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OnBuy.com has announced a pledge to protect its sellers and support small businesses. The online marketplace will waive its normal monthly standard subscriptions fee to sellers for the next 3 months.
“These are testing times, both personally and professionally, with the pandemic creating a level of disruption that generations of people won’t have experienced before. But it is during times like these where people and businesses can offer a lending hand and support one another,” said OnBuy.
“We’re aware of news that one of our competitors has stopped third-party sellers of ‘non-essential products’ from shipping to its warehouses, and want to do what we can to help all businesses that find themselves cut off, albeit temporarily, from any of their revenue streams.
“In light of this news, we’re today making a commitment to waive our normal monthly Standard subscription fee to any seller who has experienced disruption due to Amazon’s recent decision, for the next 3 months.”
New sellers can join OnBuy with the code OB2020 to receive a 100% discount on Standard subscription fees for 3 months, as long as they sign up and use the code by 01/05/2020.
On the other side of the fence, the pandemic has created an unsavoury marketplace for customers, where prices of high-demand items like hand soap are being drastically inflated, and product names are being inaccurately changed to entice buyers.
OnBuy says its team is working tirelessly to ensure that all products are marketed correctly, and that prices remain competitive but fair.
“Over the past few weeks, we have experienced an influx of new sellers flooding the site, and have had to stop more than 200 of them profiting from people’s desperation during this turbulent time, and will continue to monitor our platform to ensure customers are protected from price gouging,” said the marketplace.
The top products that have been edited, either by price or name, in order to increase profits during this time are:
- Hand sanitiser gel
- Oxygen canister
- No-touch handwash
- Non-contact forehead digital thermometer
- Antiseptic disinfectant cleaner
- Surgical face masks
“Since the outbreak of Covid-19 we’ve noticed a surge in sellers flocking to the ‘medical, hygiene and cleaning’ sectors, where prices for products like hand wash and sanitisers are inflated, and the names of certain products are changed to entice panicked customers to buy them. For example, a product that previously read ‘surgical mask’ was changed to ‘coronavirus mask’, and ‘vitamin for good skin’, to ‘vitamin for virus,” commented Cas Paton, OnBuy.com founder and CEO.
“To date, we have stopped 207 new sellers from either editing product names or hiking up prices and will continue to do so in order to protect our customers.
“On the other side of the market, a large number of independent sellers and small businesses are facing huge financial losses due to Amazon’s recent ban on its warehouse distribution. In these cases, we have committed to waiving subscription fees so they can continue to operate online. This coronavirus has unexpectedly upset the once even playing field of online marketplaces, but we’re working hard to ensure everyone, both buyers and sellers, are treated fairly.”
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