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Since acquiring the fledgling perfume line Commodity in 2019, Vicken Arslanian has taken a somewhat ad-hoc approach to running the perfume brand. The same goes for the launching of its first store, which opens to the public in New York’s Soho neighborhood on Saturday and attempts to translate Commodity’s digital origins into a brick-and-mortar space. Consumers will decide whether or not that strategy has been successful.
“We’ve never done retail, so it’s a big mystery how many people are going to come in. I’m an optimist, but I know when I don’t know something,” said Arslanian. “Our break-even point is about $600,000. I’m grateful for anything above that.”
As the founder and CEO of fragrance distributor Europerfumes, Arslanian knows how to get perfumes into consumers’ hands, having introduced niche perfume brands like Xerjoff and Matiere Premiere to a U.S. audience. But opening a mono-brand store is a new venture, and one that offers a chance to talk to Commodity’s consumers without any intermediaries. “There’s never been a time that the 360-degree holistic approach to building a brand has been more important,” he said. “It’s the pop-up, it’s the retail store, it’s the online, it’s the wholesale partner — it’s all of it.”
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