Instant Sold Out! Niche Middle Eastern Perfumes Create a Miraculous $4.5 Million Sales on TikTok: How Did Oriental Fragrances Dominate North America? | EchoTik Product Insights

Instant Sold Out! Niche Middle Eastern Perfumes Create a Miraculous $4.5 Million Sales on TikTok: How Did Oriental Fragrances Dominate North America? | EchoTik Product Insights

Latest TikTok Shop U.S. e-commerce weekly data (11/13-19)

l  The total GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) last week reached a new record high of $97 million, hitting $100 million; Daily average GMV were $13.857 million, marking the first time the U.S. station's weekly daily average exceeded $10 million; Highest single-day GMV reached $32.19 million, a new record in the U.S.

l  As of November 19, the top 5 GMV product categories were Beauty & Personal Care, Womenswear, Collectibles, Phones & Electronics, and Health.

l  New on the list include Roll4Rip (Collectibles, Top 2), Beauty Choice USA (Beauty & Personal Care, Top 5), Wyze (3C, Top 7), and Tushbaby ( Baby & Maternity, Top 10). Shops on rapid rises in rankings include rysesupss (collectibles, Top 7 ➡ Top 1) and Wavy Chic Beauty (Beauty & Personal Care, Top 8 ➡ Top 3).

l  Beauty & Personal Care products continued to surge in weekly sales and GMV. Top-selling items include curling irons, hair combs, lipsticks, lip gloss, and fragrances.

l  Influenced by the colder climate, seasonal women's clothing is selling well on TikTok Shop, including items like long-sleeved women's tops, pants, yoga suits, and hoodie dresses.

This week's shop and product analysis focuses on a niche yet attention-worthy sector – fragrances export. Currently, on TikTok Shop U.S., exotic fragrances are trending and this track is still a blue ocean market without major Chinese brands or sellers, quite worth attention.

According to EchoTik data, a Middle Eastern niche perfume collection store, AROMA CONCEPTS FL, has become the first to enter the Top 10 sales on TikTok Shop U.S. in the perfume category. Since its inception in June this year, it has repeatedly topped the sales chart and popularized several unknown Middle Eastern fragrances, creating nearly $4.5 million in sales. What is the secret behind its traffic?

TikTok Shop Data Analysis

 01 Basic Data 

EchoTik data shows that since its launch in early June, total sales of AROMA CONCEPTS FL is 150,700, with an estimated GMV of $5.08 million.

With the arrival of Black Friday, the store's sales continue to grow steadily: the last 30 days' sales are about to break 40,000, with an estimated GMV of nearly $1.3 million, averaging nearly $43,000 in daily sales.

02 Trending Product

In the last 30 days, the shop has 68 in-store items in its collection, mainly makeup and perfumes, with some women's skincare products and car fragrances.

Prices range from $9.99 to $75, with an average price of $25.97. The top-selling products in the store are Middle Eastern-style essential oil perfumes, which show a rich exotic style in their appearance design, fragrance ingredients, and promotional materials.

 03 Influencer Marketing and Cotent Creation 

AROMA CONCEPTS FL, just like most Beauty & Personal Care shops marketing their products on TikTok, primarily uses short videos for promotion and sales on TikTok, supplemented by lives, mainly inviting numerous influencers for short video marketing to increase the store and product sales and exposure. In the last 30 days, they produced 1100 short videos, bringing 10.9 million exposures to the shop.

The stop has collaborated with 272 influencers on TikTok, mainly mid-tier influencers (100,000 to 1 million followers) and smaller influencers (fewer than 100,000 followers), 6 of them have over a million followers, the highest is 2.2 million.

Most influencers are women, featuring Beauty & Personal Care, followed by womenswear, but there are also male influencers or couples as well participating in promoting goods for the shop.

Some Muslim influencers are attracted to the collaboration as well due to the products’ Halal certification and origin from Saudi Arabia align with their religious standard of body care products.

However, these Middle Eastern fragrances' appeal on TikTok goes beyond this demographic, attracting users of various ethnicities with their marketing content and luxurious packaging to try such products, to the point that these products sometimes sold out instantly.

For example, the store's best-selling product, KHADLAH Hareem Al Sultan perfume, reflects how Middle Eastern niche perfumes attract numerous users through content and reputation.

This perfume is a typical Middle Eastern oil-based fragrance, is luxuriously packaged and exudes an exotic feel. Priced at a premium, 20ml sells for $30.99, comparable to some top-tier brands, with considerable profit margin. According to the product description, its top notes are bergamot, jasmine, and peony, middle notes of pineapple, plum, and peach, and base notes of musk, sandalwood, and patchouli. The scent is designed to be generally popular and widely accepted, avoid contradictions.  

KHADLAH perfumes hold a significant place in the hearts of many niche perfume enthusiasts, especially those fond of Middle Eastern fragrances. However, due to high demand, the official website often runs out of stock, causing many customers to turn to distributors on platforms like Amazon, where they often find fake products.

@omavery, a Muslim influencer focused on sharing Middle Eastern perfumes, has long been promoting AROMA CONCEPTS FL's products on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

Her most popular video teaches how to distinguish the authenticity of KHADLAH perfume. In the 1 minute and 17-second video, she demonstrates how to differentiate real and fake based on the bottle's appearance, logo, engraving, and scent. Describing the perfume's rich fruity scent, she aroused the purchase desire of many potential users. The video garnered 14.8 million views, over 1.1 million likes, and nearly 5,000 comments, with many influencers sharing their experiences of buying fake perfumes in the comments section and inquiring about her purchasing channels, indicating their willingness to wait.

