Question:
Am I the only one that doesn't understand why there isn't an online merchant that sells everything a fragrance enthusiast would want? I haven't found any single merchant that sells every fragrance that was nominated for a basenotes award. Why doesn't anyone sell the complete product line of Creed, including bath and body products?
Maybe I'm just spoiled from my other hobbies where I can just go to one place to buy everything I could ever want. I happen to be a tea fanatic and I just go over to www.uptontea.com, fill up my basket, and I'm set. There's virtually nothing they don't sell, and everything is available in sample sizes.
So why does shopping for fragrance need to be so painful? I respect that many of us like to shop around for a deal and save some money, but I can't be the only one that doesn't care about price. I just want one good online merchant that sells it all and has samples available for everything. I'll even pay for the samples!
This market seems wide open to me. Please, someone, start up an online store that sells it all.

Answer:
Well, there are 9,600 fragrances in the directory. Some are discontinued and others are not in the directory. If 4 of 5 fragrances are available in 2 bottle sizes that means a company would need to stock 17,200 bottles. With an average price of $60, that translates to $1,032,000 in stock. Then you have the logistics of storing 17,000 bottles and keeping them fresh. The slow moving scents would eventually turn and need to be discarded. I think the issue is not whether someone wants to do it, but whether they can.
You can find Creed's entire product line at their official online dealers (parfumsraffy.com etc), but with that comes their retail prices which are some of the highest in the industry. Creed is my favorite of the mainstream brands, but if they were not discounted, my wardrobe would exclusively be Frederic Malle, Serge Lutens, and L'Artisan with the occasional niche.

Answer:
In addition, even if you did make a shop like that, people would still rather buy from scentiments or bigdiscount because of cheaper prices since shopping from different sites is preferable if a site has lower prices and such so... yea.

Answer:
you mean like an amazon.com? amazon I think is still waiting for their first profitable year. You'd need warehousing up the wazoo. Those 30 foot forklifts and that means insurance. hold on where are you going? we haven't hired anyone yet. And we have to keep our nose to the ground for every fragrance released. There's a fire in the men's room and you didn't contribute to the firemens ball. you starting to get the idea. Now. what can I get you? you can have anything you want as long as it's 4711 and I only have the 33oz size, it's a tester and the bottles cracked. $345.00 cheap

Answer:
The only reason Creed bottles can be had cheap is because they get them through questionable methods. Creed makes it illegal for anyone else to sell their products (Unless you are an authorized reseller) online. Scentiments has somehow bypassed that. You can find most niche fragrances at either www.luckyscent.com or http://www.aedes.com/brand.php?cat_id=1 . Both offer samples, and both have a wide and somewhat different stock. It's the closest you're going to get. Use www.scentiments.com and www.fragrancenet.com for the non niche stuff, and www.scentiments.com for any Creeds they carry.
- Rich

Answer:
Originally Posted by _R$_ The only reason Creed bottles can be had cheap is because they get them through questionable methods. Creed makes it illegal for anyone else to sell their products (Unless you are an authorized reseller) online. Scentiments has somehow bypassed that. **snip** and www.scentiments.com for any Creeds they carry.
- Rich Most fragrance companies tacitly comply with the gray market by not pursuing licensing/distribution violations. So officially they decry the practice whilst the gray market is actually their cash-cow - putting the bottles into wider distribution with a much lower than official markup. The company invoices official channels and the gray-marketeers the same wholesale price per bottle. What happens after that? It's a business and has to make more money than limited exculsive distribution channels would allow unless the fragrances are just a part of a larger venture such as fashion, leather goods, pharmagolmerate, luxeglomerate etc. ... and even then, it happens.

Answer:
As has been discussed many times before, sometimes official retailers offload old stock on the "gray market". I have also noticed a rise in the number of Bond no. 9 bottles on Ebay (I have even bought some) - its a new niche house and doesnt have much old stock to offload, but its on the rise. I cant imagine $185 bottle sales to be brisk enough to sell out batches. You can also observe many L'Artisan bottles on Ebay now, compared to say 2004.