” in Terms of COVID-19 Pandemic
- China Remains the World’s Factory
- Dropshipping is the Way to Avoid Some Risks in International Transportation
- Pandemic-prevention Supplies in China Have More Reasonable Price
Until March 19, 2020, the world spreading coronavirus (COVID-19) is affecting 173 countries and territories, causing over 8000 deaths.
Take These Measures to Protect Yourself and Your Family
Taking measures to protect yourself and your family has never been so important. According to the Coronavirus disease advice for the public from the World Health Organization (WHO), here are some necessary protective measures.
- Wash your hands frequently
- Maintain social distancing
- Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth
- Practice respiratory hygiene
- If you have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical care early
- Stay home if you feel unwell.
- Stay informed and follow the advice given by your healthcare provider
Besides these recommendations, according to China’s epidemic prevention experience, wearing surgical masks or respirators in enclosed spaces and populated areas (e.g. office, crowded street, aircraft cabin, railway carriage, etc) can prevent the spread of the virus by droplets. However, with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a shortage of pandemic prevention supplies all over the world. It seems difficult to buy things like masks and hand sanitizers.
Here, to protect yourself, your families, your friends, and your customers who have been supporting you dropship surgical masks, and other pandemic-prevention supplies from China.
The “Time Difference” in Terms of COVID-19 Pandemic
According to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Situation published by WHO, the widespread of coronavirus in China began in late January, and the large-scale spread in other countries and territories of the world started at the end of February, we can see there is a time difference of about one month. China’s Coronavirus epidemic keeps slowing down after Feb 15 and is under control since March 1.
Some milestones
January 27: China’s State Council announced that they will extend the Spring Festival holiday to February 2 across the country. But the enterprises involved in the medical devices, drugs, protective products, and other industries for pandemic prevention and control are not taken into consideration, and these related enterprises should return to work as soon as possible.
March 9: China reports zero locally transmitted COVID-19 cases outside Hubei
March 18: no new local infections for the first time, all the 34 fresh cases in China are relating to travelers returning from abroad
(source https://www.worldometers.info/
As the pandemic situation is under control, China’s production, logistics, and other related industries have been in normal operation, and they can provide support to countries and regions with a serious pandemic situation.
China Remains the World’s Factory
Because most of the enterprises involved in the medical and protective products returned to work at the end of the January, and then the government issued a series of policies to urge the boost of production, in February, the production capacity of masks and all kinds of anti-epidemic products in China ballooned. By the end of February, the daily production capacity of masks in China more than quintupled from Feb. 1 to 110 million units that came in medical and non-medical calibers (source Xinhuanet).
Just as China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang said on March 18: ”As the world’s largest producer of protective suits and medical masks, China is an essential part of the global industrial and supply chains of medical materials. The situation in China is improving, with socio-economic performance coming back at a faster pace and production capacity of medical materials improving. This provides a guarantee for the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains, and support for the fight against the pandemic across the world.”
With most of the enterprises completing return-to-work(the government requires that only enterprises that provide enough masks for their employees can return to work), the domestic demand for masks is gradually decreasing, so during the global ravages of the new coronavirus (COVID-19), China will continue to serve as the world’s factory, providing various medical and living supplies.
Dropshipping is the Way to Avoid Some Risks in International Transportation
Maybe dropshipping is an excellent way to make money in peacetime, but in a situation like this, when all human beings are suffering from a disaster, it is not just about money. Pandemic-prevention supplies like masks, respirators, hand sanitizers, disposable gloves, etc., are in short supply in many countries, therefore, shipping many goods may encounter the risk of customs seizure and slow clearance. Here, the best solution is to send masks to global buyers in small parcels. More than that, compared to the warehouses work as the bulk goods transportation center, a full-functional China fulfillment center works more transparently, they can track the entire process in real-time in the order fulfillment system. Through photos or videos, you can see the masks and N95 respirators well organized on shelves, ready to dispatch. Trust me, transparency and control are more important than ever in this time of chaos and accidents.
In addition, it’s easier to ship liquid or gel in small parcels. For alcohol-containing products, such as hand sanitizer and disinfectant, there are more transportation channels for small packages delivery. As long as the volume of hand sanitizer is less than 100ml, they can move safely.
Pandemic-prevention Supplies in China Have More Reasonable Price
With the unequal demand and production capacity, the price of many anti-pandemic products has continued to rise since March.
Let’s take masks and respirators as an example: in Amazon US, the price of 10 pieces of disposable face masks is $18-24 and the N95 respirator is about $12/piece. The prices in Amazon UK are £10-20 and around £7. But in China, the prices are much lower. There are two major reasons.
- All China’s mask manufacturers have been working with full capacity for a month and a half
- As the epidemic has reached its last stage in China, China’s domestic demand has shrunk a lot.
If we convert the retail prices of the masks into US dollars
Ten piece surgical masks: $4-5
N95 respirators: about $1.5
But before you decide to purchase, there is a problem you should know. Because China’s mask factories have a lot of inventory and they’re used to dealing with big orders, their minimum order quantity is enormous, over 100000. They will never deal with dropshipping customers. That’s why NextSmartShip is here to help. Since e-commerce business owners from all over the world have the demand to purchase masks from China, NextSmartShip designed an alternative dropshipping plan for the sourcing, storage, and shipping of epidemic prevention items. NextSmartShip will integrate all the orders (no matter they are for online selling, conveying the family’s concern, donation, or any other purposes) and make the purchase from manufacturers. All the other processes will be much simpler, NextSmartShip will inspect, store, pick, pack, and ship the supplies to people who need them. It’s easy, transparent, automatic, and affordable, takes the pressure off and help you protect people you care about.
In addition, NextSmartShip will also send face masks to VIP customers for free (contact your fulfillment advisor for further information), to help online sellers to maintain their business operation and support global epidemic prevention.
Recently, advertising platforms like Google, Facebook, shopping carts like Shopify, eCommerce platforms like Amazon have put forward many restrictions on the advertising, price, and listing rules of anti-pandemic items. At the end of this article, we will provide some risk tips for you if you decide to sell face masks or other epidemic-prevention supplies online.
The Prompt List
- Amazon has suspended non-essential shipments from March 17 to April 5, if your product does not belong to the following categories, you can not enter the FBA warehouse. Please use other fulfillment centers as Plan B.
- Baby products
- Health & household
- Beauty & personal care (including personal care applications)
- Grocery
- Industrial & scientific
- Pet supplies
- Facebook bans all the ad accounts if they post ads for medical face masks or something about coronavirus, as part of an effort to prevent the use of its social media platform to exploit people’s concerns about the coronavirus outbreak.
- Google forbids the advertising of masks and other related anti-epidemic products.
- Shopify enhances the AUP policy and takes some measures. If the seller selling products such as masks, hand sanitizers, and toilet paper has problems such as inflated price or fraud, the seller’s account will be temporarily closed. Please make sure your price is not higher than before the coronavirus outbreak.
