How to Avoid Counterfeit Products on Amazon
It’s no secret that Amazon has had problems with third-party sellers over the years. According to Sellerapp, an e-commerce consulting company, between 10% and 60% of products sold on Amazon may be counterfeit . Chances are you’ve purchased at least one of these. The consequences of buying a scam can be as trivial as buying a lousy pen, or as dire as buying an uncertified e-scooter battery that will burn your apartment down . Either way, buying counterfeit products sucks, but there are ways to avoid getting scammed by Amazon. Here are some ways to avoid buying counterfeit products on Amazon.
Check who is delivering and who the seller is.
First and foremost, you want to avoid purchasing products from third-party sellers as much as possible. No, not all third-party sellers are bad, but enough are that they are risky to deal with. It’s important to note that you can view one product page, but simply changing color, size, etc. may lead to a different seller (for example, look at the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones below). Always check who is selling you the product before you buy it. To minimize the chance of receiving a counterfeit product, make sure that both the seller and the shipping source are Amazon.
Even Prime products can be counterfeit
A common mistake is for people to let their guard down when they see the blue “Prime” shipping logo on a product and assume it’s sold by Amazon. All this means is that the item comes from an Amazon warehouse. With Amazon’s Amazon Fulfillment program, any third-party seller can submit their items to Amazon, which will then ship them to you. Depending on the location you set for delivery, the “ships from” warehouse will change.
Always look at reviews, but don’t trust them completely
You should always read reviews about the product and the seller (these are two different things). While it’s difficult to know if a review is real, there are ways to look out for it . Just keep in mind that Amazon is known to remove reviews where people call fake products , so always take star ratings with a grain of salt. A great solution is to read product reviews on independent sites (like ours) where we will tell you whether the product is worth your money or not. This brings me to my next and final tip.
Buy from trusted and high-quality brands.
If you buy from a reputable brand, your chances of getting scammed are greatly reduced. Today, most reputable brands have their own pages on Amazon , so purchasing there is almost the same as purchasing products directly from their websites. While some items on manufacturer pages may come from third-party sellers, retailers typically go through a vetting process to ensure that these sellers are legitimate.
Amazon created an anti-counterfeit crime unit to combat problems they have been facing for years. But as you probably already know, Amazon won’t solve all your problems all the time, so it’s important to try to avoid this situation from the start.