The company launched its 2025 China Perfume & Fragrance White Paper at the 41st TFWA World Exhibition & Conference in Cannes on September 30, framing the report as a practical guide for brands that want to grow in China’s fragrance market.
Eternal Group said fragrance continues to outpace other beauty categories in China despite macro uncertainty, calling the segment a “growth engine” as it combines faster expansion with stable demand.
It pointed to two cohorts that added momentum: men and Gen Z in lower-tier cities, who are building routines and not just buying for special occasions. The report argues that this shift supports volume growth, and encourages broader price ladders and scent profiles.
According to the white paper, 81.1% of consumers now use fragrance daily, and 86.1% extend their perfume preferences into the home through diffusers, candles, and room sprays. This trend widens the addressable market and increases SKU variety across personal and ambient formats.
Emotional wellness drives purchase and resets value
Eternal Group highlighted “value-resonant consumption” and said the market has entered an era of “emotion-driven pricing”, pointing to how consumers would pay for how a scent makes them feel and the context it fits.
The white paper also stated that over 40% of users choose scents by occasion or emotion, such as to relax the mind and body.
The company positions fragrance as a tool for self-expression and a way to regulate mood or offer a brief escape, which overlaps with the “mood and mind” space.
While perfume is not ingestible, both categories address the same need states — calm, focus and uplift — with the implication being that retail and e-commerce should help shoppers navigate by outcome, not just by category.
Smell-first retail wins the sale
In the report, in-store olfactory experiences ranked as the top purchase driver.
Eternal Group pointed to activations such as Nose Idea x TNT Space, a collaboration with a designer toy brand, and the Perfume Box olfactory space, to show how cultural relevance and hands-on discovery raised engagement.
The takeaway was clear — let consumers smell, play and share. For duty-free operators and specialty retail, this would mean more guided discovery, modular fixtures, and event-led selling that blended scent exploration with local culture.
For manufacturers and packagers, it signalled demand for discovery kits, single-use testers, and travel-ready sets. And for e-commerce, it supported sample-first journeys, blind-box discovery, and subscription refills tied to mood states.
Localisation and compliance
A panel at TFWA, featuring Eternal Group CEO Chole Lam, Give Back Beauty Group CEO Patrizio Stella, dsm-firmenich master perfumer Alberto Morillasn and global director of consumer intelligence for fine fragrance Jose Santiago Moreno Wolters, stressed localisation.
This meant covering note selection that resonated locally, price-pack architecture that fit spending habits, and channel choices that mapped to where targets shop.
The panellists also emphasised regulatory compliance as part of planning, not an afterthought.
Dorothy Liu, VP and deputy GM at China Duty Free Group (CDFG), joined Eternal executives to highlight duty-free channels as premium access paths when paired with strict compliance. The key message was to align regulatory steps with channel strategy to avoid delays and remove entry risk.
Travel retail offers access to high-intent shoppers and international travellers, and Eternal Group positions itself as a bridge for brands into these channels.
For operators and suppliers, duty-free can serve as a “first store” for China-facing demand before full domestic rollout. It also provides rapid feedback on scent notes, pricing, and pack sizes across traveller segments.
Contract manufacturers and packaging partners can use duty-free pilots to validate assortment and formats (such as smaller sizes, discovery sets, and refillable options) before scaling.
The white paper’s emphasis on emotion and experience suggested that shelf storytelling should be simple, bold, and decodable in seconds.
What to do next
For brands assessing the Chinese market, the white paper summarises a few key points — treat emotional benefit as the brief, build localised scent and story from the start, make smell the centre of discovery, and use the duty-free channel to stage and learn.
Additionally, regulatory requirements should be strictly adhered to so that labelling and claims issues do not stall launches.
“Moving forward, Eternal Group will continue to serve as a strategic bridge, leveraging over four decades of expertise and insights captured in its white paper to guide international brands towards sustainable growth in the Chinese market, and support the long-term vitality and prosperity of the industry as a whole,” Eternal Group stated.
