The rise of online marketplaces has been something of a double-edged sword. Although e-commerce has made it easier for brands and consumers to find each other and connect, it’s also made counterfeiting a much larger problem. Not even the world’s largest e-commerce sites are immune to this problem, as third-party vendors can flood them with listings featuring knock-off products. The worst thing for your brand is to lose business and consumer confidence to these unscrupulous counterfeiters. It’s estimated that counterfeit and pirated goods accounted for $1.7 billion in sales for 2021, and roughly 10% of all branded goods sold around the world may be counterfeit.
The impact of these bogus products on your brand can be significant. Not only do they represent lost revenue for you, but the inferior quality and safety hazards they present can harm your standing in the marketplace with consumers. This is why you should take the threat of counterfeiting seriously if you don’t already.
Fortunately, there are a number of strategies you can use to mitigate the damage caused by these fraudulent items. For example, utilizing proprietary and serialized codes on components and products throughout your supply chain helps keep them secure from counterfeiters and prevents them from falling into the wrong hands. A marketplace risk management solution that utilizes AI can detect illicit product listings and give you the opportunity to take action. You also should protect your website with anti-piracy algorithms and broad tracking networks to prevent your intellectual property from being stolen.
Simply saying “buyer beware” isn’t enough to keep counterfeit products from harming your business. Online shopping simply makes it far too easy for unauthorized copies of your offerings from proliferating and causing damage to your brand. For more details about the true cost of counterfeiting and how you can protect yourself, take a look at the accompanying resource.
Infographic created by EverC, a marketplace fraud prevention company