The Rise of Dupes: How High-Growth Beauty Brands Can Protect & Expand

Paul Sonneveld
I'm your host, Paul Sonneveld, and today, we're tackling proven strategies for luxury beauty brands on Amazon. Now, to help me break this all down, it's a complex topic. I'm joined by Alexandra Carmody, the SVP of Brand Strategy at Front Row, a leading e-commerce agency and accelerator specialising in beauty, health, wellness, and consumer brands. 

With a global presence in New York City, San Diego, Hamburg, and Bratislava, FrontRow partners with top brands to drive holistic e-commerce growth, leveraging proprietary technology called Catapult and robust capabilities that design, market, distribute, and scale brands worldwide. 

Alexandra has over five years of experience leading strategy at Fortress Brands, which has now become FrontRow. Today, she works across all marketplace partnership brand partners, guiding her teams to deliver best-in-class services and insights for success on Amazon. Alexandra, welcome back. Great to have you here again.

Alexandra Carmody
Thanks. Excited to chat today.

Paul Sonneveld
Excellent. So today, actually, before we jump into the questions, just a reminder to our audience, this is a live recording, a live session, which means sometimes things go wrong, mainly me muting myself. But more importantly, you can ask questions throughout the show and we'll do our best to answer them. So either pop them into the comment section on YouTube or on LinkedIn and we will pick them up from there. 

All right. Let's dive into our topic for today. Uh, we're going to be talking a lot about dupes, right? And we're going to be throwing that term around a lot. Maybe,  this is a bit more of a U S centric term. So, can you just help us understand this term dupes in the context of the beauty space on Amazon?

Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, so I think the term initially kind of started as a social, a way on social for people to say essentially the idea of like, buy this, don't that. Or the idea of you really want this expensive skincare product. I found you essentially the same one or does the same thing for a much lower price. So dupe is really just a duplicate product of something that's already on the market, already has high sales velocity and is likely crushing it, which is why you see so many popping up on high-growth brands.

Paul Sonneveld
I do remember many years ago when I was running, working in health and beauty myself, I remember boots in the UK had a number of these brands that were super, super popular. I can't remember the name. They were doing like we were as a private label developer for a large beauty chain. We were like looking at them as going, right, that's what we want to be. Completely understand now you're bringing back memories. So look, you know, obviously the rise of you then and even more now has been a major challenge for high growth and growing brands right within the beauty space. Maybe let's just get straight into it. What are the strategies that you recommend for defending your brand against these dupes, these imitators on Amazon?

Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, so I think there's a couple of key ways that brands are really trying to look at the dupe culture, as we call it here in the States, in order to defend your brand. Having a really strong trademark on not only maybe just your brand name, but on individual products that have a particular usage or, products that serve a particular function. Figuring out ways in which you can categorize your trademarks based off of the need of a product is a really key way that you can help to kind of block dupes within the space. 

Another kind of area though that we're seeing brands shift to is actually figuring out ways where you can get trade dress trademarking for say the shape of your bottle. The type of dispenser that you have at the top. Any way that you can tie it back to your brand so that if at any point a dupe does pop up, you are able to lean on something from more of a legal lens to go after some of these manufacturers across the globe that are mass-producing your product at a much lower cost. 

And we know at the end of the day with dupes in the same way we do with the rise of counterfeit within all marketplace, they probably don't always do the same thing as the original product. So it is really important to kind of take that time as a brand to do the education behind why your price point might be premium or why your product within the space is going to be the best and give the best results. The more you can on the brand side, figure out what's your best way to educate your members or educate your consumers. It's going to go a long way for a long-term strategy when trying to address dupes within the social space in particular, but also e-commerce.

Paul Sonneveld
Some very useful points there, especially on trademarking. Trademark, I wrote down, trademark all you can, whatever you can think of. 

Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, kind of.

