It’s not always easy to identify counterfeit goods. They come in many shapes and sizes impacting nearly every industry known to man. However, as a small business owner, it’s imperative, that you make every effort to identify these items before presenting them to your customers lest you find yourself faced with legal and civil ramifications. These are the things you should do to in order to reduce your risks of purchasing counterfeit merchandise for your business.
Beware of Deals that Seem Too Good to be True
Things that appear too good to be true, typically are. It’s hard to always be on guard against every good deal that comes your way. If suspicion doesn’t work well with your personality, consider it more of a “trust, but verify” relationship where you take however long you need to ensure that the products are, in fact, the real deal.
What’s the Problem with Counterfeit Merchandise?
Dealing with counterfeit merchandise is a big deal for businesses today. Whether you knew it was fake or
not doesn’t really matter in the eyes of people who purchased items from you expecting one thing only to find something else entirely. These are just some of the problems you could face as a result of selling fake items.
- Loss of trust.
- Items not covered by warranties.
- Doesn’t meet adequate safety standards.
- May, in fact, be dangerous to wear, use, or consume.
- Liability issues for injuries due to defects, unsafe materials, and unsafe construction.
- Criminal charges.
It’s really no laughing matter in the eyes of the law, or the eyes of people who were expecting the genuine article and may have been physically hurt by items that aren’t properly vetted for various safety issues.
How can You Tell the Difference?
These steps will help you determine the differences between common counterfeit items and their high-quality counterparts if you apply them faithfully.
Look for Identifying Features in Products
Many brands have logos and watermarks located in strategic places throughout their products to let you know that the item is the genuine article. Explore eBay listings on items of interest and see which identifying features keep cropping up.
Check for Security Features on Packaging
Many name brands have taken up the fine art of installing security features on their packages to help make it easier for store owners, such as yourself, as well as informed consumers to be able to quickly and effectively determine whether the articles are genuine articles or simply convincing knockoffs. Find out what they are and make sure you’re keeping an eye out for them.’
Research the Merchant
If the merchant you’re considering doing business with is legitimate, you should be able to hear good things about what this merchant has to offer. Otherwise, you might want to steer clear and head for safer, if not lower profit, waters.
These little steps are small steps you can take to protect your interests as a business owner. You should also make sure you have adequate business insurance coverage, including general liability coverage and commercial crime insurance, to help protect your business if mistakes like this happen somewhere along the way.
