Amazon Appeases the Bashful with Adult Policy Change

Rather than make sensitive people avert their eyes when shopping, Amazon is making some changes to listings for certain types of products, requiring them to be classified as adult products. According to the announcement:

“Our adult products policies are meant to prevent adult products from being surfaced to customers who are not intending to find these types of products while shopping on Amazon.

“Given the multi-purpose usage of wand massagers and kegel/ben wa balls, including for sexual use, we will require the adult product classification on such products.

“This policy update will help improve customer experience and ensure these products are appropriately classified as adult products.”

However, Amazon referred to its Adult products policies & guidelines, where it uses the word “offensive” when referring to products in its Sexual Wellness category:

“The Sexual Wellness category under Health and Personal Care (HPC) provides customers with a wide selection of adult and sexual wellness products. We maintain our customers’ trust by ensuring we do not expose explicitly sexual or offensive adult personal products to all our customers.”

One seller was not amused, calling it a woman’s health issue: “It is absurd. We have products in this category that are FDA CLEARED FOR URINARY INCONTINENCE,” the seller wrote, and said the items are prescribed by pelvic floor physical therapists.

It’s uncertain if eBay’s decision to eliminate its Adults Only category altogether this summer had an impact on Amazon as sellers looked for alternative platforms on which to sell.

But interestingly, you can find wand massagers like the ones Amazon is now gating on its platform for sale on eBay in its “Health & Beauty>Massage>Massagers” category.

The new Amazon policy change goes into effect on November 15, 2021.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.