What Lessons Can Exhibitors Draw From Fragrance Retail?

 

Inspiration and lessons from the fragrance industry:

What Lessons can Exhibitors draw from Fragrance retail?

We explore innovative strategies from fragrance retail to inspire impactful exhibition designs and brand activation.

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1. Scent as Self-Care

2. Ai-Powered Discovery

3. Scent Libraries & Literary Spaces

4. Next-Gen Fandoms & Playful Discovery

5. Theatrical Immersion

 
 

Scent as Self-Care

As 50% of American women are interested in fragrances linked to physical or mental wellbeing (Circana, 2023), and ‘scent therapy’ counts 57 million TikTok views, promoting perfumes’ therapeutic potential is a smart move.

Promoting its 2024 neuroscents line, British beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury’s London pop-up leant into chromotherapy (linking colours to wellbeing benefits). Each of the six immersive rooms was awash with a different hue to elicit an emotional state – Love, Happiness, Seduction, Energy, Serenity, and Empowerment – corresponding to a fragrance. It concluded with a gift-shop-style retail space.

An image of an event space featuring a galactic, out of this world theme. There is a unicorn on the left with a robot towards the back and signage on the right. The walls and floor feature stars, moons, and space themed lights with moons lit up.

Image credit: Charlotte Tilbury

 

Ai-Powered Discovery

E-commerce represents a comparatively minor yet increasingly important proportion of global fragrance sales at 11.9% (Statista, 2024). AI tools like Noteworthy’s scent quiz or Bath & Body Works’ chatbot tailor consumer recommendations based on mood, personality, or preferences. This allows for personalised, interactive discovery journeys.

American scent start-up Noteworthy’s five-minute Scent Quiz targets the 83% of American women seeking simpler ways to discover a fragrance they love (Noteworthy, 2024). Enquiring about personality traits, lifestyle and tastes, the tool builds a personalised scent profile and then offers four samples for at-home trialling.

An image of a website showcasing the option to start a quiz to find your signature sent.

Image credit: Noteworthy

 
 

Scent Libraries & Literary Spaces

Drawing on luxury’s roots in sensory indulgence, other shrewd fragrance brands (both luxury and mainstream) are differentiating themselves by foregrounding mixology and gastronomy – aligning perfumes and fine wines to confer connoisseurly prestige or via smell-and-sip tasting events offering accessible discovery forums.

British brand Olfactive O organises regular Sniff & Sip masterclasses pairing personal fragrances with wines, including a recent series at British luxury department store Harvey Nichols’ flagships in the UK (hosted by the retailer’s wine buyer). This light-hearted exploration carries onto Olfactive O’s social media, where guest wine merchants match perfumes with wines.

An image of a room that features dark wood and dim light that looks like a bar. The space features perfumes and the option to sit at the bar to be serviced.

Image credit: Olfactive O

 
 

Next-Gen Fandoms & Playful Discovery

Brands targeting the next wave of scent consumers are echoing the offbeat, vibes-led and candid discussions on scent happening on #PerfumeTok, which drives 66% of Gen Zers’ perfume purchases globally (Circana, 2024). Notable concepts include generation-appropriate spins on IRL (in real life) personalised perfume-blending and early-stage olfactory science lessons for budding Gen Alpha fragrance fans. Gen Z and Gen Alpha respond to interactive, vibe-driven engagement.

Part laboratory, part underground club night complete with a live DJ, the art direction and soundscaping of French brand Bleu Nour’s launch event ‘smelling parties’ subvert personalised perfume-blending workshops, drawing on Gen Zers’ obsession with Y2K pseudo-nostalgia.

There are 2 images in one. The image on the left shows a woman working on a DJ set. The image on the right shows a young lady in a red jacket looking at the perfume scents available. The images have a 90s aesthetic.

Image cedit: Bleau Nour

 
 

Theatrical Immersion

Other brands are restyling perfumeries as libraries for consumers seeking slower, learning-couched product discovery. Aside from providing edifying analogue urban sanctuaries, curated reading lists are signposting brand values (including a feminist focus) and expertise (in-house perfumers’ source texts).

Channelling the nefarious allure of haute mixology, the centrepiece of French perfumer Kilian Paris’ Singapore-based boutique (launched in October 2024) is the Kilian Bar. On its Carrara marble and bronze counter, crystal carafes showcase five olfactive families, including The Narcotics and The Smokes. The brand’s website also lists cocktails inspired by specific fragrances.

2 images that showcase perfumes presented as cocktails, with a background of a cocktail bar and ingredients. In front of each perfume features the name of the perfume.

Image credit: Kilan

 
 

Key Learnings

Cross-Industry Pollination

By borrowing inspiration from the fragrance industry’s reinvention of retail, exhibitors in pharmaceuticals, aesthetic beauty, and aerospace can elevate their booth designs into experiential and educational destinations. Personalisation, storytelling, and sensory engagement are not just trends - they’re tools to turn fleeting interactions into lasting impressions.

 

Thank you for reading.

 
Opinion, 5 min readLindie KramersIgnition, Trends, Creativity, Events, ExhibitionsComment