The report titled L2 Digital IQ Index: Fashion Global 2018 by a digital benchmarking firm has assessed the digital performance of 77 luxury fashion brands operating in the US and western Europe to evaluate their digital performance across site & ecommerce, digital marketing, social media, and mobile.

"Fashion brands are accelerating their digital investments to keep up with a globalising commerce landscape and shifts in consumer expectations," said Brian Lee, associate director at Gartner L2. "However, this rush to catch up has led to uneven implementation, and some brands fail to thoughtfully consider digital features before integrating them, resulting in a lack of sophisticated nuance, especially as brands expand distribution into new markets in search of consumers."

While brands have upped their game for US customer service offerings, they have lagged behind in translating features to European sites. Less than 50 per cent of brands in Europe list customer service in local time zones, with only 36 per cent doing so in Germany, the report pointed out.

The report revealed that there is an increase in the brands using social media for promotion. Instagram remains the focus for brands investing in social commerce. Year-over-year adoption of Instagram Shopping has jumped from 12 to 42 per cent. Twenty-one per cent of brands have integrated a Facebook Shop tab on their pages, however many fail to actually add a meaningful number of SKUs.

"Despite lower spending power, millennials are more likely to purchase luxury goods than any other age cohort," explained Christina Yang, research associate at Gartner L2. "They have significantly different ideas about luxury than prior generations, and brands must be increasingly reliant on values-based marketing both in the US and abroad, in order to target and reach these consumers." (RR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India