For those who’ve been following our Instagram adventures, you know that Electric Runway has been in Manila the past ten days for StyleFestPH. This first-of-its-kind event is aimed at pushing the fashion and beauty industries in the Philippines into the future.
One of the most important learnings along that way was that even though Filipinos are more social media savvy and digitally connected than your average consumer, they’re conservative with their online spending. Most Filipinos don’t order goods online, and if they do, they prefer to pay cash upon delivery. Our sense was that these habits stem from a general mistrust of online retailers and the lack of reliable providers like Amazon.
As the rest of Asia moves towards predominately mobile and social-enabled payments, the Philippines seems to be lagging behind in their digital spending. This all said Manila is a booming city. There’s a sense of urgency and hustle that you’d expect from any urban Metropolis. In fact, some reports project that by 2050, Manila will become the 16th largest economy in the world.
As a fashion futurist and expert on the intersection of fashion and technology, I was invited to Manila as the headline speaker for the inaugural StyleFestPH. Looking past just mobile shopping, I delivered a one-hour keynote on seven key technologies transforming the future of fashion. We will be posting a video of my presentation in full soon, but until then, enjoy our recap video above of StyleFestPH, which includes interviews with a few of the main characters taking centre stage in reshaping the future of the fashion in the Philipines and beyond.
We had such an amazing trip! Thanks for the hospitality, Grand Hyatt Manila, and a special thanks to Sam Dominguez from the StyleFestPH team!
Malcolm Scott
September 18, 2018 at 12:09 amIt looks like you had a great visit to a beautiful part of SE Asia. It’s certainly an up and coming location for some very talented fashion designers and of course, a great shopping destination.