Whether the KHADLAH perfume's frequent out-of-stock status is a "hunger marketing" tactic or not, it has successfully created an impression of niche scarcity and appetite whetting.

On TikTok, most fragrance promotion videos primarily feature influencers trying out and expressing their reactions to the scent.

Creating usage scenarios and atmospheres to spark customers' imagination and guide non-rational consumption is also a key strategy in fragrance marketing. @juiceellison capitalized on the importance of perfume in dating scenarios, simulating a situation to promote the product. His performance of being excited by the scent of Arabian perfume on his girlfriend, captured in a mere 10-second video, also gained widespread dissemination.

As Christmas and New Year approach, gifting becomes an important marketing scene. In recent promotional videos, many influencers include this Arabian perfume in their Black Friday must-buy lists, adding tags like #gift, offering suggestions to users looking for gifts for their significant others or family and friends.

@priscilaluquez12 demonstrates a "sneaky" tactic in attracting traffic. "Don't buy! Don't buy this sold-out perfume!" she repeatedly emphasizes at the beginning, displayed in the middle of the video screen. Then, using an exaggerated application motion, she finishes the perfume bottle, explaining that she doesn't want it to sell out so she can still purchase it. This "clickbait" behavior leverages user curiosity and contrarian psychology, encouraging them to stay for the first 3 seconds of the video and likely watch it to completion.

Her rhetoric effectively attracts traffic, engages users, and guides interaction. Her video gained 3.7 million plays and 520,000 likes. Over 90 days, the influencer posted three similar videos, each garnering over a million plays, showing that consumers often click even when they know it might be a clickbait.

The fragrance market's development and opportunities

In 2022, the global perfume market was valued at $50.85 billion, with an expected annual compound growth rate (CAGR) of 5.9% from 2023 to 2030.

Market growth is attributed to the rising trend in personal beauty, coupled with increasing demand for luxury and exotic fragrances. Additionally, due to higher income levels and living standards, consumer spending on high-end and luxury perfumes is continually growing, driving global industry development. In recent years, as personal care needs have grown, perfumes have become indispensable in expressing people's personalities and confidence.

The U.S. is a major consumer of high-end cosmetics and perfumes. According to Statista's country rankings, the U.S. ranks first with sales of $11.6 billion, followed by Japan with $9 billion, and China in third place. About product, more and more consumers are starting to value natural ingredients and hypoallergenic properties in perfumes. Eau de toilette is gradually becoming popular among Generation Z.

Social media plays an increasingly important role in perfume marketing. Celebrity endorsements and social media influencers have a growing impact on consumers, influencing their purchasing decisions. According to Statista, as of October 2022, 45% of social media-driven perfume purchases in the U.S. were driven by TikTok. This percentage is expected to continue rising with the opening of TikTok Shop in North America this year.

On TikTok, the popularity of perfume-related content and discussions is growing daily, with exposure for related tags reaching hundreds of millions to billions, such as #Perfume, #Perfumetok, and #fragrance. Many perfume enthusiasts share their perfume collections, experiences, and mishaps on TikTok. Hardcore enthusiasts even match perfumes according to dress style, occasion, weather, and season.

In recent years, Generation Z has become major consumers in the perfume market. They prefer fresh fragrances that express individuality and emotion over international brands and cost-effective products. This trend has given rise to new high-end fragrance brands, "scent economy" is becoming a thriving new force in the market. These “sensitive” consumers continuously seek niche brands that satisfy their curiosity, serving as one reason for Arabian perfumes’ (Tag #ArabPerfume) popularity on TikTok. Consumers seek not just exotic perfumes but also the fantasy of mysterious Eastern cultures.

In the international market, many exotic niche perfume brands have attracted capital investment and even acquisitions. For example, Swedish high-end perfume brand Byredo was acquired by Puig Group for an estimated value of $1 billion; Indian DTC brand Nirmalaya, known for natural ingredients, secured seed funding of $800,000.

China, with its rich history and tradition of fragrance use, backed by a strong supply chain, has also attracted capital investment. Chinese high-end fragrance brand DOCUMENTS received multi-million RMB investments from investors including L'Oréal Group.

DOCUMENTS products are priced between ￥450-2250 , targeting consumers aged 20-40. They maximize the use of rare natural fragrances, collaborate with leading fragrance company Givaudan, and offer Eau de Parfum with 15-25% fragrance concentration. Due to its high-end positioning and unique ingredients, DOCUMENTS is particularly popular among Chinese consumers, especially Generation Z, becoming a leading brand in China's high-end fragrance market.

To Summer is another rising star in China's high-end fragrance market, positioning itself as a brand focused on fragrance healing and healthy living, targeting sophisticated, independent women. In product development, To Summer collaborates with a French natural fragrance company with over 170 years of history, selecting seasonal and regional plant materials to create Oriental plant fragrance blends.

Currently, these brands, with an international orientation and focus on Eastern aesthetics and Chinese fashion, are still cultivating the domestic market of China. Due to the specialty of the category, Chinese fragrance companies are rarely seen in the international market. However, with the development of the global fragrance market, Chinese fragrances will eventually tell their Eastern stories on the international stage.