SHANGHAI: Luxury brands need to embrace new technologies and ensure they appeal to younger consumers, as they have done in China, industry executives were advised at a recent event.

More than 150 executives from brands, ranging from Bulgari to Dior and LVMH, gathered in Shanghai last month for an event hosted by Luxury Society, the industry social network owned by Digital Luxury Group.

Following the event, Luxury Society issued a summary of the keynote addresses, which focused on developments in e-commerce and how brands can make the best use of new technology to offer engaging content.

Arthur Zhang, CEO of UCO Cosmetics, told delegates that the early stage e-commerce model – of simply providing a platform to sell products online – is already dead.

He emphasised, along with many others at the event, that luxury brands need to embrace new technologies to offer different experiences to their customers.

As articulated by Pablo Mauron, Partner and Managing Director of DLG China: "The millennial generation in China, which already accounts for 300m people in China, seeks experiences and emotional connection, they're not just a bystander. As a result, livestreaming has become a medium for them to express themselves."

Picking up on the subject of livestreaming, Thibault Villet, CEO of luxury e-commerce platform Mei.com, highlighted a recent livestreamed fashion show that it had run in collaboration with Alibaba's TMall online site that resulted in about two-thirds (65%) of the featured products selling out quickly.

As reported by The Moodie Davitt Report, he said his key aim is to enhance the online experience for Mei.com's young and fashionable customers, that technology is vital to achieving this, and that virtual reality offers opportunities.

"In one promotion we created a video with three different scenes, and people can wander between them," he said. "The idea is that people can choose their own style, and through the virtual reality view can understand what we are doing in the promotion."

Delegates also heard from John Hamilton, Director of Marketing Communications at Four Seasons Hotels in Asia Pacific, who outlined the company's success in using meaningful customer data to improve its customer relationship management on social media.

Data sourced from Luxury Society, The Moodie Davitt Report; additional content by Warc staff