Online Holiday Selling? Independent Brand Creation? Shoe Imitations Face Choices

A few days ago, Company D, located in Dajingkou, Jinjiang City, just registered a new trademark and officially transformed its own brand on the operation line. Before that, Company D had been selling imitation shoes. In the fight against the trend of fake shoes in Jinjiang, shoe shops like Company D suffered heavy losses, and many bosses said they could not survive. To this end, the owners of Jinjiang shoes imitation stores have transformed into e-commerce.

However, after the transformation, they chose two different paths: either continue to sell imitation shoes online or create their own brands.

Departments Jointly Regulate the Market

　　 Shoemaker "I can't go on."

Recently, the door of Company D has been closed, and it only opens in the evening.

"No way, the companies and stores that sell imitation shoes have been hit hard recently, and many stores have either closed or transformed." In the interview, when the author repeatedly said that he would not disclose the company name and the name of the interviewee, Mr. Hu, the head of Company D, told the author. He said that many stores selling imitation shoes in the vicinity were forced to "close down", and some stores simply removed their brands.

"I can't go on!" Mr. Hu said.

During the unannounced visit, the author learned that Company D is located in Dajingkou, Jinjiang, where there are many shoe stores and companies selling imitation shoes. Recently, these shoe stores and companies were hit by the relevant departments and suffered "heavy losses". "Some time ago, a shop nearby was investigated for selling imitation shoes. Because of the large amount involved, the owner of the shop has been taken away by the public security organ." Mr. Hu revealed that this has kept company bosses like them in a state of anxiety.

Under the guidance of Mr. Hu, the author entered a shoe imitation shop at 10 o'clock at night to "visit". Rows of imitated shoes of various brands and styles are placed on the shelves for customers to choose. There are not only many well-known domestic brands, but also international first-line sports brands such as Nike, Adidas, Kappa, etc. The reporter even found a pair of limited edition "Messi" football shoes in the store. Take this pair of "Messi" football shoes as an example, the price of authentic shoes is about 1000 yuan, but according to the boss Wang of the store, the retail price of this pair of imitation shoes is only 100 yuan.

"Of course, I seldom do retail here. More customers come to do wholesale, and the price will be cheaper." Boss Wang told reporters that even if they sell cheap, their profits are still "considerable". But recently, Mr. Wang has had a hard time. "After being severely hit, we had to stay out of the limelight, close during the day and only open at night. This will certainly reduce the number of visitors, but it is better than nothing."

Interestingly, during the "visit", a businessman from Uzbekistan came into the store and asked Mr. Wang about the price. "You caught up with me today, which is the first foreigner to enter the store this week." Boss Wang said with a smile, in order to advance the foreign merchants who came to his store to wholesale imitation shoes "at least 20 a week".

　　 From offline to online

　　 Counterfeiting will still be hit

In this "anti counterfeiting trend", some companies and stores selling imitation shoes in Ohikou transformed Electronic Commerce 。 It is understood that these companies and stores still sell imitation shoes when transforming e-commerce, trying to use the convenience and concealment of e-commerce to avoid cracking down on counterfeit goods.

According to insiders, the usual way for these stores is to rent a house as an office, find someone to build a B2B or B2C online store, and one or several people can add a few computers to operate. At ordinary times, the specific work is to select several links, such as source order, network promotion and sales, and logistics express delivery.

"But now many consumers have learned to be 'smart'. After receiving the goods, they go to a third party to complain about quality problems or counterfeit brands. As a result, the goods are taken away, the money has to be returned, and the online store has to be fined and deducted from the deposit." Under the leadership of Mr. Hu, the author came into contact with Mr. Li, the "store manager" who sells imitation shoes online in Otaikou. He told reporters that not only consumers, Third party platforms have also been cracking down on counterfeits, and the days of shoe stores transforming into e-commerce are still difficult. "We often eat coptis as dumb people, and we can't say how bitter it is."

In fact, third-party platforms are also attacking online shoe stores. Tmall platform clearly stated that authentic products and guarantee are the most basic requirements of consumers for Tmall platform and businesses, and also the bottom line of Tmall platform. Tmall has zero tolerance for fake goods and smuggled goods. At present, Tmall has cracked down on dishonest behaviors on the platform by means of system patrol, manual troubleshooting and cooperation with brands. At the level of rules and systems, Tmall has increased the cost of violations and consumer protection, and standardized the business behavior of businesses by taking measures such as the deposit system and the system of "fake one pays five" to consumers.

"This is also the reason why we dare not speak out about our 'grievances'," Mr. Li said helplessly.

