An erotic boutique, or an erotic novelty shop is a place where men and women can purchase adult novelty merchandise. These types of stores are different from a sex shop in the way that they carry mostly novelty products such as lingerie, adult toys, lubricants, massage oils, and sexual enhancers. A sex shop will normally carry all of these, however they mostly carry decadent and more sophisticated merchandise. Normally, a sex store will carry XXX porn DVDs, BDSM gear, advanced vibrators, penis enlargement devices, etc.

Since online erotic boutiques have become extremely popular for sex toy shopping, there has been an overlap between erotic shops and sex shops. It has also become more difficult to define what category an online adult toys store falls under. Usually, a good website that sells adult toys will carry a great variety of adult novelties and sex toys.