In recent news, Snapdeal has been listed as selling a maximum number of Counterfeit and Pirated products online. Not only Snapdeal but many other e-commerce shoppers have complained of receiving counterfeit products online. Amid the Covid-19 outbreak where buying online is not only an option but also a compulsion so we need to be sure of what we are buying. But the question is how?
From Branded Perfumes to Branded shoes, Branded clothes to beauty products we have come across so many reviews and complaints of the buyers where they have a complaint of receiving fake or pirate products online. Buying a fake product is not only costing you loss in term of money but sometimes there can be health hazards also. Have you ever wondered what might be in your fake perfume? Are you sure your fake battery won’t explode when you are using it? Are your fake sunglasses really protecting your eyes?
The problem is not limited to one e-commerce platform or one country but fake products are disguise customers all over the world.
The problem of fake goods is mostly faced in the marketplace model and in the branded items. So let’s find out how to avoid buying fake products online.
8 WAYS TO AVOID BUYING FAKE PRODUCTS ON ONLINE SHOPPING WEBSITES
- Check for Consumer right on the seller website : Return, exchange and refund policies are way of protecting the rights of the buyers once they have purchased the product. Every e-commerce platform should provide confidance to the buyers that their voice would be herad if they they felt cheated. We should always try to shop from website who are flexible and have easy exchange and return
- Is the Price too good to be true: Buyers get trapped into lucarative pricing startegy of the sellers where they are trying to honeytrap . Sometimes we all see a massive discount on certain branded products and end up buying a fake one. We should always ask ourself is this price too good to be true. A product priced at Rs. 5000 and website is offering them at 80% discount so can this be true. We should not stop using our commen sense and questioning ourselves that am I buying a counterfieft or pirated product.
- Look for the brand website: Fake or counterfiet products can be identified if monitored closely. There could be a manufacturing or labeling defect or the sewing pattern will be not uniform. To be double sure you can check the image, description of the product with the original brand website. Now days every brand is online and they are directly selling the items. So you can zoom in the images to look for tagging, packaging, and in Mobile you can check for IMEI number to authenticate it.
- Search other customer reviews: Use Internet search tools to check whether other consumers have left any good or bad comments about the seller. Read these comments carefully, and keep a critical eye. Excessively positive review? The same person reviewing the same product on several websites? Review too vague? Be careful! It could be a review left by the webshop itself, which is, of course, illegal.
- Pay with secured means of payment: When you pay for a purchase on the Internet, you need to follow 3 golden principles: Always pay on a secured payment page (displaying a padlock or key logo, and whose URL address begins with “https”), Pay by credit card by preference, as you may be able to recover your money from the credit card issuer in case of fraud and avoid direct money transfers
- Check the picture of the product : Do the pictures shown on the webshop look unprofessional? Is there something wrong with the logo or does the background look strange? Are photos low-quality? Is it impossible to zoom in? Is only part of the item displayed? These may be indicators of a website that is selling fake products.
- Assess the general layout of the website: Most of the websites selling counterfeit products do not look very professional: they often have spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, poor quality pictures of the products being sold or of the logos for the means of payment, etc. The fact that the website is in your language doesn’t mean that it’s actually based in your country. Do not trust websites whose URL links the name of a brand with terms such as“cheap”, “outlet” or other expressions suggesting low prices.
- Check the official website for authorized and black listed sellers: Most of the major brands only give specific retailers their authorization to sell their products. Ordering products from those retailers guarantees that you are buying original products. Go to the official website of the brand to check whether the webshop you are visiting is recognized as an authorized retailer, and is not black-listed. For e.g Huda beauty has mentioned it’s authorized sellers in India so if you buy from any other website you might end up buying a spurious Huda beauty product.
