Counterfeits

As the Christmas season approaches, hundreds of Filipinos are placing orders for gifts in any online shopping websites, where rapid free shipping, wide selection of products and easy price comparison provides a wealth of convenience. However, there might be a possibility that you may end up receiving a counterfeit item, rather than the real thing.

Purchasing of fake brand-name goods, which once seemed to be physical business stores, has expanded to e-commerce platforms, such as Shopee and Lazada. In lieu of this, it affects the operation of the beauty industry where a lot of fake items are being sold in the said platforms. 

The chances of encountering counterfeit products are high if purchased from a third party vendor. Third party vendors are other than the brand and their authorized resellers.

Here are some tips to avoid purchasing those fake items:

Buying online can sometimes be risky but there are stores who provide honesty to their customers. By reading reviews from an item you want to buy you can check its authenticity. Other customers like you tend to rely on comments, however regardless of who the vendor might be some comments are aggregated. 

If a product has no comments you can check it with the seller and ask questions regarding the product, sometimes it could be a big help to you if they provide you a photo of the actual products. If you are not yet convinced, check their other social media accounts like facebook and instagram. Be a smart buyer.

Research can be a big help to avoid encountering this problem. Putting a time in this is worth it before you buy. Search for the original product prices and where it is available. Deals that look too good to be true often are dangerous and have issues.

Look up if the seller is an authorized distributor or reseller of the product.Check  the seller's rating and review from its shop. Check if the seller has got negative feedback, and what feedback they are talking about. Also check if the seller is active in giving replies to its customers.

The packaging of a product can also be a counterfeit. If you are not confident with reviews, you can ask the seller about the product's manufacturing details, and compare it with the original one you search online. If it has misspellings, the dates are not accurate of what you have searched for, do not buy it.