If you have brought any product, and discover flaws in it, then it is fake. Well, there is nothing new to know about it, as counterfeit products are common these days. And the worse is it will be hard for you to determine the difference between the real and fake. For your information, the United Kingdom incurs heavy losses of billions of pounds every year because of counterfeiting. It can range from any products, be it electronics, fashion, toys, gadgets, wine, cosmetics, auto-parts, medicine, and so on.
These products are shipped abroad and dodge VAT, as stated by BBC investigation. These fake goods puts a bad impact on the value of brands and sweep away the customers’ trust. Going to a study, it has come out that out of the 1000 consumers from the United Kingdom, around 92% have experienced some red signal while doing online shopping. Among the factors involved in spotting counterfeit products, price is the major indicator, as something too good also seems fishy. The more we move further, the more it gets complicated.
Well, there are other areas to consider including description quality, customer reviews, place of online selling, website, and imagery at times of evaluating products online, one cannot deny the fact that customers still get cheated. What brings the problem is despite knowing about the counterfeit threat, it is very difficult to put an end to this practice. However, you need to know about some warning signs.
Warning signs that you should be knowing to spot counterfeiting
The first one to include is:
Price
Price is one of the first warning signs to spot counterfeit products. Always note carefully that if any independent seller sells any product minimum to the market value with a discount of 80%, then there is a possibility that the product is fake.
Suspicious website
Next comes dubious or call suspicious websites. It has been noticed that when consumers are unable to search for an agreeable price regarding any product on the official site of the brand, then they switch to third-party sites and marketplaces in finding the best deals. And this is how these online marketplaces become the soft corner for counterfeiting by sellers.
Now you should better understand that whenever going for online purchase via a website that is unknown to you. What you have to do is pick the web address and paste it into a domain checking tool. This is where you can find the location of the company. And if you don’t see the address listed or have been chunked out, then this raises doubt.
If there are grammatical and spelling mistakes, then this also indicates a red alarm of counterfeiting. Also, check the same on the description of the product and website URL. if there are mistakes then the website is fake.
Reviews or feedback by customers
One of the best and easiest ways to check the authenticity of any product or a website is better to go through customer reviews. If the maximum number of reviews express negative, then it is a clear case of counterfeiting.
Location
Coming on to the next is checking the location from where the selling of the product is coming from. Most of the counterfeit products are exported from China to the largest markets in the world, including the United States of America, the European Union, and also Japan. But China is not the only country to be blamed for counterfeiting. The other countries that follow are Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Turkey. The maximum counterfeit products arrive at the external borders of the EU through, sea, air, and land.
Check labels and receipts
Whenever you buy products online, it is important to cross-check the images of designs, labels, and receipts of any product. Do make a comparison with the official website of brands and spot any differences in the details and design.
Description of product
Here comes another important way to spot counterfeit products. Never miss reading the description of any product, and compare it with the genuine product. You will certainly get some clue or evidence that would make you know that it is counterfeit or fake. A lack of information is one such clue. This is the area that fraudsters often miss out on and gives chance to the customers to figure out the difference between the real and fake.
Final words
So, guys, these are some of the factors that you need to consider whenever you go for online purchase on a website. Be very careful and smart enough to compare the receipts, logos, and descriptions of the product. If you spot any spelling and grammatical errors in the Website URL and product description, then it indicates counterfeiting. Plus, do not miss reading the description of the product. Fraudsters no matter how clever they are leaves this big mistake on their part. If you find something missing from the description, after comparing it with the real, then it is fake. The end-to-end track and trace by Blokchi is a new innovative method to put checks on counterfeiting.
