Shoppers to eBay Sellers: Ok if it's fake, as long as it's cheap

A German paper reports on a new study from the University in Mainz (Germany) that found that 85% of perfume buyers on eBay received counterfeit bottles. Ok, fine. Here's what's interesting:

    "While the actual fragrance of the imitations often displayed only a minimal deviation from the original, the differences were clearly recognizable from other features. The weight of the bottle, the lettering used or the curvature in the bottom of the bottle pointed towards them being forgeries. For the buyers it admittedly appears not to be so important as to whether they have bought a forgery or an original. They showed hardly any reaction.  It was only in only a few individual cases that they gave a negative appraisal and spoke out about forgery whereas, according to the study, 99 per cent (sic) of opinions were positive."   

Do people just expect they will receive counterfeit goods?  More likely, because they don't trust that they'll get the real thing, most just assume it's not real and adjust the price they are willing to pay accordingly.  They are willing to take a risk-- as long as it doesn't cost a whole lot.

Perhaps this is why, according to the Auction Trust Network, who has a great tool for comparing the average prices of products on eBay with those off eBay, “online shoppers pay an average of 34% less on eBay than they would on traditional retail shopping sites!” (from Steve Jones, the CEO of ATN, in a recent newsletter).  While this is great for buyers, if you sell on eBay this is really challenging for your margins.  Why is a buyer not willing to pay the same price on eBay that they are willing to pay FOR THE SAME PRODUCT off eBay?  This is a big trust problem.  If you are a seller who sells the real thing, you’ve got a tough challenge convincing every buyer that you are actually selling the real thing (vs. every other seller who is also saying they sell the real thing, but really aren’t) so that you can get a fair price.

Or perhaps, this is just a problem in Germany but not in the U.S. market?  Comments?

To see the full article on the study I’m referencing, go to http://www.markenbusiness.com/en/news.php?newsid=4026

Comments

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