How Otherland beat the odds to sell scent online

Entrepreneurs are no strangers to skepticism. Haven’t all the greats been told their idea had insurmountable barriers? For Abigail Cook Stone, whose digitally-native candle brand Otherland is scattered across gifting guides in Vogue and Cosmopolitan—and who herself can be spotted sharing her skin care routine in Glamour Magazine—the biggest roadblock wasn’t the product, but the channel: How do you sell scent, the strongest trigger of memory and emotion, through the internet? How do you get a customer over the hurdle of buying before smelling?

“So many people told us scent is the No. 1 driving factor for purchasing [candles],” Stone said. “People smell the candle in the store…you have that emotional response, and you’re gonna buy it. How on Earth are you going to get over this?”

Stone, an art history and architecture grad who worked as an art buyer for Ralph Lauren, decided selling scent online was about…well, art. And storytelling. And, perhaps surprisingly, it involves a physical gathering space.

Digital scent sales are personal

Breaking into the candle market is no small feat. It’s an industry projected to be worth nearly $17 billion by 2031, with more than 2,300 manufacturers in the US alone. That’s including Yankee Candle maker Newell Brands, which accounts for 43.1% of candle industry revenue, with over 600 fragrances.

It’s in that landscape that Stone started Otherland in 2018, with unusual scents like Canopy (California fig, ivy greens, and summer dew) and Chandelier (champagne, saffron, and leather).

• Otherland’s differentiator is being visually stimulating and creating stories around scents that it hopes evoke a memory or an emotion in a buyer—like Tomato Terrazo, which smells like “heirloom tomato, celery salt, [and] leafy vines”—rather than a single scent, like grapefruit or rose, Stone said.
• To make such unusual scents, Stone works with perfume houses like Geneva-based Givaudan, one of the world’s largest fragrance and flavor companies, and Firmineche, the house behind the olfactory element of the London Design Museum’s multisensory exhibition “Moving to Mars,” which closed in 2020.

State of the art: Otherland’s various collections feature art in distinct color palettes and styles, from abstract florals in the Manor House Weekend collection, to geometric fruit labels in the Beach Club collection.

Each collection features the work of a different visual creator: There’s Paris-based digital collage artist Arya Haliba, whose designs for Otherland’s Adorned collection are jewel-colored and kaleidoscopic. Then there’s New York-based illustrator Amber Vittoria, whose rainbow gradients can be found everywhere from Coach’s Re-Loved collection to Caraway’s limited edition cookware sets, and Happy Menocal, whose detailed, symmetrical illustrations can be found in Otherland’s fall Homestead collection.

These artists design for more than just the candle label—the lid, matchbox, and packaging are all considered art-worthy surfaces that play a role in catching the consumer eye, Stone said.

Friends and admirers: “We got our start, really, on Instagram,” Stone explained. Otherland’s unique art and rich scent descriptions made the brand ripe for the app’s visual-centric feed.

The advent of stories, polls, and other engagement features helped Otherland to connect directly with customers. Today, if you send Otherland a DM on Instagram, it’s always the in-house team responding, and there’s a good chance it’s Stone herself.

“Having a strong feedback loop with your customers is really critical, and I think [it’s the] basis of community formation,” Stone said.

• Otherland’s First Flames, a community of around 100 of its most engaged customers, started out on Instagram’s “close friends” feature.
• Today, First Flames has evolved into a Slack channel, where the brand tests ideas and gets feedback from members. The move to Slack is allowing consumers to connect around common interests or locations, Stone said. “It’s been interesting to see that evolve beyond just one-way, brand-customer relationships.”
• And of course, like any internet-savvy brand, Otherland is exploring TikTok, through candle care tips and tutorials, like this one about how to repurpose a candle jar using hot water, which has over 183k views.

Host with the most: When Stone opened Otherland’s first brick-and-mortar location in Manhattan this summer, community was top of mind.

With the store’s design, Stone wanted to recreate the emotional connection she hoped that colors, textures, and patterns created for online shoppers.

Stepping into the Otherland store isn’t like walking through the stately shelves of Sephora or Nordstrom (which both sell Otherland candles.) It’s more like stepping into the pastel and cotton candy-fueled board game Candy Land, or into Otherland’s own Instagram feed. In other words, it’s really, really colorful.

But giving Otherland physical doors wasn’t only about maximalist design, merch, and photo-worthy corners (though the shop has all of those things,) it was also about Stone’s passion for hosting, and the chance to offer fans an in-person experience with the brand.

“We have weekly events to meet our community where we’re sort of creating this welcoming environment and immersive experience for a network of customers, creators, editors, and other brand communities as well,” Stone explained.

“It’s kind of a clubhouse approach to a retail store, and that I think is really important in strengthening your brand’'s community,” Stone said. “It’s everything to us.”