Hard Truths Behind Perfume Pricing: How the Most Affordable Niche Fragrances Maintain Quality for Less

Perfume pricing is a difficult subject. It’s easy to understand why a price tag of $100, $200, or even upwards of $300 for a single bottle of fragrance might raise a few eyebrows – yet it isn’t uncommon to see those prices in the niche and independent perfume world.

We understand that while fragrances are ultimately a luxury, they also bring great joy and a sense of adventure to one’s everyday routine. Simply put, life would be more boring without perfume.

So, we thought we would explain how we keep our prices relatively low without sacrificing quality.

This will be the first in a short series of blogs which answer that question. But before we continue, it’s important to note: like so many things in life, an expensive price doesn’t necessarily guarantee a high-quality end result, and vice-versa.

What do the most affordable niche fragrances have in common?

Many niche brands pride themselves on the quality of their materials and presentation. This is a perfectly-legitimate way to do business, but unfortunately, it often comes with a very hefty price tag.

However, there are ways to offer high standards of quality without charging an arm and a leg. The most important technique is minimizing overhead costs.

The reason Habibi and other cost-conscious brands have been able to offer competitive prices without any compromise on the fragrance, packaging, shopping experience, or customer service is because we work tirelessly to keep overhead costs low.

One of the most obvious ways we do that is through minimal advertising. We rely a lot on word of mouth and reviews to help us grow as a brand, rather than spending many thousands of dollars on large-scale advertising like celebrity endorsements, billboards, magazine and website adverts, etc.

We feel that letting the quality of our products speak for itself through word of mouth is ultimately the best way for us to grow, rather than paying someone else to say it for us – plus, it allows us to build a closer relationship with our customers, which has a positive effect on our customer service.

The other important differentiator between brands like Habibi and other houses is that we do not send our products to retail.

Rather, we choose to sell directly to our customers exclusively through our website. The importance of doing this shouldn’t be underestimated – between retailers and the distributors who bring products to those retailers, many fragrance companies sacrifice a large chunk of value to this process because they want to get their product in front of as many potential buyers as possible.

While wanting to put your fragrance in front of many potential customers is understandable from a business perspective, it ultimately drives brands to slowly increase their consumer prices when other costs – such as expensive natural materials – go up.

By not sacrificing over half our costs to the retailer and distributor middle men, we’re able to keep our final costs to customers low without impacting the actual quality of our fragrances or presentation.

It’s time to eliminate the stereotype that “expensive is always better”

We know that some of our readers who have been following the fragrance industry might misinterpret our message as though we have some inferior products compared to the brands that offer prices of $200 to $300. In reality, our products are made very similarly – the only difference is that we choose to eliminate the most common costly business practices in the industry and pass that value directly to our customers.

Yes, sometimes it is true that “you get what you pay for.” But when you buy from affordable niche fragrance brands like ours, you’re getting a quality product that we’ve spent years perfecting. We hope you’ll try some of our line

and do make sure to read our reviews to let our quality speak for itself.