LocalCircles, a community social media platform, in its latest survey released on Monday, said that 1 in 6 households surveyed has had family members who experienced an allergic reaction or severe ailment due to cosmetics in the last 3 years and 1 in 10 households have had a family member suffering a serious ailment due to unsafe cosmetics.
About 25% of Indian households surveyed have had issues with cosmetics they purchased in the last 3 years. 15% of them have had an allergic or severe reaction to the cosmetics. During the time, 34% of households purchased cosmetics that turned out to be fake or counterfeit. 55% of those who received a counterfeit cosmetic via online platforms were able to return it while 45% failed to do so.
Similarly, only 35% of those who purchased a counterfeit cosmetic from stores/markets in the last 3 years were able to return it while 65% of them could not do so.
The survey received more than 37,000 responses from household consumers residing across 305 districts of India. Nearly 48% of respondents were from tier 1, 27% from tier 2 and 25% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts. 61% of respondents were men while 39% were women.
LocalCircles founder Mr Sachin Taparia told the Free Press Journal, "The pan India survey was conducted to understand issues faced by Indian consumers in the last 3 years with the cosmetics they purchased from physical stores or online. The purpose was to generate awareness amongst users about the issues faced by others, understand counterfeiting and also sensitise the regulator.”
To a question from where did you buy cosmetics that turned out to be fake or counterfeit, 7% said “company store”, 5% said “department store”, 5% said “beauty/cosmetics/general store”, 5% said “local store/stall in the market”, and 12% said “online platform/app/ website”.
Approximately 54% said they “had not purchased fake cosmetics in the last 3 years”, and 12% couldn’t say. On an aggregate basis, 34% of households had an incident where someone purchased cosmetics in the last 3 years that turned out to be fake or counterfeit.
Of the 34%, 12% bought such cosmetics online while 22% bought them at a physical store or in the market. This question in the survey received 8,728 responses.
