Van de Velde tests social selling with Pippa & Jean

By

Tanissia Issad

Translated by
Jennifer Braun

Published
Feb 27, 2018

It’s in Germany that the Van de Velde group has decided to launch a new concept to sell its products. Developed in collaboration with social selling platform provider Pippa & Jean, the innovative process will allow consumers, along with friends, to try the Marie Jo and PrimaDonna products in their homes. Then, they will be able to order their favorite styles through personalised online stores.
 

The selling strategy looks a lot like the one developed to sell the famous small plastic boxes (Tupperware) in the United States. It’s therefore, no coincidence that Anja Horst, Van de Velde's newly appointed Managing Director for social selling, is behind the project after working for eight years in marketing at Tupperware Germany.
 
By partnering with Pippa & Jean, a German start-up who has centred its social selling concept around "style coaches" and styling events extended by a digital platform for purchases, Van de Velde is venturing into new land. For the CEO of the Belgian group, Erwin van Laethem, this is a way to "ensure the availability of our brands for customers through all channels."

Van de Velde has chosen Germany to test this innovative process, given that social selling market is particularly strong there, estimated to be worth 16 billion euros and registering an annual growth of 8 percent, according to the group.

But the Belgian company is not the only one to engage in this type of marketing. Scottage, the brand destined for women in their fifties, has also recently dived into home meetings to distribute its collections.