People practically go rabid at the chance to dress like a royal (opens in new tab). This is a known fact. But what's stronger, the Kate Middleton Effect (opens in new tab) or the Meghan Markle Effect (opens in new tab)?
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According to eBay's annual UK Retail Report (opens in new tab), the winner is Kate, but with Meghan coming in a close second (opens in new tab).
The report attributes Kate's continued reign as the top royal style influencer to her third pregnancy (opens in new tab), with Prince Louis (opens in new tab). According to eBay (opens in new tab), searches for tailored maternity coats more than tripled in November 2017, after Kate announced she was expecting (opens in new tab). Of course, this data only pertains to eBay searches in the United Kingdom.
Searches for Jenny Packham clothes spiked in April when Kate stepped out in a red smock dress (opens in new tab) by the designer to introduce the world to baby Louis.
Meghan (opens in new tab) came in a close second, with her searches peaking (unsurprisingly) in May, when she married Prince Harry (opens in new tab).
"While Meghan was clearly the focus of the fashion pages this year, Kate's distinctive style has long been a hit with shoppers on eBay since her wedding in 2011," Rob Hattrell, UK vice president of eBay, told the Evening Standard (opens in new tab). "We always see an uptick in searches around landmark royal events and 2018 was a bumper year for small businesses on eBay, with both the birth of Prince Louis and Meghan and Harry's wedding driving purchases across the nation."
And which royal rounds out the top three fashion influencers (again, on eBay, in the UK specifically)? It's no surprise that Kate's stylish daughter (opens in new tab), Princess Charlotte (opens in new tab), took the third spot.
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