Perfume subscription service wants to conquer Europe through Belgium

Parfumado, a Dutch challenger on the perfume market, sets its sights on Belgium. The “Spotify of perfumes” sends a new fragrance every month, personalized to the customer. The start-up currently ships about 35,000 perfumes per month.

Turnover doubled in 2020

Changing perfumes regularly without having to buy an entire bottle, that’s the idea behind Parfumado. Founded in the Netherlands in 2017 by brother and sister Martijn and Floor van Rooy, the subscription service sends customers small sprays (8 ml) of one of the 450 branded perfumes in the selection every month for a flat fee of 14.95 euros.

Thanks to the lockdowns, the company was able to double its turnover last year. The number of subscribers also doubled, and the business now ships 35,000 perfumes per month. The aim is to become “the number one data-driven beauty platform in Europe”, according to Martijn van Rooy. Belgium is next in line.

Sampling is key for marketing 

During his career in the perfume world, Van Rooy noticed that sampling is the most important marketing channel for perfume brands. However, those samples are still very inefficiently and randomly distributed. With its data model, Parfumado aims to change this: a quiz allows potential customers to discover which scent profile suits them, and an algorithm then advises which perfumes will suit them best. The AI system also learns from customer reviews.

In 3.5 years, Parfumado has been able to collect more than 150,000 unique user scent profiles. And, of course, that information could also be exploited. That is why the duo founded Rocket Campaigns last year. It allows beauty brands to distribute their mini-samples in a targeted way and have them reviewed online. “Because stores were closed, perfume stores had a hard time getting rid of their samples. Beauty brands came to us asking if we could get their samples through to potential buyers. We can do that,” said Van Rooy.