In the past couple of years, the number of sellers on Amazon selling counterfeits has been growing at an alarming rate. The problem has resulted in huge losses and it’s quite clear that it isn’t going away any time soon.
While the e-commerce giant has been taking steps towards curbing this problem for online brand protection, consumers too need to learn how to identify and eliminate counterfeits on Amazon.
Table of Contents
Strategies That You May Use to Protect Your Brand
So much needs to go into the counterfeit protection process that aims to combat the sale of counterfeit and pirated products on Amazon. Here are two main ways in which you can monitor, detect, prevent, and eliminate the selling of counterfeits:
1. Check the product’s reviews and photos
This is the easiest way to spot a fake product on Amazon. One can easily tell the authenticity of goods being sold by checking the photos, reviews, product descriptions, and ratings. The photos are usually low-quality and the language used in the description is often confusing.
2. Investigate Whether the Merchants are Selling Counterfeit Goods
One way to identify loopholes in the system is by adding serial numbers to the legit products and placing a test buy from the seller. If the product received isn’t serialized, that means that it’s a fake and all other items in the warehouse without a serial number should be destroyed.
3. Contact Merchants Selling Counterfeit Goods
Formally reach out to the sellers and ask them to tell you where they’re sourcing the goods being sold. You should also ask for supporting evidence such as invoices.
Alternatively, you could partner with a third-party firm and access the database of the sellers as well as their automated tools. This will help you identify unauthorized sellers.
4. Closely Monitor Your listings
Regularly scan the competitor’s products to make sure that infringements don’t occur.
How to Eliminate the Counterfeits
Once you have gotten all the facts and figured out who is acquiring and selling your products without your consent on Amazon, you can take the following measures to stop them:
1. Create a warranty
The warranty should only apply to the merchant selling authorized goods. In the warranty, include a value that is generated for the customer for working with the said merchant
2. Contact the Unauthorized Merchant
Get in touch with the unauthorized seller and insist that they shouldn’t sell your product as new but should sell it as a “used” product. This is Amazon’s requirements for products that don’t come with a warranty.
3. File a Complaint
The counterfeiter violates your copyrights, trademarks, and patents for selling the products that you created. File a listing violation complaint against the sellers especially if they fail to change the product listing from “new” to “old”.
Conclusion
The problem of fakes on Amazon is one we cannot ignore.
Putting the above-listed strategies and measures in force will help you restore control over your branded products on Amazon. They’ll also protect your brand as well as the customers from wasting their hard-earned money by buying potentially dangerous counterfeit products.
