Outsmarting supply chain counterfeiters this Black Friday

Maggie Allen , 24-Nov-2025

Black Friday isn’t just the biggest shopping event of the year – it’s a battleground. As globalisation and shifting trade dynamics reshape supply chains, new opportunities emerge. But these same forces also introduce new vulnerabilities. And as peak-season pressures intensify each year, the risk of disruption grows right alongside the demand.

Why Black Friday amplifies risk

Modern supply chains are anything but linear. Expanded global operations, cross-border networks and data-driven fulfilment models have redefined how products move - and how quickly they must move.

During Black Friday, these vulnerabilities intensify. As record-breaking shopping surges meet shrinking inventory margins, it becomes increasingly more challenging for businesses to accurately forecast demand and track products as they leave the manufacturing stage.

Supply chains have become considerably more complex to manage and secure - and businesses that aren’t prepared risk creating openings that opportunistic actors can exploit.

How counterfeiters exploit vulnerabilities

Counterfeiters are constantly searching for cracks in the supply chain, ready to exploit any weakness. Common entry points can span from unsecured or fraudulent third-party vendors, poorly monitored shipments, fragmented labelling systems and siloed packaging information accessibility.

The stakes are high: fake products can erode brand identity, shatter customer trust and drain profits in an instant. To protect supply chains from counterfeiting, businesses can implement technologies like cloud labelling, serialisation and smart packaging. These solutions establish a strong chain of custody and enable real-time control over assets on a global scale. While preventing infiltration attempts is impossible, prioritising agility and resilience during Black Friday is paramount.

Serialisation and smart packaging

Serialisation remains one of the most effective technologies in the fight against counterfeiting. Together with cloud labelling and smart packaging, it enables instant authentication, end-to-end traceability and greater consumer confidence – ensuring that as demand surges, fraudsters stay locked out.

Serial numbers track products across the entire supply chain. By embedding unique identifiers, businesses gain real-time visibility from manufacturing to last-mile delivery - significantly strengthening protection against counterfeiters.

Counterfeiters often produce replicas that appear nearly identical to the real thing. Secure labelling helps close this gap. Subtle label differences reveal fakes, and even the most convincing duplicates lack authentic serial numbers, brand tags or care labels.

By preventing fakes from reaching the market, brands reduce lost sales, protect their reputation and avoid the legal and operational costs that come with counterfeit activity.

Smart packaging is also raising new standards for transparency and traceability – critical during high-pressure shopping events like Black Friday. As global demand surges, packaging is moving beyond traditional 1D barcodes toward more advanced formats, including 2D QR codes that carry far richer product information.

Unlike 1D barcodes – which are easier to replicate and rely on separate databases – 2D QR codes can hold a product’s full digital identity. This makes authentication simple for consumers and strengthens protection during periods of rapid turnover and fragmented oversight, such as Black Friday. By enabling instant verification, smart packaging becomes more than just a QR code; it becomes a critical line of defence for businesses.

Cloud labelling

When paired with serialisation, cloud labelling becomes a powerful first line of defence against counterfeiting. By providing instant access to accurate product data, cloud-based solutions enable reliable authentication at every stage of distribution and for every stakeholder.

Cloud labelling creates a single, standardised repository of product data. By uploading each unique identifier into a centralised system, businesses achieve closed loop tracking and full visibility from origin to destination.

During peak demand periods, readily available cloud identifications help minimise the risk of counterfeit goods infiltrating the supply chain. Organisations can gain clearer insight into inventory and can track the status of items as they move through markets on a local and global scale.

Cloud labelling solutions therefore play a critical role in reducing the likelihood of counterfeit items entering the supply chain – particularly ahead of busy shopping periods, when vulnerabilities rise. Ultimately, this technology acts as a lifeline for maintaining control, minimising disruption and keeping inventory secure.

Protecting customer trust

When fake products infiltrate the supply chain, it can have devastating consequences, especially during a critical time like Black Friday. Poor quality replicas erode customer trust, disrupt sales channels and create costly operational inefficiencies.

To build loyalty and deliver a consistent customer experience, businesses must take control of their supply chains and eliminate fragmentation. With counterfeiting posing such a significant threat to revenue, reputation and trust, implementing safeguards like serialisation, smart packaging and cloud labelling is essential.

Smart packaging also boosts consumer confidence by enabling quick verification of a product’s origin and authenticity through a simple smartphone scan. This protects buyers, strengthens brand reputation and reinforces trust. In today’s market, loyalty is earned through reliability – and that begins with securing the value chain from production to point of sale.

Winning this Black Friday, and beyond

Outsmarting counterfeiters requires the right technology and a proactive approach. As counterfeiters grow more sophisticated in their efforts to infiltrate the supply chain, businesses must stay vigilant - especially during busy shopping periods when oversights can occur.

Standardised procedures, secure labelling and connected packaging form a critical line of defence - closing off entry points and making it far harder for malicious actors to penetrate the supply chain.

The businesses that thrive during this period will be those that prioritise strengthening their supply chain links and improve oversight of their assets as they travel through each touchpoint. Increasing inventory accuracy and protecting customer experience and trust should be at the top of the priority list – and technologies like serialisation and smart packaging are essential enablers of growth, even in high-pressure periods.