Michael Kors most popular US label online

Michael Kors has taken the top spot as the most-sought-after US brand on the internet, ahead of Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren, according to Digital Luxury Group, which provides the luxury industry with market intelligence.

In ‘The World Luxury Index American Fashion’ survey, Digital Luxury Group discovered that Kors captured 19.6 percent of total brand searches of the more than 31 million online searches covering 35 US-based fashion brands.

The report, which contains research gathered from January to June 2012, uses insights from Google, Bing, Yandex and Baidu, the world’s top search engines, and spans across 10 global markets including the UK, France, China, Brazil, Japan, Russia and the US.

The American fashion designer beat competition from Marc Jacobs who was ranked second and Ralph Lauren who was named the third most-searched American brand, followed by Calvin Klein in fourth and Vera Wang in fifth. Each of which have diffusion lines, which the report noted expanded their brands into a wider retail network that consequently benefited from increased searches.

Completing the top ten brands were Tory Burch, Kate Spade, Diane von Furstenberg, Betsey Johnson then Tom Ford. Surprisingly Donna Karan a brand known for its online presence across numerous social media channels was only ranked 23rd.

In a global breakdown of searches by product category handbags and ready-to-wear categories lead the way, which helped Kors achieve top spot due to the label’s handbags and wallets drove interest and accounted for 59.6 percent of its searches.

"Search engines better reflect customer interests than social media," David Sadigh, founder and chief executive officer of Digital Luxury Group, told WWD. "The problem with social media is the buzz. Search engines are usually much more accurate in understanding primary interests."

Image: Michael Kors