Source: Ebay

How to think about brand as an ecommerce player

A simple question for a complex goal

Ecommerce is a highly competitive market (another vendor is just a click away) and it’s considered best practice to offer free shipping as a way to entice customers to convert.

So I was surprised at the audacity of Diptyque, a candle brand, who not just charges shipping… they charge $15 shipping for a small candle. My first thought? Mild annoyance. My second? Boss.

The online candle category is highly contested. I could have gotten annoyed at Diptyque and gone to any number of fancy candle vendors. But I didn’t. I was buying a gift. I know Diptyque is a respected, aspirational, and well-designed brand. I assume the packaging would be good. Actually I assume it will be better than good. I know people rave about Diptyque scents. I couldn’t smell the Diptyque candle through the screen, but I trust that its scent is multi-layered, unique, and experiential.

And so I paid for an overpriced candle, and shipping, without having shopped the brand before…

…and I feel good about it.

That’s the power of a great brand. Instead of enticing me to buy via free shipping, Diptyque closed the sale by building a proposition that I could not resist.

E-commerce optimizations are great for short run improvements, not as a long run strategy

Investing in an optimized ecommerce site along every “best practice” for conversion (e.g. a/b testing the home page, offering a first purchase discount) is an easy route to increased sales. But if that is your entire strategy, it’s also an easy route to unprofitability. There’s no moat in a digital optimizations. If a competitor comes in, all that competitor needs is an Instagram ad and a slightly better price to steal your customers.

Instead, moat comes from the hard work of investing in a unique product and/or brand. Diptyque has invested in distinctive packaging, high quality products, and built a reputation in the scent category with well-located and experiential stores, knowledgeable store associates, artist partnerships, and an impeccable aesthetic that conveys the brand’s sense of French art, design, and culture. It’s a cool, unique product to gift or display in your home.

“People are no longer just coming to Diptyque to buy the perfectly scented candle. They are buying a piece of French and Parisian lifestyle, including a constellation of product categories and collaborators”

— Laurence Semichon, SVP of Diptyque, Vogue Business, May 2024

Diptyque’s Parisian cafe inspired candles (Left), and their new London store (Right). Source: Diptyque

There are also areas Diptyque has not invested in.

Diptyque’s customer service is not 24/7. There’s no 10% discount for signing up for Diptyque’s email and SMS. Free shipping only comes after significant order size ($80+).

But, Diptyque’s investments in retail, design, and product translate into a capital asset on their side: a unique brand proposition, in my mind, that meant even presented with the additional $15 shipping cost, I still bought, because I specifically wanted that candle, not any candle.

These investments are hard to measure.

How would Diptyque know that my purchase is based on all of these elements (packaging, walking by the store and seeing whimsical French displays, repeatedly seeing the brand in homes and on social media), and know that investing marketing dollars there is warranted? Answer: they probably don’t.

Attribution for these kind of brand investments is tough (if not impossible).

Instead, investing in brand should be considered a strategic decision, rather than one with immediate performance targets. Ask yourself: are we looking to use brand as a moat to succeed in this market? (Note: not every strategy requires a strong brand.) But if your answer is yes, ask yourself a second question: Why would someone buy our product, even with high shipping fees? And invest accordingly.

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