Cambridge vs Sussex: Kate is top royal influencer despite Meghan wedding

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 3, 2018

Late 2017 and 2018 may have been the year of Meghan Markle but her sister-in-law the Duchess of Cambridge has beaten her as the biggest royal influencer, according to eBay's annual UK Retail Report.

The former Kate Middleton has had a bigger impact on the shopping behaviour of British consumers, largely due to her pregnancy and searches connected to that, eBay said.

Late last year, the online retailer said that her maternity style lead to more online clothing searches on eBay than the style of any other royal over the 12 months.

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During the spring, when the Duchess of Cambridge first appeared outside the hospital with her new son, Prince Louis, she was wearing a red Jenny Packham dress and eBay searches for that designer more than doubled as a result.

But while there were clearly peaks of Kate-linked searches, eBay also said that her impact on shopping activity has been fairly consistent all year.

However, with her wedding dominating the headlines, the Duchess of Sussex wasn't too far behind. Her influence peaked during May with searches for Givenchy, the label that made her wedding dress, rising by over 60% that month. And the white evening dress that Meghan wore for the after-wedding party drove a doubling of searches for Stella McCartney.

Her pink Carolina Herrera dress in June also nearly doubled the number of searches for that label.

So who was in third place on the royal influencer list? It was Princess Charlotte. She had been number one last year but still stayed close to the top as the clothes she wears remains hugely influential for the kidswear market.

Searches for floral print dresses rose almost 40% after she was seen wearing one in June and the floral headdress she wore as bridesmaid also drove searches up by 60%.

Her elder brother George was in fourth place, the shirts he wears with Peter Pan collars driving steady search activity year-round.