The Perfume Shop, the UK’s largest perfume retailer, has announced another successful Christmas trading period, reporting post festive season sales during December 2024. Between 28th November and 24th December, the retailer sold 2 million bottles of perfume, highlighting the enduring popularity of perfume as a classic festive gifting option.
Despite early festive shopping trends, The Perfume Shop experienced a significant last-minute rush, with online sales of gift sets seeing a +54% increase in the final full week before Christmas. The retailer’s promotional deals proved especially popular, with the busiest online day of the season on Sunday 1st December, achieving a +5% increase compared to 2023. The busiest hour of the season was in the evening of the 18th December, beating previous records set over Black Friday.
Click & Collect and Next Day Delivery orders in the 14 days to Christmas were up 10% which although statistics have shown footfall was down in the run up to Christmas, perfume was a popular choice with customers being able to shop both online and offline, in a way convenient to them.
Personalisation services flourished as well +8% v 2023, with over 300,000 ribbons and 8,000 engraved perfumes delivered to their loyal customers. Additionally, the retailer’s recent partnership with Deliveroo generated impressive results, with over £100,000 of perfume sold in the build up to the festive period.
The year’s standout perfumes included Gucci Flora Gorgeous Orchid, Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium Over Red, YSL MYSLF, and Hugo Boss Bottled Triumph. These were joined by Rabanne Million Gold and Marc Jacobs Daisy Wild, which quickly became customer favourites following their launches.
The Top 10 best selling scents of the Festive season (December) are:
1. Dior Sauvage
2. Chanel Coco Mademoiselle
3. Carolina Herrera Good Girl
4. Lancôme La Vie Est Belle
5. Rabanne 1 Million
6. Mugler Alien
7. Bleu De Chanel
8. YSL Black Opium
9. Chanel No5
10. YSL Libre
Top 10 new perfumes for December:
1. Rabanne Million Gold for Her
2. Prada Paradoxe Virtual Flower
3. Gucci Flora Gorgeous Orchid
4. Marc Jacobs Daisy Wild
5. Boss Bottled Absolu
6. YSL Libre Flowers & Flames
7. Jean Paul Gaultier Le Beau Paradise Garden
8. Rabanne Million Gold for Him
9. Jean Paul Gaultier La Belle Paradise Garden
10. Dior Sauvage Eau Forte
The Perfume Shop continued to reinforce its commitment to sustainability in 2024, recycling 11,703 perfume bottles, a +23% year-on-year increase and also introduced their upgraded wooden recycling units across all stores. The retailer also planted over 49,000 trees through their partnership with Veritree.
In 2024, The Perfume Shop unveiled 8 new store openings plus 32 modernised experiential stores across the UK and Ireland, featuring open layouts, digital screens, and energy-efficient LED lighting to support its 30% energy reduction target by 2030. Additionally, a £2.5M investment at the start of 2024 included the automated packaging machines reducing cardboard usage and delivery emissions, further enhancing its sustainability credentials. Over the final quarter of the year, over half a million orders were fulfilled via the packing machine.
Gill Smith, Managing Director at The Perfume Shop, commented; “This Christmas, we continued focusing on helping our customers navigate the festive season by offering incredible early deals and expanding our personalised services. Coupled with our ongoing sustainability efforts and exciting new perfume launches, we delivered more choice, value, and innovation than ever before. I’m deeply grateful to our loyal customers and dedicated teams for making 2024 a record-breaking year.
Looking ahead, The Perfume Shop remains committed to sustainability, innovation, and creating exceptional experiences for its customers while contin
