Up until recently, you could still hear perfume salespeople tell customers, ‘Perfume doesn’t go on sale,’ because, fragrances, unlike fashion, don’t get outmoded. But times have gradually changed, and this year we get the feeling that even perfume shops are getting into the spirit of the January sales.

Following 2008’s so-so sales figures, they had to do something to attract a clientele battered with news of the financial crisis at every turn. Even before Christmas, fashion boutiques were offering discounts – a rare occurrence, but necessary to reduce stocks. Some perfume chain stores jumped on the bandwagon, offering generalized, store-wide reductions, obliging the competition to follow their lead. When the January sales came, the discounts were focused on a different type of product: limited editions and discontinued flankers etc. Still, for perfume chain stores, two problems may well be looming.If a price war is declared, consumers may well start searching systematically for the lowest price, which could bring quality down across the board. And customers may start doing what they already do with fashion, i.e. shopping less often, and only during sales.