Who’s Winning the 2025 Fragrance Game so Far?

Macy’s may be holding on to its longtime position as the top U.S. retailer by share of fragrance sales, but plenty of other shifts are afoot when it comes to who’s winning the category.

According to YipitData, Macy’s accounted for 31.8 percent of fragrance sales during the month of May, indicating a 14.7-point lead from the category’s next-biggest retailer during the period, Ulta Beauty. While significant, that lead is several points less than it was, say, two years prior in 2023, when Macy’s accounted for more than 40 percent of fragrance sales during the same month.

This shift is in part due to the nascent growth of alternative fragrance retailers as formidable competitors in the space.

There’s Amazon, which, per YipitData, accounted for 14.9 percent of fragrance sales in May across the platform’s first- and third-party sellers (tracking after Sephora, which accounted for 15.5 percent during the same period).

TikTok Shop, too, wasn’t on the map at all in the U.S. until halfway through 2023, yet today the e-tailer — which has propelled brands from Lattafa to Phlur to virality — goes head-to-head with Target in terms of share of fragrance sales, actually outpacing Target slightly in May.

Year-to-date, the top three fragrance brands at Sephora have been Kayali, Sol de Janeiro and YSL Beauty, in that order. For the month of May, Valentino overtook YSL for the number-three spot, while in April, Chanel’s Chance Eau Splendide Eau de Parfum was the retailer’s top-selling new stock keeping unit across the store.

On Amazon, which YipitData reports has gained modest but steady share in fragrance since 2023, winning brands range from value-driven to designer, a dynamic which the platform’s top two brands in May — Lattafa and Versace — quintessentially represent. Other top 10 brands on Amazon include Sol de Janeiro, Nautica and Dior (which, like all brands owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, does not officially sell on the platform).

So far in 2025, fragrance has been the fastest-growing category in beauty, as has been the case since 2021. According to Circana, the category grew 4 percent in the prestige market and 8 percent in mass during the first quarter of this year.