Niche Perfumes

Niche perfumes are handcrafted with high-quality materials and are highly customized, thus indicating a complete break from mainstream perfumes. Niche communication and distribution (in concept stores) reinforce the impression of obtaining a unique product for customers. Finally, niche perfumes respond to the consumers’ quest for authenticity and meaning.

When visiting London, we had a look inside the Selfridges flagship store on Oxford street, and looked around the fragrance section. They had a large selection of perfumes, including many that would be classes as niche. Some of the brands included, Roja Parfums, Montale and Jusbox. Niche fragrances tend to focus more on the originality of the scent, natural ingredients and higher quality “juice” making them last longer. They also typically offer a collection of fragrances, and invest in service rather than marketing. I thought that having these perfumes inside the flagship store was an innovative idea, especially considering where the shop is located, as they will attract a lot of customers with a higher budget.

Personalisation

Personalisation is the next big trend of 2019 amongst the fragrance market. We connect with scent personally at a deep and emotional level, so fragrance is the ultimate choice for personalised solutions. Fragrance is an invisible yet palpable personal expression, many consumers want a scent to be perfect for them, and a personalised fragrance answers this call. Companies such as Nota Nota make it possible for consumers to create their very own scents by using their app in order to fill out a questionnaire and create a unique personalised scent. Layering is also a trend linked to the personalisation trend, where you combine two or more fragrances to create a unique fragrance. Jo Malone has made this trend popular, and other companies such as Vetiver Aromatics offer blending kits where you can also create your own unique scent.

Opportunity to sample and mix

A final major trend in the fragrance industry is the use of multiple perfumes. This case is especially true with millennials who don’t buy a single perfume over the years. Millennials prefer to change fragrances according to the day, season, or mood. The fragrance industry answered this trend by developing sample fragrances with reduced prices. Some perfumers based their business model on this trend. For example, the French perfumer Bon Parfumeur offers customers the opportunity to mix and match different fragrances to obtain a unique fragrance that fits a mood or a desire. There has also been a rise in the number of subscription services available for fragrances. These subscription services allow you to pick a fragrance or two each month and you get a sample of it, large enough to last you the full month. You get a new choice of perfume each month, this allows customers to try out lots of new scents without committing to one. A popular website for this is Scentbird.com.