China’s Fragrance Industry: From Manufacturing to Luxury Branding and Scent Tourism

2. Changing Preferences Among Chinese Consumers

According to Max Yu’s observations, Chinese consumers are becoming more diverse in their fragrance preferences, with differences between generations and individual purchasing habits.

Some older consumers continue to favor established international brands. Younger consumers, however, are increasingly interested in exploring local Chinese fragrance brands, particularly those inspired by Eastern culture and traditional botanical ingredients.

Scent profiles associated with tea, osmanthus, orchid, sandalwood, and traditional Chinese herbal and botanical traditions offer opportunities for local brands to develop distinctive identities.

Rather than simply reproducing familiar European fragrance styles, these brands can draw on Chinese cultural references to create products that offer different olfactory experiences.

Max also observes an interesting pattern among male consumers. Some men purchase perfume mainly as a gift or for particular occasions, such as dates, rather than using it as part of their daily routine.

This suggests that purchasing fragrance and using it personally are not always the same behavior. Social customs and gifting practices can influence demand alongside personal preferences.

In his view, perfume has increasingly become an everyday consumer product rather than something reserved for special occasions.

These observations reflect his professional experience rather than a representative survey of all Chinese consumers. Nevertheless, they provide useful insight into the ways fragrance purchasing habits may be changing.

3. Can Chinese Brands Compete with French Luxury Perfume Houses?

One of the most important questions facing China’s fragrance industry is whether local brands can compete with established international luxury houses.

China has an affluent consumer segment that values brand reputation, product quality, heritage, and social recognition. Brands such as Chanel, Dior, and Hermès have spent decades building their identities through product development, design, global distribution, marketing, and carefully managed luxury experiences.

They do not sell fragrance alone. They also offer a sense of heritage, recognition, trust, and prestige that has accumulated over many years.

According to Euromonitor’s 2025 market data, Dior and Chanel remained the leading companies in China’s fragrance market, each holding a 14% retail value share. Their combined share declined from 33% in 2020 to just under 29% in 2025.

This indicates that established international brands remain powerful, even as the competitive landscape evolves. The figures do not establish that Chinese brands captured all the share lost by these two companies, but they suggest that the market is becoming more competitive.

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What Max Yu Says About Changing Brand Preferences

Max offers an important observation about consumers who previously favored international perfume brands. In his experience, many of them are now also purchasing fragrances from Chinese brands.

Many consumers who once preferred international perfume brands are now also spending a significant share of their fragrance purchases on local brands. People’s attitudes are changing and becoming more discerning. They are no longer pursuing prestige blindly. A higher price does not automatically mean a product is more premium, nor does it necessarily mean better quality. More and more people are choosing what they like and what suits them.

This is an English translation of Max’s personal observation. It should not be interpreted as a measured estimate of how many consumers have changed brands.

If this observation reflects a broader trend, it could create opportunities for Chinese brands to attract customers who previously preferred international products. However, this does not mean that affluent consumers have abandoned luxury brands or that Chinese brands have already achieved equivalent global recognition.

Competing in the luxury segment requires much more than manufacturing a good fragrance at a lower price. It involves consistent quality, distinctive design, a compelling brand story, effective distribution, excellent customer experiences, and long-term investment in reputation.

Chinese brands may therefore have a more realistic opportunity to establish their own identities and gradually enter higher-priced segments rather than attempting to replace French luxury houses outright.

4. From Bamboo Products to Fragrance Manufacturing: Max Yu’s Business Journey

Max Yu’s professional journey illustrates how international relationships and commercial opportunities can lead to a new direction in business.

Between 2010 and 2020, he exported bamboo products. At a trade fair in Hong Kong, he met a Swiss customer who appreciated his environmental values and expressed interest in using bamboo packaging boxes for her scented candles and perfume products.

In 2020, they unexpectedly lost contact. Although he did not know the reason, he remembered the encounter and eventually decided to enter the scented candle business.

As his customer base grew, clients began requesting additional products, including fragrance sprays, perfumes, and skincare products. His business gradually expanded from scented candles into a broader range of fragrance-related manufacturing.

Today, his activities include wholesale manufacturing and customized production for brands that want to develop their own products.

His experience illustrates one possible path into the fragrance industry. A business does not necessarily need to begin by creating its own consumer brand. It can start by manufacturing products for other companies, build relationships with customers, and expand according to market demand.

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Max Yu’s Business Experience: Questions and Answers

What products and services does your business provide?

Max’s answer, translated: He mainly works in the wholesale and manufacturing of fragrance products, including perfumes, skincare products, and scented candles. His business also accepts private-label customized production.

Which markets do you mainly serve?

Max’s answer, translated: He mainly serves overseas markets, including the United States, Canada, Russia, India, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Southeast Asia, the Arab region, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, New Zealand, and Australia.

What are the main opportunities and challenges for Chinese fragrance brands?

Max’s answer, translated: He sees fragrance as a relatively new market in China, with substantial growth potential, strong demand, many emerging brands, a well-developed supply chain for raw materials, and considerable innovation. He also describes the fragrances he works with as light and elegant.

In his view, one of the main challenges is that Chinese brands are not yet as strong at brand marketing and storytelling. Even when price and quality are competitive, they must work harder to compete with established brands, particularly in European markets where long-standing perceptions can be difficult to change. He believes gaining a larger market share will take time.

