Negative Impacts of Plagiarism on Your E-Commerce Business

Plagiarism is a highly vile act in which a person steals the words/ideas of others and uses them for his/her own gain.

The plagiarist does not acknowledge that the work they are using belongs to someone else and takes all the credit for themselves.

Plagiarism is mostly a problem in the writing industry and that includes, research, journalism, fiction, and blogging.

The good thing is that plagiarism is very easy to catch. There are plenty of plagiarism-checking tools available that let people check content for duplication. They are very accurate too, so you can rely on them.

Consequences of Plagiarism for Online Businesses

E-commerce and online businesses rely on written content in a lot of ways. However, plagiarism in that content can have many bad effects on the online business. Let’s take a look at some of these effects.

SERP Rank is Harmed

SERPs stands for Search Engine Results Pages. It refers to the position a website appears in a search engine when a relevant keyword is looked up.  Typically, the best position is on the first page and preferably in the top three as well.

E-commerce stores rely on this ranking to get more traffic on the site and ultimately convert more leads. That’s how they conduct their business and generate a profit.

However, if the content on an e-commerce website is plagiarized, this ranking is harmed considerably. Search engines can detect plagiarized content on a website. Usually, they reduce the SERPs ranking of sites that have duplicate content. An online plagiarism checker helps to find traces of duplication. These plagiarism checkers use top-notch AI technology to find plagiarized content.
There is always a concern about whether that using a plagiarism checker is necessary for content writers or not.

Legal Repercussions

When someone is found guilty of plagiarism, they may face legal repercussions depending on the severity of the crime.

In most cases, it is up to the original owner of the content/idea how to punish the perpetrator. They may ask the business to be dismantled if it was completely based on plagiarism checker.

Depending on which country you live in and its laws related to plagiarism, there may be possible jail time as well.

All of this results in a cloud of negativity forming around your business and it may deter potential future partners, investors, and customers from engaging with you.

Since this is bad for business, you should always have some kind of team or person whose job is to check plagiarism in all your content.

Paying someone to make sure that you do not accidentally commit plagiarism is much less financially burdening compared to fighting legal battles.

Monetary Loss

Businesses thrive on a flow of money. They require investments and these investments are in turn used to generate profit by putting them in the right places. If this flow is disturbed then it becomes difficult for businesses to operate.

When an e-commerce store and its related blogs and advertisement campaigns use plagiarized content, they become open to a lawsuit.

The original owner of the content can sue the business and demand monetary reimbursement from them.

Intellectual property theft is treated very seriously because it is so easy to do. This online Plagiarism checker is also the theft of intellectual property, hence, it can be pursued in a court of law and usually, the settlements of such cases require huge sums typically tens of thousands of US dollars. They can even go into the millions as well depending on the scale of the theft.

Paying such huge amounts is enough to cripple an e-commerce store that is not backed by an enterprise-level corporation.

Brand Image is Hurt

For any kind of business, a good reputation is necessary. With a good reputation, it is easier to get more customers and expand your business. E-commerce is no exception to this.

However, plagiarism can single-handedly destroy a good reputation. In today’s world where news is spread in the blink of an eye, it takes only one mistake to ruin your reputation. If it comes to light that a company was indulging in plagiarism, it smears its reputation very badly.

You can also count on word of mouth and news outlets telling the world that “brand A” committed plagiarism.

A bad reputation and a hurt image automatically close a lot of doors for further business such as collaborations, and investments as nobody wants to be associated with a thief.

Spreads Distrust in the Customers

Building directly on top of the previous point, a bad reputation hurts the business when it comes to its customers as well.

If your e-commerce store has a bad reputation for plagiarism, then new customers will be hesitant to engage with it. Similarly, older customers who may have been regulars will leave you as well.

As we said before, people do not like to be associated with bad things. If they continue to use your site, they may be perceived as people who advocate for plagiarism by others around them.

Hence, an e-commerce store known for plagiarism will lose its old customer base and will be unable to get new ones as well. This will effectively kill the business as there won’t be enough revenue to sustain itself.

Conclusion

E-commerce is very lucrative as it has a variety of benefits over standard commerce. It allows brands to reach a larger audience and expand their reach. However, to effectively market themselves, brands have to rely on SEO and content marketing among other things.

But this also comes with the risk of committing plagiarism. Plagiarism is bad enough to hurt your e-commerce store in a number of ways.

We discussed some ways in which e-commerce is negatively affected by plagiarism. To avoid those outcomes, ensure that you cover all your bases before hitting that publish button.

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