Online shopping has become tremendously popular over recent years. While it comes with plenty of benefits, it also comes with its share of challenges. For instance, the possibility of consumers buying counterfeit products is very high.
Counterfeit goods can hurt a brand’s image. This is why brands need to protect their customers from not only buying counterfeit products but protect their image too. Counterfeit goods are all over the internet. They crop up at the top of search results, making it difficult to differentiate them from genuine goods. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways that brands can fight counterfeit sales online.
In this article, we are going to explore some of the top ways brands can combat counterfeiters online. Let’s delve into them.
- Get the full picture of the counterfeiting problem
It is pretty difficult to fight something if you don’t understand it fully. If a brand wants to fight counterfeit sales online, it must get its full picture. Brands need to review and analyze each sale and distribution channel. For instance, social media is one of the most channels consumers use for shopping. So they need to examine it closely to understand the scope of online counterfeit. Brands can also use monitoring software to help them detect where counterfeits of their brand are present on the internet.
- Monitor marketing and promotion efforts
Another thing, brands ought to be on the lookout for marketing and promotion efforts. When it comes to the internet, illegitimate sellers also use similar promotion practices as legit sellers. Counterfeit sellers can also use effective practices, such as search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, backlinks, paid search advertising, etc., to increase traffic to their illegal offerings and reduce the marketing return on investment of legal brands. So, monitoring for these promotional efforts is critical as it enables the next best practice.
- Prepare intellectual property
Registered IP rights like copyrights and trademarks are a requirement for enforcement. For instance, registration is essential for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seizures of counterfeits. In addition to that, it is a crucial tool for brands that want to approach marketplaces. So, one of the best ways brands can protect their image is by registering their name, a logo, and a trademark. Trademarks are protective. Brands must register their trademark in every jurisdiction in which they manufacture, market, and sell their products.
- Educate teams across the organization
Another perfect way that brands can fight counterfeiters is by educating their teams on how to protect against online counterfeit. Your employees can potentially spot and report counterfeit products. After all, your employees have your organization’s interest at heart, that’s why they can identify anything that may harm the brand’s image. Brands need to educate their team on how to identify counterfeiting, who to contact, and the tools they need to use when with dealing counterfeiters. Of course, this can go a long way in fighting counterfeiting.
- Be proactive
The best way brands can stop counterfeiters from winning is by fighting back. If a brand can’t fight to stop counterfeiting, it gives these counterfeiters more reasons to continue breaching its intellectual property and make a profit out of it.
On the other hand, when brands fight to stop counterfeit products from online channels like AliExpress or Amazon, they make it quite difficult for counterfeiters to breach their rights.
- Come up with an effective strategy for monitoring and enforcement
Understand the online counterfeiting issue holistically and then come up with the best protection strategy that suits your needs. To achieve maximum results, brands need to prioritize their enforcement based on threats and efficiency.
