Charity Electrical Safefy First (ESF) has launched a new consumer awareness initiative in partnership with the Government’s Fire Kills campaign.
As part of Electrical Fire Safety Week (November 22-28), the organisation will focus on the risks of buying electrical products from online marketplaces and activity will direct consumers to advice on safe online shopping or to a petition calling for better regulation of marketplaces. You can sign the petition here.
Online marketplaces, already seen as convenient and cheap options for buying household goods, increased in popularity last year, with 58% of UK adults saying they would be using them for Christmas shopping, seeing them as an accessible and cost-effective option in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic which meant that trips to high street stores for buying gifts were not an option.
This year, with supply chain issues threatening Christmas deliveries and cautious attitudes towards returning to pre-Covid normality, shoppers are once again looking online in the search for those “must have” Christmas gifts and gadgets.
However, said ESF, sellers of counterfeit or sub-standard electrical products exploit online marketplaces for the ease with which they can sell their goods to a mass market – it can be impossible to know what you are actually buying, with no guarantee that the product you receive will be genuine.
During the week, ESF will be using a combination of existing collateral and messages based on consumer research carried out to support the campaign, with content to be shared across the charity’s main social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
ESF will be sending a joint letter to Kwasi Kwarteng MP (BEIS) and Nadine Dorries MP (DCMS), to be signed by various partner organisations with an interest in the issue. Once this has been finalised, it will be aiming to place a piece in a relevant national newspaper to support its calls for better regulation.
The hashtags for the campaign are #EFSW #SafeShopping.