It was late 2020, and Fay and Chris Breedlove, like most of world, were stuck inside.
In the height of the pandemic, this couple had barely been able to leave their Southern California home, never less the country, for months.
And this was a problem. Travel was what they loved to do the most. It was, as the French might put it, their raison d’etre. Globe-trotting to places like Paris, Buenos Aires, Kyoto, gave them the best thrills of their lives. They had fallen deeply in love with each other over their shared passion for travel while they were law students at Howard University. During lockdown, they reminisced of better times spent exploring the world.
“It was a way of escape. We would try wines from new regions, cook dishes native to other countries, and find ways to still have adventure despite the fact we couldn’t go anywhere.”
Fay kept going back to memories in one place in particular, Singapore. They had gone there for their honeymoon, and what stood out the most to Fay about Singapore were its fragrances.
“Whenever you fly into Singapore’s Changi airport, you exit the airplane, and you’re just surrounded with beautiful botanical fragrances that are diffused throughout the airport,” says Fay.
She wanted to get her hands on a candle, sold by the airport, that was inspired by the scents of Singapore. But due to pandemic restrictions, she couldn’t get it shipped to their house.
“Fay was so disappointed, so I asked her: If you want to relive Singapore, why don’t you create your own fragrance taken from your experience?” says Chris.
For their first anniversary, Chris gifted Fay a perfume-making course. The couple curated and experimented with fragrance oils for years prior to making their first candle. Each day, the aromas of white tea, bergamot, green fig, sweet agave, cedarwood, and more filled their home as they dove deep into the world of premium scents.
“After a few months of testing fragrances that reminded us of Singapore, we eventually started testing fragrances that reminded us of other places like Bali and Tokyo.”
Turning a passion for travel into a luxury fragrance brand
Within a year, Fay and Chris had a collection of candles drawn from places that they loved around the world from Cape Town to Honolulu. Each candle was named after the airport code of the city they were inspired by. It was essential to them to create experiences around their fragrances. They paired the NRT (Tokyo) candle with A5 wagyu and Japanese whiskey. They paired the CDG (Paris) candle with sparkling wine and macarons. Fay and Chris wanted their candles to be the perfect backdrop for indulgences.
It was time to turn their passion into a brand. The couple named the brand Terminal B, which had two meanings for them. It pays homage to the name of the international terminal at their home airport, Los Angeles International Airport. The letter B also stands for their last name, Breedlove.
The mission of Terminal B was simple.
“Terminal B seeks to be an olfactory gateway to the most beautiful destinations around the world. We use the power of luxury fragrances to transport you to these places,” says Fay.
After testing their candle collection among family and friends, they soon launched their first in-person pop-up shop. The brand sold out within a few hours. Fay and Chris knew they had created something that connected with people.
It was important to them early on that they keep the brand independent--even if it meant a tougher entrepreneurial path. Authenticity and quality were tenets of their brand, and to maintain this, they had to keep creative control.
” We do everything in-house. We create each candle by hand. We don’t allow any fragrance houses or big box retailers to exert creative control over our scents or branding. That gives us autonomy over our art.”
This strategy resonated with the fragrance industry and with shoppers, and Terminal B began to see major wins in rapid succession. The brand was awarded Best New Product in the Beauty and Wellness Category at the NY Now trade show. They secured partnerships and are carried at luxury hotel brands like the Andaz and Thompson Hotels. And then coverage in outlets like Elle, Essence, and Forbes. But their most exciting victory? They collaborated with Hollywood producer, writer, and director Issa Rae to create a custom scent for the launch of her new prosecco.
“We didn’t follow the traditional formula for success. We’ve just stayed very focused on who we are and honing our craft. And that has worked for us.”
Scaling their business with the benefits of Prime shipping
Now that the brand was scaling faster than they anticipated, they needed the ecommerce logistics to match. In addition to crafting all their candles by hand, they also would pack and ship each customer order placed on their ecommerce site, TerminalBStore.com.
They needed a more robust fulfillment method that would free up their time to focus on other aspects of their brand. Though they were already selling on Amazon.com, they wanted to optimize the shopper experience on their ecommerce site. That’s when the couple learned about Buy with Prime.
Fay and Chris added Buy with Prime to some of their top-selling SKUs, and created a Buy with Prime collection page. It was an easy decision to make.
“Since we already had products in Fulfillment by Amazon, adding Buy with Prime to our ecommerce site and offering Prime member benefits on that channel just made sense,” says Chris.
“We are a small team of two and getting that support from Buy with Prime on our ecommerce site alleviates the stress of shipping those orders ourselves. And we’ve always been quick with shipping, but we can’t compete with Amazon in terms of delivery speed.”
Fay and Chris have seen that Prime members who choose Buy with Prime at checkout get their orders at their doorstep much sooner, within 1-3 days. Without Buy with Prime, it could typically take up to three days for the order to ship.
“We just had to add a button to our website and now we have Prime members checking out on our site? Prime members we can now directly retarget via email? It was a no-brainer for us,” says Fay.
Now that Terminal B is steadily growing, Fay and Chris are thrilled for what’s next. They’re busy in their studio, crafting new fragrances to add to their collection and brokering more partnerships that will aid their brand awareness. They say their biggest blessing isn’t the celebrity co-signs or media accolades, but being able to spend their days together. Says Chris of combining love and entrepreneurship:
“Fay is my best friend and my business partner. I can’t imagine doing life any other way.”
Terminal B is available for fast, free delivery for Prime members who choose Buy with Prime at checkout. Discover other featured brands offering Buy with Prime.