Nearly half have purchased fake products intentionally: Hot Topic poll

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Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.

As part of its loyalty program, along with purchases, Australian surfwear brand Rip Curl awards points for every wave that loyalty club members catch. Antavo Loyalty Cloud, Rip Curl's partner in the effort, calls such a strategy “emotional loyalty,” in contrast to the “rational loyalty” of awarding points when customers spend money. Other non-transactional actions that brands increasingly are awarding loyalty points for are referring friends, subscribing to newsletters, and writing product reviews.

You tell us: Do you think it’s a good strategy for brands to award loyalty points for actions besides purchases? Cast your vote here.

Circling back: Last time, we told you that the rate of designer products that authenticators identified as fake rose to 8.8% in 2023, up from 7.2% the year before—a 20% increase, according to an AI authentication solutions company. So we asked if you ever intentionally or unintentionally purchased a product that was fake.

Nearly half (47.3%) of you told us you’ve intentionally purchased a product that was a fake, while 40% of you said that, as far as you know, you never have. Another 10.9% told us you accidentally purchased a designer product that you thought was authentic but turned out to be fake, while 1.8% didn’t know or weren’t sure.

Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.