Mirakl Launches StopCOVID19.fr Marketplace to Connect Health Professionals With Critical Supplies
Right now, there’s no such thing as “business as usual.” But in the face of a global situation that changes day by day, we’re seeing businesses get creative with their resources to lessen the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. A great example comes from LMVH and L’Oreal, two of many manufacturers that have converted plants to make hand sanitizing gel. Clothing manufacturers are stepping up, too, sewing masks and scrubs to supply health care workers.
But once these manufacturers started to produce these supplies, they ran into a new challenge: how to get them into the hands of the organizations that need them. That’s why when the French Ministry for the Economy and Finance approached us to help solve these critical COVID-19 supply chain challenges, we jumped at the chance.
Introducing the StopCOVID19.fr healthcare marketplace
In under 48 hours, we launched StopCOVID19.fr, a Mirakl-powered Marketplace to solve the shortage of essential products and materials in hospitals. With StopCOVID19, we’re putting vital protective items like hand sanitizing gel, masks and protective clothing in the hands of health professionals and public institutions. I’m proud to say that in the first 24 hours of operation, 150,000 liters of hand sanitizing gel were sold through the platform to hospitals and clinics fighting on the front lines.
StopCOVID19.fr provides solutions to 3 major problems:
It resolves the shortage of essential products and materials
It provides a secure platform
It centralizes the supply and demand of essential commodities for professionals
When StopCOVID19.fr launched, we’ve onboarded nearly 50 sellers and welcomed 300+ clients into the marketplace. While 70% of these clients were health facilities, the marketplace was able to expand to serve other industries that needed critical supplies, such as grocery chains, transportation companies (including SNCF, the French national rail), and food producers (like manufacturer Danone).
The marketplace organized the distribution chain for these products, connecting producers of these materials with packaging manufacturers and, ultimately, the hospitals and clinics who needed the products. In many cases, they were offering the products for free or at minimal cost.
Fighting COVID-19 in France and across the globe
We’re proud to be able to do what we can with our resources to support the efforts to contain the pandemic – and we’re ready to replicate this in other countries to help local hospitals and health care workers on the front line fight the virus safely.
Our co-founder and CEO, Philippe Corrot, puts it this way:
“As a high-tech company, we examined all possibilities of how we could put our expertise to use to combat this unprecedented crisis. At Mirakl, we feel very lucky to be able to help French doctors and healthcare workers. We are committed to providing assistance to our fellow French and European citizens during this very difficult time.”
As the year progressed, we continued to be tested on our agility, flexibility, and ability to come up with creative solutions in uncharted territory. Based on what we had seen in the previous few weeks, there was no doubt that we had the tools to get through this situation together.
