Chanel is China’s favourite luxury fashion brand

French fashion house Chanel has toppled Louis Vuitton from the top spot of China’s most sought-after luxury fashion brands list, according to the World Luxury Index: China 2013. The luxury index, produced by research and market

intelligence firm, Digital Luxury Group, found that Chanel was the most sought-after fashion brand ahead of Louis Vuitton, which claimed second spot, helped by Chanel’s lucrative beauty offerings.

Commenting on Chanel topping China’s fashion list, David Sadigh, founder and CEO of Digital Luxury Group said: “Chanel is benefitting from an important level of interest in China, mostly emanating from strong interest from Chinese consumers in its beauty products, which Louis Vuitton does not have.”

Other brands to be named in the top 10 fashion brands in China included Gucci, Hermès and Coach, due to China’s love affair with bags and wallets, which were the bestsellers in the fashion market in China, accounting for almost 90 percent of total interest.

The rest of the top ten was dominated by European brands, Prada, Dior, Burberry, Giorgio Armani and Versace. The fastest growing fashion brand accolade went to Giorgio Armani, up 17 spots since last year’s index, while brands Salvatore Ferragamo and Moncler dropped out of this year’s rankings.

Sadigh, added: “Louis Vuitton has reported a disappointing first quarter, while brands from different segments ranging from Chanel to Coach or Burberry are continuing to grow. Though rapidly evolving, the Chinese market is still developing.

“In order to stay ahead of the game, brands must have the ability to adapt quickly thus reducing the risk of brand saturation. In the case of Louis Vuitton, LVMH has already shifted gears, putting the brakes on its global expansion, whilst raising prices and developing more leather upmarket products.”

Chanel is most sought-after fashion brand in China

In the overall luxury index, Chanel was ranked third, behind Audi and BMW, with fashion house Louis Vuitton claiming fifth spot. Other fashion companies to be named in the overall top 25 included Dior at eight, Gucci ranked at 12, followed by Hermès at 13, while Burberry took 21st spot, ahead of Coach at 22 and Prada at 24.

The report covers more than 400 luxury brands within six key segments, fashion, cars, beauty, watches, jewellery and hospitality, and was generated from information taken from 680 million consumer online searches from search engines Baidu and Google from January through December 2012.

As well as giving insight into China’s favourite brands, the study also revealed that Chinese consumer interests in the luxury market is dominated by cars with 53.5 percent, followed by beauty with 22.7 percent, while fashion took third spot with 14.9 percent interest.

Image: Chanel AW13 ready-to-wear show