Online sales of products for the home and garden are on the rise and are expected to continue to grow with the increase in the industry’s internet penetration.
As millennials mature and generation Z is entering the workforce, they set lifestyle trends, and they go online to do it or to follow latest fashions, as well as find home and garden solutions, wherever they may be.
However, online platforms are also vulnerable to abuse and fraud. Online counterfeiting generates hundreds of billions of dollars in sales across the globe, and it’s present in every market, including lawn and gardening, outdoor living, home décor, home improvement and homewares.
E-Commerce platforms have made it easier for fraudsters to sell highly desired counterfeited products or to ‘free-ride’ on successful brands in order to sell competing products. Other sellers use sophisticated tools to steal web-traffic and generate sales leads. This may result not only in lost sales, but also negative customer experience and brand dilution.
Fighting online brand abuse the DIY way is too difficult, time consuming and costly.