The luxury handbags may be an identification mark for being rich but be careful while buying those bags as nowadays market is filled with counterfeit handbags. According to a report, 2.5% of the goods which are imported to the US are counterfeit. These products are a source of organized crime and worth almost half a trillion dollars.
While commenting on this issue, the International Trademark Association attorney, Maysa Razavi said that many of the consumers don’t know that the people who are involved in counterfeiting of goods are also involved in terrorism. Therefore, next time when you buy a handbag of Gucci, keep in mind that the clutch of the handbag you are gripping may be a fake product.
According to reports, US custom seized 34,000 fake products in 2017 and these numbers are 8% more than the stats of 2016. But nowadays, retailers have left the counterfeit products behind and now thinking about how technology can help them.
At this crucial, AI has paved the way for these retailers but the technology requires a lot of money to make a mark. But with the increasing demand, many retailers have started using Artificial Intelligence rather than relying on the human expertise.
The two very different brands, Goat, and Entrupy, have started building anti-counterfeiting algorithms based on the database of luxury goods. With the help of these algorithms, these brands look for the tiniest inconsistencies among the products and make sure that the customer gets the original product.
Goat is famous for the sale of its luxury sneakers. In the market for luxury goods, sneakers have surpassed the handbags so does the counterfeit sneakers. Before shipping the shoes to Goat for Artificial Intelligence authentication, resellers first send the luxury sneakers to the human experts for analyzing. To check the AI authentication process of the company, some people visited the Bushwick store which was accused of selling counterfeit sneakers. People there took the pictures of some pairs and send them for testing.
While giving an interview, Andy Shin, the CTO of Goat said that the company has the largest database of sneakers information. He further said that with the passage of time, the number of fake sneakers cases has reduced drastically as the company has adopted zero tolerance policy towards the counterfeit products.
As far as Entrupy is concerned, the company is known for its luxury handbags. And to check the AI authentication system of the company, two Louis Vuitton handbags were sent to their office for testing as Louis Vuitton is one of the most popular brands in fake products market.
To check the authentication system, two pairs of shoes were bought – one a genuine Damien Eben Hoxton and second a fake one of the same brand. The fake pair was bought from New York City’s store located on Canal Street.
The girl who bought the fake bag from Canal Street remembered the specification of the PSeedu bag. While buying the bag, the girl pretended to be an expert at buying handbags. After walking back and forth, a siren call announced saying “excuse me Ma’am Gucci?”. A man leaned towards the girl but she asked for Louis from that guy.
After that, the girl followed the man to a van where a woman retrieved a Speedy Louis Vuitton bag. Then she showed the bad from inside to allow her to check the inside material of the bag. The woman asked to pay $100 but the girls after bargaining handed over $70 for that bag.
After that, the girl met with Will Tan, the CEO of Entrupy and customer experience lead, Devin Battersby. Before the AI test, the girl asked them to assess the fake bag she bought from Canal Street. After assessing, she praised the inside material of the bag but said that attention to the details are not as good as they are in the original piece. After years of experience, Will Tan was able to figure out that the handle of the bags does not have creamy Vachetta leather instead they are coated with a pinkish hue.