During the interview, the author found that there were also boxes of overstocked imitation shoes in Mr. Li's shop, most of which were domestic first tier brands. But according to Mr. Li, these imitated shoes that were supposed to be sold online are not ready to be sold. "I have to be afraid of being punished if I can sell them, so let them 'rot' in the warehouse."

　 Transforming the "regular army"

　　 Creating a brand is the way out

In the "anti counterfeiting trend", Company D also followed the trend of "closing down" the shoe imitation business, transforming and operating e-commerce like Mr. Li's shop. But the difference is that two months ago, Company D got the authorization letter of the new trademark, no longer selling imitation shoes, but transforming to operate its own brand online. According to Mr. Hu, when applying for a new trademark, it was to get rid of the name of "imitation shoes".

"Although the profit of imitation shoes is not low, the industry will be severely hit sooner or later. We have complete Supply chain There is no running in problem in the transformation. " Mr. Hu told the reporter that the supply chain system for making imitation shoes can fully meet the production requirements of new brands. What they need to do now is to promote online and try to build the new brand into the "Tao" brand.

But things did not go as smoothly as Mr. Hu had expected. Nowadays, the e-commerce market environment changes very quickly. With the gradual fierce competition, the rapid changes in the marketing environment make it difficult for Mr. Hu's new brand to adapt.

"In terms of promotion, traffic and click rate are very expensive." Mr. Hu said that at present, the promotion cost of e-commerce industry is high, and at the same time, the increasing cost of operation and logistics manpower makes his brand feel pressure. "But you can't do this without doing it. No one will buy new brand products without doing these promotions."

When selling imitation shoes, Mr. Hu can take advantage of the high popularity of first-line brands and sell a lot of goods without promotion. But now, he wants to create "Dongfeng" for his new brand. This change made him extremely uncomfortable.

"Recently, in order to do promotion, my hair has turned gray," Mr. Hu said with a wry smile. However, in Mr. Hu's opinion, for the company, accelerating transformation and upgrading, strengthening innovation and building its own brand is the way to survive for a long time.

Editor's Note:

If you can't sell fake shoes offline, can you avoid legal sanctions online? Recently, the Economic Investigation Brigade of Jinjiang Public Security Bureau, the Anti counterfeiting Office and relevant manufacturers jointly carried out a unified "anti counterfeiting" action. The criminal suspect Xu was arrested on the scene, and 60 pairs of counterfeit "Anta" brand sports shoes, one office laptop and one desktop computer were seized, and the counterfeit "Anta" brand sports shoes were collected from the on-site office computers and sold in online stores There are more than 2000 "Li Ning" and "361 °" brand sports shoes and bags, with a total value of more than 100000 yuan involved. The Economic Investigation Brigade and the Anti counterfeiting Office of Jinjiang Public Security Bureau raided the online fake sales dens hiding in the rental house at No. 135, Gaoxia Back Street, Qingyang, Jinjiang City, seized 146 pairs of sports shoes counterfeiting "Anta", "Special Step" and other sports brands, captured the criminal suspect Xie Moumei, and investigated and dealt with two online stores suspected of selling fake Taobao such as "Kuermei Shoes Trade" and "wuda123abc", The total value involved is about 100000 yuan. Obviously, selling imitation shoes online will "fail" sooner or later.

At the same time, Jinjiang also vigorously supported Own brand We will give more preferential policies to our e-commerce enterprises. It will become an inevitable trend for shoe companies to transform their online independent brands. Although the new brand is facing difficulties such as high promotion costs and lack of brand awareness, it is undeniable that only independent brands can get rid of the hat of "imitation shoes" at a time when intellectual property protection is becoming more and more perfect. If the enterprise wants to develop and the company wants to become bigger, the development that cannot see the light will inevitably be abandoned. As an enterprise manager told the reporter, "Only when an enterprise is doing well can it grow big."

Related links:

Paragraph 3 of Article 40 of the Trademark Law: If a person knowingly sells a commodity that counterfeits a registered trademark, which constitutes a crime, he shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law in addition to compensating the infringee for his losses.

Article 214 of the Criminal Law: Whoever knowingly sells goods that are counterfeit registered trademarks, if the amount of money involved is relatively large, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall also, or shall only, be fined; If the amount of sales is huge, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years and shall also be fined.

Article 2 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights: The sale of goods that are known to be counterfeit registered trademarks with a sales amount of more than 50000 yuan is a "relatively large amount" as stipulated in Article 214 of the Criminal Law, They shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall also, or shall only, be fined for the crime of selling commodities with counterfeit registered trademarks. If the amount of sales is more than 250000 yuan, it belongs to the "huge amount" stipulated in Article 214 of the Criminal Law, and shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years and shall also be fined for the crime of selling commodities with counterfeit registered trademarks