With the Internet and social media making it incredibly easy for trends and actions to spread around the world, new products and services are emerging that are influenced by other cultures. Businesses, artists, and local craftsmen from different genres that had hardly mixed before social networking are now communicating, and can take their existing offerings and add fresh expressions with unique materials and functions. Collaborating across the borders of country, region, culture and generation is a significant process of resolving global issues.

Serious crises loom across the globe, diminishing reliance on governments and engendering new worries like eco-anxiety in an unstable society. With macro-level changes triggering an emotional reaction, companies are expected to go beyond profit making and social responsibility to incorporate ethical, sustainable management into their business models. Safe, intimate, connected communities relieve the anxiety of consumers living amid the confusion of myriad challenges. Kindness to the environment and to people pave the way for an optimistic future.

In an age when living with less is considered a virtue, more people are seeking to keep only a small number of high-quality items. Today’s youths are gravitating increasingly toward a minimalist lifestyle and recognizing the advantages of meaningful consumption. They are using online services to save time, reducing unnecessary items, and spending their spare time and money on events and adventures they crave from the heart. The “buy and be happy” style of consumerism has vanished, leaving behind the desire for truly valuable experiences.

Micro-level customization of products is gaining speed to meet diversifying consumer sizes, tastes, and needs. Consumers will soon prefer products personalized with a 3D printer and artificial intelligence (AI). Attracted to ethical consumption that both saves the environment and satisfies their needs, they covet items that are harmless, sound, and comfortable. With up-and-coming generations spending more on experiences than possessions, sensible items that eliminate waste and yet retain their essence are the key to an Earth- and people-friendly future.