Professional brands fight unauthorised sales
Major skincare brands have spoken out about the dangers of purchasing beauty products from online auction websites, amid concerns that this practice is growing.
Professional brands are worried that products sold on the so-called grey market on unauthorised websites could be sub-standard; out of date; discontinued; tampered with; counterfeit or that they havent been stored appropriately, all of which could damage the brands integrity and pose dangers to buyers health.
A spokesperson for Clarins said that it had a dedicated team of experts working on the matter in Paris. Consumers may think that theyre getting a bargain from a website but theres no guarantee that the product hasnt been opened or tampered with. Although it may appear in an official Clarins box, we cant guarantee any Clarins product that isnt sold from an official counter or representative. There are websites that sell our products in bulk and weve no idea where its all come from.
At Dermalogica Glen Poy, UK general manager, believed that such practices highlighted the importance of communicating with its authorised accounts. He said: Often the salon owner may not be aware that one of their staff or a friend has tried to do them a favour by putting products on an auction site, so managing stock and staff is an important preventive element.
He added: Ultimately we rely on our skin treatment centres to uphold the brand and how it is represented to the consumer and hopefully we have developed a strong relationship to help them see the importance of the skin therapist in communicating our products and brand to the consumer.
Lucinda Townend, marketing co-ordinator at Dermalogica, said that it was in constant discussions with websites such as ebay to combat this issue. Its hard to target the one-offs, she said. But we do work with ebay to close down accounts that are selling our products in bulk.
The warning comes less than a month after the National Retail Federation (NRF) in the US announced that it had smashed an organised retail crime ring in Florida that is believed to have stolen up to $100m worth of health and beauty items over a period of five years.
Joseph LaRocca, NRF vice president of loss prevention, said that criminals often took advantage of shoppers by selling stolen merchandise through auction websites. Many health and beauty products on these sites may have expired or been spoiled, posing health risks to the buyer, he said.
LaRocca added: Once the legitimate distributor is taken out of the equation, there is no guarantee that merchandise is safe.
