The Complete Guide To Buying Perfumes Online

Buying a perfume is an experiential process: you smell one, see if you like it, wear it around, get to know it. So buying perfume online can seem like a daunting, if not impossible, task. How can you choose the right perfume for you when it’s not right there in front of you for you to try? In this article, we’ll answer that, and many other questions. But first, let’s ask: why do you want to buy perfume online in the first place?

Why Buy Perfume Online?

Buying Perfume Online is Less Expensive

Hands down, this is the number one reason why people choose to buy their perfume online. You can get moderate to large discounts, if you know where to buy and when. There are times when you can get as much as 70% off a given perfume. This is because reputable online perfume stores don’t use middlemen but buy their products direct from the designer. They also don’t have the costs of a brick-and-mortar store. Department stores, where so much perfume is purchased, have been known to up the price of their stock by as much as 60%.

Buying Perfume Online is More Convenient

We live in a world where everything can be bought online, where every purchase is a few keystrokes away. You don’t need to go to a department store, pay for parking, search for a parking spot, jostle past the crowds, and then get the attention of the right employee to help you--an employee who might have no real idea what is in the perfume they’re selling. 

When you buy online, the purchase can be done from the home, the office, the bus, the bathtub. And you can have it delivered wherever you’d like.

Making Sure You’re Getting the Real Thing

So if it’s so easy to get, and you’re getting such big discounts, how can you know that you’re getting the real thing and not some cheap knock-off? Even if you get something that comes in the same bottle, in the same packaging, as a bottle of the perfume you wanted may just be a fake. 

Watch for stores that announce that they’re selling certain authentic designer perfumes on their site. This information can usually be found on the front page of the site, and a site that truly does will offer a guarantee of authenticity, as well as a money-back guarantee. If your online perfume store doesn’t have these things, then be wary.

How to Pick a Perfume When Buying Online

So how can you get to know the perfume that you’re interested in if you can’t smell it? The answers are simple if you’re working with a reputable perfume dealer.

Getting Samples Online

While it’s easy to buy the same perfume that you’ve bought in the past, if you want to choose a new scent then you can buy a variety of sample bottles. Each one costs only a few dollars and has enough perfume in it to get to know the scent and whether or not you’ll like it. There’s enough in a sample to wear around for a few days, to see if your partner likes it, to see if you get noticed. And, again, you can buy a wide variety of these samples without breaking the bank.

Understand Perfume Notes and Families

Learning more about a perfume when you try it on will help guide you to other perfumes that will be to your liking. Each perfume will come with a description of the notes it carries--citrus, floral, woody, fruity--and you can get a sense of what scents you like. This way, even if you don’t fall in love with a certain sample you’ve tried, it may be close enough that you’ll want to try something else in the same family.

Speak to an Expert

When in doubt, speak to an expert. Many online perfume retailers have chat boxes where you can talk to someone who knows more about fragrances than you do and can help walk you through the process of finding out which one is right for you.

What to Watch Out For 

Strength of the Perfume

Perfume comes in different strengths and getting the one that’s right for you is just as important as getting the right scent. Do you want something that you can mist on liberally, or just something to dab on your neck? Here’s a handy guide of perfume by strength, from strongest to lowest.

1. Eau de parfum 
2. Soie de parfum 
3. Eau de toilette 
4. Parfum Cologne (Eau de cologne) 
5. Eau fraiche

Size of the Bottle 

You might think that you’re getting a really great deal, only to find out to your chagrin that you’ve purchased a bottle that is much smaller than what you thought you were buying. Fragrances usually come in 30, 35, 50, 100, and 125ml bottles. When comparing prices, make sure that you’re comparing bottle sizes, too.

Extra Costs 

Remember that although buying online is more convenient than buying in a store, you also are going to have to pay shipping. Calculate that into the price. Also, make sure that any promised discounts are included.

Avoiding Scams

To avoid scams you should always check on the following things: 

• Does the site have a return policy? 
• Does the site have good reviews on a third-party website? 
• Can you return for a full refund? 
• Is there a phone number you can call for assistance, and not just an email address?

Things to avoid: 

• Auctions and Buy-It-Now formats. These are typically from scam websites trying to get you to buy without doing your research. 
• Watch for spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, grammar problems, etc. These are all signs that the site is not professional and can’t be trusted. (That said, it’s not uncommon for perfume names and brands to be written in foreign languages, including foreign alphabets like Arabic and Japanese.) 
• Anything sold as “vintage” as you can’t sample it to see if it’s genuine. 
• Carefully inspect packaging to make sure it hasn’t been tampered with.