Common scents: younger women more likely to buy perfume
Dating back to the ancient Egyptians, refined by the Greeks and Romans, and adored by the rich and royal of pre-Revolution France, perfume has gone from being a luxury reserved for the privileged to become widely available and affordable. In Australia, 11% of women aged 14+ buy women’s perfume in an average four weeks, but among those aged under 25, this figure is much higher, the latest findings from Roy Morgan Research show…
Last year, 18% of young women 14-24 bought perfume in an average four-week period, well ahead of women aged between 50 and 64 (10%). The proportion of women from the 25-34, 35-49 and 65+ age groups who purchased women’s perfume in any given four weeks was fairly consistent, hovering around the 9% mark.
Perfume purchasing among Australian women by age
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), October 2013 – September 2014 (n=9,170).
Angela Smith, Group Account Director, Roy Morgan Research, says:
“Whether your taste in women’s perfume tends towards the classic or the cutting edge, today’s perfume buyer is spoiled for choice. In fact, the days of a woman sticking to one signature scent are gone: these days, it’s not uncommon for a woman to use several different perfumes on a regular basis.
“While some brands remain very expensive and exclusive and can only be purchased in department stores and perfumeries, there are many affordable perfumes on the market, which are widely available everywhere from pharmacies to discount stores, supermarkets and online retailers.
“This fairly recent ‘democratisation’ of fragrance means that even teenage girls can now treat themselves to the latest celebrity scent. Considering how often 21st-century celebrities release their own fragrance lines, only to lose their lustre as another shining starlet takes their place in the popular imagination, this represents a potentially lucrative market for the savvy retailer.
“Roy Morgan Research’s in-depth perfume-buyer profiles can help retailers better understand their target consumers in order to succeed in this crowded and rapidly changing market.”
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Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
