The importance of being able to distinguish genuine products from fakes

Being able to distinguish real products from fakes is key to safeguarding trust and increasing value in the fashion industry.

Key highlights:

• Counterfeits: The give-a-way signs 
• The counterfeit business is estimated to be worth $600 billion worldwide
• Discover how damage goes beyond brands and affects people and the planet
• Solutions to prevent counterfeiting can also be used to drive business

Can your consumers distinguish genuine products from fakes

The ability to spot the difference between genuine and fake products is one of the key qualities that both brands and consumers must adopt to ensure markets thrive. And this applies especially to the fashion industry.

Indeed, the European Commission published interesting tips and rules to keep in mind to prevent counterfeits and help people to distinguish real products from fakes. Let’s check the main indicators:

• Price, as counterfeit products are very often promoted and sold with a discounted value rather than the original ones, in order to attract buyers leveraging on the bargain effect;
• Quality, as counterfeit products will always be produced using cheap or secondary materials (like fake leather or fabrics made of synthetic fibres instead of cotton), affecting the general quality of the item;
• Packaging, as usually counterfeit products are sold and wrapped with poor materials or appear with many errors in terms of grammar and graphics, like flawed logos and trademarks or the lack of brand details - sometimes, fake products do not even have any packaging at all and this is a clear sign that they’re not authentic;
• Retailer's identity, as unofficial retailers are not listed and certified by brands (that usually do so for official ones and approve for sales both in store and on the Internet or even reselling) and when it comes to e-commerce they are more likely have poor websites which experts would review as shady due to the lack of a certified domain and of concrete information about the products, the brand, the contacts or the customer service;
• Payment methods, as unofficial retailers who sell counterfeit products will always ask for payments through untracked ways, for example by manual money transfers or cash on delivery.

How much is the counterfeit market valued?

What’s the value of the counterfeit market? According to The Guardian, it’s estimated that counterfeit business is worth around $600 billion worldwide and even 10% of all branded goods sold may be fake - so, this means that on average about 1 in 10 products that consumers buy is counterfeit.

Moreover, some studies confirm that fashion industry is the business sector which mostly suffers for counterfeit competitors, sharing 3,3% of worldwide trade and unfortunately with a growing trend. It’s estimated that pure clothing counterfeit items represent 16% of the whole production and trade, but specifically the problem affects:

• Footwear for 22%, and higher for sneakers and leather shoes;
• Leather garments for 13%, with belts and handbags most at risk;
• Luxury garments for 9%, especially watches and jewellery;
• Medical equipment for 5%, with glasses high on the list.

Why fake products are dangerous?

The production and trade of counterfeit products is a criminal activity that can be very dangerous, concerning serious issues from different perspectives:

• First of all danger for companies, which due to the presence of these unfair competitors lost more than €26 billion only in 2020, had to deal with something like 20% of fake advertised products on social media and manage the risk of a negative impact on brands reputation and identity;
• Then there is the danger for people, both as consumers and citizens, because on one hand the counterfeit market entails the risk to workers losing their jobs due to lack of income for their companies, on the other one fake products entail extremely serious health problems due to the lack of hygiene or the use of poor materials (for example, fake glasses can compromise the sight of consumers and fake clothing can cause allergies or even infections);

And of course, danger to the environment, as counterfeit producers and retailers don’t care about sustainability and ecology and represent some of the biggest polluters worldwide, especially relating to waste of unsold goods and plastics.