Instagram has nurtured an army of independent brands that compete with established labels in the city's largest department stores. Technology has enabled the rise of consumers who also produce their own products, in retail, energy and media.
High fashion is no exception. Formerly the domain of a few established labels, the garments industry is being democratised by social media, which allows users to run professional marketing campaigns and reach a global audience at effectively no cost.
Large brands are meeting their younger counterparts on their own turf by investing considerable amounts in producing manicured official profiles. In some cases individuals within the companies create their own linked profiles, which allow them to connect with consumers on a more intimate level and produce a more nuanced brand identity. For example, the profile of Alessandro Michele, creative director of Gucci, contains more than 600 pictures of his apartment, Rome and Catholic paraphernalia.
Chanapa: Instagram is best for branding
"Instagram is simply the best way to convey to consumers what you have to say about the brand," says Chanapa Triratanachat, who founded Instagram brand Irada over seven years ago, months after Instagram debuted in the Thai market. Irada sells upwards of 200 clothing items per month, at prices ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 baht.
Social media may be ideal for the fashion industry's progress. McKinsey reported at least some part of the journey of 75% of luxury purchases happens online. Moreover, luxury buyers are more likely to use smartphones and computers than the general population, and to spend a considerable amount of time on social media.
"The boom of Instagram-independent brands goes back to 2014-2015. I got in early into the business, and now every other college student wants to run a similar model," says Salisa Cheewapansri, who founded Bangkok Instagram brand Salisa in 2013 while studying at Parson's school of design in New York. She sells more than 500 pieces of clothing a month, each priced between 1,500-5,000 baht.
A personal brand
"A high school classmate launched Gotcha six months before I started. Now it's a must-have for Thai university students," says Ms Salisa.
"I think it's easy for anyone to start an Instagram business these days, because there is no other cost than production. You don't have to pay rent or staff. We have delivery systems, so you don't have to worry about logistics," says Ms Chanapa.
While these brands rack up revenue in the millions of baht, most started as an attempt to make a few extra baht, in lieu of a part-time job.
"I answered the line and then my mom helped me deliver the products," says Ms Salisa.
"At the beginning I did not think of it as business, just as something I wanted to try to make a little money of. My mom gave me a budget of 10,000 baht and that is how I covered production costs," says Ms Chanapa.
Despite the high volumes these brands move, the world of independent brands remains an intimate community, in part driven by concerns of connecting with buyers on a personal level.
"I learned about Irada in high school through my cousin. She was more or less the first one in Thailand to do this," says Ms Salisa.
Ms Chanapa says she remembers Salisa because she was the only person that paid through PayPal in the brand's early days.
The market for Bangkok's independent brands is fierce, defined by competitions on the floors of shopping centres like Emquartier, where young designers showcase their creations and hope to be scouted by Central Group, or any big retailer to set up pop-up shops in their stores.
For Irada, the transition from a purely Instagram-based business to brick-and-mortar came early on.
"After a year and half of selling exclusively online, I received a call from Central Group to launch a pop-up store in Central Ladprao. We were the best-selling store, then we expanded to Central Chitlom, Paragon, Central Embassy, Emporium and Emquartier," she says.
Independent brands like Salisa and Irada say their personal relationship with consumers, and the value for money their products have, are their main advantages against established labels. The brands rarely hire professional models, and keep a posse of college-age students to respond to Line and Facebook messages.
"It was not until I had to make a proper viewbook that I hired a model. People want to see how it looks in real life, and prefer to see normal people wearing the clothes so they can gauge how the clothes would look on themselves," says Ms Chanapa.
Ms Salisa has a similar perspective.
"I hired foreign models for the viewbook. Foreign models look cool, but I know that to sell clothes I need average people. Moreover, people can relate to designers because we model and wear our own clothes," she says.
Aside from providing a cheap and precise marketing channel, Instagram also fuelled the demand for unique experiences and products, including clothing.
"People are starting to realise that there are good products at good prices beyond those from big brands," says Ms Salisa. Both Salisa and Irada introduce new products on a weekly basis.
Graduating from Instagram
For many brands, "graduating" from Instagram and becoming "a real brand" rather than an "Instagram brand" is an essential step in their business strategy, even if they plan to remain intimately tied to the platform as a sales channel.
"I have worked on this for the past seven years. I want a brand, not only a brand on Instagram," says Ms Chanapa.
However, as consumers behaviour evolves, they find it hard to conceive of a time when they will be completely divorced from the platform. Ms Salisa has set up pop-up stores in most of the city's large malls, but says the transition to physical retail is challenging.
"The business is very profitable online, but margins slim when you have to keep an inventory and pay department store fees," she says.
"We have to accept the reason why we grew so fast was because of social media. A lot of stores closed and are back online. We don't need a lot of stores, just one or two. The rest we carry out online," says Ms Chanapa.
She will be travelling to London to showcase the brand next month, and will begin exporting her products to China soon after. For her part, Salisa broke into the Singaporean and Canadian markets earlier this year. Her next goal is to build a customer base in the US by hiring influencers, and promoting the brand's Instagram page.
Salisa: Anyone can start a business