Today’s top luxury brands are also some of the internet’s biggest traffic generators.
Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Dior are currently the most-searched luxury brands of 2023 according to new Google data assessed by Watch Pilot. Vuitton leads the pack with a reported 118 million annual searches that “resonates at an unparalleled scale,” the luxury watch dealer says in a statement.
Gucci, one of the leading brands in the Kering portfolio, comes in second place with 66.9 million searches. The Italian label is reportedly beating out brands that generate core sales from luxury handbags. Dior, Vuitton’s sister brand and the jewel of Bernard Arnault’s LVMH empire, rounds out the top three most-searched designer brands with 52.9 million searches. The rest of the top ten includes Chanel and Coach (tied at 41.2 million); Massimo Dutti (40.5 million); Prada (29.4 million); Versace (27.5 million); Alexander McQueen (21.1 million); and Kate Spade (20.5 million).
Dior Men’s FW23 ready-to-wear campaign shot
Courtesy of Dior
The report further breaks down the data by country. Luxembourg, it turns out, is the world’s most designer-obsessed destination. Its internet users carry out 494,000 searches a year per 100,000 people. Louis Vuitton is the European country’s most-wanted brand with over 117,000 searches. France is another hotspot with a high number of searches for luxury labels, with over 66,600 searches per 100,000 people. Its top-searched brand is also Louis Vuitton (which makes sense, given the brand is headquartered in the nation’s capital, Paris) with 8.5 million searches.
Watch Pilot reports that Van Cleef & Arpels’s signature Alhambra bracelet holds rank as the world’s most wanted jewelry piece. The item garnered 4.9 million searches in 2023 alone, while the Dior Saddle bag falls shortly behind with 2.6 million searches.
Online traffic spikes are great, but they’re not what pays the bills. LVMH and Kering have both been affected by recent declines in luxury sales. LVMH shares reportedly fell to a 2023 low credited to a slowdown in spending in the U.S. and China. Kering’s brands have seen a 9 percent drop in third-quarter sales, reflecting a declining desire to spend on high-end goods. But until consumers start spending again, the searches indicate these brands are still relevant and desirable.
