Eric Korman fell into the fragrance business by accident. Before he became head of digital marketing and e-commerce for Ralph Lauren in 2010, the last time he put on cologne “was probably to my seventh-grade dance,” he says with a laugh. But he began wearing the fashion house’s signature scents to the office.
At the same time, Korman began looking into why Ralph Lauren’s fragrances weren’t selling as well as he thought they could at a time when such digital retail brands as Warby Parker and Bonobos Inc. were launching increasingly successful e-commerce operations.
After stocking up on bottles from niche brands