Paul Sonneveld
But yeah, it's really interesting to see it sort of go beyond that. Very interesting. Maybe let's talk a little bit about like the different parts of the beauty market, right? It's a big market. We often think about mass market, premium beauty, luxury beauty. We bandy all these terms around. Can you help us sort of put some category boundaries or some boundaries around each of those terms? What are the key differences between how you see, for example, luxury versus mass market? How do you sort of hold that in your mind? And then we can talk about strategies as well.

Alexandra Carmody
Yeah. So I think the easiest way always is going to be price point as kind of the starting point. Anything that's, you know, below $20, it's going to be more mass market, depending on what the product is. It's also going to reach a larger audience of more of, say, a daily use of something, whether it's a moisturizer or a facial cleanser, anything kind of under that umbrella is really going to hit that mass. But it is really driven by price point when you're kind of at that level. 

Between premium and luxury, it becomes a little dicey, especially when you're thinking within marketplaces, specifically Amazon because premium is going to be slightly price point, but more actual volume, as well as kind of how your brand is being presented. It's not going to be one and done content where it's two main images and it's one core product and then a couple of ancillary products. It's going to be a brand that can tell a story. It's going to be a brand that can build a routine, something you, you know, can't live without. You have to travel with it on vacation. So you need smaller options as well. Things of that nature kind of fall into the more premium category. 

And then especially within marketplace, when you hit lux, that's going to be the other end of the price point versus say mass, it's going to be a much higher price point. It's going to have really clear functions as to how and why you should be using it. And it's probably going to be backed by more scientific data, especially when it comes to facial skincare. So think like esthetician grade, that's going to get you more into that kind of luxury space. And then also, too, when you peel it back, there's a lot of luxury brands that are within fashion and apparel who also have accessories outside of that and or beauty lines. Those kind of naturally fall into the luxe category as well.

Paul Sonneveld
Thank you, that's very helpful. Just in terms of where Amazon's at, right, because I know for many years they sort of struggled to get into that premium and luxury part of the market and the story's a little bit different depending on what country you're talking about. What would you say now about Amazon's position in the overall beauty space versus like the broader market? Do you feel like they're fairly well represented in each segment or there are still kind of areas where they're under indexing versus some of the premium end of the market?

Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, so I think that's a really good question. I think Amazon's always going to just naturally or innately be viewed as kind of mass market because you're always going to have floods of products that fall within that category. But if you're a brand that's already growing off channel, you have a brick and mortar presence, or you just have a really strong D2C site, Falling into that premium category and kind of the way Amazon's rolled out their premium beauty program, it can be really advantageous for brands from a protection perspective.

Because you do get things like gating against arbitrage sellers when you're in premium beauty does obviously come with fees. But that does help to kind of innately keep the channel what we call a quote unquote clean, meaning those counterfeit products aren't going to be on your listings. You're able to actually have that relationship with Amazon where they're caring about your brand and helping you to tell your brand story and image. 

The only piece to that is you already need to be in that high-growth mode. So as these emerging growth brands or these emerging brands that maybe have a star product that's gone viral or it's really growing and you're trying to figure out how you defend your brand, Premium can be a big sticker shock to some of the brands that are out there. But I think Amazon's positioning with premium beauty has been unique in that they are offering that idea of gating, which is Interesting in this kind of discussion that we're having because gating against arbitrage resellers or counterfeit, it's actually not going to block you from dupes still entering the market. 

Because if you are in premium beauty and in that program on Amazon, or you're just a high growth brand where people know your name at the drop of a hat, it means that you already have a microscope or a spotlight on your brand where someone who is you know, mass manufacturing out of China and figuring out where can they find a cheaper product and actually listed on Amazon, you're going to be on that target list as a brand. 

So thinking through that and peeling back some of the layers, uh, premium beauty can be great, but it's not going to stop this idea of dupes entering the market and stealing share somewhere. So from a strategy perspective, you really do have to get creative around how do you want to be positioning your advertising campaigns within marketplace? And how much do you really want to be investing on taking these dupes down? And that's where those things like additional trademarking by category, by ingredient, by bottle shape, anything that you can really do there is going to be helpful for your brand long term.

Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, no, that makes sense, because I think what you're also implying here, those dupes are not going to show up as another offer on your buy box, right? It's not the 100% pure arbitrage play, but it's kind of similar in nature. It'll be a different listing, different ASIN page and all of that. So there's nothing from those other brands selling there. 

I just want to follow up on the premium beauty piece. How do I get access to that? So let's say I'm really convinced that I've got a wonderful product, it's got the right price point, all of that. Amazon may not necessarily agree that it's a premium beauty product. I mean, what is the process for getting in there and what is the success rate?

Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, it's a great question. So the program has historically always really been invite-only. So Amazon is always looking for opportunities to bring brands into that fold. Whether they're researching how a brand is trending on a social channel, TikTok in particular is a big one, or they're just seeing a ton of volume go through the brand without the brand being registered in brand registry or even having a relationship or selling on their own on Amazon. 

So from that perspective of it being invite-only, it does give that level of exclusivity, but you do need to be at a certain kind of stage as a brand in order for it to make sense or for Amazon to approach you. There are other ways that people have tried to reach out to the premium beauty team to figure out, can we come up with a launch strategy? 

We do think our brand's going to grow, but those are going to, it's going to be tough unless you really do have like a brick and mortar partner that you're already listed in. You have strong sales off channel, but I think one of the big pieces that's really going to, you know, kind of move that needle is if someone's already selling on Amazon as an arbitrage seller and they're selling a lot of volume and it's a lot of units and it's going through FBA, Amazon's likely going to approach you at some point if you're kind of in that zone or that space.

Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, makes sense. Sounds very similar to trying to get a vendor invite a couple of years ago.

Alexandra Carmody
Exactly.

Paul Sonneveld
If Amazon hasn't tapped you on the shoulder, it's probably going to be very hard for you to get it there. 

Alexandra Carmody
Yep. 

Paul Sonneveld
Just in terms of, I know we've got some other things, but I'm kind of curious here, like in terms of the fees for premium beauty, is this, I've seen like, obviously we look at profit and loss for our sellers all day long. And then, you know, for some beauty sellers, you do see some really hefty premium experience fees come through. Is this the premium beauty fees or is this another piece related to beauty?

Alexandra Carmody
So it would be an additional fee on top of what your standard Amazon fees are. 

Paul Sonneveld
Yeah.

Alexandra Carmody
It can be hefty. And especially if you're a growing brand, it's really going to be one of those things where you need to sit down, think through all the financials and think through, what are you launching in the next year? What brick and mortar channels are you considering? Are they heavily promotional? Are you as a brand currently and innately heavily promotional? Thinking through all of those areas is going to be really key before you even consider paying those fees.

Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. Okay. I've got a few more questions on this topic, but let's move on because I want to make sure we've got a lot of content to cover today. I want to go to UGC, right? User-generated content. It's a major driver right in the beauty space. You know, you just mentioned like brands on TikTok seems like one of the few things that gets Amazon interested, which is kind of speaks to this. 

How can premium brands really leverage it, right, to maintain exclusivity and credibility? I guess linking it back to your point you made at the start around, you know, how do you tell stories about your product? How do you sort of get that into the consumer's mind, right? You know, what do you see brands do well? And how do you guys work with your customers?

Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, I think that's always the piece that you have to be thinking about, but it's ever-changing. So about a year ago, what we saw work best for UGC was get your product out to a widespread array of different influencers, different affiliates at varying levels, whether they were macro or even nano. As long as you were getting the product out and the product was amazing and it was great, that idea of an organic UGC, regardless of how maybe the influencer received the product, that's really what's going to give that idea to the consumer or the person who's engaging with the video that they're part of this influencer's community. 

And if they're part of the community and this influencer's not talking about 90 different products at any given time, it's going to feel very organic, even if the brand is maybe gifting the product ahead. That idea of organic UGC, I think is very important in terms of how we see it go from social, whether it's TikTok or Instagram, and move into the Amazon space because we see that natural correlation between the two. 

