Why You Should Never Sell Replica Watches on Amazon
Amazon has become one of the leading sites online to start your e-commerce business.
Like any entrepreneur, many people take advantage of the lucrative business of selling watches on Amazon.
And considering its good and solid reputation, Amazon is without doubt the best place to make great gains. It’s well-known worldwide, it has user-friendly platform, and joining is easy and straightforward. As matter of fact, the site helps you setup your platform within a short time. With the right approach, you will be able to smile all the way to the bank sooner-rather-than-later.
A certain seller saw it fit to start selling genuine watches over Amazon. Things were going on quite well and he managed to make a couple of sales despite competition from other sellers. But, wasn’t there a shortcut to making more money within a shorter time? Isn’t it possible to get away with black hat methods without being discovered? How easy is to get your seller account banned?
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The ambitious entrepreneur asked himself these questions quite often. I mean, everyone wants to make it big in the online business, right?
Then the thought of selling replicas crossed his mind. Rather than getting authentic watches from renowned sources such as Switzerland, Japan, US and other known manufacturers, why not simply go for Chinese fakes? First-of-all, it is hard to tell a real watch from a fake one. Secondly, the cost of the non-genuine watches is way lower, and this means more revenue and profit. Thirdly, finding replica watches especially those made in China isn’t hard at all.
And to play it safe, he wouldn’t reveal to the buyers that these were replicas. In fact, he continued hinting they were original watches, and incase he received a query about the source or guarantee on authenticity; he would simply ignore the questioning. Things were flowing smoothly and he was smiling all the way to the bank.
Imagine selling a watch that was purchased for $20 for $200? The only barrier to his success was just making sure the customers got the watches.
Sooner-rather-than-later, complaints started being received by Amazon. Some customers complained of the watches functioning erratically, others said the watches were fading too quickly, while others said the watches were missing some features. Misaligned features, watch being slightly lighter or heavier than indicated, or two pairs of the same watches not looking similar wasn’t unheard of from annoyed customers.
After further investigation, Amazon discovered that the watches were indeed replicas. And the first thing was to pull down listings and suspending seller accounts. This meant no more income and the existing stock couldn’t be sold anywhere else.
It didn’t take long for the genuine watch manufacture to sue the seller of the replicas. Rather than paying the $ 1,000,000 to the manufacturer, the vendor chose to settle the matter out-of-court and paid $ 200,000.
Well, not only did Amazon suspend his seller account, but is now struggling to pay bills.
Resources:
http://gizmodo.com/amazons-banning-cheap-unsafe-usb-c-cables-1767928156
http://forums.watchuseek.com/f2/watches-sold-direct-amazon-genuine-553005.html