In our capacity as a fashion, lifestyle, and luxury ecommerce agency here at Skywire London, we routinely keep a close eye on the Vogue Business Index, which uses a vast range of data points to calculate how the intense competition between the world’s leading luxury brands is shaping up.

The Winter 2023/24 edition of the Vogue Business Index was recently unveiled, revealing the Italian fashion house Gucci to have moved up one position since the previous Index into second place – a reoccupation of the spot it last held in the Winter 2021 edition. 

However, this was just one of the many notable shifts in the Index’s rankings during an economically tough year.

What widespread trends have emerged in recent months? 

Given the financial struggles that consumers are likely to have faced in 2023, one may have expected prestige brands’ target audiences to have reined in many of their customary spending practices — but the latest Index findings don’t entirely bear this out.

On the contrary, many high-end brands have held up surprisingly well, with a number of them having adapted to the pressures by further optimising the digital elements of their operations. Another common tactic among the monitored companies has been falling back on long-established heritage.

Gucci: a resurgent star in the Vogue Business Index

Many companies in the fashion, lifestyle, and luxury sectors can learn from Gucci’s renaissance, with this iconic label having attained second place in Vogue Business’s Winter 2023/24 Index. 

For this achievement, Gucci can especially thank its omnichannel and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) efforts. A key principle of ESG is that sustainability is about more than just green issues and should also extend to social responsibility on a wide level.

This approach is likely to have been appreciated by Gucci employees and customers alike — and the company’s digital arm has flourished following Sabato De Sarno’s arrival as creative director.

What else has been happening in the Vogue Business Index?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the volatility of 2023 has seen many top brands’ revenue streams falter. Nonetheless, significant numbers of people have evidently continued making purchases from high-end brands for investment purposes. 

Handbags have been particularly popular — much to the benefit of Hermès, which moved up a spot from seventh to sixth place in the Index.

One common theme in the Index’s most recent edition has been success on the social media front, with Dior — the third-highest ranking brand overall — having excelled on various online platforms. 

Similarly, Prada has been a bright spot on TikTok — and jumped three places, from eighth to fifth, in the overall rankings largely as a result of this. 

This all leaves the question: which brand was at the summit of the Vogue Business Index for Winter 2023/24? The answer: Louis Vuitton, which topped the Index for the fourth consecutive time.

The publication stated that although there was only one pillar in which the French luxury fashion house was a leader, the brand had enjoyed “stellar” recent financial results, as well as “consistently strong performance across all other pillars” – a combination that prevented Gucci and Dior from edging ahead of it. 

We can help your lifestyle, luxury, or fashion business thrive in the digital sphere 

We take much pride in our specialist focus as a lifestyle, fashion, and luxury ecommerce agency, staffed by highly capable and proven creative, digital and strategic experts.  

For intricate insights into how we could contribute significantly to elevating your company’s prominence in the ever-competitive luxury goods market, please don’t hesitate to email hello@skywire.co.uk today.