The second an influencer starts really taking off on a video and they're talking about a product and what it did to their skin or how it made them feel in terms of their overall beauty routine, you're going to start seeing that brand name plus the name of the product specifically. You're going to start seeing that trend on Amazon immediately because people are going to read the reviews, see if it's available and see if they can get it in a free two-day shipping window. So knowing that it is very important to always try and keep your UGC content to feel organic even if you are kind of coaching the influencers as you go on the brand side. 

Secondarily to that, it's important to really understand that ingredients also move the needle just as much as UGC content that's talking about your product. So it's really important to keep up with what are people saying is the next, for example, snail mucin. That's, you know, the big product with COSRX that really trended on TikTok and then you saw it kind of explode everywhere and then everyone has a snail mucin now. So figuring out what those ingredients are, really doing that consumer research of how are people engaging with it, what are we trying to solve, what's part of our brand ethos that makes sense, tracking those sorts of things will also help you because then you can position your product in a really unique way when that consumer goes to Amazon to search for an ingredient or a function of a product. 

Looking at it from both of those lenses, that's going to be the best way to engage with UGC or be able to repurpose it because ultimately, at the end of the day, your goal is to find those UGC influencers or consumers who are making videos about your product, engage with them to maybe bring them in as a brand ambassador. And then you can actually build that community around that influencer. But it makes sense for your brand because they've already been part of your ethos from the beginning.

Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, that makes sense. That's almost a little bit of a playbook there in terms of how you go about, you know, I guess, turning your small premium beauty brand that's emerging and how do you sort of take those next steps with view of getting distribution on Amazon.

Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, and I think you can learn both ways. Not only can you learn from the type of content people are engaging with that result in an increase of say search on Amazon, but based off of people, how people use it, you can also optimize your Amazon or your marketplace content based off of that specific video or that consumer. Cause you're going to unearth something that maybe you didn't think through previously and then really being able to pivot and be nimble to kind of make those adjustments in real time. I think that's kind of the biggest hurdle for brands right now.

Paul Sonneveld
Yeah. Okay. So, if we go back to the conversation on dupes, right, and protecting yourself as a premium beauty brand, what is the role of kind of pricing and product architecture in this discussion? I mean, what, How do you advise your clients to think about these product pricing architecture to protect their premium positioning?

Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, I think that is like the question. And I think it goes back to kind of the point at the beginning around, you do have to take the time from a product development perspective, as well as from a member education or a consumer education perspective, to tell that story in a way where it's not just our price point is high because it's premium ingredients, or our price point is high because we get this ingredient from this very particular water in this particular region. That doesn't really land with the consumers in the younger generational space right now. 

But what is going to land is making sure that you tell that consistent story over time. So that idea of education behind the product, that can help a ton when it comes to the whole, am I going to spend $10 versus 45? If you have things like proven test results, before and afters, all of those sorts of content pieces are going to be really key to make it make sense. As well as taking a look at how many reviews are on your product, how long have you been a brand for, and really making that proof point. And then I think what you can do after that is be very strategic and some influencers that maybe are in your brand ambassador program or you have relationships already, who can make less organic-type videos and talk through why the price point is worth it. 

Having those sorts of unboxing videos can also be really key because you can get a consumer excited to buy themselves something that's more of maybe a premium present or something that they wouldn't typically buy for themselves, but you've made the case that it is something really, really unique. And in that way, we work with a lot of brands within the beauty space and we really tend to lean on the non-promotionality side of things, even in a premium price point, because your brand at its core should be telling the story as to why your product is premium or at a higher price point and why it's going to make a difference in terms of how you feel. Ultimately, it could help to clear something up if, say, you're struggling with acne, and that can be the easiest before and after. 

But also, too, at the end of the day, you know, Gen Z, for instance, they view their skincare routine as part of their mental well-being. It's part of, you know, what helps them feel calm, and it's their way to decompress. And when you think about it from that lens and how that generation has kind of shifted in terms of just fixing a problem, which is more leaning on the Gen X or millennial side of things, I think it's something that brands can actually get ahead of for moving forward. But it can also address the idea of a dupe is not going to make you necessarily feel that same way. It's not going to have the same reaction to maybe your skin. 

