While there’s no sure-fire way to completely eliminate the risk of transshipment, there are some measures you can take to minimize this risk:
• Audit your suppliers before doing business with them. It is worth investing in a quality control inspection or factory audit before placing an order, especially with new suppliers.
• Ask for a certificate of origin. This is a document that certifies the origin of the goods. It can be issued by a chamber of commerce or other government issuing body, and it essentially guarantees that the goods were produced in a certain country.
• Communicate your expectations around counterfeit products and transshipment with your supplier. Make sure they understand that you have monitoring systems in place and that such practices won’t be tolerated.
• Ask your supplier to provide images of their production facility. This can help verify that they are indeed producing the goods themselves, rather than simply acting as a middleman.
• Monitor your product shipments closely. Keep an eye on the shipping route, tracking numbers and expected arrival dates. If something seems off, request photos of the goods inside the containers or a video call with the staff loading the goods into the container.
• Conduct product inspections on all incoming shipments. Verifying that every shipment is legitimate can help protect your brand from transshipping counterfeits.
• Examine invoices and other shipping documents carefully. If a shipment includes many different commodities or product types, it could be an indication that this is a transshipped shipment.