Niche fragrances are growing in popularity with consumers, but how easy is it for retailers to sell them?
Fragrance retail is an environment strewn with problems at the best of times. From space to position on the shop floor, the list is endless. However, the retail of small niche fragrances throws up even greater challenges. Retailers and manufacturers have risen to this challenge by creating some truly innovative point of sale solutions which have not only brought niche fragrances to the forefront but enhanced the overall fragrance offer by providing something for everyone; fragrance retail has become a destination in its own right.
The Roja Dove Haute Parfumerie in Harrods’ Urban Retreat, the brain child of Professeur de Parfums Roja Dove and George Hammer is one such example. Situated on the fifth floor of the famous London luxury department store, customers have the opportunity to browse a carefully selected fragrance offer which includes great classics and more obscure scents rarely found on the commercial shop floor. In addition, customers can book a fragrance consultation with Dove, who will talk them through the fragrances and help them find the right one for them. A personalised fragrance service catering for the very top of the market is also available.
“Choosing a fragrance should be exciting,” says Dove. “We have the opportunity to add something that has been lacking from perfumery and to offer high quality to the discerning consumer.”
The results speak for themselves, with almost a 50% increase in turnover month on month in the last year. “Customers are speaking with their feet,” adds Dove. “We are on the fifth floor so there is no passing footfall. Customers are coming to us because they want to.”
The concept has been so popular that Dove is now taking it nationwide in the UK in a partnership with department store group House of Fraser. The Roja Dove Parfumerie will initially be available in three House of Fraser stores - in Guildford, Edinburgh and Manchester - and will feature a hand picked selection of fine fragrances including Guerlain’s Apres L’Ondee, Le Dix by Balenciaga, Ombre Rose by Jean-Charles Brosseau and Weil’s Antelope. Customers will also be given the chance to use the Roja Dove Fragrance Quest system to help find their perfect perfume and is redeemable against purchase. The consultation programme, which has been created in conjunction with fragrance house Quest, uses a computer database to help narrow down the selection of fragrances to a choice that would be attractive to the consumer and ‘unlock their olfactive palette’.”
“There is an enormous demand for classic high quality premium fragrance and with the business so fractionalised you have to look outside London,” says Dove. “The beauty of the new project is that it augments the existing fragrance offering in House of Fraser stores without any cannibalisation.”
House of Fraser ceo, John Coleman adds: “Fragrances account for 27% of our beauty turnover and fine fragrance makes £670m. Such a bespoke beauty concept can only help add to this.”
Luxury department store Harvey Nichols too has recognised the lucrative potential in providing a retail area dedicated to niche fragrances. It currently offers two separate areas where customers can browse through the selection of niche and premium fragrances on offer. The latest project is Clandestine, a standalone retail area designed to resemble a library. La Forêt de Parfum, meanwhile offers a fragrance selection but also sells furniture and ornate mirrors in a clever cross-merchandising initiative. “We wanted them to be destination areas,” says Tracy van Heusden, perfumery and cosmetics buyer, Harvey Nichols. “The idea is to bring back classics and niche fragrance brands and have them in an environment that reflects the glamour and sophistication they allude. The ambience here is not found in Boots or Superdrug. People can browse through the selection and discover a fragrance - there are no spray girls ready to pounce.”
Attention to detail
Greater emphasis on providing a bespoke service in-store has not gone unnoticed by manufacturers either. French fragrance houses Guerlain and Caron have both revamped their flagship stores to offer a more personalised experience for shoppers.
Guerlain’s La Maison Guerlain on the Champs Elysées in Paris in particular deserves mention. The store is laid out over several floors of opulent décor including a gold room decorated entirely in gold. Each floor displays a selection of classic scents as well as an elaborate pick’n’mix area where the customer can choose from a selection of exclusive fragrances which are housed in a labyrinth of glass tubes. In addition, it is possible to purchase a fragrance from Guerlain’s exclusive creation range, which is only available to purchase in the store. New fragrances for 2006 include Eau de Lit, Eau Hégémonienne, first created in 1889 and of which just 158 bottles are available, and Nuit d’Amour, created by Jean Paul Guerlain and of which only 80 bottles have been issued.
