Diptyque has become one of the most popular global candle brands. With unique scents, bespoke packaging and exclusive advent calendars, holiday is a big focus for the company that pays off.
Every year, Diptyque introduces holiday-themed scents, candle accessories and advent calendars that sell out. Now, with customers returning to stores, the brand is focusing on updating its in-store layout and offering to best serve holiday shoppers. According to the National Candle Association, approximately 35% of candle sales occur during the holiday season. During the pandemic, Diptyque’s home scents and candle sales reportedly tripled, with DTC accounting for over 60% of the brand’s U.S. sales.
For years, 61-year-old brand Diptyque has released an annual holiday collection featuring limited-edition products and gift sets, tied together with a unique theme reflected in the packaging. It introduced home decor in 2020, adding pieces within the holiday collection like candle lids and mobiles. The 2022 collection features golden lanterns and candle photophores, as well as ceramic plates and hand-blown glass ornaments created in partnership with various artisans.
Diptyque’s new store design and layout, inspired by a Parisian apartment, encourage easy discovery of the holiday collection. The collection is featured on a large central table, which is surrounded by gift-perfect perfumes, home scents and decor. For its exterior window, the brand creates whimsical holiday displays meant to inspire intrigue and excitement — for 2022. they include illuminated star constellations. Diptyque focuses on providing a luxurious in-store experience, offering custom packaging options as well as special events for clients like product previews, wreath-making and candle engraving.
“The complete festive offering of scents and accessories allows our customers to enrich their homes, create entertaining tablescapes and share luxurious gifts with loved ones throughout the season,” said Julien Gommichon, Diptyque president for the Americas. “The Advent calendar, which becomes available in early October and sells out quickly each year, and the limited-edition holiday candle scents are always top sellers.” This year’s star-inspired glow-in-the-dark edition of the calendar retails for $480 and features an assortment of candles, scents and accessories. Gommichon declined to share the percentage of annual company sales earned in the fourth quarter.
Gommichon added, “By creating a giftable holiday collection that offers fragrance and candle discovery sets featuring a variety of the maison’s most popular scents, Diptyque makes it easy for all recipients, including those unfamiliar with the products, to discover a new favorite perfume or candle.”
According to Christiane Lemieux, founder of home brand Lemieux et Cie and luxury consultant, “Diptyque is an absolute category killer. Their candle is one of those things that just works as a gift for every human. When people give it as a gift, it doesn’t just speak about the person that’s receiving them, it also speaks about the giver — that they care about you enough to invest in luxury for you. They’re playing by the French luxury handbook — all of their brand elements fit into that incredible mold of French luxury, including longevity, storytelling and consistency.”
In recent years, Diptyque has used pop-ups to celebrate the brand’s holiday collection. It hosted a pop-up in New York City’s Meatpacking District last year. This year, it’s hosting an immersive pop-up experience in Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown. This pop-up will close after the season, before reopening as a permanent location in the spring. The brand is also partnering with the Ritz-Carlton on five global pop-ups in its hotels to celebrate the duo’s global amenities partnership that was announced in November.
The company operates over 90 boutiques globally, up from 70 in 2018. It’s set to surpass 100 locations by the end of 2022. In addition to the reopening of a newly renovated Williamsburg Brooklyn boutique, Diptyque will be expanding into new markets with locations in San Francisco and Vegas, on top of D.C., all in winter of 2022. The company will also be making their Georgetown, Washington pop-up permanent in March 2023.
