More than ever, wholesalers in China and other overseas nations are selling products online and shipping them direct to consumers – either through their own websites or through popular marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. That trend has put a bit of a hamper on domestic resale businesses because those businesses effectively sell the same goods for a bit more.
If you operate a domestic resale business, though, you know that the goods you’re offering aren’t strictly the same as the ones that people can buy direct from overseas distributors. That’s because when people order products from overseas, they know that the savings come with big risks. They could end up buying counterfeit goods or products that don’t actually work at all. As a domestic retailer, you’re bearing that risk by assuring your customers that the things they buy from you are authentic and suitable for their intended purpose.
The upside of assuming the risk is that there are some people who will happily buy from you but would never buy directly from overseas distributors even though the products are fundamentally the same. You’ve earned their trust by building a reputation for your brand, or you have their trust by default because you’re a domestic seller and are bound by basic consumer protection laws.
The downside of assuming the risk is that if you end up sourcing counterfeit goods in bulk from an overseas distributor, you’ll end up taking a big hit to your finances and potentially to your reputation as well. You want to avoid that situation at all costs.
It’s estimated that up to 75 percent of the world’s counterfeit goods are produced in China. If you’re running a company that imports goods from overseas, you need to know how to protect yourself. Here’s how to do it.
Know Where the Products Come From
Let’s start with a little logic. When you buy counterfeit goods from an overseas distributor, you’re buying from a distributor with no connection to the factories that produce the real products. After all, if the distributor sourced its products from the official manufacturers, the products would be legitimate by definition. With that in mind, the best way to avoid buying counterfeit goods from overseas wholesalers is by skipping the wholesalers entirely and buying direct from the factories if you can.
If buying direct from the factories isn’t possible for the types of goods that you want to sell, your next best bet is to ask those manufacturers who their official distributors are. If you sell many types of products, this could mean that you’ll end up sourcing your products from several distributors instead of just one. That’s less convenient, but it’s worthwhile to lose the convenience of getting everything from a single source if it guarantees that what you’re getting is authentic.
If you’ve found a distributor that seems like a good fit and want to confirm that their products are authentic, contact the manufacturers of those products and ask if they work with that distributor. If they do, then you’ll have good reason to believe that you can order with confidence.
Examine the Products Before Taking Delivery
When you receive the products you’ve ordered, you shouldn’t just assume that they’re authentic – even if you’re certain that you’ve sourced them from the original factory. If it’s possible to do so, you should examine the products yourself before you sign for the delivery.
Many of the products that are manufactured overseas – vapes, for instance – are very commonly counterfeited because they’re easy to manufacture, don’t sell for a lot of money and only last a few days before they’re discarded. Because of those factors, consumers don’t look at the products with a critical eye, and many fakes end up slipping through unnoticed.
The good news is that heavily counterfeited products will often have security measures that can help resellers and consumers to confirm their authenticity. You just need to know what those measures are and how to evaluate them. For example, each product might have a unique security code on its box. Take a sample product from the shipment and enter its security code on the manufacturer’s website. If the box has a QR code, don’t use it; go to the manufacturer’s website manually. If the code passes, the products in the shipment are probably authentic.
The battle between manufacturers and counterfeiters is a cat-and-mouse game that never stops evolving, and the makers of fake products are constantly looking for new ways to defeat the manufacturers’ anti-counterfeiting measures. Make sure that you always remain up to date with the anti-counterfeiting measures used by the manufacturers in your industry and the latest techniques that counterfeiters are using to defeat those measures.
Don’t forget that in many cases, a distributor will happily send product samples to assure the quality of those goods before you place a larger order. If you’re willing to verify the fact that you represent a business with the capacity and desire to buy products in bulk, don’t be afraid to request a sample before ordering.
Use Common Sense
When it comes to avoiding counterfeit products from overseas distributors, the final link in the chain is your own common sense. Start by looking for obvious red flags such as these.
- You don’t know where the distributor’s office is located.
- You don’t know the name of your sales representative.
- The distributor doesn’t have a publicly viewable business license.
- The distributor doesn’t provide multiple quick and convenient contact points, such as email, phone and live chat.
Most importantly, you need to use common sense when evaluating a distributor’s pricing. As a professional in your industry, you should know what the standard wholesale prices are for the goods that you sell. If a distributor’s prices are well below what’s normal, you should ask yourself why that might be. If “because the products are fake” is a possible answer to that question, you should probably find a different distributor. After all, the things that seem too good to be true often are.