Luxury independent perfume house Ormonde Jayne has also created a feeling of opulence in its refurbished store designed by Caulder Moore. The brief for the store was to recreate the skill and craftsmanship associated with the fragrances and this has been highlighted in the use of materials including bronze, glass and leather in the house’s signature black and mandarin colours.
“We wanted to give the brand a sense of luxury and highlight the individuality and uniqueness it represents,” explains Caulder Moore creative director, Ian Caulder. “The atmosphere is moody and sensuous and is more like an experience than a store. Perfume is a very personal thing and we have evoked this.”
The store is divided into two areas, one featuring the perfume range which is displayed on bevelled glass shelves, with each fragrance highly lit and positioned against smoked black tinted mirrors to emphasise the emotive power of fragrance. The second area features a testing table with testing bottles which allow the consumer to play and discover the scents.
“The idea here was to allow consumers to learn more about the scents and as it’s in front of the main window, passers by can see all the activity too,” adds Caulder.
The personalised, bespoke service may already be reaching saturation point however. Paris-based niche fragrance retailer Iunx closed its doors permanently last year. The perfumery, which was created in conjunction with Shiseido, sold personalised fragrances, room scents and candles with a Japanese twist and offered a range of novel sampling options. The industry has yet to discover whether this will be a continuing trend.
Gift or purchase?
Demand for retail innovation is also being met through gift with purchase initiatives.The GWP has great power over both the consumer and the retailer and can determine the outcome of a transaction.
With this in mind manufacturers are upping the ante with ever more extravagant gifts in order to win over the customer. As a result it has brought into question whether consumers are buying the beauty product or the ‘gift’ that accompanies it.
Missoni has launched such a promotion for Christmas. The ‘It’ item, a chocolate brown clutch bag complete with three removable Missoni print pins is available with an 100ml edp spray for £100. Similarly, Coty Prestige’s Sarah Jessica Parker fragrance is offering a themed umbrella with the purchase of the fragrance. The ballet pink full size umbrella is decorated with perfume bottles and shoes, which will no doubt appeal to the SJP fan.
Outside of the fragrance market, luxury skin care brand Natura Bissé offered consumers the chance to purchase a Collado Garcia special edition handbag, which normally retails at £620. The catch? Consumers had to spend £1,000 on products before they could take the bag away.
“GWP is of control,” says van Heusden. “No-one can get off the GWP bandwagon. It’s such a big market, we cannot afford to get off the ladder.”
Boutique chic
The power of the GWP also has repercussions for the travel retail world where its tax free advantage is being eroded away by bonuses on the high-street. To this end, retailers have had to look for other ways of creating excitement in their stores. French travel retailer Aelia has taken a particularly innovative stance by teaming up with manufacturers to create beauty products that are exclusive to its stores. It has been particularly successful in the field of fragrance, with exclusive partnerships with Guerlain and Azzarro. Vetiver pour Elle from Guerlain now has an established loyal consumer base despite only being available in a handful of shops, while the popularity of Azzarro’s new masculine fragrance, Jet Lag has ensured another Aelia/Azzarro development which is expected next year.
“Exclusivity is so important to us,” explains Béatrice Delorme, director of perfumes and cosmetics, Aelia. “All round the world you find the same offers. Paris is the flagship of perfumery so we can offer something a bit special, something that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.”
The latest creation, Lights of Champs Elysées is again in partnership with Guerlain and is predicted to be a success. “The fragrance is very specific and will promote Paris to the traveller. It’s a bit of Paris that can be taken home,” says Delorme.
With such innovation creeping into fragrance retail, it appears the market is far from saturated. Whether niche concepts can hold their own in the face of the big manufacturers remains to be seen, but while there is a demand from the consumer, this type of innovate retailing will surely flourish.