What would you say if I told you that you can find hundreds of designer perfumes for sale at a fraction of their retail value on Walmart.com?
Would you be suspicious? You should be.
In recent years, Walmart has opened up their online ecommerce network to thousands of third-party retailers around the world, meaning that a majority of the items sold on Walmart.com aren’t actually being sold by Walmart.
And perfumes are no exception.
Unfortunately, because just about anyone can sell and advertise goods on Walmart.com, many fake or degraded designer perfumes are being sold by Walmart at discount prices to unsuspecting customers.
In fact, only about a quarter of the perfumes sold on Walmart.com are actually sold and shipped by Walmart. The rest are sold through third-party Walmart Marketplace sellers.
And according to these Reddit users, this isn’t just a problem for Walmart…
While this doesn’t mean that all perfumes sold by third-party sellers are knockoffs, it’s not the best route to take if you’re trying to buy a high-quality fragrance.
How Walmart Sells Designer Perfumes At Cheaper Prices
There are two reasons why designer perfumes are cheaper at Walmart. The first reason is the one we addressed in the above section–some perfumes for sale on Walmart.com are actually fake.
But that’s not the whole story…
As the largest retailer in the world, Walmart is able to buy up large lots of designer goods at lower prices than smaller retailers. This means that Walmart can then return those savings to the customer, charging lower prices for high-demand items such as designer perfumes.
So, yes… even the real designer perfumes sold at Walmart are generally cheaper.
Some of the high quality perfume brands Walmart sells include…
- Clinique
- Calvin Klein
- Dolce & Gabbana
- Versace
- Juicy Couture
- Ariana Grande
Keep in mind that while not all Ariana Grande perfumes sold on Walmart.com are sold and shipped by Walmart, Walmart sells a wide variety of her perfumes which can be trusted as 100% genuine.
Prices vary by product and season, but it’s not uncommon for Walmart’s designer perfume prices to be as much as 50% lower than the manufacturer price.
Walmart also offers lower prices than other discount retailers. For example, a bottle of Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy is currently for sale on Walmart.com for $45.49, while the Ulta Beauty price for the same product is $63.
How To Identify Real Designer Perfume
The quickest way to identify real versus fake perfume from Walmart is this…
If a perfume is being sold at a brick-and-mortar Walmart store or if it’s marked as “sold and shipped by Walmart” on Walmart.com, then you can rest assured it’s real. However, if it’s being sold by a third-party seller on Walmart.com, then you should steer clear.
While not all third-party perfume retailers on Walmart Marketplace are selling knockoff perfumes, there is no good way to tell before making your purchase.
If you purchase a discounted perfume from Walmart.com and you suspect it might be a fake, there are a few key signs you can look for to tell for sure.
If you can, find a bottle of the same perfume that you know is real to use as a comparison. If you can’t get your hands on a real bottle, try looking up a high-quality image online of the bottle’s packaging and labeling.
Here are some signs of a knockoff designer perfume…
- Obvious or subtle differences in labeling, wording, spelling, or font
- Differences in smell from the authentic product
- The smell dissipates very quickly compared to the authentic product
To learn more, check out this video from Jeremy Fragrance on YouTube on how to tell if a perfume is fake.
