Consumers across Asia now spend more on things "that are meaningful to their life, health, and happiness" — and retailers who fail to grasp that shift are losing them. That was the core message from Chadatip Chutrakul, CEO of Bangkok-based mall developer Siam Piwat, speaking at Fortune's Southeast Asia 500 Summit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Her verdict cuts to the heart of the industry's current struggle. Retailers across the region are hunting for new ways to lift sales. Some give shoppers extra reasons to visit a physical location. Others deploy technology to reduce friction, shortening the gap between a customer's attention and an actual purchase.

Chutrakul puts it bluntly: "Retail is just a part of it… It's not [only] about shopping, but creating experiential destinations."

What does 'experiential destination' mean in practice?

Siam Piwat is backing the idea with concrete capital. In October, the company announced ICONPHUKET, a retail and entertainment development in Thailand's Phuket province, scheduled to open in 2029. The project won't just hold shops. It will include green spaces and health and wellness facilities alongside residences, offices and hotels.

The logic, as Chutrakul explained, is cultural. "Shopping malls in Thailand—and I think in Asia—are like a second home to customers," she said. "So besides shopping, we [also try to] offer everything else."

That's the mechanism in one sentence: the mall becomes a place people inhabit, not merely a place they transact. Dwell time, then, becomes the asset developers are actually building.

Why is relevance beating product range?

Malina Ngai, CEO of global drug and beauty chain AS Watson, agreed that consumers now need a clear reason to pick one retailer over another. Her framing is sharper still.

"Ultimately, the retail game is about relevance," she said. "It's not so much about whether you have more products or technology… customers are looking for a brand that they trust."

Note what she's dismissing. Scale and tech, on their own, don't win customers anymore. Trust does — and it's being built faster than ever.

How fast do consumers now bond with brands?

Social media and influencers have compressed the relationship cycle dramatically, according to Saemin Ahn, managing partner at Rakuten Capital, the venture capital arm of Japanese conglomerate Rakuten Group.

"[In the past], consumers built a relationship with a brand over [a span of] five years, but that cycle has been cut down to a couple of months now, because people start to adhere to a brand identity very quickly," Ahn said.

Five years, compressed to a couple of months. That single shift explains why marketing budgets have migrated to creators, and why platforms are racing to close the loop between content and checkout.

Rakuten has moved on this directly. In February, Rakuten Ichiba — the company's online marketplace — joined Google's YouTube Shopping affiliate program. Viewers can now tap 'View Products' during YouTube videos and navigate straight to Rakuten Ichiba's webpage to buy.

The scale behind that partnership matters. "In Rakuten Ichiba, there's about 40,000 to 50,000 merchants that we have to keep happy, and those happy merchants keep the users happy," Ahn explained.

It's a chain of dependencies. Merchants first, users second, and the platform's revenue follows both.

How is AI reshaping the physical store?

Brick-and-mortar players aren't standing still either. AS Watson is using AI to study how customers move through different sections of its stores — from supplements to oral and hair care, Ngai said. The goal is precise: find where shoppers struggle, then fix the layout or signage.

Ngai offered a concrete example. "If we know that they spend about 56 seconds on this aisle, and they couldn't find the product they need, we would have to improve how we arrange our products, put up signages, and work with our suppliers to make it easier for customers to make decisions," she said.

Fifty-six seconds. That's the unit of measurement now — not footfall, not square metres. Every awkward aisle is a lost sale, measured and corrected.

What ties it together?

Three executives, three different businesses, one conclusion. The winning retailers of the next cycle will be those that give consumers meaning, trust and speed — whether through a wellness destination opening in Phuket in 2029, an AI-tuned aisle in a health store, or a tap-to-buy button inside a YouTube video.