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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: Bowl & Kettle, BearVault, and Pop's Brittle Company. 👋
🚨 The $2.9B BFCM Win Masks a Major Apparel Problem. Here’s the Data You Need To Fix It
💸 Triple Whale brands earned $2.9 billion during BFCM 2025, with apparel brands accounting for 36% of that revenue.
But beneath the surface, the data shows 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 over-investing 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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💰 Why Placement on The Page Matters
Vitruvi has built one of the most recognizable brands in modern home scenting, a category where trust, aesthetic, and sensory cues matter deeply.
From minimalist diffusers to beautifully branded oils, the brand delivers premium air-care with a wellness-first ethos that resonates.
But even category leaders benefit from fresh CRO eyes.
With traffic surging during the holidays and gifting season in full swing, there’s meaningful upside in optimizing speed and user experience to help shoppers choose confidently and convert more often.
Here’s where Pilothouse’s CRO team sees high-impact opportunities.
1. Website Speed
Vitruvi’s mobile PageSpeed score (38) shows room for improvement, and mobile now accounts for 62% of all ecommerce traffic.
Slow load times cause drop-offs before your design and product education can do their job.
Key Issues
Pilothouse Tips:
✅ Reduce unused JavaScript & CSS: Disable or remove any theme features that are not being utilized, as these also contribute to the overall code size.
✅ Aggressively lazy-load gallery images: Add the loading="lazy" attribute directly to image tags.
✅ Minimize main-thread work to speed up interactivity: Defer non-critical JavaScript, and optimize images.
Faster load = lower bounce, more engaged sessions, stronger ad efficiency.
2. Improve User Experience
Vitruvi does a great job using descriptive copy and evocative names like ‘Forest Rain’ and ‘Warm Vanilla’ to guide customers towards their desired scent.
But the UX can still be improved so the path to purchase is smoother.
Pilothouse Tips:
✅ Add a Scent Quiz: Buying a scent online can be challenging, so take the guesswork out of it with a quiz to get to know your customer better.
Ask questions like:
This helps reduce decision fatigue, and the results page can guide customers to a curated bundle to increase conversion confidence and AOV.
✅ Offer a “Scent Stylist” Chat: Live 1:1 support feels premium and reduces friction for high-intent buyers.
3. Social Proof
Vitruvi’s trust signals are exceptional.
Its homepage does a great job of building social proof right away with the callout: ‘14,000+ 5 Star Reviews’.
That’s an impressive stat!
They also use press mentions from reputable publications, like The New York Times, Wirecutter, and Oprah Daily, to reassure shoppers and justify the premium cost.
But there’s still room for improvement here.
Two best-selling gift products on the homepage currently show no reviews, which can create a trust gap during peak holiday traffic.
It’s safe to assume this page will be getting a ton of traffic during the holiday season, so the lack of social proof here can hurt conversions.
Pilothouse Tips:
✅ Amp up review generation: Add or source reviews for these products before peak gifting weekends.
✅ Use negativity for good: Address any one-star concerns in the FAQ section of a product page or in the Care & Maintenance section on the site.
✅ Ensure best-seller sections feel consistent: Add enough reviews on each item so that it’s easy for visitors to make a purchase decision.
Keep scrolling for more! 👇
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4. PDP Content Rearrangement
Vitruvi’s product pages contain a ton of elements that provide product education, but some of these are buried at the end of the image gallery or fall too far below the fold.
Placement matters. Make sure first-time customers don’t miss this.
Pilothouse Tips:
✅ Re-arrange image gallery: Move the ‘Easy to Set Up’ thumbnail image earlier in the carousel. We recommend making it either the second or third thumbnail so customers can understand how simple it is to use.
✅ Move product badges higher up: These product badges are great and address a number of pain points like quality of ingredients, battery life, and clean up, but they fall too far down below the fold.
For maximum impact, having these next to the Add to Bag and Buy with Shop CTA buttons would reinforce its value proposition more effectively.
✅ Reduce negative space in the Build Your Bundle section so the page doesn't feel overwhelming.
Having the option to build a bundle is great, but from a design perspective, this Build Bundle section takes up too much space and could cause visitors to bounce if this isn’t an option they are looking for.
Impact: Faster product understanding and clearer value reinforcement.
5. Accessibility Features and Compliance
Having an ADA-compliant site in 2025 is essential and increasingly enforced.
One way to make a site more accessible is through alt text. Vitruvi’s site is very image-heavy, so there’s an opportunity here to use image alt text more effectively.
Not only does this lower your legal risk, but helps your SEO gains.
Pilothouse Tips:
✅ Tweak alt image text: Instead of naming files like pdp_stone-diffuser_front_white, use more descriptive phrases like e.g. white ceramic stone diffuser on wooden bedside tables, so people with vision impairment can understand the context behind the image.
✨ Conclusion
By tightening site speed, guiding customers to the right scent, and refining PDP layouts, Vitruvi has a better chance of reducing decision fatigue and lifting conversion rates across the funnel.
🗞️ OpenAI’s Billion Dollar Disney Deal
OpenAI strikes a three-year licensing agreement with The Walt Disney Company to bring its beloved characters to its AI video platform Sora.
As part of the agreement, Disney will also invest $1 billion in OpenAI.
📅 Q1 is coming up fast. Are you making progress on your creatives? Grapevine delivers UGC that converts when competition drops and CPMs fall. Book a demo before Jan 1, get one creator free. *
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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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