High-end brands such as luxury watches are not ready to sell online due to rampant counterfeiting and lack of quality services, a senior executive of Longines China told the Global Times Tuesday.
"Compared with offline shops, online shopping can hardly offer quality shopping experience," said Li Li, vice president of Longines China."Besides, there are too many counterfeits on the Internet, making it hard for consumers to distinguish genuine products from fake ones,"
Online sales represent a future trend for luxury brands, yet developing this sales channel calls for further regulation of the e-commerce market, said Ouyang Kun, head of the World Luxury Association's China office.
Ouyang noted that many consumers have lost confidence in luxury products sold online as over 50 percent of luxurys sold in China turned out to be counterfeits.
"Efforts by companies in fighting fake products, however, are crucial,"he said.
Longines, together with Rado and Omega, filed a lawsuit against China's largest e-commerce platform taobao.com last year, accusing that fake branded watches can be found on taobao.com.
Taobao.com responded that as a platform it always respects intellectual property and would conduct a trial of a price screening mechanism as asked by these brands.
Other brands like wine producer Lafite have also stepped up their efforts. Lafite has won two lawsuits against two local companies last year, which used the trademarks of "Lafite family" and "Lafite empire."
Currently, Tissot has launched its own online sales channels in a bid to fight against fake products online.
"Longines may also try to expand into online sales when intellectual property can be better protected," Li told the Global Times.
China has been one of the fastest growing markets for luxury products.
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