China: a large online appetite for luxury brands

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Published
May 29, 2014

Searches for luxury brands on the Chinese search engine Baidu jumped 36% over the past year, a rise greater than increases seen by watches and jewelry (+26%) and fashion (+10%).

In the rankings of luxury brands with the most searches, Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Coach came out on top. The presence of the Hong Kong company Chow Tai Fook ahead of Prada and Calvin Klein is noteworthy for such a top 10 replete with so many Western brands. Calvin Klein is also the only brand of the ten that has actually shown a decline (-14%).

Below the top 10, the study Luxury China 2014, conducted by L2, shows that the brands with the largest gains in searches this year have been Oscar de la Renta (199%), Michael Kors (166%), Officine Panerai (143%), Sergio Rossi (+141%) and Yves Saint Laurent (+128%). On the other hand, the "losers" (sic) include Milus (-35%), Calvin Klein (-14%), Zenith (-11%), Chaumet (-10%) and Bao Bao Wan (-10 %).

The study highlights (as if it were necessary to do so) the dominant role of mobile technology for the Chinese market. Over the past year, some 43% of searches for luxury brands were made via mobile devices. Mobile searches for the segment also showed gains greater than those seen by watches/jewelry and fashion, which saw respective increases by 60% and 110%.