Latest report released by L2, a luxury Digital research institute

According to the latest report released by L2, a luxury Digital research institute, almost half of the world's 100 luxury brands surveyed are not investing enough in China's digital marketing sector.

China 2012 Digital IQ Index, an assessment of the digital competitiveness of 100 luxury brands worldwide in the Chinese market and a comprehensive ranking of brands from the "Digital IQ" approach: Brand compatibility, optimization, and marketing on smartphones and tablets (20%), Brand presentation, community size, content and social media participation (30%), localization of website functions (30%), and digital marketing including search, digital media, email marketing (20%).

Beauty brands continue to dominate the construction of the site, fashion brands have a rapid development momentum.

The top 10 brands were: Lauder, Audi, Chow Tai Fook jewellery, Lancome, Volvo, BMW, Buick, Land Rover, and Burberry.

The top four brands get a "genius" digital IQ-digital marketing has differentiated competitive advantages, can successfully carry out multi-channel digital activities, can build a multi-functional site to meet local needs, high social visibility, and can integrate cross-platform communication.

The remaining 6 of the top 10 and 12 other brands were rated as "gifted". The brands are experimenting and innovating through websites, mobile media, traditional and emerging social media platforms, the report said.

The study also found that almost half of the brands (44%) did not have enough input to seize market opportunities.

According to L2 's report, E-commerce sales in China are expected to increase twice-fold in the next three years. Price transparency, counterfeiting, operational woes and low quality customer service are still the challenges of selling luxury brands online; The adoption of Web2.0 tools, including social media sharing, user reviews and instant chat, has accelerated in China.

According to the 2012 Hurun Hurun, 61% of China's richest people say the internet has gone beyond all other channels to become the primary way to learn about brand information.

Nearly 80% of consumers use social media to learn more about luxury brands and their products, according to a report published by the Boston Consulting Group, the world's Next commerce superpower.

Today, luxury brands have been widely used to promote social media. Only 5 brands in the rankings do not use social media. There are 10 brands with more than 5 social media platforms, compared with only 2 last year. Chinese social media ecosystems are still fairly fragmented and increasingly competitive, with a large number of new entrants in the market.

Meanwhile, with the increasing penetration rate of China's smartphone, the influence of mobile platform is increasing. According to Ipsos and Google's May 2012 report, "Our mobile Planet:china," 97% of Chinese smartphone users conduct product surveys via mobile phones, and 59% buy products via mobile phones.

L2 's report shows that, despite double-digit growth in mobile investment targeting Chinese consumers this year, only 23% of the brands have kept the optimized version of their Chinese web sites open, with only one-third supporting E-commerce.

In addition, only one-fifth of luxury brands have opened Chinese websites, with only half of them showing prices in renminbi. Luxury brands have adopted up to 91% of microblog marketing, with double-digit growth in mobile, social and search engine marketing, but only 4 have launched direct E-commerce since 2011.

Luxury marketers need to step up their development efforts, the report said. According to McKinsey's "booming development of social media in China," China's e-commerce turnover in luxury goods is 15 billion yuan (2.4 billion US dollars) in 2011, and is expected to reach 20 billion yuan (3.2 billion US dollars) in 2012.

According to Adobe's Q2 Global Digital advertising Update, China's digital marketing spending is expected to double in the next three years as Beijing continues to limit traditional media. This will further promote digital marketing innovation, stimulate consumer exploration and purchase.