The capacity to sell and buy products online offers many opportunities for the different agents involved. Consumers benefit from a wider range of products at competitive prices and smaller companies with fewer resources can access more national consumers and transnational consumers. According to EUROSTAT's e-commerce statistics, children's products such as clothing, toys or furniture are one of the best-selling products on the Internet. The ninety-five per cent of companies in the sector of children's products are SMEs and lack of qualified staff for the online sale of these products of a "sensitive" nature, by the target audience, and face competition from large e-commerce platforms. The level of consumer protection from the risks of products sold on the Internet falls considerably short of the level of protection offered through other distribution channels, such as direct in-store sales. The seventy-eight per cent of the products sold online do not meet the minimum safety requirements regarding the product information, which must be provided to the consumer before the purchase. Consumers need new skills to become part of the online marketplace, make informed decisions, and be able to weigh benefits against risks. In this process, consumer organizations play a key role in raising consumer awareness and defending their rights and interests in the policies developed. In addition to consumers and businesses, consumer authorities are the third pillar of e-commerce. In fact, this poses a new challenge for the authorities responsible for market surveillance, with particular difficulty for some authorities in the Member States with fewer resources and experience in this field. The objective of this project is to develop open educational resources using information and communication technologies to provide training specifically designed for e-commerce of children's products, such as toys, children's furniture or childcare articles. This training will be complementary to another type of formal training on digital marketing, with the main target groups: - SMEs related to children’s products, - Consumer organizations, and - The public authorities responsible for consumer affairs. The project will be carried out by a consortium led by a research association benchmark in child safety (AIJU, Spain), and formed by representatives of industry (SHH, Czech Republic), consumer associations (APSI, Portugal), a higher education institution as e-commerce expert (UNIVPM, Italy) and a higher education institution as educational ICT technologies expert (UA, Spain). Three intellectual products e-COM 4 CHILDREN will be obtained through the application of the e-Learning Lean Design methodology: 1. Training materials: compendium of lessons in video format, texts, photographs, activities, test questions, articles, etc. that combine theory and practice on the essential aspects of e-commerce of children's products. 2. Interactive ICT Resource: multimedia ICT tool enriched as interactive comic aimed at the staff of consumer associations. 3. Adaptive MOOC: ADAPTIVE online open course, in MOOC format, where the training itinerary is adjusted to the characteristics of the students individually and their rhythm of execution to the student learning rhythm. This project will contribute to improving the skills of staff of SMEs, consumer associations and market surveillance authorities for the sale, purchase and control of children's products sold online, so that the safety level of children's products is the same for products that are sold online as those that are sold offline. The final aim of the project is to improve the skills of the staff of the target groups and other stakeholders so that they can contribute to and benefit from the Digital Single Market, which is one of the key challenges of the Europe 2020 Strategy.
The ability to buy and sell products online offers many opportunities for companies and consumers: consumers benefit from a broader range of products at competitive prices, and smaller businesses with fewer resources can access more national consumers and those from other countries. According to EUROSTAT e-commerce statistics, children’s products such as clothing, toys or furniture are some of the best-selling products on the internet. 95% of companies in the children’s products sector are SMEs, who lack qualified personnel for the online sale of these products of a “sensitive” nature to the intended target and also face competition from big online platforms. The level of protection offered to consumers concerning the risks of products sold on the internet is below that offered by other distribution channels, such as direct sales in stores. 78% of the products sold online do not meet the minimum safety requirements regarding the information that must be provided to the consumer before purchasing. Consumers need new skills to enter the online marketplace, make informed decisions, and be able to weigh up the benefits against the risks. In this process, consumer organisations play a key role in raising consumer awareness and defending their rights and interests in the policies that are developed. In addition to consumers and businesses, consumer authorities are the third pillar of e-commerce—which represents a new challenge for the authorities responsible for market surveillance, and is of particular difficulty for some authorities in the Member States with fewer resources and experience in this area. Within the e-COM 4 CHILDREN project, open online educational resources have been developed, which provide training on the e-commerce of safe children’s products, such as toys, children’s furniture or childcare items. Specifically, three e-COM 4 CHILDREN intellectual property products have been obtained: - Training materials: compendium of lessons in video format, texts, photographs, activities, exam questions, reading material, etc. that combine theory and practice on the essential aspects of e-commerce of children’s products. - Interactive comic: interactive ICT resource that provides training for the online purchase of children’s products, aimed at the staff of consumer associations and consumers in general. - Adaptive MOOC: adaptive online open course where the training itinerary adjusts to the characteristics of individual students and the pace of their implementation to the pace of the student’s learning. The course is specifically designed for companies, consumer associations and staff of the authorities that carry out market surveillance activities. The course tackles legal aspects of e-commerce, consumer rights and the safety of children’s products in Europe. This training is complementary to another type of formal training on digital marketing, content management on websites or laws that regulate online sales. The project has been carried out by a consortium led by the Technological Institute of Children’s Products and Leisure, a leader in child safety (AIJU, Spain), formed of industry representatives (SHH, Czech Republic), consumer associations (APSI, Portugal), a higher education institution that is an authority on the legal aspects of e-commerce (UNIVPM, Italy) and another higher education institution with expertise in ICT technologies applied to education (UA, Spain). This project contributes to improving the skills of the personnel of SMEs, consumer associations and market surveillance authorities for the sale, purchase and monitoring of children’s products sold online, so that the level of safety of children’s products is the same for products sold online as those sold offline. The ultimate purpose of the e-COM 4 CHILDREN project is to improve the skills of target group staff and other stakeholders so that they can contribute to and benefit from the Digital Single Market, which is one of the main challenges of the Europe 2020 Strategy.