In order to help its clients with their international brand strategy, VitaBella Luxury & Lifestyle works with many people involved in developing disruptive technologies. In the world of luxury, whether it be wine, cosmetics, or jewelry, combating counterfeiting and ensuring traceability are major issues requiring innovative solutions. We spoke to Matteo Amerio, the co-founder and CEO of NAVEE, about the first anti-counterfeiting tool to work across the whole of the Internet.
How do you help luxury brands combat fakes?
Matteo Amerio: “Counterfeiting costs luxury brands up to 10% of their annual turnover. The current situation, with the explosion of online sales (+40%YoY), has only served to accelerate this phenomenon. Working with the most prestigious luxury brands, NAVEE has created the first end-to-end anti-counterfeiting tool that covers the whole of the Internet. Thanks to a revolutionary image retrieval system that is ten times more effective than keyword searching, NAVEE can track down and eliminate fakes in the main marketplaces, on social media, and across the web.”
When your system identifies a fake, what action can brands take?
Matteo Amerio: “NAVEE offers a turnkey solution and handles the removal of unwanted content from websites and search engines. The aim is to help our customers quickly and easily stamp out these unfair, online trading practices. Customers can also access our platform which allows them to monitor counterfeiting activity and related statistics so they are always up to speed on which products are being copied and in which countries. We also assess the global diffusion of fakes of our customers’ products, reporting back at least once a month.”
Apart from pushing back against fakes, how can your system be used for product traceability?
“NAVEE fights online counterfeiting, and has partnered with TEMERA, one of the world’s leading suppliers of RFID technology (a system of radiofrequency identification that allows data to be encoded, stored, and read on electronic tags or labels that are embedded in the product to be traced), to offer the best on and offline product monitoring, throughout the entire value chain. With TEMERA you can physically monitor a product at every stage of its life, whilst NAVEE ensures that no counterfeit products are sold online. This means you are able to control both online and offline distribution channels to protect your brand and maximize sales.”
Which luxury brands already use your system? Is it simple to use, and how much does it cost?
Matteo Amerio: “We are already working with three of the biggest luxury brand groups in the world, and also with major French and Italian companies. We’ve received a number of awards including making it into LVMH’s top 30 innovators for 2020, winning the Centrale Supélec Artificial Intelligence project, being named a favorite of Forbes and Station F out of their Future 40 (the 40 most promising young startups in France). Our product has three levels of service, “Self”, “Start”, and “Enterprise”, covering all types of usage by our customers, from SMEs to big public companies. The “Self” option starts at €2,500 a month.”