Counterfeit products: The menace damaging brand reputation on e-com platforms

By Amit Relan

Strolling through the busy marketplace on the streets of Delhi – a street vendor selling abibas shoes, or zaara handbags is a common occurrence that attracts shoppers sometimes knowingly they buy such counterfeit products or just get duped. But when that happens on online marketplaces, the buzz, negative reviews, loss of revenue, and reputation hurt the brand. Fashion and apparel, sporting goods, consumer durable/electronics, and beauty and personal care brands face major damages with counterfeit products on online platforms.

Impact of counterfeit Product on brand reputation

The threat is much bigger, lack of awareness and efficient counterfeit detection mechanisms make it even worse. The rising availability of counterfeit products online has led to an erosion of trust among shoppers. The shoppers who have unintendedly purchased counterfeit products online now feel susceptible to buying anything from that brand again.

The impact of counterfeit products being sold in the online marketplace or on the fake websites goes beyond just loss of revenue. It decays customers’ sentiment with negative feedback complaining about sub-standard quality and unpleasant experiences or simply getting duped.

What should brands do? How can you identify counterfeits on online marketplaces?

Brands need to analyse and monitor e-commerce platforms for listing of counterfeit products or breaches. Some key parameters which brands need to monitor and analyse include product URL, product name in title, pricing violations, relevant keywords from reviews, unrecognised sellers, average poor rating, image, and PDP content. This will enable the brand with comprehensive risk assessment and take relevant action.

Here are some of the cases of online counterfeit products and breaches/discrepancies to identify counterfeit being sold online.

Non-branded products sold along with renowned beauty products as a combo.
Substantially low ratings and low number of reviews analysis help identify brands.
The product image is different from the title or some spelling errors in the title.
The brand name in the product image is different from that in the title.
Poor image quality – Band name and logo that resembles a popular brand. May be some negative reviews that highlight the bad quality of its counterfeit product.
Brand logo on product image but non-brand item sold by unauthorised seller
Unrealistic difference in the price listed by original brand and counterfeit product on the same online marketplace or on two different e-commerce platforms.

The extent of counterfeit products menace

According to CRISIL and ASPA report, counterfeiting does massive damage to the apparel industry where 31% came across a counterfeit product, followed by FMCG with 28%, Automotives with 25%, and consumer durables with 17%. 27% of shoppers were unaware of purchasing counterfeit products while 37% were willing to buy such products knowing for various reasons like price sensitivity, the lure to own luxury brands, and social motivations.

The sale of counterfeit products not only affects the brand value, but also a serious threat to the well-being of the consumer who unknowingly purchases sub-standard products.

Counterfeiting is no longer limited to areas within major cities or sold in the shadows. The rise of online marketplaces and e-commerce websites has also propelled the sudden growth in sales of sub-standard or counterfeit products online under the pretext of selling genuine products. Common mentions in the survey Snapdeal 12%, Amazon 11%, and Flipkart 6% of shoppers said they found counterfeits on these platforms. As the threat is getting bigger platforms are also taking strict measures to prevent counterfeit on their platforms and enabling brands with a reporting mechanism and making takedowns requests.

DISRUPT the disruptors! Technology can prove to be the driving force to protect brands against counterfeit on e-commerce platforms and plug the breaches that are a red flag for the brands and shoppers. For shoppers, awareness is the key to protect yourself from getting duped and ensuring you stay away from cheap low-hanging fruit. For Brands they need a stringent AI/ML driven tech solution to scan through the social media, web and e-commerce platforms to detect counterfeit being sold or unauthorised use of their brand name to sell sub-standard products.