And also, too, with dupes, you run the risk that it could also harm your skin, because it might look similar. It might say it does similar things to your more premium price-point product. But you're going to get it and maybe it's not going to have the same sort of reaction. And you'll see that really quickly. You know, products that are true dupes on Amazon don't have a ton of reviews. And a lot of the reviews that they have are probably talking about it not doing the function that it claims to. 

So really understanding that idea of that whole scientific backing within skin care, the term, you know, skin intellectual, knowing that you can research the ingredients, that it's proprietary to the brand while also being unique and serving a function. That's that storytelling piece that really has to come from the brand and be consistent over time.

Paul Sonneveld
I'm smiling because I think you just gave me some insights into the mind of my early teen daughter, how she thinks about skincare. And it's certainly this thing about her routine and her relaxing and her mindset. It's very different to like, Hey, I've got acne. I need to, you know, get rid of these things.

Alexandra Carmody
Exactly. Yep.

Paul Sonneveld
Wow. I hope she's not watching this. So, very interesting. So let's talk about, let's say there is a dupe, right. That, that pops up. And I want, you know, you obviously, you went pretty hard at like, you need to trademark as much as you can, or at least that was my summary. That's not your words, but that was kind of my summary. Anything you can. So let's say that the dupe is there, right? What can you do from obviously, you can hire a lawyer and take them to court and all that sort of stuff, but within the Amazon ecosystem, what are the specific tools and programs available to you as a brand to protect your trademarks and intellectual property?

Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, so you can really lean on brand registry in a lot of cases and work with them to figure out, you know, are the images too close to looking like mine, it doesn't look like they took our bottle and scrubbed our name off of it, little things like that are going to be easy to kind of, you know, see. 

There are also brands out there that make it their business to find really high growth products and kind of make dupes against these individual items within a brand's portfolio that are close to, but a lower price point. So it's just going to move volume. I think the piece on the brand side to monitor, if you're not kind of thinking through that legal lens of things, is see how much volume they're doing from things like, how are they ranking organically on Marketplace? What are the keywords that they seem to be running ads on, if at all? What do their titles look like? What sort of functions are they leaning into? Because that's going to give you a key indicator to take a step back and figure out a little bit what their kind of structure and what their strategy is on Amazon. 

If you notice that they have particular keywords in their title, Do they actually have those functions to support that? Maybe not, but at the same time, it's good to know where they're trying to position themselves against maybe your brand. And then I think you can also sort of make deductions around a little bit, maybe how much they're spending, what keywords they might be targeting on by taking a look at your own campaigns within the platform and really understanding, are you getting the best ROI for where you're kind of positioning yourself from a keyword perspective? Are there any keywords that they're targeting on where maybe they're stealing some revenue share from you or some market share from you? 

Figuring out all of those pieces to kind of view it as it's not a one one size fits all, there's going to be a lot of different layers you need to look at. Be patient as the brand and actually monitor these dupes as you go. That's going to be, I think, the most key thing for the brands from a marketplace perspective to look into is really monitor what they're doing. There's a lot of badging on Amazon now.

You can see things like how many units purchased in the last month, if it's an overall pick, if they have high reviews, really what's driving that organic ranking to keep those products on page one. And then taking that step back of how much market share are they really stealing from us? Are we seeing our bids and our algorithm, kind of adjust based off of how much they might be spending? Really get in the weeds there and do that backend work. It's going to be advantageous for you as a brand or as an agency working with a brand partner.

Paul Sonneveld
Are there any differences there between 1P and 3P? I mean, maybe there's a supplementary question there first, which is, are many of these luxury brands or premium beauty brands, are any of them entering Amazon via the 1P channel? Or is it all kind of 3P? What does it look like in your experience?

Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, I mean, I think there are plenty of brands entering via 1P, especially within like professional hair care. You see that quite often just from a, you know, a distributor perspective, it makes sense for a lot of those brands. The only thing I would say from a difference perspective is if you're in a 1P environment, you're going to lose a little bit of pricing control, whether that's based off of how many units are at an FBA warehouse or maybe other channels that are doing promotions at any given time, that elasticity in price can be a little tricky within 1P, especially when you are up against dupes. So it can be helpful. It can also be hurtful to the overall brand. 

