s caught the attention of the world’s luxury industry, firmly establishing itself as the country’s most successful fragrance brand with its distinctive scents and 13 stunning stores in Shanghai. As such, it commands premium retail prices – nudging 1000RMB ($140) per 30ml bottle – and has drawn investment from French giant L’Oreal’s venture capital fund, Chinese online luxury accelerator Ushopal, and spirits giant and Chivas Regal parent Pernod Ricard. On the sidelines of the biennial Notes fragrance exhibition in Shanghai in September, Zhaoran shared his inspiration and background on Documents’ success with Inside Retail during an exclusive interview. By his own admission, Zhaoran is not a perfumer – nor a businessman, for that matter. He is an accomplished designer who studied arts in France 15 years ago before taking a job with a public relations consultancy in China’s capital, Beijing, where he worked on the account of Procter & Gamble, an FMCG company with a raft of hair and skincare products. Armed with fresh knowledge of the beauty industry, he quit the role in 2014 and created his first business, a tiny design agency that created floral designs for corporate clients, specialising in events and gifts. Before long, the agency evolved into a broader boutique design house, expanding into packaging and even branding. And here is where Zhaoran’s distinction is grounded. In 2018, one of his agency’s clients was the Korean sunglasses brand Gentle Monster. The brand commands premium prices for its designer eyepieces and is renowned for its stores, most of which resemble contemporary art galleries more than retail spaces. Gentle Monster commissioned Zhaoran’s agency to collaborate on a dessert brand called Nudake, for a chain of premium cafes now spanning Beijing, Shanghai, and Seoul. “From then, I learned about offline businesses and how to [create] a business from design. Around 2019, my design team and I started to look around to see if there were any opportunities to create our own consumer brand,” he said.  “Scents were at the top of my mind because for four years, every morning, I used to get up very early to go to the flower market. Scent is very personal to me, and I really want to transform the scent, the fragrance, into a good product.” E-commerce was booming in China at the time, and the team experimented with several small brands at lower price points that were aimed at consumers surfing sites like Taobao. The experiment failed because the agency found it hard to create products that used high-quality ingredients at affordable price points. “Our design ability could not transform into good performance,” he said. After the successful collaboration with Gentle Monster, Zhaoran recognised his skill in creating quality, premium products for offline channels. So, in late 2020, the Documents concept was born, and eight months later, the first store opened in Shanghai. “We need people to experience not just the image, not just the video, not just digital. We need them to step in our store, touch, feel, and hear – all the things the senses do,” he said. Documents now has 29 SKUs, all but two fine fragrances; the two cheaper products target the online channel with Ushopal. The name Documents reflects the team’s process for creating fragrances, tapping into many influences and transforming them into the fragrance. “From the designers’ perspective, it’s like collecting and documenting a story,” Zhaoran said. “We think fragrance and smell is one of the most magical, special memories for humans.” Expanding abroad Having established a solid reputation in Mainland China, the brand has just begun to explore expansion abroad. Europe – “the biggest window to the world” in fine fragrance – tops the list. “The Middle East [is in the plan] – because Documents has some Middle Eastern clients in China…and we think our position and our style may match the Middle Eastern market,” Zhaoran said. After that, North America, although the distribution channel system there is quite different, so Documents will look for an established channel partner such as Sephora. The founder is also open to Asian markets, including Japan, Korea and Thailand. “Each market is quite different, so we are still learning. We have a designer background, not an operational background. So we need to collaborate with local distributors or partners,” he said. When asked if there have been any standout surprises in Documents’ journey, Zhaoran barely paused before replying: “Investors.” “We are designers. We’re not economics people or investors. They came to us. It’s not like we were searching in the market. So we are lucky and very thankful for the support, and obviously the choice of our investors.” One of those investors, L’Oréal’s venture capital fund, will likely be an invaluable resource in Zhaoran’s overseas expansion ambitions. Documents was the fund’s first Chinese investment and remains a minor shareholder. “They don’t push us; they don’t lead us. They give us information or data, and when we need something, we ask. We want to leverage L’Oréal’s networking friends, especially in Paris. But the investment team is different from the operational team,” he said. Ushopal’s investment will also bring additional on-tap expertise when Documents needs it. When the investment was announced, Zhaoran said he hoped to leverage Ushopal’s professional knowledge and leading position to strengthen Documents’ creative advantages in aesthetics. “We aim to gain more benefits in global channels, business operations, and supply-chain management, working towards enhancing competitiveness and evolving into a more visionary international brand,” he said. Broadly speaking, all of the unexpected investors have proven an invaluable asset without any attached price tag of operational control. “We are still a commercial brand, and we are still a business,” he said. “Our team’s goal was not only to produce or create something. Creation also means business. Having four investors, each with their own experience, point of view, and insights to share, helps us polish our strategy and avoid [running into] something we did not see. That’s good for us. It means a balance of branding and business.” With 13 stores in three years and a brand already recognised globally, Documents’ success has been rapid by any definition. But Zhaoran is remarkably modest.  “Inside our team, we don’t see [we are] successful because in the Chinese market – especially for entrepreneurship for the last 10 years – investors always look at the scale or the speed of the growth. So, in that case, Documents…is not a big consumer brand in China. But we have achieved something very difficult,” he noted. “Our pricing is the highest in the beauty industry for a Chinese brand. And that changes the vision of [investors] and consumers.” Zhaoran credits this achievement to the Chinese market, which is now developing and mature enough to accept a brand like Documents. This is helped by placing Documents’ stores in mature, premium shopping centres or department stores, which have “very sophisticated, sustainable, long-lasting customers”. He said consumers are ready to accept a brand like Documents, which has been creative enough to be compared to Western brands. “Our team and I, as designers, always want to express ourselves. That’s why we create fragrances as seasons. Each season has concepts, our own inspiration, our own view, and our observation of society nowadays. That is the core of this brand, and this is [how] we gather our customers and our investors,” he said. Zhaoran verified that the most significant inspiration or vision for Documents is rooted in his experience with Gentle Monster. “Their [business] model is quite pricey, very focused on offline experiences and targeting the young generation through social media. So when we saw that a very young Asian brand could work like this, we saw opportunity and possibility.” Western perfume brands like Jo Malone London and Diptyque came to China a decade ago and now have around 100 stores. Zhaoran saw they were successful, looked at how they moved into the market and positioned themselves and where they located their stores, and watched the consumer trends evolve. “So, before Documents, we had many examples, and we tried to follow the right examples, and we tried to be as different as possible to perform as a Chinese or Asian brand,” Zhaoran said. Recognising that China’s consumer market was booming in 2021, Documents toyed with expanding its brand into other categories, such as jewellery and fashion. Reading the economic environment, however, Zhaoran said the company is now focused purely on perfume and beauty. “I can see maybe in the future – in three to five years – we will still focus on fragrance and some relative categories, like home fragrance or body care, that’s all.” Aside from Documents’ distinctive fragrances, the brand has drawn attention worldwide for its extraordinary store designs. Bold colours – scarlet red, pea green and a powerful black-and-white are among the most documented exterior facades – and edgy, minimalist interior designs with matching colour palettes. Unlike Zhaoran’s muse, Gentle Monster – which actively sets out to differentiate its flagships with unique, often space-age or industrialist themes – Documents’ store network has been built on a more fundamental design rationale. “The initial purpose was not to make each store unique or different,” Zhaoran explained. “Each time we design a store, we look at the location and the neighbours. The first goal is to differentiate from them. So if the neighbour is black, we go white. That’s the best way to catch the attention of consumers. The second aspect is that because all the design and visual content is created in-house, we have a team that can work on product, packaging, photoshoots, and interior space. That means whether we design 13 different stores or use the same style in each one, it’s the same cost for us.” Zhaoran conceded there is no five- or 10-year plan for Documents’ future. “I am a multiple entrepreneur but the Chinese market is still changing,” he said. “It is different now to 10, 20 or 30 years ago. There is no model to look at, so our plan is only three years at the longest. We are more focused on this year and next, but we are very good at adapting to market trends. We can change fast. “Maybe that’s a young Chinese company’s advantage, and as designers, we are very sensitive. We can feel the vibe. We can feel how it changes and how we can change inside. We still believe there’s a big opportunity to become a very memorable, decent perfume brand in the world one day. That’s our goal, our vision. “Our mission is to create memorable scents. Behind that, our biggest weapon is Chinese culture and Chinese philosophy. “We want to add something different, something young and active, because I’m native Chinese, born and raised in China, but I studied in France. I saw the magical part, the interesting part of China – the history, the ancient culture – but I saw that it was not enough to talk to the young generation in the world. So I wanted to add [elements of] spicy, bold design and fashion. That is the packaging of the philosophy outside: we always like to create contrast and balance.” Age aside, Zhaoran said, the branding deliberately ‘talks’ to people with creative ideas and perspectives, like designers, artists, and even industry insiders. Further reading: How fragrance king Vicken Arslanian revitalized the Commodity brand.