Fragrance sales down 10%

Did the article say that was retail store sales? I would guess online sales are down even more.

Remember that old joke: Eats, shoots and leaves.

Food, house payment, Car payment, taxes, gas, water, heating or air conditioning, clothes, kids (School, Food, clothes, Doctor, tuition). I can understand why.....Gary
I forgot insurance.....

Partly a factor of the economy, I am sure. But I also blame the industry themselves. They have over-industrialized an emotion-driven industry, saturating the market with hundreds of very similar celebuscents and shutting out a large portion of the consumer base.

Pleasures did well in the early 90s, and then we had years and years of sharp, "bright" florals. Then, Theirry Mugler went mad and took a different course with Angel, and now the perfume counters are clogged with gourmands. As someone who likes neither fragrance family for my own use, I can attest that there is pretty much nothing in the mainstream market that contains neither sharp florals nor vanilla and chocolate. Basenoters like me care enough to special order niche frags and bid on bottles of antique perfume on ebay, but the average person probably just skips buying perfume altogether.

Curiously enough, we are starting to see laundry products marketed as perfumes once were. People still want to experience the sensuality of scent. The fragrance industry is letting them down. If there were a wide range of fine perfumes that were readily available, do you really think we'd be seeing ads like the one I saw in Real Simple this month? It shows a man sensuously sniffing a woman's dress, and the ad copy suggests using a fabric softener in order to seduce your man. You know, kind of like perfume used to do?

Gadzooks, I saw this too? WTF? Too unsophisticated to wear perfume, so you scent your laundry?? LOL! Gimme a break! This reminds me of the names of a line of men's haricare and grooming products. Skip the perfume and simply buy the hair dressing or laundry softener...

I'm surprised it's not more than 10%. My guess is that people are still buying fragrances as gifts, because they can be purchased cheaply as compared to other possibilities. I do mostly swapping these days, so I guess I'm mostly helping the shippers! LOL.

Apparently a good chunk of consumers have chosen to simply NOT buy cosmetics, perfume included. I posted about it here: http://community.basenotes.net/showthread.php?t=239638 where there is a discussion about recession sales.

Maybe the Big Perfume manufactures' drive to crush open online decant sales doesen't appear to be such a smart move to them at this point, as successful sellers always needed to re-supply and that re-supply positively affected the sales chain right through the Manufactures doors. Tsk tsk..

There's just way too many perfumes.

I remember reading a business study case how a company increased its product sales rose up simply by reducing 26 variants of the same product into only 15, and they changed nothing else.

Perhaps perfume companies should consider that finding.

Two many perfumes, not enough scents. The market is choked with 8000 flankers and they all smell exactly the same. They need to thin the herd and rediscover variety.

In other words, "Perfume, Perfume Everywhere, and not a drop worth smelling."

Agreed. Plus, you quoted Coleridge.

In a similar vein, Voltaire once said something to the effect, "If only useful information are found in books, our libraries would be far smaller, but our knowledge would be far greater!"

I agree--how can perfumers come up with truly original new ideas, which take years to develop, when they release about 15 new scents a year? Even Guerlain has been falling prey to this.

I'm just surprised there are still so many thumbs-up, in the reviews section...

I haven't bought any perfume for around three months now and
that's unusual for me! I think a lot of people are tightening their belts
and using up what they have.

I couldn't agree with you more. It's a real mystery why I search for substantial frags made with some creativity. The only ones that seem to meet this criteria are some of the old classics and some of the niche releases.

Way too many imposters out there.

You got it Mo ! When there are 600 new perfume releases ( celebs - you know you are adding to this number to line your pockets ! ) a year of mostly junk ....this is what happens. Add the recession and you wind up with what is happening right now. I read an article on another thread about how 20 years ago there were only 50 releases a year.
Hopefully, this 600 new releases trend will pass when noone continues to buy.... and soon !

And even if you wanted to buy, it's so exhausting wading through all of the releases that you might give up before you find one you actually like. I don't have this problem...just saying.

I used to always find something new worth sniffing at a Sephora, but now when I stop by one, I just make a beeline to the Chanel No 5 EdT or Eau Sauvage, refresh my batteries and leave. Sniffs, sprays and leaves.
With so many half-baked ideas, I often wonder if the fragrance industry isn't run with the same mindset that got the auto industry into the jam it's in.

I agree with you on this point Aromi and like Ruggles, I sniff, spray and leave too.
I am also totally overwhelmed by all the new scents out there.

I got to thinking..10% (for the year?)? In this ecomomy that has to be considered having a very, very successful year!

I have to agree. They were selling tons and tons for a long time, a small drop won't hurt anyone. It's not healthy for the economy to have exponential growth from year to year.

Even if Sephora and the average Department Store rarely has anything that piques my interest, someone is buying all that cr@p. They wouldn't stock their shelves with stuff that doesn't sell.

All the new smells-the-same-stuff is overwhelming though. We are a different bunch here at BN- not the mainstream market at all! I really don't go into Sephora for perfume. That would be like going into a 7-11 for some nice French Brie

So true 3xasif !

Yes, I doubt 10 % hurts the fragrance industry much ..a tiny dent perhaps !
There are people buying the cr*p out there- sad don't you think ?

Same for me too re: Sephora. I remember when Sephora first opened here in Toronto four years ago, you used to be able to find the likes of Joy, the classic Guerlains, and other upper-end designer labels that were familliar, but weren't necessarily being sold at department stores anymore. They also (at the time) carried more labels that were once fairly hard to come by in Canada: an extensive range of Demeter, Laurence Dumont, La Maison de la Vanille etc. At one point they also had quite a few of the Lutens export range. Now I only go to for two reasons: if I have to buy a gift for a non-perfume person or to test new releases that are somewhat of interest to me since the SAs tend not to bother people too much.

Otherwise I feel like they're not targeting (nor do they care to) customers like me anymore. Same for department stores (except Holt Renfrew). I've also noticed that the age demographic browsing the fragrance section tend to be mostly teenagers or people in their early '20s. A lot of the new releases are aimed at them anyway, so while sales might appear to be down, it wouldn't surprise me if the majority of the sales come from that age group.

Today I read that Parlux Fragrances Inc (Paris Hilton, Guess, Jessica Simpson, Queen Latifah among others...) posted unaudited net sales for the quarter ending Sept 30, 2009 estimated to be $56.5 million, an 8% increase over $52.4 million for the same period the prior year. Net sales for the 6 months ended Sept 30 2009 were around $80.1 million, up around 6% from the same period the previous year.

Gidauvan sales continue to improve with positive growth for the last 2 quarters.

Firmenich posted a decline of 4.3% for the period ending June 30, 2009, with sales of "only" $2, 643 million.