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Black Friday floods markets with discounts, creating a great opportunity for brands to increase their online sales and for counterfeiters to reap your revenues! Read more here
Celebrated on November 24th, Black Friday is considered the most important day for online shopping, recording a total revenue of $9.12 billion in 2022 (Adobe). This annual shopping extravaganza, celebrated by consumers worldwide, consists of numerous deals and discounts.
However, online businesses have it a bit harder: while their sales and revenue increase, they are more vulnerable to counterfeit attacks. If you want to know how counterfeiters take advantage of this cyber holiday and what you can do to protect your revenue, keep reading this article!
Counterfeits, as mentioned before, imitate the look and feel of an original product with lower prices and quality. These products not only infringe on the intellectual property rights of original brands but also use unethical processes to produce the good itself.
Counterfeiters aim to reduce costs as much as possible when producing a fake, compromising the quality and origin of the materials, processes and labor used. Therefore, during Black Friday sales, markets are flooded with deals and discounts, making it even harder for consumers to spot the fakes and hence deceiving users into purchasing them.
Spotting fakes and detecting online impersonation isn’t a simple task, and Black Friday, with its massive influx of online shoppers and deals, creates an even more uncertain playground for consumers. Counterfeiters, conversely, have it easier to deceive unsuspecting consumers into purchasing fakes, believing they have found a great deal.
As a result, consumers will receive a low-quality version of the product they intended to buy. Contrary to the original product, these fakes don't hold up to the standard promised by the authentic brand, leading to a poor user experience and harming the brand-consumer relationship.
Brands, on the other hand, may seem to have less of an issue in terms of revenue loss due to the high volume of sales. However, counterfeits not only harm their business by reaping part of their revenue but also significantly damage brand reputation and customer relationships.
Consequently, brands selling online without a brand protection service increase their chances of losing sales and customers in the long term, as users will not feel as comfortable purchasing their products online.
In addition to these negative consequences, we can also find:
As previously mentioned, counterfeiters capitalize on the surge in consumer demand. This is also the case for Gray Markets, where other vendors can also take advantage of this by offering - without prior authorization - legitimate products at discounted prices that may not adhere to brand standards or warranties through unauthorized channels.
The violation of MAP policies is also a factor to consider as, to stand out, resellers might drastically decrease their prices even below the minimum advertised price agreed upon by manufacturers. This undermines fair competition and can impact their relationship with manufacturers and consumers.
During Black Friday, beware of scammers creating Rogue Sites to deceive consumers! These fake sites imitate popular brands and trick consumers into purchasing products that are not authentic or products that the client may never receive. Such illegal activities erode trust in online shopping and in the brand itself.
Whether during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or any other primary cyber sale day, online businesses will be taking a hit on their revenues, sales and reputation - this is where brand protection entities come into play!
These entities offer services as a vital line of defense, safeguarding the brand’s integrity and preserving revenue streams. With tools such as Ecommerce Monitoring, brand protection entities can track your sales online to see who is selling and buying your products, bringing back control to rightful brands.
At Smart Protection, we understand the importance of authenticity and help brands protect their sales online. By enforcing your IP rights, we ensure our clients can have a successful Black Friday sale without worrying about Rogue Sites, Gray Market, Counterfeits, etc. Regain control of your business online and keep total peace of mind not only during Black Friday but all 365 days a year!
If you want to protect your brand online and receive constant up-to-date information about your online sales and distribution, don’t hesitate to Request a Demo!
