Counterfeit Products

Objective

As a Venture, I want to restrict brands that cannot be sold without prior approval (e.g., brands that require a license for selling).

Sellers who would like to sell restricted brands will first have to ask for approval from the Venture. Only then will the Seller be able to publish these brands’ products on the Shop.

How it Works

  1. Admin defines restricted brands.
    • In brands administration, any brand can be permitted or restricted. Permitted brands do not require any approval, restricted brands do.
    • By default, all brands are permitted (more information on how brands can be made restricted below).
  2. Seller receives notification when creating a product of a restricted brand.
  3. Seller provides required documents to the Venture. This is done outside of Seller Center.
  4. Admin approves brands for the Seller in Seller Center.
    • In Sellers administration, brands for a Seller can be approved or existing approvals can be removed.
    • Any brand (restricted or not) can be approved for any Seller. This allows Venture administration to configure approved brands for Sellers before restricting the brands globally.
  5. Product quality control is blocked until the brand has been approved.
    • When Sellers add or edit products of restricted or non-approved brands, these products are blocked from going to quality control (and therefore never reach the Shop).
    • When editing existing products that are already in the Shop, these products are not taken offline from the Shop. Only newly-created or updated products are blocked from going to quality control (and thus reaching the Shop).
    • Once a brand is approved for a Seller, all blocked products of this brand are released and pushed to quality control (and after approval, they go to the Shop).
  6. Sellers can see non-authorized products with a new filter in Product Overview.

Setup

Critical KnowledgeIf you want to enable the feature, please raise a TMLSD ticket. The parameter that needs to be enabled is counterfeit/brand/enabled
Switching this feature impacts the products waiting for quality control. When the feature is turned off, all blocked products are released to quality control. When the feature is turned on, all products of restricted and non-approved brands are removed from quality control. Products in the Shop are not affected.
By default, the feature is available only to the following user roles:

  • Read only access to counterfeit settings: Admin, Seller setup, Seller – support, backend operation, backend read only.
  • Write access to counterfeit settings: Admin, Seller setup, Seller – support.

A new CMS block has been defined: seller_counterfeit_brand_info. This CMS block is displayed on Seller profile’s listing of brands (see below Seller Experience).

# Description Image
1

Configure the newly-added brands status (permitted by default):

Go to Admin > Settings> Product management

Newly added Brands can be set as:

  • “Restricted”
  • “Permitted”
Screen Shot 2016-07-26 at 11.10.26
2

List of brands that the Seller will see:

In Administration > Settings select whether to display one of the following in Seller profile:

  • All restricted brands
  • Only restricted brands that are sold by this Seller

(Both options will also display all approved brands.

Note: Sellers will see the list in their profiles (refer to the Seller Experience #3)

 Brand_seller_profile

Global-Level Administration

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1 Go to Administration > Settings > Brand

  1. Find required brand.
  2. Make it restricted or permitted.
Changing the restriction status of a brand impacts quality control. When a brand is set to “Permitted,” all blocked products of this brand are released to quality control. When a brand is set to “Restricted,” all products of this brand are removed from quality control. Products in the Shop are not affected.

Bulk Approvals with CSV Import

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1

Go to Admin > Settings > Brand > Bulk brand update

Download the template for “Counterfeit Brand Configuration”
2

Edit the downloaded CSV.

Fill in the CSV templates with:

  1. Brand names
  2. “Yes” to restrict or “No” to permit the brand
3

Go to Admin > Settings > Brand > Bulk brand update

Import the template that has now been filled with data.
Please make sure you check your file and understand the consequence of this upload. As stated above, this action has a direct impact on the products present in quality control. It doesn’t have any impact on the products that are in the Shop.

Seller-Level Administration

# Description Image
1 Go to Admin > Seller Management > Edit > Brand

  1. This page lists all brands that are either:
    1. Approved for the Seller
    2. Restricted and being sold by the Seller
  2. Approvals can be added or removed for individual brands.
2 Multiple brands can be approved at the same time:

  1. Click “Add approved brand” button.
  2. Select one or more brands that should be approved for the Seller.
Seller Counterfeit Brand Management - Brand Approval

Bulk Approvals with CSV Import

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1
  • Go to Admin > Seller Management > Import
  • Download a template for “Seller Counterfeit Brand Configuration”

 
2 Fill in the CSV templates with:

  1. Seller’s short codes
  2. Brand names
  3. “Yes” to grant approval or “No” to revoke approval
counterfeit CSV edit
3
  • Go to Admin > Seller Management > Import
  • Import the template.
Counterfeit CSV template import
Adding or removing an approval for a Seller and brand has an impact on quality control. When the brand is approved for a Seller, all the Seller’s blocked products for the brand are released to quality control. When the approval is removed for a Seller, all the Seller’s products for the brand are removed from quality control. Products in the Shop are not affected.

Seller Experience

# Description Image
1 Product Overview

  1. Seller filters for unauthorized products.
  2. Hovering over the visible product icon (√) displays “brand is not approved” as the new reason why the product is not visible.
 2 Products > Add Product

  1. Seller tries to add a product of a non-approved brand.
  2. An error message appears informing the Seller that authorization is required.
Counterfeit Add Product Not Authorized
3 Settings > Your profile > Brands

  1. Seller sees instructions on how to receive approval for brands.
  2. Seller sees a list of brands that are either restricted or approved for the Seller.
Counterfeit Seller Profile Brands

Rollout

Once a Brand is made restricted, no products that are currently sold will be affected. However, if a Seller edits this product, the changes will be blocked from going to quality control.

When a Seller edits their product from an unauthorized brand, it will be blocked from quality control. However, the previous version will stay online. The Venture or Seller should manually take it offline if required. 

Therefore, before making a brand “restricted,” it is recommended to approve this brand for eligible Sellers so that their businesses won’t be interrupted.

As the Products sold in the Shop are no affected, please set currently sold products to Not Authorised using this functionality.