MVA Enterprise LLC: A summary of the Online Store experience .

In March 2005, MVA Enterprise LLC launched an Online Store as an experiment to test the potential for direct to consumer sales of MVA kits at a low and transparent price. We continue to host the original MVA Online Store for informational purposes only, including its MVA Resource page.

The MVA Online Store offered for sale:

• Single valve MVA kits manufactured by PAHSCO (Pacific Hospital Supply Company). Each kit included: one single valve syringe, 4mm, 5mm, 6mm cannulae, lubricant, a detailed PAHSCO instruction manual. Each order was a minimum of 5 kits (to decrease shipping costs per kit). Cost: $15 per kit ($75 per order), before shipping fees.

• Larger cannulae with connectors (7mm & 8mm) made by another high quality manufacturer to use with the single valve syringes. Cost: $5 for ten 7mm & 8mm cannulae with connectors (five of each size per order).

Sales were offered only to trained MVA service providers in developing countries.

The web-based experiment tested three objectives:

• The potential for internet-based communication sales of MVA to doctors
• The potential for direct-to-physician shipments of MVA kits
• The potential to use internet ordering and direct shipping to reduce the cost of resupply kits for doctors in developing countries.

Results:

• The Internet worked well for communication to MVA users, but less well for sales. The reasons for this are multi-faceted, but we believe the largest barriers were lack of credit cards and lack of experience with Internet purchases among the practitioners with whom we communicated.

• Shipping small packages directly to MVA providers was successful. Orders were shipped to the Philippines, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Jordan, and the UNFPA in Switzerland, in response to requests.

• It is possible to deliver single valve MVA kits to end users for $30-$40 per kit ($25 above the cost of the manufacturer). This includes: $5 from manufacturer, $15 average shipping fee, and sufficient margin for overhead costs.

Conclusions:

• MVA Enterprise has provided the only publicly displayed prices of MVA kits online, to date.

• We believe that Internet access is widespread enough among MVA services providers to make a market.

• If price information was available on line, including taxes and fees by country, this transparency alone could reduce prices of MVA. This should include all prices, taxes and fees by country for the Ipas original double valve and MVA Plus equipment.

Those of us involved with this online experiment hope that our results will lead to continued efforts to test the feasibility of direct to consumer sales, or Internet assisted sales through distributors, of MVA equipment. We are all focused on saving the lives of women around the world, and we must work together to prioritize increased MVA equipment availability at affordable prices.

For inquiries please contact: mvaenterprise@yahoo.com