metric 01
$420K
MRR across US, UK, EU via Shopify Markets.
§
§ · case study · noble paris
Noble Paris · fragrance to $420K MRR.
An 18-month engagement. We rebuilt acquisition around discovery sets and credit toward the full-size bottle, then took the brand into three markets via Shopify Markets. The result: 42% discovery-to-full-size conversion and a 3x LTV multiple.
Sampling-first acquisition, three markets.
Noble Paris grew to $420K MRR by selling the sample before the bottle. The brand came to us with a beautiful collection, a website that looked like a magazine but did not sell like one, and a founder convinced they needed paid ads. What they needed was a sampling program. Everything was measured on Shopify Plus and Klaviyo across US, UK, and EU markets.
metric 02
+280%
YoY revenue growth since the sampling program launched.
metric 03
42%
Discovery set to full-size purchase within 60-day credit window.
metric 04
3x
LTV multiple: full-size buyer vs direct full-size acquisition.
§ 02 · the challenge
Beautiful website, blind acquisition.
The product was never the problem. Noble Paris had done the hard part: a genuinely accomplished perfumer, a twelve-SKU collection with distinct olfactory stories, and a website designed by someone with an actual eye.
The numbers told a different story. Monthly revenue sat at $110K. Paid social CAC hovered around $140. The repeat rate was 8 percent at month six. Fragrance math does not work at that geometry.
The founder's instinct was to spend more on paid. Our read was the opposite. Fragrance proves the old Paris counter truth: buyers do not trust a scent they have not smelled. Free-shipping thresholds and paid social could not substitute for that. Every tactic layered on top of a missing sampling program would diminish, not compound.
International expansion added pressure. UK and EU demand had shown up organically in analytics. But without localised pricing, VAT handling, or duty-inclusive display, EU cart abandonment ran at 78 percent. Noble Paris was losing buyers before they even saw the shipping step.
Compliance was the third layer. Post-Brexit UK SCPN registration. EU 26-allergen declarations. Hazmat shipping restrictions on alcohol-based fragrance. Each was a small operational task on its own. Together, they had never been built into the catalog data model.
§ 03 · the approach
Rebuild acquisition before spend.
- 01
Discovery set as flagship product (weeks 1-6).
We made the sample the star. A $25 sampler: eight 2ml vials in a letterpressed card box, shipped via USPS First-Class. The homepage shifted so the discovery set became the primary CTA and full-size bottles moved to second position. Conversion on the sampler hit 6.4 percent inside a month.
- 02
Credit-back flow (weeks 4-8).
Every sampler carries credit toward a full bottle. A Klaviyo flow fires on day 14 after the sampler, again on day 30, and once more on day 55 before the credit expires. Every email names the scents in that buyer's own sampler. 42 percent apply the credit against a full-size within 60 days.
- 03
Shopify Markets rollout (months 3-5).
Then we opened three markets: US, UK, EU. VAT-inclusive pricing for the EU. UK SCPN compliance built into the catalog. Hazmat-aware carrier routing for alcohol-based shipments. EU cart abandonment dropped from 78% to 31%.
- 04
Editorial content system (months 4-9).
Content became a system, not a chore. We built perfumer profiles, a scent-family taxonomy, and occasion-based collections as structured entries. Every product page assembles from them. Fragrance-category organic traffic compounded 3.4x over twelve months.
- 05
Paid layer, last (months 6-18).
Paid spend came last, only after the sampling flywheel proved the math. Paid social routed to the discovery set, not to full-size bottles. Blended CAC dropped from $140 to $48. The conversion mechanic was free-smell, not free-ship.
§ 04 · the stack
Six tools, three markets.
01 · platform
Shopify Plus + Markets
US, UK, EU via Shopify Markets. Duty-inclusive EU pricing.
02 · email
Klaviyo
Credit-back flow, per-scent follow-ups, separate account per market.
03 · SMS
Attentive
Sampler dispatch notifications + discovery-to-full-size nudges.
04 · content
Shopify native sections
Perfumer, family, occasion taxonomy assembled into PDP.
05 · reviews
Okendo
Olfactory-family review filtering. Photo reviews of wearing moments.
06 · support
Gorgias
Fragrance-specific macros: scent guidance, hazmat FAQs, allergen disclosures.
§ 05 · the results
Eighteen months, line by line.
| metric | pre-engagement | month 18 | change |
|---|---|---|---|
| MRR (all markets) | $110K | $420K | +280% |
| blended CAC | $140 | $48 | -66% |
| EU cart abandonment | 78% | 31% | -60% |
| repeat rate (month 6) | 8% | 34% | +325% |
| brand search share | 12% | 41% | +242% |
| discovery-set conversion to full-size | n/a | 42% | mechanic built |
Q2 2026 follow-up: the brand now sells in 5 currencies via Shopify Markets (USD, GBP, EUR, CHF, AUD added Feb-Apr 2026). Discovery-set conversion held at 42% across 3 new locales without market-specific copy. The same hreflang stack is documented in our hreflang generator tool.
"Fragrance brands sell the sample first. They built the engine around that truth."
Founder
Noble Paris · luxury fragrance
§ 07 · your brand
Your fragrance brand starts with a call.
You get a 30-minute audit: an honest read on your sampling, international, and compliance readiness. A scoped quote follows within 48 hours.
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