Tom Ford most searched for luxe label in Europe says Kelkoo

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 4, 2019

Tom Ford has come out on top in a list of the most popular luxury online brands in Europe according to new research from e-commerce advertising and shopping comparison service Kelkoo. 

It looked at online spending habits in the five biggest European retail markets (UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) as well as identifying the most searched-for labels and Tom Ford beat the rest of the pack Europe-wide. That's likely to have been driven more by the brand's hugely popular beauty products and items such as eyewear rather than its ultra-expensive fashion offer. 

In fact, the label rarely ranked lower than third in individual markets, which allowed it to beat hot brand Gucci into second place with Chanel third then Prada fourth and Dolce & Gabbana rounding out the top five. The rest of the top 10 was made up of sixth-placed Yves Saint Laurent then beauty brand Guerlain, luxury pen-maker Mont Blanc, Versace and watchmaker Tissot.

Not only was Tom Ford top, but it was the only American label in the ranking for Europe as a whole.

For the UK, however, Ford had to be happy with second place behind a resurgent Prada. And it may come as a surprise that Gucci didn’t make the top five. It only managed ninth place. 

Second in the UK list was Ford, as mentioned, with Versace third ahead of Tissot, Fendi, Chanel, Balmain, Dolce & Gabbana then Gucci and Stella McCartney. The UK’s biggest home-grown luxury name, Burberry, missed out on the top 10 altogether, but at least McCartney’s presence meant there was one British name flying the flag.

Kelkoo did say that there was a subtle trend for local brands to be more popular in particular countries. McCartney didn’t register on any of the other European lists so her status as a prominent UK name clearly helped her with British consumers. 

Similarly, France’s Sonia Rykiel managed second place in its home country while Gucci ranked number one in Italy, despite its lower place Europe-wide.

Of course, the figures may not be infallible as searches conducted through other platforms could produce different results. But across Europe, Kelkoo does provide retailers with 289 million annual ‘leads’, that is, the number of times customers connect directly with retailers’ e-stores and that's a significant figure.

It reflects just how important marketplaces and search specialists are for driving luxury traffic, especially as the luxe sector finally catches on to the importance of online sales.

Kelkoo CEO Richard Stables said: “E-commerce is no longer just an option for high street shoppers, online marketplaces are increasingly a lucrative hunting ground for luxury purchases. Retailers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of online for their brands, instead of focusing on a purely in-store approach.”