% of all trade worldwide done with counterfeit products
3%
% of all counterfeit products which are consumer electronics
12%
% of counterfeit products sold on trusted e-commerce websites
39%
Counterfeit and fake goods are available not only through unauthorized online channels but even the large legacy sites like Amazon are used for counterfeit products. In this case, we describe how Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques can be used to trace and attack counterfeits on e-commerce platforms.
Tracking counterfeit and fake goods is a complex difficult task. It can be a major challenge for those working brand management, sales channels and marketing as well as legal teams.
Is counterfeiting something you fight every day? Are you side by side with your legal department talking with your resellers to hunt after counterfeits? Are you working in brand management in a sector where counterfeiting may affect your brand reputation? Do you work in a complex multi channel environment where customers are often faced with counterfeit goods? Read this article and we will see how customer feedback analysis can allow you to be more effective in your work in controlling and managing your brand.
Using NLP (Natural Language Processing) techniques to trace counterfeits is a completely new approach. Nevertheless, Wonderflow has taken on the challenge to do so for one of its clients that produce a large range of electronic devices for consumers.
Wonderflow’s first challenge was to run extensive analysis on how to trace the specific reviews that refer to counterfeits. Our NLP engine scanned several e-commerce platforms with the aim of finding reviews where buyers seem to complain about fake products. After uploading and cleaning the data, The Wonderflow AI trained itself to understand the kind of language and sentiment customers were using which would refer to a counterfeit product.
Through identifying the purchase channel we were able to identify that in some cases up to 70% of the products sold on a specific website, were fake! So with the help of buyers and their feedback, Wonderflow was able to find many instances of fake products being sold as legitimate, cheating not just our client but hundreds or even thousands of customers as well.
The challenges we faced:
* After identifying this large group of fake listings, the e-commerce platform was not willing to remove the products from their website. Only when Wonderflow’s client company filed a lawsuit did they begin to cooperate with the company. Until then, not only was the brand being damaged, but buyers were losing their money.
You may imitate, but never counterfeit
Results
The information in this case study is confidential. Brands and company names are anonymized.
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