How to Combat Grey Market Sales?
With the rise in online shopping and eCommerce, there has also been an increase in gray market products that are sold through these online portals. Simply put, gray market products are generally illegal and are sold outside the original distribution channel of an enterprise with no consent from the original manufacturer. Going by the nature of the gray market, it becomes complicated to keep track of the exact sales at the source.
When you are browsing the internet for your choicest cosmetic product or mobile accessory you come across numerous websites selling them. At the first glance the offer might look attractive and authentic along with the discounts and services offered but the chances of these being gray market products are high. This indicates that there is a huge chance that the mobile, cosmetic or lifestyle good that you choose online might be faulty or have crossed the expiry date and have been remarked. Therefore, one needs to be cautious before purchasing them.
Gray market products lead to disruptions with the authentic distributions in the sales channel. The original partners loose revenue to the gray market sales. Furthermore, it makes an original enterprise lose its brand reputation, market share and consumer goodwill. Hence, companies today are looking for effective ways to combat gray market sales.
Industry Solutions to Combat Gray Market
Service providers specializing in online brand management and protection solutions have come up with high-end SaaS based software that enables end-users to combat gray market sales. The software monitors the open market on an end-to-end basis for buy/sell listings of goods and part numbers making use of advanced search agents. These search agents track detailed market data from a wide range of market types that is comprised of the following:-
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Franchise and large distribution websites
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Independent and gray market web sites
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Email-based forums that aggregate buy/sell listings
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Trade boards
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Auction sites
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Chat
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B2C sites
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Blogs
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B2B sites
This software has the capacity to directly deliver the data via a website to the end user in a compact, multi-dimensional market intelligence format. Using this format the end users can attain personalized dashboards, custom report views and even set up user formatted export files. All the essential information is accessed and used within an intuitive interface. This further helps the investigators to manage and develop case histories, assess evidence and understand the link between partners, suspect companies and other associated contacts better.
Over the years, the internet has acted as a pivotal medium in giving rise; to gray market sales. However, resorting to advanced brand protection solution will enable you to steer clear of gray market sales.
Read More About: enterprise risk management, Anti-Counterfeiting