The Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall has just presented a new digital technology called “Scent Visualizer” developed in collaboration with a fashion company, Puig. In essence, Scent Visualizer allows consumers to discover, recognize and visualize the scents of different fragrances, both new and existing.
The Scent Visualizer can show the main olfactory ingredients of a perfume, allowing the user to get a concrete idea of its aroma. To do this, it relies on a large visual library containing more than 1.400 unique ingredients and a database of 21.500 scents.
A long gestation
To test the impact of this technology on sales, Tmall conducted a trial on 25 international brands. And he obtained very interesting data: associating a visual identity with perfumes increased the volume of sales and the average value of each sale by at least 5%.
According to the project partners, consumers made faster and more informed purchasing decisions thanks to the possibility of "reading" perfumes, that is, visually understanding their ingredients and composition: they also appreciated the quality and value of the product, pushing themselves to pay more for the perfumes they liked.
“Seeing” perfumes online: will it become a standard?
If we limit ourselves only to the Chinese market, I can answer as an easy prophet. Yes. Second a 2022 Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report, only 5% of the Chinese population wears perfumes: starting digital initiatives to promote them is like beating a penalty kick into an empty net. The Chinese fragrance market has grown by 2015% annually since 15 and will continue to do so, according to the data, over the next five years (with an expected rate of 22%).
And elsewhere? Even there, a simple but innovative idea like this can raise awareness of what makes up a fragrance, and what the difference between perfumes is. Welcome, therefore, this inspiration from the East. Tastes good, to stay on topic.