What experience has left the strongest impression on you in the fragrance business?

Max’s answer, translated and edited for clarity: He says that treating every customer who makes an inquiry with respect has brought him valuable experiences. One Indian customer, despite the reputation Max had heard about Indian buyers being difficult to communicate with, turned out to be easy to work with. The order was large, and the customer was satisfied with the product quality.

His experience with a Russian customer was very different. The customer had firm ideas about the fragrance, appearance, and overall product concept. Max took time to analyze the requirements and communicate patiently. The customer insisted on French fragrance ingredients, so they sourced the requested ingredients from France, but the customer did not like that supplier’s products.

After several attempts and continued sample revisions, a sample finally met the customer’s own definition of near-perfect. The process took approximately ten months, but the order was ultimately secured and was substantial in value.

For Max, these experiences show that customers have very different requirements, and that patience, communication, and respect matter in business—even when a request is difficult or demanding.

What do you see as the greatest long-term potential for China’s fragrance industry?

Max’s answer, translated: He believes the greatest potential lies in building genuinely Chinese fragrance brands through Eastern scent profiles and cultural storytelling, rather than continuing to act mainly as agents or followers of European and American brands. He also notes that China’s fragrance consumption is growing and that the supply chain and raw-material ecosystem are well developed. In his view, perfume has shifted in China from being a luxury product twenty years ago to becoming an everyday consumer product.

10. Opportunities for Foreign Investors and International Brands

China’s developing fragrance industry offers several potential opportunities for foreign companies and investors, depending on their objectives and willingness to take risks.

Contract Manufacturing

International businesses can work with Chinese manufacturers to develop products or test new concepts without immediately investing in their own production facilities.

Partnerships with Local Brands

Investors can explore partnerships with Chinese brands that have distinctive cultural identities or growing customer bases. Such opportunities require careful assessment of product quality, intellectual property, and actual sales performance.

Localized Product Development

Foreign companies can combine international expertise with an understanding of Chinese consumer preferences, rather than simply introducing existing products without adapting them to the local market.

Specialty Retail and Fragrance Experiences

Fragrance boutiques, personalized scent experiences, gifting, and tourism-related products may offer opportunities where customer demand and sales data support a sustainable business model.

Investment decisions should not be based on market size alone. Competition, marketing costs, profit margins, regulatory requirements, and customer retention all need to be evaluated.

A manufacturer’s success in exporting products does not necessarily mean that launching a consumer brand will be equally profitable.

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11. From “Made in China” to Recognized Chinese Fragrance Brands

Perhaps the industry’s greatest long-term opportunity is not simply to increase the number of factories or products, but to develop Chinese brands capable of competing through their own identities.

China has an extensive manufacturing base, a large domestic market, and a rich cultural heritage that offers ingredients, symbols, and scent traditions that can be reinterpreted for contemporary consumers.

Turning these resources into internationally recognized brands, however, requires more than an appealing story or a competitive price.

It requires good products, a clear identity, thoughtful design, credible communication, effective distribution, and sustained investment in consumer trust.

Success does not necessarily require Chinese brands to imitate or displace French luxury houses. An alternative path may be to establish a distinctive category of Chinese fragrances with their own audience and value proposition, then gradually expand into more demanding market segments.

The central challenge is to transform manufacturing strength into brand value: creating products that consumers recognize, trust, and choose because they offer something distinctive.

Conclusion

China’s fragrance industry sits at the intersection of manufacturing, international trade, culture, consumer behavior, and tourism.

Max Yu’s experience illustrates how a business journey can evolve from exporting bamboo products to manufacturing scented candles and fragrance products, and how patience and customer understanding can lead to significant commercial opportunities.

Trade data also show that China is not merely a market that imports fragrance products. It is an important manufacturing and export base. Meanwhile, specialized fragrance museums and immersive scent experiences demonstrate how fragrance can become a vehicle for cultural expression and tourism.

Nevertheless, competition in the luxury segment remains a serious test. Manufacturing strength and innovation in fragrance profiles alone are not enough to compete with brands that possess decades of history, established reputations, and global distribution networks.

The future of China’s fragrance industry may depend on its ability to combine what it already does well in manufacturing with what it still needs to develop in brand building: reliable products, authentic identity, and experiences that earn consumer trust in China and international markets alike.

Business Contact: Max Yu

Max Yu works in international product trading, manufacturing, and supply, focusing on quality products at competitive prices directly from manufacturers. His business experience includes scented candles, fragrance products, and customized manufacturing for brands.

Facebook: Max Yu

WhatsApp / WeChat: +86 135 1120 0629

The contact details are provided for business inquiries. Please confirm availability on the relevant messaging platform before contacting him.

Sources and Editorial Note

• Euromonitor International, Fragrances in China.
• Xinhua Finance, reporting Chinese customs data on perfume and toilet water trade in 2025.
• Guangzhou and Guangdong government sources covering the Xuelei Fragrance Museum.

The observations about consumer preferences and customer experiences are attributed to Max Yu and reflect his personal experience in fragrance manufacturing and exports. They should not be interpreted as representative statistics for all Chinese consumers or businesses.