Beauty brands struggle against the onslaught of dupes

The news: Charlotte Tilbury is the latest brand to take aim at dupes.

The Puig-owned beauty company’s newest ad campaign features supermodels Jourdan Dunn and Kate Moss alongside the brand’s most imitated products, meant to convince shoppers that they’re worth the splurge, per Business of Fashion.

Dupe culture takes over: The rise of dupe culture is a growing problem for beauty brands, especially with platforms like Amazon and TikTok Shop scooping up a greater share of industry sales.

• Counterfeits are a particular challenge for brands selling on Amazon and account for the “majority” of the dupes problem, Madigan Lyden, senior director of brand strategy at Front Row Group, told BoF.
• Brands and products that go viral on social media can quickly become the target of imitators; a dupe of Hero Cosmetics’ acne stickers broke into Amazon’s top 100 beauty products in September.

While Amazon has tried to crack down on counterfeits, more brands are taking matters into their own hands. Some are hiring third parties to monitor potential infringements, while others are suing manufacturers.

Too good to pass up: Unfortunately for beauty brands, dupes are proving to be good business—both for retailers trying to stay relevant with shoppers and for the manufacturers producing them.

• MCoBeauty has built a thriving business by pumping out dupes of TikTok favorites such as Charlotte Tilbury’s Flawless Filter foundation and Glow Recipe’s Watermelon Glow Drops. The brand is among the top three cosmetics brands sold at Kroger and recently expanded into 1,200 Target stores.
• Target also scored a success with its private label perfume line, Fine’ry, which offers scents resembling fragrances from Tom Ford and Baccarat at a fraction of the price.

Our take: Addressing the dupe problem is a never-ending, often frustrating process. While brands can take action against an individual violator, 10 more will quickly pop up to take its place.

Brands need to remain vigilant about potential threats—but they also, as Charlotte Tilbury’s ad campaign emphasizes, need to make it clear to consumers why their products are superior to lower-priced copies.

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