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Good morning,
Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:
You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: OceanaGold, and Good Dog. 👋
📈 $2.9B in Sales. One Weekend. See What Actually Drove It.
🛒 26 million orders. $607M in ad spend. Conversion value hit $40.5M at 5 AM on Black Friday. 🤩
Find out the exact strategies behind the success.
👉 Triple Whale brands represented 19.7% of all Shopify sales during BFCM—tracking $2.9 billion across nearly 50,000+ brands.
Top performers saw Apparel take 36% of revenue, Travel Accessories lead at $150 AOV, $1.4B in new customer revenue, and TikTok deliver +28% YoY ROAS while cutting CPM by 27%. 📊
⚡ Which platforms delivered the best ROI? How did spending patterns shift hour by hour? Where did winners invest—new customers or retention?
Get the complete breakdown.
💥 The BFCM Breakdown Report includes platform performance across Meta, Google, TikTok, Amazon, and AppLovin. Industry benchmarks across 12 verticals. Campaign strategies that worked.
Your blueprint for BFCM 2026.
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🕯️ How Diptyque Can Unlock Further Growth in Q4
Diptyque has mastered the art of storytelling.
Its signature scents, premium packaging, and cohesive branding make it one of the most recognizable fragrance brands in the world.
However, even the most iconic brands can lose performance momentum when their digital presence doesn’t match the retail experience.
The Pilothouse CRO team shares ways Diptyque can further optimize the customer experience and unlock growth in Q4.
1. Website Speed
Diptyque’s site is experiencing very slow loading times: Google PageSpeed score of 28 on mobile and 26 on desktop.
Slow-loading pages can lead to higher bounce rates, lower engagement, and lost revenue.
A one second delay in load times can impact mobile conversions by up to 20%.
Faster pages mean lower bounce rates and higher engagement, especially critical during key sales moments like holiday launches.
💡 Pilothouse Tips:
✅ Reduce page size & JavaScript: Use code-splitting to only load the scripts necessary for the current page and remove unused scripts.
✅ Optimize images: Serve images in formats like WebP or AVIF instead of JPEG or PNG.
Use responsive images to serve appropriately sized images for different screen sizes.
✅ Use efficient cache lifetimes: For files that rarely change, like header images of all-seasons campaigns or messages on loyalty programs, set their cache to last a long time (e.g., one year).
For files that update often, like CSS or JavaScript, use a shorter cache (e.g., one month) and change their file names when you update them. This ensures users get the latest version.
2. Product Pages
Diptyque’s product pages are visually stunning and convey its luxury aesthetic, but key purchase information (e.g. descriptions, variants, and gallery thumbnails) fall below the fold on mobile.
And customer reviews are nowhere to be found.
With 70% of ecommerce sales happening on mobile, placement is everything.
💡 Pilothouse Tips:
✅ Reorder above-the-fold content: Include product name, price, key details, and review snippet higher on the page.
✅ Add social proof! Integrate ratings, reviews, and even short customer videos to reinforce trust and desirability.
A clean aesthetic can still drive urgency and confidence. It’s about balancing elegance with clarity.
Keep reading for more on checkout flow and AOV tactics! 👇
👗 Triple Whale Brands Earned $2.9B during BFCM 2025, with Apparel Brands Accounting for 36% of Revenue
But beneath the surface, Apparel's efficiency crisis is accelerating. 🫨
Triple Whale analyzed 8,000+ apparel brands and found that CPA spiked 31% year-over-year, AOV dipped 11%, and ROAS declined by 36% — 📉 the steepest among all major categories.
The culprit? A massive gap between budget allocation and platform performance. Brands are overinvesting in underperforming channels while ignoring platforms delivering 3x better returns. 💸
📃 The 2025 Apparel & Accessories Benchmarks Report breaks down what's working, where the opportunity lies, and how to fix your platform strategy before 2026.
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3. Checkout Flow
When customers are ready to check out, there’s an absence of accelerated checkout options that allows high-intent customers to pay securely.
There isn’t an option to use saved account information for orders. Customers need to manually enter credit card or shipping details for every purchase.
💡 Pilothouse Tips:
✅ Add express checkout options: While Diptyque advertises a BNPL payment option on their PDPs, they can offer more options like Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Venmo.
✅ Leverage trust cues: Integrate familiar security and guarantee badges (“30-day returns”, “secure checkout”) near CTAs.
Small visual trust signals can yield major gains in conversion especially for new luxury buyers discovering Diptyque online.
An easy tweak?
Repurposing these existing badges on Diptyque’s website and leveraging them for cart and checkout pages.
4. AOV Tactics
Diptyque already employs several effective tactics to increase AOV, capitalizing on its high base price point:
1️⃣ Bundling and Sets: The promotion of Gift Sets and the "Build your fall candle set" option encourages multiple purchases.
2️⃣ Holiday Products and Sets: Its limited edition advent calendar is great for sampling and gold statement candles for the holiday season are geared towards gifting.
3️⃣ Value-Added Upsells: Personalized Engraving services are offered on select fragrances and large candles.
This tactic significantly adds both monetary value and emotional resonance to a purchase, particularly during key gifting seasons.
💡 Pilothouse Tips:
✅ Add cart-drawer upsells: The primary AOV opportunity lies in implementing low-friction upsells within the cart environment.
Offer accessories like candle holders or snuffers as one-click add-ons to existing purchases.
✅ Highlight value alignment: Frame these upsells as enhancing the ritual, turning a purchase into a full sensory experience.
Even a small uptick in AOV from these moments can compound dramatically at scale.
✨ Conclusion
Diptyque’s online experience mirrors its product philosophy: minimal, refined, and elegant.
The next evolution is about infusing that same precision into performance: faster load times, more intuitive layouts, and frictionless checkout.
These refinements amplify the brand, ensuring every digital interaction feels as premium as the products themselves.
With the right CRO roadmap, Diptyque’s site can deliver not only beauty, but business impact.
🤍 Pantone Reveals Its Color of The Year for 2026
The Pantone Color Institute reveals 'Cloud Dancer' as its Color of the Year for 2026.
The institute describes the white shade as “a billowy, balanced white imbued with a feeling of serenity" that has a calming influence and "signifies our desire for a fresh start."
💸 BFCM 2025 is over. $2.9B, 50,000+ brands. Here's how it played out. Triple Whale breaks down platform performance, industry benchmarks, and winning strategies that'll define your 2026 playbook. Grab your copy. *
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DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.
Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content.
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