Online sales players are organizing around the Professional Advertising Regulatory Authority (ARPP) and are deploying the “responsible social selling” certificate to better regulate the sector and combat abuse. The ambition of this certificate is to guarantee the protection of consumers and brands as well as to support the professionalization of the sector.
While online sales have been experiencing a new boom in France since the health crisis with the help of the development of social networks, it can take several forms: influence marketing, social selling, multi-level marketing (MLM). In some cases, it is the subject of abuses and misleading or even illegal practices. To combat abuses and misleading or even illegal practices, e-commerce professionals have organized themselves around the ARPP (Professional Advertising Regulatory Authority), at the initiative of Jolimoi, a player in beauty and well-being social selling, to deploy the “responsible social selling” certificate intended to supervise and professionalize this activity.
As a reminder, social selling uses social networks to interact and create relationships with potential customers. According to a recent study, recommendation by a third party, known or not, is the main purchasing lever for the French (51% for the entire population, i.e. + 10 points in 4 years, 58% for Gen Z and 63% among 15-17 year-olds). Democratized thanks to the development of social networks, this method of sale is booming, particularly among young people. However, it has also seen the emergence of abusive and misleading, even illegal, practices.
In place since July 4, the “responsible social selling” certificate is a program which aims to establish more ethical and transparent online sales practices to better protect consumers, sellers and brands.
Informing brands to protect consumers
The “responsible social selling” certificate is presented as an online learning course, validated by an exam, which covers the basic rules for legal and ethical communication and sales: information on prices, characteristics of products and services, withdrawal period, delivery and warranty conditions, protection of confidential information… This initiative is a continuation of the Responsible Influence Certificate launched in September 2021.
This responsible social selling training and certification course is managed by an interprofessional monitoring committee comprising the Direct Selling Federation (FVD), the Federation of e-commerce and distance selling (FEVAD), the Union of brands, platforms such as Meta and specialized players such as the company Jolimoi.
Source: www.ecommercemag.fr
