Sale of counterfeit products still remains a significant problem for online shoppers across many ecommerce sites, with two recent surveys saying that over a third of the customers have faced this problem.A survey conducted by LocalCircles shows that 38% consumers out of 6,923 respondents have received a counterfeit product from an ecommerce site in the past one year. Among the leading ecommerce sites, consumers said they had received counterfeit products on Snapdeal at 12%, while 11% said Amazon and 6% cited Flipkart , the survey showed.Another survey conducted by market research platform Velocity MR showed that every one out of three online shoppers has received fake products while shopping online in the past six months. Recently US lifestyle and footwear brand Skechers took Flipkart and four sellers on its platform to court over alleged selling of its counterfeit products. Industry members said that often consumers may not even identify counterfeit products, which would otherwise take the number of such cases much higher.The circulation of counterfeit products is not just a problem for customers; it can also be taxing on the ecommerce company’s business. In the Local-Circles survey, nearly 80% of 6,197 respondents said that ecommerce companies should be mandated to not only accept returns and issue refunds on counterfeit products but also pay a penalty.

Source: Economic Times April 24, 2018 02:46 UTC