For holiday fans, nothing says Christmas more than lighting a giant botanical candle adorned with orange slices and berries.
But as notes of cinnamon and clove fill the room, you’ll burn off the money spent on the White Company’s £95 ‘winter treat’ candle, which customers describe as the ‘scent of Christmas’. Or did you take TikTok’s advice and buy the Aldi ‘dupe’ for £25.
Dupes are products that claim to offer a similar experience to a premium item, but do not claim to be that product. They were originally a Gen Z obsession, but have become a dominant business trend in an era of struggling household finances.
“No matter how old you are or how much money you have to spend, everyone wants to ‘luxury’ with a dupe,” says Catherine Shuttleworth, retail consultant and managing director of Savvy Marketing.
“The message is, ‘why not be smart, like me, to save money and still look good,'” she says.
“In the case of homewares, a luxury brand candle can look and smell as good as the real thing, and will your visitors really notice that your table lamps are from B&M and not the White Company? »
Fool culture is reinforced by social media, particularly TikTok. More than 30 million people across the UK now use TikTok every month, according to the company, with Gen Z admitting that seeing products sell out or go viral makes them more likely to buy them.
Data company YPulse has been tracking consumer attitudes toward dupes for several years, and content editor Tori D’Amico says: “The idea that a dupe can be a true replacement for a luxury item is still prevalent. Dupes are neither shameful nor embarrassing to own. Young consumers brag online about finding a good deal and share it with the masses.”
YPulse’s most recent research found that 44% of 13-39 year olds in the UK have purchased a dupe in the past year. When asked, just over half (53%) of this age group agreed that “the quality of duped/fake luxury items makes me less likely to want to purchase a real luxury item.”
Dupes are particularly prevalent in the beauty world, but they can also be found in other industries, including food, furniture, home and designer fashion.
US retailer Quince, which sells high-end products from candles to cashmere sweaters, has launched in the UK. Next to each product on its website, it suggests how much you save compared to more expensive brands. For example, a women’s red cashmere jumper worth £50 is pictured alongside graphics comparing it to jumpers from Cos and Reiss costing three times as much.
Perfume, in particular, is a prime target. There are more than 50,000 videos on TikTok under the combined hashtags #perfumedupe and #perfumedupes, in which influencers rate knockoff perfumes against famous names and tell viewers where to find them.
As perfumes are a sought-after Christmas gift, the platform is full of content promoting these less expensive perfumes. Instead of spending almost £130 on Mugler’s Alien, try Zara’s Violet Blossom for £15.99, it is suggested. Or, if you can’t afford Le Labo’s Another 13, try Marks & Spencer’s Aura Ambrette, a £22.50 piece.
In budget supermarket TikTok Dupeland, Aldi is hailed as a perfume house with its Lacura brand said to offer substitutes for high-end favorites ranging from Paradox to Flowerbomb and Baccarat Rouge – for £7 a bottle.
“These discounted products are currently the center of attention as consumers look for cheaper alternatives in response to rising prices,” says Eric Mills of market research firm NielsenIQ. In a recent survey, 38% of UK consumers said that in the last 12 months they had turned to cheaper brands to manage their shopping bills.
“Buyers of these brands are often seen as solely younger consumers, but while Gen Z is the biggest spender, it’s millennials who make up the largest proportion of sales,” he adds.
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In a microcosm of what’s likely happening elsewhere in the market, the number of people buying perfume dupes online has increased by 17% over the past year, which is ahead of the overall market.
With the continued adoption of AI tools, Mills says, “It’s easy to imagine dupes gaining traction, as consumers can simply ask a chatbot for a cheaper alternative to their favorite luxury perfume. »
Dupes copying known brands without claiming to be the real ones, they occupy a space between the authentic and the fake. If consumers like dupes, the targets are less enthusiastic.
Celebrity makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury, whose £350million fortune came from the sale of her eponymous beauty empire to Spanish perfume and fashion group Puig, recently told the BBC that “when you fool, you fool the consumer”.
“It’s not Charlotte Tilbury…and it doesn’t compare in performance to my products,” Tilbury says of cheaper imitations. “If I could make them at those prices, I would.”
Charlotte Tilbury has enjoyed some success, and in 2019 successfully brought a copyright action against Aldi over designs from its Filmstar Bronze & Glow palette that the supermarket had copied.
Claire Breheny, partner and head of brands at Mathys & Squire, suggests business owners should request that dupes be removed from online platforms or social media. Brand owners “must protect their packaging and presentation, not just their name.
“The risk for consumers is that similar packaging does not guarantee similar quality, ingredients or performance – although a cheaper alternative will not necessarily always be inferior. »
While the cost-of-living crisis only makes dupes more attractive to shoppers, Savvy Marketing’s Shuttleworth says nearly 80 percent of shoppers in its survey were happy to selectively spend more on treats and luxuries where they think it’s worth it.
“The challenge for big brands like Charlotte Tilbury is that they need to be able to convince shoppers that the difference in quality is still worth paying for.”
Gn bussni
