Luxury brands doing good business online

Luxury brands like Porsche, Louis Vuitton and Tiffany are examples of just a few luxury brands that demonstrate a good understanding of digital marketing, says a new research.

A study by New York University's Stern School of Business, shows that just 33 per cent of luxury brands were selling online a year ago, compared to 66 per cent now.

It found that Tiffany, Louis Vuitton and Porsche are leading the way, while Waldorf Astoria, Trump, Faberge, Graff and Bulova were among the worst performing brands.

However, the study, which looked at the digital activity of 109 luxury brands including Ralph Lauren, BMW and Veuve Clicquot, found that most innovated out of necessity.

Even though online sales may have increased, most luxury brands lack digital savvy, said Scott Galloway, an associate professor of marketing at New York University Stern School of Business who looked at 109 luxury brands across 11 categories, including fashion, electronics, jewelry, hotels and automobiles.

"It was fine when revenues were growing 11 per cent a year. And then everything changed. They've woken up and said, 'Last holiday season sales were down 34 per cent but traffic to our website was up 61 per cent.' Brands are innovating out of necessity."

In his study, Galloway awarded brands designations of "Genius," "Gifted," "Average," "Challenged" and "Feeble." He found that the high-end automobile and electronics categories tended to have more digital savvy, while the cruise and tours segment, along with jewelry, were the least savvy.