How Homemade Merchandise Protects their Artist's designs

About Homemade Merchandise

Homemade Merchandise is the official merchandise partner for groundbreaking artists like 100 Gecs and Mark Ambor, as well as top global podcasts. They provide end-to-end e-commerce management, fulfillment, and brand protection services for creators building direct relationships with their fans.

Challenge

Protecting Artist Merchandise Across an Expanding Digital Landscape

As their clients gained popularity across streaming platforms, Homemade Merchandise faced an overwhelming surge in infringing products and fraudulent websites. The challenge wasn't just about lost revenue – it was about protecting brand integrity and ensuring fans received authentic merchandise. Key challenges included:

• Team spent hours weekly on manual monitoring and takedown requests across marketplaces

• Counterfeit products appear daily across major marketplaces like AliExpress, Amazon, and Walmart as well emerging platforms like TikTok Shop. 

• Fraudulent websites impersonating official artist store domains outranked official channels in search engine results

• Unauthorized use of album artwork and merchandise designs taken directly from artist websites to create convincing fakes that confused fans and diluted brand value.

Solution

AI-Powered Protection Across the Digital Ecosystem

Podqi's AI-powered platform provides Homemade Merchandise with comprehensive brand protection that scales with their needs. Podqi leverages AI-enabled workflows in key areas:

Automated Detection & Monitoring

• Real-time scanning across 175+ platforms including emerging marketplaces

• AI-powered image recognition to instantly identify counterfeit designs

• Continuous domain monitoring for fraudulent websites

• Specialized tracking of fast-fashion sellers on Walmart, TikTok Shop and AliExpress

Streamlined Enforcement

• One-click takedown requests across all platforms

• Automated evidence collection and documentation

• Built-in tracking of enforcement success rates

• Prioritized high-risk infringements based on revenue impact

Implementation Timeline

Implementation took less than a week, with the first takedowns happening within 24 hours of onboarding.

Transforming Brand Protection from Cost Center to Strategic Advantage

Within three months of implementing Podqi, Homemade Merchandise achieved:

• 4,000+ successful takedowns across 176 platforms

• Protected $1.1M+ in estimated revenue

• Established proactive protection on emerging platforms like Walmart

Looking Ahead

With Podqi's protection in place, Homemade Merchandise is expanding into new markets with confidence. The partnership continues to evolve as Podqi develops new capabilities to stay ahead of infringers’ tactics, particularly on emerging social commerce platforms.