Falling For a Knock-Off?

According to the Statista Global Consumer Survey luxury content special, the coronavirus pandemic has had a negative impact on the market for luxury products. Around half of the luxury customers from the six countries surveyed said that they spent less on items like luxury jewelry or expensive watches due to COVID-19.

While the survey did not ask if the coronavirus has led to consumers branching out into counterfeit items, most luxury customers were not overly open to purchasing luxury knock-offs. Americans were the most outspoken when it comes to purchasing counterfeit luxury products – 20 percent of U.S. luxury customers said they had done so on purpose while another 20 percent had received a counterfeit item without intending to. Yet another 20 percent were not sure if one or more of their purchases had ended up being counterfeit.

Chinese customers were the least open to discussing having purchasing counterfeit items. Only five percent said they had done so willingly. Interestingly, 37 percent of Chinese said they were not sure about their past counterfeit purchases, an outlier in the survey.