“The bag she wanted to sell with us was a mini Kelly by Hermès. It looked perfect,” says Hanushka Toni, CEO and co-founder of luxury reseller Sellier. . She’s talking about potential vendors. “But upon inspection, I realized that it didn’t smell like a Hermès bag that has that distinctive ‘new car smell’…” Sellier ran Mini Kelly through her new AI software. “Confirmed to be fake.”
Sellier CEO and Co-Founder Hanushka Toni
Fashion is adapting to the rise of AI in many ways. Reseller Hardly Ever Worn It (HEWI) recently released a search optimization chatbot, Maia, on its platform with the goal of saving customers time scrolling through specific looks and products. Shopify recently integrated ChatGPT into its Shop app to help sellers describe their products. But fighting the “superfakes” that have plagued luxury brands and resellers for years is a top priority.
A rarely worn chatbot, Maia
The global luxury goods counterfeit and replica market is worth an estimated $1.9 trillion, and black market makers are using increasingly sophisticated techniques such as laser cutting and 3D printing to confuse even the creators of the original products. increase. Luxury brands and resellers are armed with data-powered authentication systems that they believe will ultimately outsmart them using AI technology. These systems essentially compile a digital encyclopedia of the characteristics of counterfeit and genuine goods, spotting small discrepancies in fabric, stitching and metal. LVMH-owned brand Patou recently launched Authentic Verify, an AI verification system that effectively digitally “chips” goods at the first stage of the production chain, tracks goods, and prevents return fraud (counterfeit goods). is sent back instead). original). A photo of a real product taken with a mobile phone has all its minute characteristics processed and is said to be as unreproducible as a fingerprint.
At the scale at which most conglomerates operate, experimenting with entirely new counterfeiting techniques is risky. However, it is easy for smaller luxury brands and reseller businesses to try the technology. Sellier, a global reseller platform launched in 2019, specializes in bags and accessories from Hermès, Chanel and Louis Vuitton, spending more than his £60,000, with customers based in Knightsbridge and Monaco is placed. Toni felt investing in AI was essential when a customer was stabbed with a counterfeit handbag sourced from an unnamed competitor. “It’s no small purchase and it’s often hard to get your money back, so having to tell people about it is the most frustrating thing.”
The company uses human verification by experts, but that alone isn’t enough, she continues. “For bad fakes, human authentication can solve the problem, but for super fakes, there is still a 15% error rate.” Each transaction must be secure. “With our low-volume, high-margin strategy, we cannot risk shipping non-genuine products.”
Entrupy works by sending smart devices (microscope attachments) for iPhone SE when authentication is required for luxury handbags. For trainers/sneakers, just download his Entrupy app on your iOS device. The app then scans and photographs the item and files millions of data points across different images to make a decision. The strength of this software is its age. Since 2012, we have captured the characteristics of thousands of genuine and counterfeit products to build an unparalleled database. Entrupy CEO and co-founder Vidyuth Srinivasan said he has so far “scanned” $2 billion worth of luxury handbags, of which a staggering 9.6 percent turned out to be counterfeit.
Sellier now relies first on an in-house team of inspections, then on secondary brand experts, and third and final verifier, Entrupy. Resale expert and consultant Graham Wetzberger describes the approach as “easy.” Through his company, Luxury Appraisals, he has personally appraised over $1 billion worth of luxury goods. “If you buy an old Louis Vuitton purse for £100, it probably isn’t worth it,” he says. (In contrast, Sellier’s average basket price is between £2,000 and £4,000 for him.) He also believes each company should have a certification approach tailored to his model of business. For example, The RealReal, a global luxury consignment marketplace, is so vulnerable to counterfeiters that he has set a goal of 40% AI-powered authentication by 2022. However, it is only for handbags.
In addition, there are also environmental regulations recently enacted in France, which subject brand supply chains to intense scrutiny and are expected to further hurt the counterfeit industry (because it is projected to expand beyond ). “Finally, consumers will be able to see how sausages are made,” says Wetzberger. “For brands that use fair labor and quality products, this is a plus.”
Pierre Denis, former Jimmy Choo CEO and investor in the luxury authentication space, cites blockchain (NFC or NFT code bars sewn into bags) as the preferred method over AI authentication for some brands. increase. It’s a technology Louis Vuitton, Chloé and Prada are currently experimenting with.
Dennis predicts a new world of luxury goods, where brands bring their supply chains in-house, resell, and apply customized solutions again. But he mixes cautious optimism about AI’s potential with caution about counterfeiters’ relentless innovation. “Everything is forgeable,” he explains. “Every domain has hackers.”
