Recently, KILIAN and Editions DE Parfums Frederic Malle, two of Estee Lauder's luxury fragrance brands, opened their first stores in China, showcasing Estee Lauder’s faith in the potential of China’s burgeoning high-end perfume market.

Editions DE Parfums Frederic Malle, founded in 2000, is a French fragrance brand acquired by Estee Lauder in 2014. KILIAN was founded in Paris, France, in 2007. The founder Kilian Hennessy, heir to the Hennessy family, created the brand by combining French perfume's expertise with the Hennessy family's excellent understanding of cognac brewing. Estee Lauder acquired the brand in 2016. Estee Lauder brought the two brands to China for the first time at CIIE 2019 (2019 China International Import Expo).

According to the "Global Perfume Industry Analysis Report" released by the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute, China's perfume consumption is trending upwards. It is expected that the Chinese perfume market will maintain a compound annual growth rate of about 15% between 2018 and 2024. By 2022, the market size is expected to exceed 40 billion yuan. The favorable market environment and Chinese consumers’ consumption passion is attracting an increasing number of foreign perfume brands.

Perfume brands under Estee Lauder 

Currently, apart from Le Labo, major perfume brands under Estee Lauder have entered China through either offline or online channels. Among these brands, Jo Malone has achieved the most outstanding performance. By November 2019, Jo Malone had opened 39 stores in China, including 10 in 2019 alone ^[1]. It now has 3.14 million fans on Tmall, and its best-selling product Wild Bluebell Cologne recorded total sales of 77448 pieces. It is expected that following the opening of offline stores, KILIAN and Editions DE Parfums Frederic Malle will also be available online shortly. 

Niche salon brands show great growth potential.

KILIAN and Editions DE Parfums Frederic Malle are considered niche brands, and their followers in Little Red Book are less than 2,500. However, niche perfumes have shown great growth potential and have become the growth engine of the entire perfume market in the past two years. Overseas niche brands such as Jo Malone and Diptyque have achieved over 100% growth in China and are expected to maintain this momentum in the next 3 to 5 years ^[2]. The latest data shows that the sales of niche perfume brands such as Issey Miyake, Hanae Mori, John Varvatos, Tous, and Carolina Herrera increased by ten times year-on-year during the 618 Tmall Mid-Year Shopping Festival ^[3] which wrapped up last month.

The popularity of niche fragrances is large because they cater to the pursuits and expectations of the younger generation, who want to be distinctive, and want to show their individuality.

International beauty giants have gained insights into this trend and accelerated the introduction of niche fragrances to the Chinese market. Except for Estee Lauder's Jo Malone, L'Oreal's Atelier Cologne, and LVMH's Maison Francis Kurkdjian have entered the Chinese market through department stores, boutiques, Sephora beauty collections, and online platforms. In addition to international giants, overseas niche brands, including Miller Harris, Juliette Has A Gun, and BYREDO has also established a presence in China in the past year.

Latest moves of other giants in the perfume sector

L'Oreal

This month, L'Oreal's high-end cosmetics brand YSL Laurent opened the world's first perfume-themed flagship store in Shanghai. The brand also launched a limited edition of perfume, with only 50 bottles available in China.

L'Oreal has withdrawn its fragrance brand ROGER&GALLET from the Chinese market at the end of June. The brand entered the Chinese market in 2016 but has failed to gain any traction.

Shiseido

The group has appointed two new executives to be responsible for its perfume business in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) market and global perfume brand activities. The company once proposed in its three-year plan for 2017-2020 that the group's perfume business aim was to achieve a 9% share of the global perfume market by 2020. It plans to become one of the top 5 perfume manufacturers in the world by 2021 ^[4].

The perfume brands owned by Shiseido feature high-end and niche, including Serge Lutens, Dolce&Gabbana SRL, Elie Saab, Issey Miyake, etc.

LV

In May of this year, LV launched HEURES D'ABSENCE perfume (for women) and L'IMMENSITÉ perfume (for men) in China and chose China’s top beauty KOL Li Jiaqi (Austin Li) as the product ambassador in China. The price of these two products is high at 2150 yuan/100ML.

***Disclaimer: All images used in this article are from the internet.