D2C x Dupe Economy

Hey readers,

Welcome to the twenty first edition of D2C Cents!

This edition? We talk about the dupe economy.

While everyone is busy chasing growth, a lot of brands are losing sales to cheaper lookalikes on Amazon, Meesho, and other marketplaces.

The problem is bigger than fake products. It’s exposing which brands have real loyalty and which ones were only winning because they got there first.

There is a factory somewhere in Bhiwandi, Baddi, or outer Bengaluru that makes your product.

It probably also makes your competitor's product. And the white-label version on Meesho. And the listing on Meesho has 3,400 reviews and a price 40% below yours.

The manufacturer knows your formulation, packaging dimensions, and, roughly, what you're selling per month. They know because you gave it to them.

It is showing up now in places founders didn't even worry about. Insulated water bottles, cast iron cookware, niacinamide serums, menstrual hygiene products, and a lot more

The dupe economy is shaking Indian D2C. And it’s getting smarter.

Minimalist and Ordinary

The Ordinary launched ingredient-first skincare in 2016 and built an entirely new category on one principle: tell the customer exactly what is in the bottle. The product was the pitch.

The Ordinary had essentially published its own manufacturing brief and called it a brand identity.

Minimalist did the same in India, except Minimalist itself was the dupe. India's science-first answer to The Ordinary, launched in 2020 at accessible price points with radical transparency as its moat. 

When your brand's entire positioning is "we tell you exactly what's in here," you have made it very easy for someone to make the same thing and sell it cheaper.

The Mamaearth problem is different but equally real.

Mamaearth is India's first D2C beauty unicorn, crossing ₹1,500 crore in revenue in 2024 and going public in 2023. 

Its "toxin-free, natural" positioning is now the most imitated brand language in the Indian BPC category. Dozens of sellers list products using near-identical claims, packaging aesthetic, and ingredient language, none of which is trademarked, because you cannot trademark "paraben-free" or "dermatologically tested."

Happi Planet - Built a brand. Funded its copiers.

Happi Planet is a four-year-old eco-friendly D2C brand. 

Grew from ₹0.46 crore to ₹36.37 crore in three years on the back of genuine brand-building - sustainable packaging, clear values, real community.

They didn't need to build brand trust. Happi Planet already did that work. 

All they needed was to rank on the same search page and be cheaper.

Sirona

Sirona is India's first company to build an entire vertical around feminine hygiene innovation, inventing India's first herbal pain patches for menstrual cramps, India's first sanitary disposal bags. A pioneer who spent years educating Indian women about menstrual hygiene before most brands thought it was a viable market.

None of that protected them.

The court called it a "classic example" of counterfeit proliferation on e-commerce.

Home and Kitchen

This is where it gets underreported, and it should not be.

In March 2025, BIS conducted a 15-hour raid at Amazon's warehouse in Delhi's Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area and seized over 3,500 products - geysers, food mixers, and electrical appliances, either missing the mandatory ISI mark or carrying counterfeit ISI labels. 

The total seizure value was ₹76 lakh. 

In a parallel raid, BIS seized from a Flipkart warehouse 26 stainless steel water bottles, 10 insulated steel bottles, 108 casseroles, and 286 packs of baby diapers, all without BIS certification.

The differentiation a brand builds on safety certification is the same differentiator being faked.

The consumer who chose the ₹699 bottle because it said "BIS certified" on the listing has no way to know that the certification is forged.

Truemeds - The Dupe Economy At Its Most Legitimate And Most Dangerous

Truemeds is not selling counterfeits. It is a funded startup that helps users find cheaper bioequivalent versions of prescribed medicines at a lower price.

Many branded pharma companies earn high margins, with costs often going into advertising, packaging, and medical rep networks. Truemeds removes much of that layer, offers major savings to patients, and still builds a viable business.

If someone saves ₹800 a month on blood pressure medicine, they are not making a mistake. They are recognizing that the brand premium may have little to do with the treatment itself.

This is the clearest version of the platform-vs-brand problem. If all your value comes only from the formula or active ingredient, you do not really have a brand; you have a product with a logo on it.

Most brand founders explain this as a consumer education failure. Customers just don't understand quality.

That is cope.

The Amazon Search Problem

On your own website, you control the full story - imagery, narrative, founder story, community, and reviews in the right context.

On marketplaces like Amazon, you often get just a title, a few bullet points, and a price.

A manufacturer that spends three months optimizing a listing for “2% salicylic acid face wash 100ml” can outrank a brand that spent ₹50 lakhs on awareness, if the listing converts better and gets reviews faster.

Amazon has expanded its Counterfeit Crimes Unit to India and reported legal action against 32,000+ bad actors across 14 countries since 2020. 

In 2024, it also said it identified and disposed of more than 15 million counterfeit products globally. That scale is reassuring and alarming at the same time.

What Brands Can Actually Do

In-house manufacturing: The strongest moat is controlling your own supply chain. A factory cannot easily copy what it does not make for you. This takes capital, which many ₹10–50 crore brands may not have. But if you are in a category that is easy to copy and hard to differentiate, in-house manufacturing should be evaluated now, not after clones appear across three platforms.

Contract manufacturing with real teeth: Most founders sign a generic NDA or nothing at all.

On patents in India: The Trade Marks Act gives Indian courts the power to grant injunctions, account of profits, and search-and-seizure orders where trademark rights are clear. The Sirona verdict shows courts take this seriously. But filing is slow, enforcement is inconsistent, and litigation is expensive relative to where most D2C brands are financially. File it early. Use it as a deterrent. Do not build your primary brand strategy around it.

Ingredients can be copied overnight. Category belief takes years to build and is nearly impossible to shortcut.

See you next edition - same time, deeper insights.

Until then, keep building strategically.
Abhishek