2020 Fashion Brand Survey Results

The results are in! We asked key fashion brands about counterfeits, trademark infringement, and COVID-19 — here’s what they told us.

• Online marketplaces continue to pose the greatest threat to fashion brands.
• Some respondents see Southeast Asian ecommerce platforms such as Tokopedia as more of a risk than Amazon or eBay.
• 66% of our fashion brand respondents invested more in online brand protection during 2020.
• 100% of fashion brands surveyed believe that marketplaces, social media companies, and Internet infrastructure providers do not do enough to protect against counterfeiting and other forms of infringement.

Q: Which online channels have posed the biggest brand protection challenges in the past year? 

• Marketplaces 50% 
• Social Media 25% 
• Social Commerce 25% 

Insight: Although social media and social commerce apps are a risk for some fashion brands, eCommerce marketplaces remain the biggest threat. In 2020, domains were of least concern.

Q: Which online channels do you think will pose the biggest risk for your industry in the next two or three years? 

• Marketplaces 50% 
• Social Media 25% 
• Social Commerce 25%

Insight: Social media is clearly a growing concern for our fashion clients, but marketplaces remain the platform they will continue to watch most closely in coming years. This appears to stem both from the threat of new platforms, but also from the inability of existing marketplaces to effectively control sellers.

Q: Which social media channel represents the biggest brand protection challenge in terms of counterfeits and trademark infringement for your brand? 

• Facebook 59% 
• Instagram 33% 
• All of them 8% 

Insight: When asked which of the major social media channels posed a threat to fashion brands, nearly 60% cited Facebook, while the remainder focused on Instagram and, once again, all of them!

Q: Did you see a decrease in support from enforcement agencies such as Police, Customs, and Trading Standards as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?

• Yes 42%
• No 58%

Insight: Surprisingly, nearly 60% of fashion brands found that the level of enforcement support they received from authorities stayed the same during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Q: Which region do you think will pose the greatest threat to brands in your industry in the next five years? 

• APAC 67% 
• Europe 8% 
• Middle East 17% 
• Africa 8% 

Insight: Asia Pacific remains the key area of concern for our fashion clients. As the engine of counterfeit manufacturing, they do not see this situation changing in the next five years. Some respondents also cited Europe, Africa, and the Middle East as areas of growing concern.