The Perfume Shop sold record 1.8m bottles over Christmas

Shopper penchant for olfactory gifting saw The Perfume Shop sell its highest ever number of fragrances this Christmas.

The perfume giant said sales of its products soared despite Royal Mail strikes and disruptive weather, with 1.8 million bottles sold between 28 November and 24 December.

Sales of gift sets were up 26 percent in the week before Christmas. Bestselling fragrances include Dior Sauvage, Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel and Thierry Mugler’s Alien perfumes.

The Perfume Shop is operated by the A.S. Watson Group (ASW) which is owned by the Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holding group. ASW is the world’s largest international health and beauty retailer, with a network of approximately 16,300 offline and online retail stores in 28 markets worldwide.

The Perfume Shop was founded in 1992 and is the UK’s largest fragrance retailer, operating 215 stores.

According to The Times, the retailer’s e-commerce site recorded its busiest day on Sunday, December 11, with online orders up 39 percent compared to last Christmas.