If you can’t afford that luxury item you’ve coveted for so long, don’t worry. You can probably easily find a dupe on social media.
Long gone are the days of having to scrape and save while monitoring eBay to make the winning bid for those designer handbags, jeans, watches or anything else your heart desired. Now, you can simply search TikTok for the best dupe, short for duplicate, of anything you’re looking for and buy it almost instantly.
“I don’t find there’s a big difference between the real stuff and dupes, and I don’t have to pay four times the price,” said Danielle Carmody from Atlanta, Ga. who says she regularly scans Instagram for dupes of everyday things she wants to buy.
Many people will look for dupes of everything from simple leggings and workout clothes to purses, Dyson Airwraps and KitchenAid mixers, and even fragrances, but unlike those millions of people, Carmody has a hard line she doesn’t cross. “I don’t like getting dupes on things like handbags and shoes because I see the quality difference with price,” she said.
What are dupes?
Dupes has become one of the biggest buying trends this year, especially among young shoppers who have embraced social media and online shopping. Red-hot inflation last year may have spurred people to save money by shopping for less expensive dupes, but it’s also now cool and fun to hunt the “best dupes” on certain items. Well-known, respectable publications like Teen Vogue, and Shape frequently research and share lists of dupes for brand-named items for everything from leggings to beauty items.
“Nothing wrong with dupes,” wrote banxy85 on a Reddit thread. “People who are against dupes need to acknowledge that they are privileged enough to afford the real thing. Not everyone is.”
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How big is the dupes economy?
It’s hard to tell exactly. Most data focus on the more than $1.7 trillion “counterfeit” market. Counterfeits and dupes aren’t technically the same. Dupes copy or imitate the physical appearance of other products but don’t copy the brand name or logo of a trademarked item the way a counterfeit, or fake, does.
However, search trends show how interest for dupes has ballooned. Google Trends shows “dupe” searches are near a record high going back to 2004. On TikTok, #dupe has been viewed 4.3 billion times, up from 3.6 billion in April, and its sister term, #doop, was viewed almost 315 million times, up from just more than 223 million.
Apps solely for dupe searching have emerged, too, and some are product specific. Brandefy, for example, specializes in finding beauty-related dupes which helps people streamline the process of finding affordable, and appropriate dupes for users.
The explosion in dupes has also partly come from the surge in e-commerce, said Daniel Shapiro, senior vice president of strategic partnerships and brand relationships at Red Points, which helps companies fight counterfeits, piracy, impersonation, and distribution abuse.
“E-commerce is growing at a fast, amazing rate,” he said. “You can buy and have it tomorrow. It’s so fast people can stay up on trends without spending a fortune. You can see a $25,000 gown on the Grammy’s show on Sunday and within 36 hours find that silhouette out there and, in that color, to buy at an affordable price.”
Who’s buying dupes?
Young consumers are the likeliest group to buy dupes because they simply can’t afford luxury items, according to YPulse, which collects research on Gen Z (born 1997 to 2013) and Millennials (born 1981-1996).
Forty-seven percent of 13 to 39-year-olds said they’ve purchased a dupe or fake of a luxury product, with more women (52%) more likely than men (42%) to buy one, YPulse said.
“Dupes have become an easy way for young people to feel like they’re getting the quality of a luxury item without the high price tag,” YPulse said in its report, noting most dupes buyers are happy with the quality of their purchases. More than half (53%) of 13 to 39-year-olds say the quality of dupe and fake luxury items makes them less likely to want to purchase a real luxury item, YPulse said.
How are luxury retailers responding?
Some retailers, especially those in consumer staples and household items, have stepped up private label efforts to become the affordable dupe people buy. Costco’s Kirkland brand basically dupes many items. The packaging on Costco’s Kirkland brand allergy pill, Aller-tec, urges customers to “compare to Zyrtec,” the brand-name allergy pill.
Athleisure wear giant lululemon, so sure people would see the value of its high-priced leggings, took a novel approach last month by hosting a “Dupe Swap” at its Century City Mall location in Los Angeles. People could bring in lookalikes of lululemon’s popular Align pants and trade them for the real thing.
“The primary purpose of this event was new guest acquisition and increasing brand awareness for being the original in leggings,” said Calvin McDonald, lulu’s chief executive, on an earnings conference call. He called the event a “resounding success,” noting about half of the guests who traded in dupes were new to lulu and half were under 30 years old.
Yet, industry organization American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) noted in a May 2021 report tge harm from dupes extends beyond lost sales for brands.
“To view a fake as simply a cheaper alternative to a brand name product is incorrect and overlooks the health, product safety, environmental, and labor concerns related to the production and distribution of counterfeits,” AAFA said.
Over the years, some dollar store items and clothing from online fast-fashion sellers have been found to contain toxic chemicals.
“I’m not sure I would want to put some of those beauty products on my face,” Shapiro of Red Points said.
Do dupe buyers care?
Probably not because affordability is the focus.
“Knock-offs can give a customer that can’t afford the ‘real thing’ an opportunity to buy into a trending style or aspirational brand,” said Liza Amlani, principal and founder of Retail Strategy Group consulting firm. “These customers will buy the real thing when they can afford to,” she said.
Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at mjlee@usatoday.com and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday morning.
