CITI TTS Healthcare Consumer & Wellness Client Magazine

14 15 Healthcare, consumer & wellness Today’sCiti STYLE From ESG initiatives and emotional digital interfaces to supply chain authentication, these are the fashion trends to look out for this season At a live event in Singapore, Citi partnered with Vogue Business to explore the innovations and trends in sustainability that are shaping the future of luxury and fashion in the Asia Pacific region. We welcomed delegates and speakers from global luxury brands, as well as some of Singapore’s most exciting start-ups. To kick off, host and moderator Anusha Couttigane, Vogue Business’s Head of Advisory, shared regional insights from the latest Vogue Business Index. This included an understanding of how brand awareness is shifting across different generations; the product categories consumers are prioritising; and the dependence global brands have on exposure in the APAC market. In the first discussion panel of the day, Style Theory co-founder Raena Lim explained the value of providing wrap- around services to ensure a seamless experience. Stephanie Crespin, founder of Reflaunt, which helps brands scale up their resale models, highlighted that many consumers are buying pre-loved luxury as an investable asset to sell on, adding that brands need to treat resale as a service first, not just a marketing tool or a sustainability exercise. Timicka Anderson, Head of Global Consumer Products and Retail at Citi, also spoke about the importance of collaboration and how they help to broker relationships between brands and businesses based on shared ESG principles. Style Theory’s Lim shared some of the frameworks that the business has established as part of its Sustainability Alliance, which gives partner brands a hallmark certifying the standards they’re implementing in a bid to be more sustainable. In the second panel, Baptiste Le Gal, Chief Revenue Officer of P2P resale platform Vestiaire Collective, debunked the myth that shoppers in APAC, particularly China, are averse to pre-loved products. He added that being an early mover in this emergent space enabled Vestiaire Collective to be a part of the conversation about regulation, working with governments to create the infrastructure needed to encourage sustainable business. Saurabh R Gupta, Global Head of Sales for Consumer, Wellness and Healthcare at Citi spoke about the “internet of senses”, a trend that sees digital interfaces becoming more experiential and emotional. He also spoke about localised habits and how they can make or break sales: for example, the payment or checkout systems people are accustomed to, whether that’s Paynow in Singapore, Promptpay in Thailand or Wechat in China. The “internet of senses”: a trend that sees digital interfaces becoming more experiential and emotional Zalora’s Soni shared her insights about how the transformation of internet infrastructure in the region has enabled eCommerce to take off over the past seven years, expanding from accepting three payment options to adding around 18 different wallets or buy-now-pay-later options. Meanwhile, Zalora finds that the Philippines has always been the fastest adopter of social tools, so they treat this as an experimental market for social commerce. Thinking more about supply chain and authentication, Le Gal spoke about how Vestiaire Collective is working to implement newer blockchain technologies to help scale up authentication and help manual authenticators become more efficient in their processes. Citi’s Gupta spoke further about some of the shinier technologies entering the market, citing DressX, which had a presence at the event, as a solution provider that brings doorstep connectivity to products being sold online. The final panel was hosted virtually by Yiling Pan, Editorial Director for Vogue Business in China. In a hybrid format, we were joined by Zhou Rui, Brand Solutions General Manager at Xiaohongshu (Red), and Jean-Philippe Pokern, Head of Marketing for APAC at sporting goods firm On, while Paul Harris, MD of APAC for McLaren and Anusha Couttigane participated from the live stage. Together, they spoke about the outlook for China and the different approaches brands are taking between east and west – a fascinating way to conclude.