CHICAGO — Midwest retailers are having a heady spring, with fragrance sales running ahead of last year.
Percentage gains are ranging from the single digits to the high teens, the retailers said.
Most stores reported that Mother’s Day business was strong, although consumers were waiting until the last minute to make purchases. Customers are also shopping more carefully, looking for value sets and smaller, less costly sizes.
“There’s more price sensitivity than ever before,” said Allen Burke, divisional merchandise manager for Dayton’s, Hudson’s and Marshall Field’s. “Customers are buying the smaller sizes rather than the larger sizes.”
Fragrance sales at the Minneapolis-based department-store chain are trending ahead of color and treatment and are up year-to-date by a single-digit percentage, according to Burke.
Mother’s Day business was also ahead of last year, he said, noting that he had expected a last-minute rush.
The top sellers at DH & Field’s, in no particular order, are Beautiful by Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Taylor’s White Diamonds from Parfums International, Eternity by Calvin Klein and Wings from Giorgio Beverly Hills, Burke said.
This spring, the chain launched Christian Dior’s Tendre Poison, Cabotine de Gris and, in three stores, Angel by Thierry Mugler, all of which are doing well, Burke said.
He noted that, of last fall’s launches, 360 by Perry Ellis, Vivid by Liz Claiborne and Tribu by Benetton continue to be strong sellers.
Upcoming fall launches at DH & Field’s include Karl Lagerfeld’s Sun, Moon and Stars from Parfums International, Chopard’s Casmir from Lancaster, Champagne by Yves Saint Laurent and Boucheron’s new women’s fragrance.
Burke also said he was “very excited” about Calvin Klein’s new unisex scent, CK One, which DH & Field’s will sell in both its men’s and women’s fragrance areas.
Irene Price, cosmetics buyer for Jacobson’s, Jackson, Mich., noted that the store already carries one unisex fragrance, Hermes’s Eau de Cologne, which does very well.
“I’m sure [CK One] will be tremendously successful because all [Calvin Klein] products do well,” she said.
Price said the biggest launches of the season at Jacobson’s were Jil Sander’s No. 4 and Sublime by Jean Patou, which were launched with mailers, in-store visual displays and sampling. She also noted that classic scents were performing well, such as Boucheron, Shalimar and Hermes.
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Price said perfumed body lotions are moving quickly for summer, and the 0.25-oz. bottle of perfume is the most popular size bought by women, while men are more likely to buy the larger, pricier, 0.5-oz. or 1-oz. bottles as gifts.
Overall fragrance sales at Jacobson’s are ahead of last year by a mid-single-digit percentage, Price said. The store’s Mother’s Day business was even stronger, with a percentage increase in the high teens.
Top sellers at Jacobson’s, in no particular order, are Boucheron, Bijan, Oscar by Oscar de la Renta and Roma by Laura Biagiotti.
Fragrance sales at Carson Pirie Scott were buoyed by very strong business for Mother’s Day, ahead of last year by a double-digit percentage, said Nancy Schmidt, divisional merchandise manager, noting that most of the sales came at the last minute.
“They can’t get much later,” she said, noting that sales on Sunday, May 8, Mother’s Day, were even stronger than those the day before.
Overall year-to-date sales are ahead by a double-digit percentage, Schmidt said.
Bestsellers at the Milwaukee-based chain are White Diamonds, Jessica McClintock, Beautiful, Elizabeth Arden’s Sunflowers and Calvin Klein’s Escape, she said.
The store is also still doing well with Wings, which was launched last fall. Schmidt noted that Elizabeth Taylor’s Fragrant Jewels was a disappointing introduction.
“It never quite got off the ground,” she said.
This spring, Carson’s launched Vivid and Tendre Poison, both of which are in the top 12, Schmidt said. The store will launch Casmir, Nicole Miller and Sun, Moon and Stars in the fall.
She also said that the consumer is becoming increasingly value oriented. Value sets do well all year round, not just during promotional periods, she said, and the same goes for smaller sizes.
Of the summer-only fragrances, O de Lancome hit Carson’s the week before Mother’s Day, and “the early signs are that it’s going to be a winner,” Schmidt said.
She is also very excited about CK One.
“It’s a definite home run. It’s right on for the Nineties. It’s fresh, well priced and crosses lots of generational lines,” she said.
Fragrance sales at Halls Merchandising Inc., Kansas City, were ahead by a percentage in the high teens for Mother’s Day, with the same gains being posted year-to-date, said Cheryl Holland, vice president and divisional merchandise manager.
The strongest launches have been Escada’s Summer in Provence and Thierry Mugler’s Angel, which is one of the top sellers this season.
Other bestsellers at Hall’s are Annick Goutal, Sublime, Tiffany and Boucheron. Lalique and Donna Karan New York, which were launched last fall, are also continuing to be strong, Holland said.
In addition, Holland said Chanel’s classic scents sold well for Mother’s Day.
While value is still an important consideration for Halls’s customers, Holland noted that the store does best with lines it has exclusively.
“If it’s exclusive or limited distribution, there’s no resistance to price. Gift sets and [gift-with-purchase promotions] are still important if it’s a widely distributed line,” she said.