The most talked about and sought-after luxury brands online right now.
Has been elevating its image as a high-end luxury brand and expanding its direct-to-consumer presence—and it seems to pay off.
While Ralph Lauren’s timeless designs have kept the brand relevant for more than 50 years, the increasing importance of embracing a broader and younger audience is pushing the American brand to embrace the power of diversity and inclusion, by sharing a more complete and authentic portrait of the American dream.
The flamboyant Italian luxury brand remains the best performing luxury brand on social media with a consistent engagement rate of 14%, well above its competitors
Versace was already promising among younger affluent consumers when Capri Holdings (formerly Michael Kors Holdings) acquired the Italian brand in 2018.
And thanks to fashion events and celebrity red carpet dressing moments (with the likes of Bella and Gigi Hadid), Versace generates extensive media and social media coverage for its unmistakable style.
Following a shift upmarket and online to revive sales, Prada continues to increasingly appeal to younger affluent consumers, for example, tapping into the cult appeal of the HBO hit “Euphoria” for its Spring 2022 campaign.
After remarkable international momentum and gaining five places on our ranking of the best luxury brands online last year, family-owned Prada consolidates its position at number eight in 2022.
All the online brand visibility metrics are positive for the Italian luxury fashion house, with traffic to the website growing 14% year over year and the social media audience growing 9% over the same period.
While traffic to Tiffany’s website remains relatively stable, the engagement rate on social media has significantly declined in 2022, probably due to shifting marketing budgets.
An American⎯French-owned since LVMH acquired it in January 2021⎯luxury jewelry brand, Tiffany & Co. consolidated its position on our list, maintaining its seventh place.
The tumultuous saga of Tiffany’s acquisition by the French luxury group is now settled, allowing the iconic jewelry brand to focus on growing its product portfolio and engaging younger generations of affluent consumers.
And it does so brilliantly. The global launch of the new Knot collection was particularly successful.
The constantly increasing resale value of vintage Rolex watches is indeed not only fueling interest for the brand as a safe investment asset class to protect against inflation but also driving conversations online.
Rolex scarcity and waiting lists aren’t new, but it’s increasingly noticeable. Rolex’s “Exhibition Only” watch displays in brick-and-mortar stores are believed to be driving customers online.
Arguably the best-known and most popular luxury watch brand in the world, Rolex still doesn’t offer e-commerce options (nor does it allow its authorized dealers to sell its watches online)—a rare breed in 2022, but the rising popularity of online luxury resale sites creates more opportunities for people to buy Rolex watches online.
Hermès continues to enjoy excellent desirability for its timeless classics, especially in the handbag category with the very sought-after Birkin bag, which often generates long waiting lists.
For the first-hand market, Hermès remains very conservative, with only a curated selection of high-end watches available exclusively on Mr Porter.
Hermès doesn’t work with any of the other multibrand retailers at the moment.
The brand has considerably increased the number of products available on its official website, however, with a broad range of categories now for sale online.
Louis Vuitton boasts the largest traffic volume to its website, though, with an average of 13.2 million visitors per month.
The only luxury company to make the top 10 most valuable European brands with a brand value of 20.2 billion euros (vs 15.6 billion euros for Gucci and 13.2 billion euros for Chanel), Louis Vuitton also continues to demonstrate its popularity in China – a strategically important market for luxury brands.
The fashion brand’s social media audience steadily grew by 9% year over year, while traffic to the Chanel website stayed stable at 8.6 million per month in 2022.
One of the last digital holdouts in luxury fashion, Chanel is famously known for shying away from selling its clothes and handbags online.
The historic luxury French Maison shines on social media, however—maintaining its top spot as the luxury brand with the biggest social media audience on our list.
Dior, which just reopened its historic birthplace at 30 Avenue Montaigne in Paris in March 2022, continues to prove its dynamism as a top luxury brand online with continued strong momentum of online revenue and omnichannel developments.
Interestingly, social media engagement for Dior drastically decreased in 2022. From an engagement rate of 21.2% in 2021, Dior only managed 10.3% in 2022.
We expect this is a direct result of the luxury brand’s marketing budget being reallocated away from Facebook and Instagram to focus on driving traffic to their own website instead.
This would have a positive impact on Dior’s profitability for the year.
Italian luxury fashion house Gucci takes the top spot on the 2022 edition of our list of the most popular luxury brands online five years in a row—asserting its position as a leading luxury fashion authority.
The traffic to Gucci’s official website has also dropped by 7%, even though the luxury brand is investing in driving more direct online sales through Gucci.com.
Nevertheless, Gucci, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021, remains one of the industry’s best-in-class digital performers.
Its social media audience across all digital platforms dwarfs most other luxury fashion brands worldwide—the Italian luxury brand records over 78.2 million active followers worldwide. Only Chanel is doing better with an engaged social media audience of 89.1 million.