It's no secret that Amazon has had issues with third-party sellers over the years. According to Sellerapp, an e-commerce consulting company, somewhere between 10% to 60% of products sold on Amazon may be counterfeit. Odds are you've bought at least one of them. The consequences of buying a dupe could be as trivial as receiving a lousy pen or as dire as buying an uncertified e-scooter battery that burns an apartment down. In any case, getting counterfeit products sucks, but there are ways to avoid being duped on Amazon. Here are some ways to avoid buying fake products on Amazon.
Check who is shipping and who the seller is
First and foremost, you want to avoid buying products from third-party sellers as much as possible. No, not all third-party sellers are bad, but enough of them are that it's risky to do business with them. An important thing to note is that you could be looking at one product page but just changing the color, size, etc. can lead to a different seller (look at the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones below, for example). Always make sure to check who is selling you the product before buying it. To minimize the chances of getting a fake product, make sure both the seller and the shipping source is Amazon.
Even Prime products can be dupes
It's a common mistake that people will let their guard down when they see the blue "Prime" shipping logo on a product and assume it's Amazon selling it. All that means is that it's coming from an Amazon warehouse. Because of Amazon's “Fulfillment by Amazon” program, any third-party seller can ship their products to Amazon, who will then ship them to you. Depending on the location you have set for your shipping, the "ship from" warehouse will change.
Always look at reviews, but don't trust them entirely
You should always read the reviews of the product and of the seller (those are two different things). Although it is hard to know if a review is real, there are ways to things to look for. Just keep in mind that Amazon has been known to delete reviews where people call out knockoff products, so always take star ratings with a grain of salt. A great solution is to read product reviews from independent websites (like ours) where we will tell you if a product is worth your money or not. This leads me to my next and final tip.
Buy from reputable and high-quality brands
If you buy from a reputable brand, your chances of getting a dupe decrease dramatically. Today, most reputable brands have their own Amazon pages, so buying from there is almost like buying products directly from their websites. Although some products from the manufacturer pages can come from third-party sellers, retailers usually go through a vetting process to make sure these sellers are legit.
Amazon has created a Counterfeit Crimes Unit to combat these issues they've been having for years. But as you probably already know, Amazon won't solve all your issues all the time, so it's important to try avoiding the situation to begin with.
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