Body sprays, scents refresh fragrances

Holiday 2015 further illustrated the challenges that mass retailers face in trying to revive the fragrance business. A survey of top retailers found scents sold “OK,” but required a great deal of promotion.

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Compounding that was the race among retailers to tempt shoppers with the best percentage-off deals. Several teamed up their offers with special discounts for loyalty club members. Walgreens, for example, offered a buy-one/get-one deal on designer scents, such as Curve, with its card.



Exacerbating the issue was the lack of many new fragrances available to drug and discount chains. Two big launches, Ari by Ariana Grande and Gucci Bamboo, are not accessible on a direct basis to mass.



There are bright spots, however. Body sprays and mini designer scents were popular not only during the holidays, but leading up to December, too. With reasonable price points, these two categories appear to be the salvation for mass retailers in the fragrance business.



IRI data for the 52-week period ended Oct. 4, 2015, across multi-outlets revealed that men’s body mists soared 45%, while women’s were up almost 20%. Contrast that to the continuing decline in traditional fragrances, and the picture is clear that this is what the mass shopper wants now. Men’s fragrance was down 2.4%; women’s was off 7.4%.



All seven of the top men’s fragrances showed declines. The only men’s traditional scents with big gains, according to IRI data, are Nautica Blue and Adidas Sports Sensation. The picture in women’s is also bleak with the exception of fairly new to mass entries, such as Our Moment One Direction (up over 400%) and Killer Queen by Katy Perry (soaring 800%).



Interestingly, private-label scents are another growth area with sales rising 200%. These are custom fragrances, such as Walgreens InStyle or CVS’ Perfect Scents, which are versions of prestige fragrances at good values.



The body sprays boom is welcomed at mass top women’s brands, according to IRI, include Body Fantasies Signature, Bodycology, Calgon and Axe Anarchy. In men’s, the top four are dominated by Axe entries. But Old Spice is catching fire with sales gains exceeding 200%.