Gen Z is driving a fragrance boom, and Estée Lauder $EL ( ▲ 1.26% ) wants to ride the wave with a new “AI Scent Advisor” built with Google Cloud $GOOGL ( ▲ 1.15% ). The tool tries to replicate the feeling of smelling a perfume through a chatbot conversation, encouraging online shoppers to spend more than $100 on scents they have never tested. For die-hard “frag heads,” it may be the closest thing yet to sampling a bottle through a screen.
The launch gives Estée Lauder another channel to expand its fragrance empire, which includes brands like Tom Ford, Frederic Malle, Le Labo, and Kilian. It also marks a major step for a company that was late to online retail but is now catching up fast. Fragrance is Estée Lauder’s fastest-growing segment, rising 14.4 percent year over year in the latest quarter.
It is also the only division that has shown consistent growth over the past few years, posting an 89 percent jump in net sales since early 2018, even as the broader beauty market softened.
The surge in perfume spending is not just a Gen Z girl thing either. Spanish beauty giant Puig has leaned into film-like marketing to fuel online fragrance growth, and teenage boys have become avid buyers. Piper Sandler’s research shows fragrance spending among teen boys jumped 44 percent last year. With TikTok trends, review sites like Fragrantica, and the rise of “blind buying,” younger shoppers are embracing new fragrance habits like “scent layering” and “smellmaxxing,” which translate directly into revenue for beauty brands.