The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2020–2023
Scentooze raised three rounds to build a Chinese perfume brand — then went quiet
Social media stopped updating in mid-2022. The Xiaohongshu store closed in September 2023. The Tmall shop simply became unsearchable.
Scentooze · 2023-09-28
What happened
Scentooze (三兔) was a Chinese domestic fragrance brand that positioned itself in the high cost-performance segment of the growing Chinese perfume market. The brand completed three rounds of financing and was described in industry coverage as a former 'dark horse' of the domestic perfume sector.
The brand's decline was gradual rather than sudden. Its official Weibo and Xiaohongshu accounts stopped updating from mid-2022. In late August 2023, the Xiaohongshu flagship store published a closure notice citing 'company business strategy adjustment'. The store was set to close on 28 September 2023. The Tmall flagship store became unsearchable.
The closure came amid a broader shakeout in China's domestic fragrance market. Many brands founded after 2020 had grown quickly using capital, social media and concepts like 'Eastern aesthetics', but lacked offline presence and product differentiation. When capital withdrew, the brands that survived were those with recognisable products and brand stories — not those with the best-funded Xiaohongshu campaigns.
Why it happened
- The brand relied on online channels and social media marketing without building the offline scent-evaluation experience that fragrance purchases require
- Three rounds of financing created a burn rate that required continuous growth, but the domestic mid-range fragrance segment was homogenising around similar 'Chinese-style' scent profiles
- The brand's social media went silent a full year before the store closure, suggesting the operational shutdown preceded the formal announcement by many months
- International fragrance brands at the high end had stronger brand recognition and 'social currency' value, while domestic brands at the low end competed on price alone
The lesson
A fragrance brand sells an experience that cannot be sampled through a screen — funding buys reach but not the sensory relationship that makes a customer come back.
Aftermath
Scentooze's corporate registration showed a structural change in May 2023, months before the public store closure. The brand was cited in Jiemian and other Chinese business media as an example of the broader shakeout among domestic fragrance brands that had grown on capital and social media but lacked the product distinctiveness to survive when the funding stopped.
Sources
- Jiemian: Chinese fragrance brand closures and the domestic perfume shakeout
- QQ News: Scentooze store closure and brand decline
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