But really, no differences when it comes to keyword targeting or things of that nature. I think when you enter Premium Beauty on Amazon, though, in particular, in 3P or within 1P, the one piece that does become a little tricky is your ability to put keywords into the title because premium designation gives you just your brand logo at the top. So your ability to serve on certain organic keywords that your dupe listings, for example, might be winning on is much lower because you don't have that real estate to actually go after those keywords to build your relevancy back up. 

So I think that that's a key call out to a lot of brands that are considering that kind of 3P premium or 1P premium space is there are some organic SEO ranking components that you might be missing out on, which could help you against dupes who see that opportunity that you're in premium and know that they can go after those keywords and really steal that market share from you.

Paul Sonneveld
Do you see, I mean, beyond the sort of the usual kind of differences between the 1P and 3P model, do you see any benefits to 1P from a premium beauty brand specifically point of view? Are there any particular there or on balance would you say, actually, You know, if supplying stock into FBA and run your own seller account or with the help of someone like yourself is no issue, is your preference to steer them towards 3P or are there any advantages there specifically from a premium beauty, like not in terms of broader pros and cons, but specifically on premium beauty?

Alexandra Carmody
I think it really depends on what your off-channel strategy looks like. If you are in a ton of brick and mortar channels, so I'm thinking like if you're in Sephora, and Target and Ulta and every major player. A 1P environment could make sense because from a retail perspective, they're kind of similar, especially if you're in-store at Walmart as well. That's another key kind of differentiator there. It can make sense for a brand. 

I would say a lot of the brands that are in that high growth mode that fit into premium, whether they're paying the fees or not, they do still want that control of their brand because maybe they're looking to exit or find a new owner in the next couple of years. And having that be in-house and something that you can run and you can leverage and really control, that's going to be key. It's also going to help you a little bit when it comes to those things about dealing with brand registry, fighting with Amazon for dupes and things of that nature. You'll have more of a control lever in a 3P environment.

Paul Sonneveld
Thank you. That makes sense. We're almost out of time, but I want to, I want to sort of try and get two more questions here. If, we brought a few minutes over, the first one is very topical one right now. Right. In fact, you and I said, shall I ask about this? And,  you encouraged me to, so I will, tariffs, right? We actually wrote this question, this topic, this outline before, all these tariffs were announced. So, make sure to follow us for whatever's going to happen next. But tariffs and global trade policies, especially in terms of the announcement we've seen this week and last week, how do you think these are going to impact premium beauty brands selling on Amazon? And more importantly, if there's a negative impact there, which there might be, how can brands mitigate these risks?

Alexandra Carmody
So I think it's going to be interesting to watch because a lot of duplicate products as well as counterfeit products enter the market directly from China. It's an easy way to mass-produce. It's been until recently relatively cheap for some companies to actually do that, get it within the market, do their research to see really what's trending, and then adapt and move through that really quickly. 

So it could help to clean up the channel now that there are those tariffs in place. I say could because we really truly don't know how people will navigate around it. And the more time things keep getting pushed out, it gives these kinds of bad sellers or duplicate sellers, it gives them more wiggle room to figure out what their go-forward plan really looks like. I think the only negative I could see coming out of it from the other side of things is now that these tariffs have been announced and they're trying to be put into place, you might see a ton of product get in before they really get enacted. 

And I think that's the scarier piece is how quickly can these companies or these manufacturing sites really move? It's a big TBD. I don't think people know yet, but it's a really interesting thing to watch because it could help to clean up a ton of dupes within the overall marketplace space. And if it doesn't enter Amazon, then you got to kind of peel it back and be like, what happens to the team moves of the world? What's going on with Alibaba? How are those control levers going to be in play in order to protect your brand? 

