LUXURY GOES HIGH-TECH!

THE LUXURY FASHION MARKET WAS MAJORLY HIT DURING THE PANDEMIC. WITH DOMESTIC AND LOCAL MARKETS PICKING PACE, DIGITALISATION OF THIS SEGMENT WAS SOMETHING THAT NO ONE EVER IMAGINED. BUT WAS THIS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ALREADY UNDERWAY FOR THEM? HAVE NFTS AND THE METAVERSE CHANGED THE GAME FOR THE LUXURY FASHION MARKET? INDUSTRY LEADERS AND TECH EXPERTS SHARE THEIR TAKE ON THE SUBJECT.

- VEDIKA NEGI

SESSION MODERATOR

• Mevin Murden, Director of Education, Istituto Marangoni Mumbai

PANELLISTS

• Nitya Arora, Founder, Valliyan

• Shuchita Chopra, CBO-Shantanu & Nikhil, Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Ltd

• Sharrom Yezdegardi, 3D Business Developer, Country Manager India, Adobe 3D & Immersive

• Abhishek Raj, COO, Lacoste India / Sports & Leisure Apparel Ltd

The pandemic has created a buzz around the word 'digitisation'. But many believe that the luxury sector was already looking for innovation even before the pandemic began.

Echoing this thought Abhishek Raj, COO, Lacoste India / Sports & Leisure Apparel Ltd., said that the industry was actually looking for some digitization before pandemic. It was actually long before the pandemic and that it was actually long before the pandemic that people started selling online. "In 2019, everybody was looking into this and investing in it. It's only the blip I would say that we got in 2020 when actually our stores were closed and we all had been forcefully put into this soft digitization and this overall thing actually got the push. If I talk about luxury, it's not about that you sit with an expensive computer and buy luxury and then you can sell it. Unless you go and touch and feel luxury, you don't indulge in it, you won't like it. So luxury is that indulgence." He agrees that there was a lot of investment and attention in digitization by brands to make the life of the customer easier.