Walk into an Abercrombie & Fitch. Before you see a single product, the smell hits you—aggressive cologne pumped through the ventilation system at levels designed to be detectable from outside the store. This is intentional. It's called scent marketing, and retailers spend millions implementing it.
Here's what they're not measuring: how many customers turn around and leave before crossing the threshold.
For autistic individuals with olfactory sensitivities—which includes a substantial percentage of the autistic population—scent marketing isn't atmospheric. It's a barrier to entry. Strong fragrances trigger headaches, nausea, respiratory distress, and sensory overload. The smell doesn't create pleasant associations. It creates physical illness.
And once a store or product causes that reaction, the customer is gone. Not just for that visit—potentially forever.
The retail and product industries have embraced olfactory marketing based on research showing scent influences purchasing behavior. What that research doesn't account for: the customers who never make it inside because the scent prevents them from entering.
Scent marketing operates on solid neurological principles. Smell connects directly to the limbic system—the brain's emotional center. Scents can trigger memories, create moods, and influence behavior unconsciously.
For neurotypical consumers without sensitivities, a subtle vanilla scent in a bakery enhances the experience. Light lavender in a spa reinforces relaxation. These applications work when the scent is gentle, contextually appropriate, and genuinely subtle.
The problem: retail scent marketing is rarely subtle.
Stores use industrial fragrance systems that pump scent aggressively. The goal is making the scent detectable throughout large retail spaces and even outside storefronts. What feels "atmospheric" to consumers without sensitivities is overwhelming to those with heightened olfactory processing.
For autistic customers, the intensity isn't a minor inconvenience. It's a physical assault that makes the space unusable.
Here are some illustrations.
Lush stores are identifiable by smell from hundreds of feet away. The combined fragrance of their products creates an olfactory wall that hits customers before they reach the entrance.
The business intent: Showcase product freshness and natural ingredients through scent.
The autistic customer impact: Many autistic consumers report being unable to enter Lush stores despite interest in the products. The smell causes immediate headaches, nausea, or sensory overload. They order online instead—when they bother at all—because the in-store experience is physically intolerable.
The financial impact: Lost in-store sales, reduced impulse purchases, complete brand avoidance from sensitive customers. Online-only customers spend less and have higher return rates than in-store shoppers.
Bath & Body Works uses aggressive scent marketing, particularly during seasonal campaigns. Walk through a mall and you can identify their location by smell alone.
The business intent: Create seasonal excitement and drive traffic through recognizable scents.
The autistic customer impact: Parents of autistic children report having to avoid entire sections of malls because their children cannot tolerate passing Bath & Body Works. Adult autistic shoppers describe the store as "unwalkable-past" even when they have no intention of entering.
The financial impact: Not only lost direct sales, but impact on mall traffic patterns. Autistic customers may avoid entire shopping centers if navigating requires passing strongly scented stores.
Abercrombie became infamous for cologne-saturated stores in the 2000s and early 2010s. The scent was so intense it permeated adjacent stores and mall corridors.
The business intent: Create signature brand identity and aspirational atmosphere.
The autistic customer impact: The brand became synonymous with "the store that makes me sick." Even customers without autism reported headaches and respiratory irritation.
The financial impact: The company eventually reduced scent intensity in stores as part of a broader rebranding—suggesting the strategy wasn't as profitable as assumed.
Luxury apartment buildings have adopted scent marketing in lobbies and common areas, using diffusers to create "signature scents" meant to convey luxury.
The business intent: Differentiate properties and create memorable experiences for potential renters.
The autistic customer impact: Prospective autistic renters experience immediate negative reactions in lobbies, associating the property with physical discomfort. Current residents may avoid common areas entirely or experience daily distress entering and exiting their homes.
The financial impact: Lost leases from sensitive renters, reduced use of amenity spaces, complaints requiring accommodation.
This isn't about disliking a scent. Chemical sensitivity and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS)—both more common in autistic populations—create genuine physiological reactions to synthetic fragrances.
Symptoms include:
These reactions aren't psychosomatic. They're neurological and physiological responses to chemical compounds in synthetic fragrances. For individuals with these sensitivities, entering a scented space isn't unpleasant—it's dangerous to their health.
When you market products with strong fragrances or maintain scented retail environments, you're not just creating an experience some customers dislike. You're creating a health hazard for customers with chemical sensitivities.
Some retailers have discovered that fragrance-free environments attract underserved customer bases.
MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) in Canada implemented fragrance-free policies in some locations, responding to customer requests. They found that customers with sensitivities became intensely loyal, shopped longer, and brought families.
Whole Foods maintains relatively low-scent environments compared to conventional grocers, contributing to their appeal for health-conscious consumers including those with sensitivities.
Medical facilities that have gone fragrance-free report higher patient satisfaction and reduced complaints from chemically sensitive patients.
The profitability equation is straightforward: fragrance-free stores don't lose neurotypical customers (absence of artificial scent is neutral for them) while gaining customers who've been excluded from competing stores.
Chemical sensitivity extends beyond retail environments to product formulation. Autistic consumers actively seek unscented products across categories: cleaning supplies, personal care, laundry detergent, air fresheners.
Seventh Generation built market share partly by offering fragrance-free options when competitors didn't. Their "Free & Clear" line specifically targets sensitive consumers.
Branch Basics created an entire brand around fragrance-free, non-toxic cleaning products, attracting chemically sensitive customers willing to pay premium prices.
Marketing these products requires transparency about what "fragrance-free" means (no added fragrance vs. naturally scented vs. masking agents that technically aren't "fragrances").
Scent marketing makes assumptions about universal human neurology that don't hold for neurodivergent populations. What works for average sensory processing fails for heightened sensitivity.
Retailers can maintain brand identity without excluding sensitive customers by reducing scent intensity, offering fragrance-free locations or hours, and testing with diverse sensory profiles before implementing scent strategies.
The customer who can't breathe in your store can't buy your products. The profitability of scent marketing needs to account for the customers it drives away—not just the ones it attracts.
Winsome Marketing helps brands reach underserved audiences including chemically sensitive consumers. We position products and experiences that work across sensory profiles. Let's talk about inclusive retail strategy.
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