So I think there's a lot of conversations around that. I think Amazon's a little bit ahead of the curve as well as Walmart now with their premium kind of program that they're rolling out. They are ahead of the curve in terms of we do have some control levers in place. We have some programs that brands as well as sellers can opt into that can help with these things. I think some other marketplaces are a little behind, and we're going to see kind of what that impact really looks like over the next couple of months.

Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, it's going to be fascinating to watch. I've just, it's morning here in Australia and I haven't looked at the news headlines when I went to bed. I think there were 400% tariffs on China. Not sure if it's still there or whether it's what's happened overnight, but I'll check it out later. It's going to be  interesting space to navigate for sure. 

For me, it's kind of interesting, like how many of these, uh, you know, more Amazon sellers in general, um, had the foresight of start building up more stock on the U S side. Like I'm wondering, what's the average, I'm not talking about FBA inventory, but I'm talking about third party warehouses, right? What's the average inventory cover that people sitting on right now? And did they actually build up stock in anticipation of this stormy season? 

Alexandra Carmody
Totally.

Paul Sonneveld
That's going to be interesting too. Cool. Last question before we wrap up, biggest mistakes, you know, you've seen a lot of beauty brands. I'm sure you've seen a lot of mistakes in the past. What are the biggest mistakes that you've seen premium beauty brands make on Amazon? And for those that are tuning in here live or watching after, what are the things we should try and avoid?

Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, I think the biggest mistake is thinking it will naturally go away. You could clean up a channel. It's going to end up in another channel. So your structure, your strategy needs to be start where the problem is monitor everything after that point, but you have to go wide. You can't just clean up Amazon. It's going to end up on Walmart or vice versa. It's going to end up on eBay. There's so many different places for these sellers and these people who are selling dupes or counterfeits to really pop up. 

You have to have a total strategy for your brand and really take that time to figure out what makes the most sense for you all and where do you want to invest that time. I think the not mistake or the way that brands can kind of approach it is really thinking through where do we want to win in the next three to five years and thinking that far in advance will help you then step back and figure out what's your first step. So by taking that approach, we've seen brands be really successful.

Paul Sonneveld
Thank you. That is a great, great summary and hopefully can save some emerging brands a couple of headaches down the road. So that's fantastic. All right. Unfortunately, we are out of time. We're actually quite a few minutes over. For regular listeners, I think you're used to that. I'm not the best at timekeeping, but while I get in the way of a great conversation, right? Unfortunately, we are out of time now, so we need to wrap it up. 

First of all, Alexandra, thank you so much for joining me again today. I really loved your insights around premium beauty brands, some of the strategies involved, how the process works on Amazon, the trademarking, all of those various aspects. So thank you so much for sharing your expertise and knowledge. Just if there are any listeners here that would love to kind of go a bit deeper with you, interested maybe more about how Front Row can help or maybe just pick up the conversation after, what is the best way for them to get hold of you?

Alexandra Carmody
Yeah, the best way is frontrowgroup.com. I did this last time, too, Paul. I can never say it. Frontrowgroup.com.

Paul Sonneveld
Excellent. All right. That's great. Thank you so much, Alexandra. Really appreciate it. And yeah, hope to see you again soon.

Alexandra Carmody
Yeah. Thanks, Paul. Really appreciate it.

Paul Sonneveld
All right, everyone, that is a wrap for today's live episode of Marketplace Masters. Thank you so much for tuning in. Now we do one of these episodes pretty much once a week. So if you're looking for more insights, we've been doing this for about two years or so, please ensure to check out our on-demand library at merchantspring, that's one word, merchantspring.io for a wealth of video content. 

And of course, if you are looking for analytics, whether it be sort of agency enterprise grade level analytics for Amazon or 160 other marketplaces or more in-depth vendor analytics, feel free to reach out to me. I'd love to show you what MerchantSpring is all about. And of course, last but not least, I'm always on the lookout for new topics, new content, new speakers. In fact, I've just spent two weeks on the road doing just that. So if there's an interesting idea or topic that you'd love for me to explore, drop me a note on LinkedIn and I will do my best to find the right speaker or expert and get something lined up. Thank you so much for tuning in and until next time, take care.