Electronic and Electrical Appliances
- Most consumer goods have a parallel counterfeit market. For electronic and electrical appliances, the availability of counterfeit products has been on a steady rise for years. China being a global hub for manufacturing of fake products, has been a contributing factor. Laws like Trademark Act, Copyright Act, IT Act aim at diluting the counterfeit market. However, when it comes to fake electronic and electrical appliances, there are designated hubs across the country (eg Palika Bazaar in Delhi) that have always been a breeding ground. In such hubs, the estimated of counterfeit electronic and electrical appliances go as high as 40%. Ecommerce websites are increasingly becoming a portal of choice for manufacturers of fake electronic and electrical appliances to sell their products. The revenue loss caused to the original manufacturers due to such malpractices is understated and, at times unnoticed. Apart from the tangible losses, the company also suffers a dent to its reputation due to the substandard quality of the fake products reaching its customers. For a customer, it is like a breach of trust.
Why counterfeit thrives in Electronic and electrical appliances?
- Differential costs: Counterfeit electronic and electrical appliances are substantially cheaper. Consumers may mistake these spurious transactions to be a good deal and buy the product.
- E-commerce: Bumper sale period in e-commerce creates a lot of web traffic. The sense of urgency during the sale period can lead customers to buy products without having the time to go through a tedious authenticity verification process.
- Smartphones: Smartphones have penetrated almost every household. They are now a necessity. The easy and cheap availability of data packages has further fuelled the demand for smartphones. A product which is high in demand becomes a target for counterfeiting. The counterfeit market for electronic and electrical appliances is dominated by fake smartphones and spare parts.
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Repairs and Spare parts: Unauthorized dealers may offer low-cost repairs to unsuspecting customers. However, the replacement spare parts they use may be fake. This increases their profit margins.
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Lack of Awareness: Most of the reputed electronic and electrical appliances companies sell their products through well-known outlets. They maintain a registry of their authorized retailers on their websites. But most customers are not aware of these policies and become easy targets of counterfeit manufacturers.
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Wilful counterfeit: Some luxury brands of electronic and electrical appliances are a status symbol. Owning them gives a self-esteem boost in the social circles. People may be ready to buy fake copies if they are imperceptible.
Why we need to act NOW?
- Quality control and Brand reputation: Counterfeit products do not work as well as genuine items. The device specification list may be replicated from the original, most fake products are substandard. Disappointed customers may believe that the company cheated them with a poor quality products.
- Safety hazards: Counterfeit products flout safety standards and are made from low-quality raw materials. They are at risk of catching fires, burning out, or electrocuting the user.
- Criminal activities: Organized crime networks are often involved in manufacturing and supplying counterfeit products. The proceeds of sale further other crimes, including human trafficking, drugs, etc
- Revenue Loss: Every sale of a counterfeit product essentially means a missed opportunity to reach a customer for the genuine product.
- Loss of exclusivity: Owning a high-end brand gives customers a sense of exclusivity. If left unchecked, the grey market of counterfeit products may erode this sense of exclusivity.
ACVISS's offerings
- Easy Authenticity Verification: Acviss’s authenticity verification technology ensures that end-users get instant and easy access to product-related information, through smartphone apps or web links. They can also check if the retailer is authorized by the manufacturer
- Packaging solutions: Acviss’s tamper proof tamper-evident solutions integrate into primary as well as tertiary packages. Coupled with cutting-edge technology and continuous R&D towards improving Authenticity Verification, ACVISS labels are tamper-evident, tamper proof and self-destructible. They become useless and the product cannot be repacked once the labels have been tampered with.
- Unique markers: We use both overt and covert markers to identify and distinguish between a genuine and fake product
- ACVISS App: The Acviss label can then be verified at any point in the supply chain and also by the end consumer. Acviss’s app is one such medium. The app can be downloaded from Play Store or App Store for free. Acviss also provides web-based verifications, white-labeled applications, and an SDK for companies that wish to use their own brand name for the app.
- Awareness Building: Acviss partners with clients to offer customized awareness building campaigns for customers. These, along with the loyalty management service, increases customer’s readiness to report fake products.
