What happens to your small business after counterfeiters copy your product?
What happens to your small business after counterfeiters copy your product?
Over the summer, Deborah Holtschlag, owner of Plant Traps, was dealing with a flood of counterfeiters selling products that ripped off her design online. She began filing reports with online shopping platforms, but that “became a full-time job.”
Six months later, Marketplace’s Kristin Schwab checked back in with Holtschlag. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Kristin Schwab: So how has the company been doing, and how have the holidays been?
Deborah Holtschlag: We’re doing great. Fourth quarter was wonderful. One of the things that really helped is a couple of weeks ago, we went viral on Instagram to 38 million. I concentrate on the social media a lot, and I make a lot of content. So that is always really helpful.
Schwab: Why don’t you give us an update on your fight against the fakes? Where are you with that?
Holtschlag: OK, so I looked up some information, and we’ve come a long way since the last time we spoke in the summer, and we’ve managed to take back control of the brand. We’ve sued hundreds of sellers and gotten judgments and cash settlements, and it shows in the numbers. In April, we took down over 200 counterfeit listings on the major marketplaces, and in November, we only had to take down two. Yeah, and we’ve been successful in getting national distribution in gardening supply stores for the spring.
Schwab: What does it feel like to gain some ground here?
Holtschlag: So I definitely feel more empowered, and it’s satisfying to get judgments against the sellers who just kept re-listing dozens of times. Like, you would knock them down — we were playing whack-a-mole for a long time. So that feels really good. But I also feel really lucky, because I’ve talked to a lot of brands that don’t survive this.
Schwab: How bad is the problem for you still? You said you still are fighting a couple of these now and then. Is it just kind of an unfortunate part of doing business?
Holtschlag: It definitely is an unfortunate part of doing business. We are now experts, so when we find listings, we get them taken down pretty quickly, but it is just a matter of keeping track of them and pulling them down. Now, when we talked during the summer, we were being drowned out by hundreds of listings, and that was really difficult.
Schwab: How much time are are you spending, sort of searching for these knockoffs, kind of seeing what they’re like? I mean, how much of your business is devoted to this piece of it?
Holtschlag: So I definitely spend a few hours every week looking at the marketplaces that I can see. But I also have to try to protect some outside of the U.S. markets, like we have a new licensor in manufacturing in India. So we have been going through those marketplaces and finding a few, as well.
Schwab: And you said you might be getting into stores soon, right?
Holtschlag: Yes, we have licensed Railscapes to Bloem Living, which is a large gardening company here in the U.S., and they have gotten us into hundreds of gardening centers. I think Lowe’s big box store will have Railscapes in the spring, and some others, as well.
Schwab: I know so much of your business is online, but I imagine it’s pretty amazing to think about walking into a store and seeing your product on the shelves.
Holtschlag: It is. I’m pretty excited about it. I can’t wait. And I think that brick-and-mortars are so much safer, because they don’t want to carry stock that they’re going to get cease-and-desist letters on. So it’s a much safer place.
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