Fragrance Creation Website

MMDeire

This is my basic idea;

www.Scentival.com is where people can go to create their own personal fragrance that matches their personality and style. With the Scentival™ 7 step process you select the fragrances and the bottle… you can even give it a name so that your creation matches and celebrates everything that’s original about you! Include a message with your fragrance when creating for a friend, loved one or family member and have it sent directly to their address. The final step allows you to choose the size of your perfume [1, 2, 5 or 10 fluid ounces at varying prices (excluding any additional charges for bottle upgrades or extra fragrances)

I would imagine a standard alcohol base for every perfume with the specific fragrance ingredients chosen by the customer added upon order. All orders will come in a standard bottle, with upgrades possible at an extra charge.

Fragrance names selected by the customer will appear only on the box and all bottles will be marked with the ‘Scentival’ logo.

Customers will have an allocated amount of fragrances that they can choose and add more for an extra fee [like toppings on a pizza]. Perhaps as the site becomes more popular, customers could at some point be able to pay for an evaluation of their creation by a professional 'nose'.

I will be supplied with the oils, bottles, alcohol etc. required from various countries

And all orders will be put together in Ireland and delivered to the customer.

Please comment on the idea with your own additional ideas or opinions.

Lloyd Xmas

Hi,

I think your idea is pretty cool! I reckon if you plan it well, create a high quality website that gives of the "luxury vibe", and market the idea within the right circles, you could do well out of it.

Its certainly original anyway, so I really hope it works out for you!
I'll look out for it

Fair play.

gibo_ie

Hey,
Firstly good luck with your venture fair play to you.
Secondly the issue I would see is that unless we develop smell o' vision any time soon it would be a very difficult sell. People mixing random fragrances together to buy without being able to tell what it smells like? I think this will cause you some trouble I'm afraid.
Its just something I notice straight away. When I buy perfume or fragrances in a shop, I would use a tester to see if its nice. Maybe you can offer tester smell cards sent by post in advance of mixing up batches. How about a small cost for 5 tester cards with the persons personal fragrances before mixing commences.
As for the personalised boxes and bottles, this sounds great.
Again good luck!
M

antoinolachtnai

I thought about this a few years ago, but didn't go anywhere with it. I think this is a great idea, but possibly not one, alas, for the Internet, or at least not with the Internet as a primary sales channel.

For me, the way this one would work would be to get a concession in a few major department stores. You would need the design, presentation and quality of the product to be in line with that. The reason you need to be in those stores is (a) for access to the right customers, ready to pay the premium and (b) to appear as a legitimate high-end player. Although I appreciate the metaphor, fragrances are not like pizza. It is all about luxury and quality, not price, convenience and speed.

You have to start at the high end of the market. You cannot start at the bottom and work your way up. It only works the other way.

If you wanted to do Internet-only, it would be a slow burn, and I think you would want to be well tied into the fragrance industry globally, to get legitimacy. You would need to get people to really believe in what you are offering, and get the right sort of customer. The way to do this might be to tie in with a mail order clothes vendor.