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A record Ramadan shopping spree has boosted sales in the West End this summer.
Sales of perfume - a traditional gift at the end of the Muslim festival - over the past four weeks are up 60 per cent at Selfridges compared with last year thanks to a surge in the number of wealthy Middle Eastern visitors.
Nearly 150,000 are thought to have visited London in the past month to escape the scorching heat of home.
Shop assistants at the Oxford Street department store said the beauty hall has been as busy as at Christmas, with extra emergency stock and gift wrap called in.
London is used to seeing an influx of shoppers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates in July and August, but this year they are coming in greater numbers and spending more because the weak pound has made it better value to buy goods in Britain than in Paris or Milan.
Middle Eastern visitors have also found the capital more welcoming this year after 100,000 staff at major stores in Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street were put through the "West End Knowledge", teaching them about the customs and needs of shoppers from different cultures.
Noel Saunders, managing director of John Lewis Oxford Street said: "Our fashion advisers are aware of our Middle East customers' cultural diversity and offer personal service and private fitting rooms. Our most popular products for the Middle Eastern market are fashion and accessories plus bed and bath linens."
Several shops have introduced later closing in the run-up to Ramadan to suit Middle Eastern customers who are used to shopping in the evening at home when it is cooler.
Andrew Gordon, Boots area manager for the West End, said: "Later opening hours are critical in picking up additional Middle East trade and to accommodate the larger purchases of health and beauty products we usually see."
Selfridges has more than 50 Arabic- speaking staff and its Clarins counter has introduced a secluded area for sampling beauty products, which has proved popular with Muslim women who do not want to remove their hijab in public.
The store also doubled the size of its tax-free shopping suite and its staff to accommodate the increase in VAT refund requests.
Last week, before visitors flew home for the month of fasting and prayer which begins today, Selfridges saw sales double of perfumes by Trish McEvoy, Tom Ford and Chanel, whose powerful, heady scents are popular with Middle Eastern women.
David Walker-Smith, beauty and menswear director at Selfridges, said: "Our Middle Eastern customers always spend in the beauty hall at this time but this August we have noticed a record amount of fragrance sales.
"Many counters have reported their best week ever."
