As the traditional post-Thanksgiving shopping rush commences on Black Friday, the new tradition for many savvy shoppers is to rush to their laptops, tablets, or smartphone and shop away today, on Cyber Monday. Many consumers will have most likely received special shopping invitations in advance with a “save the date” to get online savings for their favorite candle, diffuser or home fragrance gift. This is good news for the home fragrance market, where e-commerce sales delivered a 26% increase last year, the most impressive growth for a mature market like this.
According to our recently completed Shopper Insights Tracking Service for the U.S. Home Fragrances Market report, over one-half of mass shoppers and two-thirds of specialty store shoppers prefer to purchase home fragrance products on the Internet, driven by the time-saving advantage. The impact of the Internet is more prominent in the prestige candle market where e‐commerce sales account for almost 15% of the overall sales. Select examples of prestige candle brands that sell through their own websites include Yankee Candle, Bath & Body Works, LAFCO, Dyptique, and Archipelago. Although online sales for mass brands such as Glade and Air Wick are lower, each of these brands have a strong social media presence through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.
Upscale candle brands such as Nest, Trapp, Votivo, and Thymes also benefit from the e‐commerce sales generated through multiple digital avenues including brand websites, retail store websites, and sites devoted to selling candles on the Internet, such as candlesoffmain.com, candleluxury.com, and candledelirium.com. These websites offer various services which include free shipping, scent samples, and gift wrap, as well as help consumers shop by season and event.
This year should be just as promising! According to our shopper panel, over one-third of the respondents said that they plan to purchase more than they did in 2013. What does this mean? That digital sales for the home fragrance market could exceed last year’s growth! We will discover more about the implications of this fast-growing channel in our upcoming edition of Home Fragrances: U.S. 2014: Market Analysis and Opportunities.
Cyber Monday Deals for Home Fragrances
