How a High-Growth D2C Beauty Brand Took Back Control from Unauthorised Sellers

Safeguarding brand growth and partner relationships through automated enforcement

Case #PA-23

Opened: Jan 15, 2023

Team: CounterFix

Case Overview

This fast-growing D2C beauty brand, with over INR 500 Cr in annual revenue, has its sights set on crossing the INR 1000 Cr milestone. While originally digital-first, the brand recently expanded into offline distribution to reach new markets and scale faster, which led to a new challenge: offline sellers began appearing online without authorization. What looked like isolated incidents quickly turned into a pattern - unauthorised sellers were popping up fast and everywhere. And that wasn't just bad optics. It was putting pressure on trusted partners, hurting margins, and compromising customer experience, threatening the very foundation that had helped the brand grow.

Client Brief

Leading D2C Skincare & Beauty Brand

Personal Care

Platform

Major E-commerce Platforms

Solutions

CounterFix

The Problem

Although the unauthorised sellers were offering genuine products, they were doing so without any formal agreement or oversight, threatening to undermine long-standing partnerships with authorised resellers.

Critical Issues

•Unauthorised listings appeared across major e-commerce platforms, with no visibility or control
•Over 2,000 listings on Amazon alone, making manual tracking slow, reactive, and not scalable
•Sellers operated with no pricing compliance, irregular fulfilment, and no brand accountability
•Need for automated, always-on solution that could detect, act, and monitor at speed

Evidence #1: Counterfeit Product

Strategic Approach

Using our advanced CounterReveal solution, we conducted a multi-layered investigation to pierce through fake identities and uncover the real perpetrator.

Detected All Listings

Counter Fix crawled e-commerce marketplaces to identify every active listing featuring the brand's products.

Critical component for success
"Check with team about timeline"

Evidence #1: Detected All Listings

Key connection!

Automated Classification

Leveraging the brand's authorised seller database, automatically tagged each seller as either authorised or unauthorised.

Critical component for success
"Client very satisfied with this"

Evidence #2: Automated Classification

Money trail

Swift Takedowns

Once unauthorised listings were verified, they were reported and removed across marketplaces.

Critical component for success
"Check with team about timeline"

Evidence #3: Swift Takedowns

Digital breadcrumbs

Continuous Monitoring

Deployed ongoing platform monitoring to detect if unauthorised sellers reappeared or new violators surfaced.

Critical component for success
"Client very satisfied with this"

Evidence #4: Continuous Monitoring

Visual ID secured

The Outcome

Thanks to this in-depth investigation:

Key Achievements

90% drop in unauthorised listings within 30 days
Significant restoration of trust among authorised partners
Minimum 10% increase in online revenue through clean, compliant channels
Real-time monitoring enabled to prevent repeat violations
Complete visibility through comprehensive enforcement reports

In the digital-first economy, unauthorised sellers can infiltrate even the most structured D2C brands. As you scale, so do the risks. These actors sell genuine products without brand consent or control, undercut pricing, disrupt partner networks, and confuse buyers. With Counter Fix, this D2C brand didn't just react; it built a defensive layer for the future, protecting its growth, its partners, and its brand promise.

Client Testimony

"Pirates Alert's Counter Fix gave us back control over our online presence. The automated system caught unauthorized sellers we didn't even know existed."

Brand Protection Manager

E-commerce Division, Leading D2C Beauty Brand