Ecommerce moments of the week: digital love, perfume brainwaves, and Gen Z-commerce done right

a couple on a date

And just like that, we’re back. With a waft of perfume, a chic Scandi outfit and a few candid questions, our Ecommerce moments of the week series has returned. Prepare to be inspired… 

The headset that predicts which scent you’ll like best 

Perfume connoisseurs the world over have long faced their own unique challenge – how do you evoke scent in advertising? Indeed, the perfume industry has given us some of the most cinematic and intimate visual ads – but at the end of the day, you can’t smell a billboard. 

So, what if your emotions could do all of the work for you? In a brave new move into the phygital world, luxury giant YSL has partnered with Emotiv – a neuroscience company that specializes in brain data recording. Visitors to YSL’s perfume stores will be able to don a headset that helps to pair their emotional responses with a corresponding scent. 

Noses can get overwhelmed at the perfume counter, with so many scents to encounter one after the other. When this happens, the Emotiv headset is designed to step in. By monitoring EEG (for any fellow non-neuroscientists out there, this basically means your brainwaves), the headset offers real-time insights into how customers really feel about certain scents at a neurological level. 

Gen Zs love in-person experiences enhanced with digital trimmings – so when this tech launches in late 2022, it will surely be one for them.

The Gen Z-owned fashion brand leveraging TikTok to go global

The influencer-to-brand-owner pipeline is nothing new. But Gen Z influencers are doing it differently. Take 19-year-old Matilda Djerf, for example. The Swedish fashion influencer launched her brand in 2019, and since then has taken Scandi minimalism to international levels. 


Djerf Avenue is Gen Z-owned – so it will come as no surprise that Gen Z values run through the brand like a golden thread. You’ll find that prices are higher to cover sustainable and ethical production – and often, products are dropped on a limited-release basis to reduce waste. And to top it all off? Matilda has specifically credited TikTok with Djerf Avenue’s success among young consumers. 

The couples’ app prompting candid relationship conversations 

Most older Gen Zs wouldn’t think twice about integrating apps into their dating lives. Our research shows that 49% of older Gen Zs have signed up for a dating app, and 53% have used social media to organize a date or hookup. 

Enter Paired. Unlike your standard swipe-left-or-right format, this is app isn’t strictly for meeting a partner. The clue is in the name – Paired is a couples’ app, prompting users to “improve their communication, stay connected, and deepen intimacy.”

As we know, Gen Zs love gamification. Paired definitely taps into this, dropping one question per day for couples to answer separately, then sharing key insights about how they answer. But Paired is more than just a lighthearted quiz, giving subscribers a whole bank of expert perspectives on relationships and dating. As a subscription app, it’s an ecommerce moment for sure – but we believe apps like Paired will be a strong feature in the future of Gen Z dating. 

The future of ecommerce is coming – don’t sleep on it. Read our top four predictions for the rest of 2022 and beyond. 

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