For Chris and Fay Breedlove, travel has a scent. Singapore smells like white tea and botanicals; Kyoto like Japanese cypress and washi paper; Bali like incense and rose petals. Los Angeles, their home, smells like sunsets, cedar, and leather.
“I think every city has a fragrance, but also a unique story that is told through fragrance,” said Fay, the creative director of TERMINAL B, a travel-inspired fragrance brand she started with her husband.
Travel is a passion the Breedloves have long shared, and the memories and smells of past trips have inspired their products, which are handmade in Los Angeles and use airport codes to distinguish between scents. The LAX candle, for example, features scents of bergamot, jasmine, dried tobacco, and smoked leather, while CDG, their Parisian-inspired candle, smells of florals and musk.
During the pandemic, their inability to travel led the couple to create sensory dates to evoke their earlier globetrotting days. Fay, who made fragrances as a hobby and learned to put them into candle form, would recreate a scent inspired by a city they’d visited, which they’d pair with food and cocktails from the region. In 2021, those early experiments evolved into TERMINAL B. Six months later, they opened their Amazon storefront.
As graduates of Howard University School of Law, the Breedloves said Amazon Brand Registry, a free feature that protects companies’ intellectual property and guards against counterfeit listings, was a major draw for them.
“Brand Registry has been absolutely integral to our Amazon success,” said Fay. “It gave us the confidence from the start to protect our brand as we scale and prevent copycats from infringing on our sales.”
For Chris, who handles operations, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) has been a key driver of growth. By taking over duties like fulfillment, shipping, and customer returns, Chris said he and Fay have been able to invest more time networking and building important relationships to scale their business.
“Amazon fulfilling our orders, even when we’re on the road or taking meetings, takes a lot of pressure off of us,” said Chris. “Fulfillment by Amazon allows us to fill orders at a much higher scale and much cheaper than if we were doing it on our own.”
A unique challenge for TERMINAL B is conveying the scent of each candle in an online space. The Breedloves were able to mitigate this obstacle with Amazon A+ Content—a tool that helps brands boost their product listings with videos, enhanced images and other interactive elements.
“A+ Content really allows us to translate the ethos of TERMINAL B—what our products look like, what they feel like, what they smell like,” said Fay. “We have a very specific aesthetic, and A+ Content helps us capture it beautifully.”
As the Breedloves continue to grow TERMINAL, they plan to use Amazon’s AI tools to fine-tune ads and their A+ Content listings.
“As Amazon continues innovating with AI, we’re eager to explore how its tools can help us fine-tune our ads and content listings,” said Chris.
The Breedloves are also excited to build upon current partnerships that align with their travel-loving ethos. Currently, TERMINAL B candles are sold in gift shops and spas at luxury hotels worldwide, and are frequently chosen by hoteliers as VIP gifts for high-value clients.
Chris credits the steady rise in their Amazon sales, which have grown 50% year-over-year, with broadening their B2B partnerships
“Having a product that’s been vetted and is ranking well on Amazon makes it easier to sell to different clients and B2B partners,” he noted.
The Breedloves plan for TERMINAL B to one day become a globally recognized brand, a goal that Amazon is helping them to achieve.
“Amazon can open us up to a bigger global audience and make fulfillment overseas easier,” said Fay. “The luxury fragrance market is very French- or European-focused. Being able to proudly represent as an American brand, and moreover a Los Angeles-based brand on the global stage would be a dream come true.”