How Much Money Are You Losing to Counterfeit Goods? It's Probably More Than You Think — Here's How to Protect Yourself

Ecommerce has knowledgeable astronomical growth, pinch world unit ecommerce income expected to transcend $4.1 trillion successful 2024. As a business owner, you'd undoubtedly emotion moreover a mini portion of that pie, and yet the industry should beryllium doing amended than this.

Counterfeit knockoffs are a bigger problem than you'd think. In 2019 alone, 2.5% of the world trade ($464 billion) was attributed to counterfeit goods. That's astir balanced to the GDP of Belgium. If your business sells immoderate benignant of products, there's a bully chance you've already been aliases will beryllium affected by counterfeiting. In different words, your business is taking a financial deed because of this rampant problem. The only mobility is: How overmuch will you lose?

Indeed, counterfeits are everyone's problem. For you, the business owner, knockoffs little the worth of your brand, erode user spot and eat into revenue. For consumers, knockoffs aren't only little successful value but whitethorn besides airs information hazards — specified arsenic tegument infections from counterfeit constitution products.

Related: How Counterfeit Products Affect Brands and Consumers

Types of anti-counterfeit technologies

What tin beryllium done to cleanable up the Wild West of ecommerce? Every type of ecommerce business ecommerce needs to beryllium alert of anti-counterfeit technologies that tin thief them sphere the integrity of their brands. The main categories of anti-counterfeiting technologies are:

• Electronic – An physics ID aliases search instrumentality attached to the product
• Marking – A visible aliases invisible people connected the product
• Chemical/physical – Chemical substances aliases beingness processes utilized to authenticate the product
• Mechanical – Material elements aliases processes utilized for authentication aliases anti-tampering
• Digital – Involves accusation embedded successful and extracted from integer files and physics devices

There are benefits and drawbacks to each, but generally, each anti-counterfeit technologies activity by detecting whether an point is authentic and whether it has been subjected to fraudulent activities. In an progressively integer world, integer anti-counterfeiting technologies clasp sizeable promise.

Smart tags and smart packaging

Smart tags let consumers to find whether a merchandise is authentic. They whitethorn beryllium inserted into products aliases placed connected their packaging ("smart packaging"). Two commonly utilized examples are QR codes and NFC tags.

From these tags, consumers tin extract a unsocial codification that tin find the product's authenticity. Similarly, consumers tin registry their product's code, allowing companies to way it.

This is simply a reasonably elemental measurement to conflict counterfeit products, and yet it tin spell a agelong measurement toward protecting your company's estimation and revenue.

Brand protection software

As adjuvant arsenic smart tags are, their usefulness relies upon the intentional extraction of data. Brand protection software, connected the different hand, continuously monitors integer properties for unauthorized usage of intellectual property. It useful successful the background, scouring websites, societal media sites and the acheronian web to place marque sanction and logo infringement.

When the package identifies a imaginable violation, it triggers an alert. The institution whitethorn past return action, specified arsenic sending cease and desist letters. In different cases, a rule enforcement consequence whitethorn beryllium called for.

Brand protection package is simply a important limb successful an anti-counterfeit unit's arsenal, arsenic it runs continuously successful the inheritance and applies real-time analytics to make insights astir imaginable threats. Some package moreover offers automated enforcement responses, further curbing the request for other manpower.

Related: Amazon Settles With, Bans Influencers Who Marketed Counterfeit Goods

Blockchain solutions

Blockchain technology relies connected the premise that sometimes the champion measurement to protect thing is to administer it wide alternatively than lodging it successful a cardinal Fort Knox-like location. Blockchain involves a integer ledger that stores bits of accusation crossed an full network. Each "block" that stores 1 portion of the integer "chain" of information is highly unafraid and tamper-resistant. Its decentralized quality intends that location is nary azygous constituent astatine which it could fail.

While blockchain is possibly champion known for its relation pinch cryptocurrency, it has applications beyond this field. In fact, it tin beryllium utilized successful operation pinch anti-counterfeiting technologies to create a highly traceable and transparent proviso chain. Your business tin usage blockchain exertion to way products and trace their ownership. By uncovering the authentication history of a product, it's imaginable to much accurately place and quickly reside counterfeit products.

Customer touchpoint tracking

As adjuvant arsenic tech is, sometimes companies neglect to spot the wood for the trees. Counterfeit products beryllium because A) Someone is consenting to make them and B) Someone is consenting to bargain them. To genuinely conflict the problem, it's basal to reside some halves of the equation.

Consumers are sometimes alert they are purchasing counterfeits. This whitethorn beryllium peculiarly communal among aspirational shoppers — those who want the prestige of a luxury marque but can't spend the value tag of the genuine article. How tin you person consumers that knockoffs aren't worthy it, but the existent woody is?

Consider digging deeper into the buyer's journey. By mapping a holistic position of each of the consumer's touchpoints (my company's software, Atrilyx™, does precisely that), it's imaginable to place precisely wherever customers go disengaged from the marque and successful threat of intentionally choosing counterfeits. This allows you to set your trading campaigns arsenic needed to pass the worth of choosing the authentic product.

Related: Your Buyer's Journey is Now Online. Is Your Customer Experience Digital-First Too?

It's a war, not a battle

During the ancient Roman Empire, it was communal believe for traders to spot counterfeit vino trademarks connected amphorae, masking inexpensive vino arsenic costly good wine. Today, wine is still being counterfeited. As agelong arsenic location are goods, location will beryllium counterfeit goods. Even if you're an SMB owner, you could still beryllium losing money to counterfeiters correct now without moreover realizing it.

It's a costly and wide problem — a war, not a conflict — and nary azygous solution is capable to suppress it. However, by combining aggregate technologies and strategies (including touchpoint search astatine the user level), you tin build up a robust defense that protects your brand. Doing truthful is basal — each azygous day, your business could beryllium losing money to counterfeiters.