A retail place of handmade cosmetic shop Lush has a significance presence at any shopping location. From a distance, customers are attracted by the unique smell of Lush products. Most of the products including soaps are sold without packaging, so they are inherently diffusing smell. In addition, the installation of bath sinks for free trial allows the release of even more scent to the air. The dense and continuous smell itself works as a perfect marketing tool. You cannot simply look the other way.

Shopify quoted research on retail operation and marketing in an interesting article where it stated that aroma marketing can have 11% increase in sales revenue and 20% increase in customer satisfaction. According to this article, when you smell something, you can remember the smell one year later at 65% accuracy. In addition, 75% of the daily emotions are generated by the sense of smell

Aroma marketing could be the reason that gas stations try to attract customers with fresh brewed coffee and just-out-of-the-oven pizzas. The ultimate goal of the aroma marketing is that you can improve the brand image and generate good will with the customers, which will have a tremendous impact on how they make purchase decisions later on.

In fact, most of us have an experience where you dined at a restaurant without advance plan just because of the smell or bought something from a perfume section at a department store. When you are at a place of a great smell, you will have a positive memory about the place.

Hence, luxury hotels and restaurants like Four Seasons and Banyan Tree fill their locations from the entrance to the restroom with a great scent. Perfume brands insert scent strips in a magazine to make consumers remember the scent for a long time.

Aroma candles used at Four Seasons Hotels

Channel perfume advertisement featured in fashion magazine Vogue. Scent strip is inserted to stimulate the reader’s sense of smell

In the article “study on the effect of the fragrance characteristics on the consumer’s purchasing behavior and shopping satisfaction and intent to revisit” published in 2019, Wonyoung Son stated the aroma marketing using the sense of smell has not substantiated as much as visual or auditory marketing despite the importance. However, aroma marketing is gathering more and more attention. Son stated that aromas can also create either calm or dynamic mood just like background music, so scent should befit the purpose. Son concluded that you should not stop at simply creating a pleasantly scented room but try to find a scent that befits the characteristics of retail space and merchandise.

By stimulating the sense of smell, you can create consumers’ positive impression about the retail environment, which will eventually help consumers to think “they had a good experience” at the place. This works for all businesses including retail stores, restaurants, and cafes.

Restaurant Doshi Sushi in Atlanta, GA installed air filters across the restaurant that improve the air quality as well as remove particles causing bad smells, which can also help reducing spread of Covid-19. You can find 3M Level 13 filters consistently running at various places in the restaurant, and it filters the air with bad smells to improve the air quality. These filters can catch even the cigarette smoke as well as the disease spreading aerosol. CEO of Doshi Sushi built customized frames for the filters to be installed in the restaurant himself to make them visually pleasant as well. Just the size of the filter and to be hung at the ceiling, it has the customized design.

A filter installed at the ceiling (upper left corner) of a room in Doshi Sushi

In fact, at the busiest hour, Doshi Sushi boasted fresh and clean air without any food smell. What would the diners think while spending time in the restaurant? A regular customer said, “when there is an important meeting, Doshi Sushi comes up in my mind.” He explained that the always-clean restaurant works great for inviting someone.

Suddenly the aroma marketing has taken the center stage at retail, and beauty supplies are targeting women who desire to be more beautiful. Now, it’s time for beauty supplies to think with what “aroma” they can steal the hearts of their patrons.