1 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION I. 1. Background I. 1. 1. Fragrance Sales During Pandemic In 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as a public health emergency of international concern. 1 To prevent the Corona virus from spreading throughout Indonesia during the COVID-19 outbreak, the Indonesian government implemented a Large-Scale Social Restriction (PSBB) program. The community is no longer free to move around and engage in activities as a result of these constraints. New habits form as a result of this condition in order to adjust to the current situation. Physical shopping for necessities has given way to indirect shopping (online). The pandemic has rocked the global economy and rocked many industries, businesses and small businesses into crisis. Businesses must devise new strategies and move online to survive the current situation. Joining a market place, selling goods through social media, joining online applications (gojek, grab), or developing their own website are all steps that businesses can take to deal with this transformation. However, the perfume business is thriving, as is a subset of the fragrance sector. Christian Dior, for instance, noted a significant rise in profit within its fragrances and cosmetics business group in its 2021 financial statement. The business unit made over $7.25 million in 2021, thanks to organic revenue growth of 27% from 2020 to 2021. According to the firm, this is largely because in 2021, Dior Sauvage became the best-selling fragrance in the world. 2 I. 1. 2. Online Perfume Purchase Previously, people's decision to purchase a perfume relied on whether or not they liked its scent. But the sales of perfume surged by double digits during the pandemic, and customers indicated a desire for scents that lasted for a longer period of time even though they could not smell it directly. Due to the restrictions, fragrance customers can 1 (World Health Organization, 2020) 2 (Christian Dior, 2022) 2 only buy to blind buy fragrance during a pandemic. According to the School of Scent, fragrance blind buy is when a customer buys a fragrance without first smelling it and completely untested. The customer does not know whether they like the scent or not. They buy the perfumes based on the description of the scent, such as “it has floral, jasmine scent”, “the perfume has a gourmand, vanilla-based scent” or “it is a perfect fruity scent for you to wear on holiday”. In the perfume industry ‘smell-o-vision” has not yet been achieved by current technology, there is no way to give the customer an experience to smell a fragrance online. Despite the fact that there is a limited way to describe the scent, there is a burgeoning and fervent fragrance community. Customers tend to seek fragrance information before they can make purchases. They made a search before they bought a perfume. There are many community reviews about perfume that describe it more precisely. For example, with storytelling. “sun, salty water in my mouth when I get hit by a wave I didn't see coming, getting hit in the head by a frisbee that gets away from me, and sand in my eyes when the wind picks up out of nowhere” is one of the example of storytelling in describing sea salt, ambrette, bergamot or anything related to sea-like-scent. This description will bring back the memory of its reader's. If the reader has memories or likes the feeling of being in the sea, they will understand how it smells. According to Bernard, 2009. p. 7; Cuesta, et al, 2020, sense of smell perception is linked to memory; a certain aroma can trigger thoughts of past times and locations as well as feelings of nostalgia for cherished people and places. This fits well with the explanation provided by perfume reviewers in the larger community of scent enthusiasts. Based on this description, the information of the scent will evoke certain memories of the customer so the customer has the vision of scent that they are familiar with. According to Chandra Gogineni on Ecommerce Analytics the value of after-sales support and customer satisfaction is rising nowadays. The corporation understands that user-generated content and reviews play a significant part in purchasing decisions and that consumers can readily distinguish between sponsored and unpaid content. As a result, it should come as no surprise that modern marketing methods involve reputation management and sentiment research, especially in the perfume industry. As shown in the accompanying graph, user-generated materials such 3 as reviews and recommendations have eclipsed the reach and power rather than just using a traditional media advertisement in recent years. Figure I.1: Influence of Reviews and Recommendations Source: Ecommerce Analytics To acquire and retain online customers, businesses must comprehend the subtleties of their clients' habits and anticipate any changes in their opinions and preferences. In the perfume industry, it is very crucial to maintain their brand names online, especially when they sell online. Consumers need to get product information first prior to purchasing based on personal experience and the external environment. People's preferences in fragrance are informed by their own experiences, certainly there are also external elements at play that might influence a consumer's decision to purchase. That is when they get it when surfing the website or social media. The more frequently the customer hears positive reviews of the product, the greater his desire to test the product.