You know that feeling when the brand finds you first? In stores, scent does the heavy lifting. Walk past a Lush shop and the aroma reaches you before the colors do. A Rituals store already feels calm the moment you step in, no surprise the brand is expanding fast after a record year and pushing wellbeing concepts like Mind Oasis. At Douglas, the doorway is a corridor of fragrance and the retailer keeps opening (and refreshing) flagships across Europe. Even coffee chains are re-centering the sensory feel of the visit. Starbucks is actively reshaping its in-store experience under “Back to Starbucks.”
E-commerce, by contrast, has a sensory gap. We obsess over tissue paper and thank-you cards, yet the box still arrives… silent. What if the first whiff when a customer opens your parcel felt as on-brand as your flagship store? A subtle, well-chosen scent can turn a hallway into your brand entrance and add a quiet “this is us” to the very first moment after the click. This blog explores how to bring that power into the unboxing moment.
WHAT IS THIS BLOG ABOUT?
- How scented parcels can lift unboxing enjoyment, product evaluation, brand impression, and willingness-to-pay.
- Why brand-congruent scents beat “nice smell”.
- How e-commerce teams can pilot, measure, and scale scent in packaging.
THE RESEARCH
To test whether scent at the moment of unboxing changes customer responses, the authors ran a preregistered, incentivized lab experiment with 300 participants. Everyone unpacked the same parcel from a fictional outdoor brand (Pine Peaks) containing a Pine Peaks–branded aluminum water bottle. The manipulation was simple: one group received a lightly scented box (a pre-tested sandalwood–mountain-pine–lime blend chosen for outdoor congruence); the control group received an unscented box. Immediately after opening, participants stated their valuation in a real-money second-price (Vickrey) auction to capture true willingsness to pay, then rated unboxing enjoyment, product quality, brand personality, green brand equity, and recommendation likelihood.
THE RESULTS
Scent lifted the unboxing moment. Versus identical unscented boxes, scented parcels produced:
- Higher willingness to pay, creating room for premium pricing when everything else is equal.
- More enjoyable unboxing and higher product ratings.
- Stronger brand personality perceptions and higher green brand equity.
- Greater recommendation intent.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
The “outdoor” blend (pine–sandalwood–lime) matched the outdoor brand, so the scent added meaning rather than noise. It’s the same logic behind familiar offline cues: the instantly recognizable aroma at Lush, the calming signatures at Rituals, the fragrance-forward entrance at Douglas, and the comforting roast at Starbucks. When the note fits the category and promise, it signals identity, primes expectations, and makes the product feel more “right”.
If you own the box, you own the first physical brand moment. A light, brand-fit scent can make unboxing feel better, strengthen what people think about your brand, and gently nudge keep/return decisions – while opening space for premium pricing. Start with a small test on a few orders. Keep the scent subtle. Offer a simple opt-out for sensitive customers. If it works, measure basics like returns and reviews, then scale it up.
WANT TO LEARN MORE? THIS ARTICLE IS BASED ON THE PUBLICATION BELOW:
Oberwegner, N., Cantner, F., Imschloss, M., & Zürn, M. K. (2025). Unpacking olfactory marketing: initial evidence for the positive effects of scented parcels on post-order consumer responses in e-commerce. Marketing Letters. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-025-09786-2
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jogaile Ruzgaite is a Master’s student in Corporate Communication at the University of Amsterdam, interested in branding, advertising, and marketing, with a focus on evidence-based brand strategy and sensory branding. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Vilnius University’s Institute of International Relations and Political Science (IIRPS). Her Master’s thesis examines how values, beliefs, and personal norms shape stakeholders’ perceptions of organizational legitimacy when CEOs take political stances. She is currently exploring career opportunities in her areas of interest and aims to begin her professional career after graduation.