I wrote this as a piece of advice for those who are starting out in their fragrance journey, but I was also surprised how many people who are years into their fragrance journey do not know this.
When people think of a website to buy fragrances online which often results in fakes being disseminated, most people think of Ebay. Ebay does have a lot of fakes, but it is safe because it has a feedback system to discourage fraud and counterfeiting. If you deal with sellers who have sold over 1000 items and have 99.5%+ feedback, you are less likely to receive a counterfeit, but there is always that risk.
The only worse well-known website for buying fragrance than Ebay is Amazon.
Amazon is probably the most well-reputed online website. Probably the most successful and recognizable. So, why is that? For that very reason. The same people who don't trust Ebay because there is a margin of risk, are often too willing to put their trust into Amazon as an infallibly legitimate website.
The problem with Amazon is that a lot of their fragrances, they don't sell directly. They import their fragrances from other websites most of the time. Some of those websites are legitimate, but others sell counterfeits. The way Amazon works is that it highlights the cheapest website you can get an item from, assuming that all of the websites are equal in reliability in quality.
The problem is that Amazon doesn't specialize in any field, so they do not have the logistics to effectively determine which websites are legitimate and which aren't. They aren't selling you the counterfeits, but they are middlemen for websites that do. This applies just as much (if not more) to watches and purses sold on there as well.
When people think of a website to buy fragrances online which often results in fakes being disseminated, most people think of Ebay. Ebay does have a lot of fakes, but it is safe because it has a feedback system to discourage fraud and counterfeiting. If you deal with sellers who have sold over 1000 items and have 99.5%+ feedback, you are less likely to receive a counterfeit, but there is always that risk.
The only worse well-known website for buying fragrance than Ebay is Amazon.
Amazon is probably the most well-reputed online website. Probably the most successful and recognizable. So, why is that? For that very reason. The same people who don't trust Ebay because there is a margin of risk, are often too willing to put their trust into Amazon as an infallibly legitimate website.
The problem with Amazon is that a lot of their fragrances, they don't sell directly. They import their fragrances from other websites most of the time. Some of those websites are legitimate, but others sell counterfeits. The way Amazon works is that it highlights the cheapest website you can get an item from, assuming that all of the websites are equal in reliability in quality.
The problem is that Amazon doesn't specialize in any field, so they do not have the logistics to effectively determine which websites are legitimate and which aren't. They aren't selling you the counterfeits, but they are middlemen for websites that do. This applies just as much (if not more) to watches and purses sold on there as well.
