Walk into a department store, and it’s not surprising to find fragrance and beauty sections positioned near the entrance. This practice can be traced back to London in the early 20th century.
When Harry Gordon Selfridge, the American-born retain pioneer who transformed department store shopping, opened his famous department store on Oxford Street in 1909, he introduced a number of ideas that changed the way people shopped. One of them was moving perfumes and cosmetics from less prominent areas to the front of the store. Historical accounts suggest that Selfridge wanted shoppers to encounter fragrance as soon as they entered, making the products more visible and turning shopping into a sensory experience.
There is also an intriguing story behind the location. Oxford Street was filled with horse-drawn traffic in those days, and the streets could carry unpleasant odors, including horse manure. Several accounts suggest that having fragrances near the entrance may have helped mask those smells as customers entered the store. Even Selfridges acknowledges this explanation, although the company describes it as a rumor rather than a documented reason for the original layout.
What began as a clever retail strategy eventually became part of department-store design. Today, however, fragrance at the entrance serves a much broader purpose. Retailers deliberately use scent to create an inviting atmosphere, and influence how customers experience a space. Research has also found that pleasant ambient fragrance can positively affect shoppers’ evaluations and intentions to revisit a store.
The next time you walk through a store and see a wall of perfumes near the entrance, remember that it’s part of a retail tradition that combines visibility, psychology, atmosphere and, perhaps, a little bit of horse-drawn history.
