As far as fragrances are concerned, Puig is relaunching WikiParfum, its digital platform dedicated to discovering and deciphering perfume.
Now available in seven languages and through a brand-new mobile app, WikiParfum (www.wikiparfum.com) gives users access to a vast online compendium of expert content, functionality and features developed by industry professionals. The digital platform enables everyone to browse, compare and choose fragrances from a constantly updated library which currently includes some 19,600 scents, compared to around 5,000 when it was launched initially in 2020.
Making perfume discovery easier
Above all, the platform offers several technological innovations to facilitate access to an olfactory world sometimes perceived as complex and distant by consumers.
For instance, WikiParfum helps users discover what a perfume smells like, even before they try it in a store. When a user searches for a fragrance on the website or the app, a digital tool draws from a database containing 1,400 photographs of raw materials used in perfumery and organizes the images into a visual representation. According to Puig, this solution, or scent visualizer, allows the user to “see” the fragrance. The larger the image, the more dominant the ingredient. Displayed on a black background, the ingredient is intense; less so if the background is white.
In addition to visual data, WikiParfum delivers key information, such as the perfume’s olfactory family, its main ingredients, the perfumer who created it, and the price range. A selection of related fragrances with similar ingredients completes the search results.
To develop the tool, Puig has collaborated with Fragrances of the World, the largest independent guide to fragrance classification, created by fragrance authority and historian Michael Edwards.
In-store use
WikiParfum also wants to be a true personal perfume shopper. Based on the olfactory mapping of the database and on an individual’s stated preferences, the platform’s powerful algorithm provides users with personalized fragrance recommendations.
Made for in-store use, the WikiParfum mobile app (available on Google Play and the App Store) features a barcode reader called EAN.Nose. Simply by scanning a perfume’s label at the point of sale, shoppers can “see” how the fragrance smells and learn key facts
Completing the WikiParfum platform is AirParfum, the innovative airborne fragrance system patented and launched by Puig in 2018 for use at the point of sale. AirParfum addresses what was seemingly an intractable consumer pain point: the inability to sample multiple fragrances in-store without incurring olfactory saturation. AirParfum technology transforms purified air into perfumed air, enabling shoppers to experience scores of scents without confusion or sensory fatigue.
Regional hub in Miami
At the same time, the group announced last week they will open a new office in Miami, Florida, in the U.S., as of January 2023. With this new regional hub, the family-owned beauty and fashion company aims “to support strong growth in the Americas.” Puig sells products in 150 countries and operates 29 subsidiaries.
