On the scent: Selling perfume by algorithm

Pinrose invites customers to fill out a nine-question quiz. As well as standard questions such as age and previous scent purchases, it contains questions about preferences for colours, sounds and textures. The site then presents three recommendations from Pinrose’s 10-fragrance collection. Each scent also comes with an online playlist and Pinterest inspiration board, and Pinrose hopes in future to mine social media to further link visual and scent preferences.

‘We didn’t want this very heavy-handed, serious approach where you walk into a mall and get sprayed in the face,’ co-founder Christine Luby tells Bloomberg Businessweek. ‘There is room to have a brand that is fun and speaks more to our generation.’

Customers are increasingly seeking products that are exclusively made for them. For more on bespoke fragrances, read our online scent tailoring micro trend