Link

Young firebrand rides wave of anti-corporate sentiment to become top regulator

By:  David Bland

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is under new leadership. On June 15, 32-year-old Lina Khan was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 69-to-28 vote following her nomination by President Joe Biden in March. The Columbia Law School professor is the youngest person to ever lead the Commission and is already making waves as she prepares an agenda to reshape the priorities of the FTC and reclaim powers that the agency relinquished four decades ago.

Our biggest innovation of the year is also an exciting milestone for the channel.  We have finalized a cooperative joint venture agreement with Nasser Khan, founder and CEO of Nu Life International. This gives us the ability to market both Vasayo’s liposomal based supplements and Beléza by Vasayo skincare products in mainland China beginning in August. The agreement makes Vasayo the youngest network marketing company in industry history to launch in China.  Vasayo’s entry into China will be seen as a major event for direct sellers in the years to come. We are looking forward to sharing our science-based liposomal technology with all the wonderful people in China. 

— Daniel Picou, CEO and Co-founder, Vasayo

In May, Arbonne went through an exciting digital transformation with the unveiling of our brand new website, ACE. This launch featured an innovative, mobile-first design with enhanced, best in class shopping features—accelerating the way our consultants and clients engage and grow their business through social commerce. The elevated online system delivers high-touch experiences through the intersection of data and personalized product recommendations to create an amplified user journey.

— Amy Humfleet, Chief Marketing Officer, Arbonne

The rate of change in the consumer sector over the past five years has been staggering and the acceleration of change is increasing. The future for companies that are not innovating in this market environment is hard to imagine ending on a positive note. The Longaberger company has seen significant growth over the past 12 months that has been driven by adopting new technologies, primarily livestreaming, and marketplace ecommerce management systems with the goal to connect communities of artisans with our community of stylist or nano influencers. We have reimagined shopping, entertainment and social media as one thing.

— Bob D’Loren, Chairman and CEO, Xcel

Link to share this article: https://socialsellingnews.com/link/what-was-your-companys-most-innovative-move-so-far-this-year-3855/

His thoughts on his latest partnership endeavor and preparing their new company for growth.

By:  David Bland

Bellia CEO Antonio Barrera is a born entrepreneur. His antique repair business in Mexico evolved into a major furniture exporter. Barrera then took over a prestigious French skincare brand that he still manages today. But his life changed completely when his longtime business partner, Gonzalo Artiach, introduced him to Curves founder Gary Heavin—the man that Ernst and Young named the best entrepreneur in the United States. Together, Barrera, Artiach, and Heavin successfully sold Curves franchises around the world and now will apply the power of their partnership to direct selling’s newest jewelry startup, their mutual creation, Bellia.

What no one is talking about

By:  Colt Passey

Historically, businesses have focused on loss prevention as part of their fraud strategy and want to reduce the impact of fraud on their profit and loss statements. Ideally, they would be able to avoid fraud, but most organizations accept a certain level of fraud-related loss, albeit reluctantly.

Implementing strict fraud prevention practices and multi-factor authentication has become standard practice. However, fraud prevention can also focus on trust and safety by not insulting customers—for instance, by incorrectly identifying legitimate interactions as fraudulent and making interactions intolerable through repeated high-friction challenges. While this statement refers to customers, the same applies to distributors. 

The keys to protecting your business against ransomware

By:  Alexander White

Executive leaders and organizational decision-makers can easily and should immediately assess if their organizations are taking these steps in the prevention, preparation, and protection of their most critical business assets. 

As it trends now—because of the publicized breaches, focused legislative initiatives, and increased cyber knowledge of the average user—it is both the most and least talked about issue in business data compromise today.

Accurate, accessible, and accelerated data and systems are the lifeblood of any successful organization. Businesses build the perfect harmony between their people, processes, and technology to ensure all departments communicate at the speed of customer need.

At the same time, cybercriminals make it their business to disrupt that harmony and capitalize on the risk that discord creates. The problem is that the way businesses manage their systems and data creates vulnerabilities, which are quite the playbook for cybercriminals to execute their infiltration. The trending topic of ransomware has gained emerging momentum in business security conversations due to several widely publicized breaches. 

Class actions prompted by lash product spur additional legal headache for cosmetics direct seller

Rodan + Fields’ insurance carrier has filed a complaint against the skincare brand just as the direct seller navigates class actions related to one of its products. Ironshore Specialty Insurance Co., a Liberty Mutual subsidiary, filed the complaint in a California federal court and maintains that it should be exempt from paying Rodan + Fields’ legal defense or any claims arising from the class action cases currently being deliberated in state and federal courts.

Commissioner Chopra pushes for removal of direct selling exemption

By:  David Bland

It is alarming that the FTC seems to have prejudged the public comment process and concluded that the scope of the Rule should be expanded to impose a new regimen of rules and regulations on the direct selling industry.

—Larry Steinberg, Chair of Multilevel Marketing Industry Group, Buchalter

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on June 14 a review of the Business Opportunity Rule by the end of the year. The Rule was first proposed in 2006 and was finalized with amendments in 2012 after direct selling companies and the Direct Selling Association (DSA) vigorously argued for, and ultimately received, a generalized exclusion from the Rule.