Latest update: September 2023 | by Lili
Airyclub App - more than air?
A new online marketplace from Hong Kong, Airyclub advertises itself with high quality, low prices, and free shipping. We took a look at their platform to determine if those claims could be true. Find out from our article!
Table of contents
Shopping app startups, many of them originating from South-East Asia, have become increasingly popular. Lazada, Wish and Shopee are generating a lot of press, funding and attention. And recently, another one has joined their ranks: Airyclub.
Based in Hong Kong, Airyclub is a mobile-first online marketplace that offers “millions of high quality budget-products that are easy on your budget” as well as free worldwide shipping. The Airyclub app is available to download on both Android and iPhone devices, but customers can also shop via the marketplace’s website.
Similarly to Wish, Lazada, and many others, Airyclub uses a tile format design that reminds customers of social media.
Screenshot of airyclub tile format design
This, along with the low prices and free shipping may be incentive enough for people to order from the marketplace.
Too good to be true?
As online brand protection experts, we at globaleyez are very interested in finding out everything we can about emerging online marketplaces. Since it’s a relatively young platform, there’s not a lot of information available about Airyclub yet. However, we can learn quite a few things from their products, prices, language, and last but not least, customer reviews.
Products and prices
Airyclub offers a variety of consumer goods, including fashion, accessories, jewellery, makeup, and even electronics. But are they, as the company claims, “high quality” products for “budget” prices? Let’s find out.
Screenshot of airyclub offer of pants for 8.19 Euro
The picture above shows a typical fashion listing on the marketplace. The product looks stylish and chic on the model, and the price is unbelievably good. Or rather, just unbelievable.
Can a quality pair of trousers cost only 8.19 euros? Not very likely. And if you look more carefully at the pictures displaying the various colours, you can see that the model is standing in the exact same position in each of the shots.
Well, this probably means that she’s either a life-size dummy with an extremely good grip on her purse, or that the colour of the trousers was changed digitally. That’s certainly cheaper and faster than arranging for a longer photoshoot, but it can also mean that the different colours shown in the pictures don’t exactly match reality.
And let’s not ignore the customer rating of the item. One star out of five. That’s quite telling, isn’t it?
Language
Mistakes happen, typos appear on websites, and things get lost in translation. That’s understandable, and people are prone to overlook a mistake or two. However, an abundance of typos, poor grammar, and weird expressions imply that a website’s owners don’t take the time (or have the means) to check their copy. Which is usually not a good sign if you’re looking for quality products and service.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the language Airyclub uses to describe the above seen pair of trousers.
Screenshot of airyclub product description for language analysis
Not exactly flawless copy, is it? But what it says is also interesting: customers have to note that the real colours may not match the displayed colours due to “lighting effects, monitor brightness, contrast settings, etc.” How surprising.
Customer reviews
It seems that Airyclub’s customers are not very happy with the marketplace.
Screenshot: trustpilot.com ranking for Airyclub and costumer reviews in overview
With a TrustScore of 1.8, and 79% of customers rating the platform “1-star”, Airyclub can’t exactly claim to be a fan favourite among marketplaces.
Counterfeiting and grey marketing on Airyclub
Although there haven’t been any major news about counterfeiting on Airyclub, based on its similarities to trashy marketplaces like Wish, Joom and Lazada, we can safely say that counterfeiters and grey marketers may very well target this platform as well.
The low price of items is definitely an indicator of that. However, there are even stronger indicators.
An iPhone 12, for example, still costs 639,99 € at MediaMarkt today. In contrast, Airyclub offered a smartphone called i12 Pro Max for a mere 81.52 € in 2020.
Screenshot of airyclub offer called "i12 Pro Max" for 81.52 €
The phone displayed in this picture looks eerily similar to the real iPhone. However, the typos, the price, and the name of the seller (babycamera) all point towards this product being a cheap knockoff.
By the way, from an online brand protection point of view, prominently displaying the name of the seller is definitely a plus. However, that’s all Airyclub does.
There aren’t easy options to contact sellers, and with seller names like sjdfgryfg, you may wonder what kind of people could be operating stores available on the platform.
Conclusion
Airyclub seems to be another marketplace for cheap, bad quality goods, possibly counterfeited or grey marketed. Doing business with them, whether buying or selling, could come with risks that may not be worth taking.
If you’re worried about counterfeiters or grey marketers on Airyclub or any other marketplace, reach out to us and discover how we can protect your brand.