Dive Brief:
- While most fragrance shopping continues to happen in stores, online sales of prestige fragrance brands were nearly double the rate of in-store sales in early Q4 through Dec. 2, according to Circana analysis shared with Retail Dive. The shift in channels from in-store to online was even greater during the Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday weeks, according to the report.
- Continuing the category’s growth from last year, fragrance sales rose 12% year over year from the beginning of the fourth quarter until Dec. 2, according to Circana.
- During the early portion of the holiday shopping season, scent sets garnered approximately one-third of fragrance sales.
Dive Insight:
Last year, the three weeks leading up to Christmas accounted for nearly half of fourth-quarter fragrance sales. Jacquelyn Wenskus, beauty industry analyst at Circana, said that the firm expects that fragrance will outperform itself this quarter.
”Despite a lackluster early holiday season performance across most discretionary retail categories this year, fragrance — and the prestige beauty market in its entirety — has prospered,” Wenskus wrote.
Other research suggested that consumers sought high-end fragrances last holiday season. An NPD report released in December 2022 found that fragrance sales saw a 4% bump between Oct. 2 and Dec. 3 compared to 2021. Seventy-percent of fragrance sales took place in physical stores during that time period last year, up slightly from the year prior, according to the NPD report.
The shopping experience for buying fragrance in-store has changed at some retailers this year. In May, Ulta Beauty COO Kecia Steelman said the beauty retail chain will store fragrances in locked cabinets at 70% of its locations by the end of this year. Ulta CEO Dave Kimbell also said at that time that the retailer planned to hire security guards and more staff to secure its merchandise, a move it made after reporting a 12.3% increase in Q1 sales.
