Product personalization, as the name suggests, is the customization of a product as per customers’ requirements. In this smart age when everyone looks for personalized products and services, all businesses – whether online or offline – are adopting customization rapidly.
Thanks to advanced digital technology, businesses can now provide customization services to customers more easily than ever before.
If you have ever wondered how product personalization can benefit a business, read on to know the major benefits of product customization.
Product Customization Is the Future of E-Commerce
According to Statista, e-commerce sales worldwide is projected to reach $6.54tn in 2022. Further, going by the findings of a study by Epsilon, 80% of customers would prefer to purchase a product(s) from a brand that provides personalization.
By looking at these stats, one can easily conclude that product personalization is going to stay in-trend in the e-commerce industry right from now till forever.
So, if you have a business, no time can be more suitable than this to take it online and tap into the benefits of product customization.
Even if you don’t have an online business, you can still take customization requests offline and provide custom products.
Pro Tip: In the long run, an online business website equipped with product personalization services is the best way to increase visibility and sales.
High Levels of Engagement
Everyone wants to have ‘personalized’ products for them. Product customization helps make customers feel valued and special.
Letting customers decide on the appearance and design of the final product they order can make them feel exhilarated. It is because of that ‘tinge’ of personalization that engages and attracts customers better.
For example, a mug with a customer’s picture printed on it is sure to engage that customer better than a simple mug with a simple design.
Increased Customer Loyalty
When you succeed in fulfilling customers’ customization demands and meeting their expectations, they are sure to return to your store for purchases in the future. If they see that your brand never fails in catching up with their customization demands, they turn from your first-time customers into loyal customers.
Moreover, these ‘loyal’ customers carry good word-of-mouth ahead to their near and dear ones. This way, they not only help increase your direct sales but also contribute to expanding your customer base.
Eventually, your loyal customer base will increase.
Better Conversion Rates
When you are able to deliver to your customers exactly what they need, staying on top of their satisfaction levels becomes easier.
Further, customization gives you a way to align your business with the latest personalization trends in the industry and appeal to customers.
For instance, let’s assume that you deal in garments and apparel. Nowadays, personalized t-shirts have become a rage with various NGOs, and communities looking for personalized t-shirts. Some other people are looking to buy personalized t-shirts for the festival season ahead. Custom t-shirts are popular for large family reunions, corporate events, and such as well.
So, if you provide all these customized t-shirts, you can easily win customers’ hearts and attract more conversions and revenue.
Related: How to Start a T-Shirt Printing Business
Similarly, if you are a gift business owner, you can start selling gifts for the upcoming festival season. You can sell personalized Christmas cards, candles, and more.
While some custom products have been in huge demand for a long time, there are some custom products that were unheard of earlier.
Take custom face masks – for instance!
Who knew custom face masks would become a necessity rather than just an option? But since COVID-19 has disrupted the world, face masks are a crucial requirement. Once people realized that masks are here to stay, they had to come up with designs that matched their style.
They raised the demand for custom masks and so their demand was heard. Several popular brands started printing customized face masks.
Therefore, you can easily conclude that product personalization also lets you stay in tune with the latest industry trends.
Better Insights into Customers’ Preferences
When customers place orders, they convey their customization needs every time they order. If you were to deal in standard run-of-the-mill products, you would never get much close to actual expectations of customers.
However, if you provide customization support, you’ll slowly but surely come to know everything about your target customers’ preferences. And this way, you will be able to stand out among your competitors and serve customers better by providing them tailored products.
In the long run, with more and more valuable info you collect over time; you can use that to provide your customers with an even more personalized experience.
For instance, you can send personalized emails and offer discounts on particular custom products they frequently order to them.
Let’s take one more example. If you own a t-shirt store, you can even turn into suppliers of some custom products like t-shirts for some NGOs, institutions, or companies, and offer them good discounts to strengthen your bonding with them.
Eventually, it will not only help cater to customers better but also strengthen your online presence and make it highly productive.
Cost-Effectiveness
At times, several customers may not like the product and return it. Simply because they didn’t find it matching their taste. At other times, they even get bored with ‘standard’ designs and want to try out something new.
If you offer product personalization services right at your store, it can work wonders in such scenarios. The reason – they would get to have their product ‘designed’ exactly the way they want. Plus, their wish to try something ‘new’ or ‘out-of-the-box’ will also get fulfilled.
The result? Your overhead expenses in handling order returns, replacements, and refunds will go down. From the customers’ end, they will get what they want and be content.
What does it imply? Out of a number of benefits of product customization, one benefit is that it helps stay ahead of the curve and deliver the ‘right’ products always at minimal expenses.
Implement product customization on your online store with a feature-rich Product Design Tool. Click to know more.
Examples of Product Customization by Popular Brands
Shutterfly
Shutterfly, Inc. is American photography products, and image sharing company, with headquarters in Redwood City, California. They have their website and app that lets people create custom canvases, photo books, calendars, and some other items – with your own photos laminated.
Although Shutterfly has already availed of personalized emails and subject lines, they included one more thing – personalized item offerings on their app.
On downloading the Shutterfly smartphone app and creating an account, the app will automatically identify photos with your face in the gallery (when given access to photos) and place them on the items you order.
What a great ‘product personalization’ idea is that!
Coca Cola
Back in 2011, Coca Cola launched a one-of-its-kind “Share a Coke” campaign in Australia and later brought it to the U.S. in 2014.
It was primarily an effort to reach out to more consumers and establish deeper personal connections. In this marketing campaign, each bottle had one of the most famous first names assigned to that generation. By 2015, bottles started having around semi-personal 1000 labels beyond just first names like ‘better half’, ‘best buddy’, ‘sidekick’, etc.
Moving ahead, Coca Cola included lyrics from around 70 popular songs worldwide including We are the Champions and Lean on Me in 2016. Then came 2017 when the campaign launched a new variant with popular holiday destination names like Hawaii, Barbados, Ibiza, etc. printed on bottles.
NikeID
Nike is a company that sells shoes. Once they intended to expand their D2C business and grow its sales channel. To do that, they came up with the idea to sell customizable shoes to the end consumers. They gave the customization option ‘Nike By You’ to choose various colors for various shoe parts to personalize the product.
They sold customized shoes for around $170. Selling these personalized shoes helped Nike not only increase their D2C sales but also earn huge PR for its stand-out innovation in the shoe industry.
Explore how you can deliver a Nike-like shopping experience on your store with a Product Design Tool. Check all features here.
Nutella
Nutella, a popular brand for its world-class hazelnut and cocoa spread, also jumped on the bandwagon of product customization. It allowed customers to add their own names to the jars. When they introduced this customization, people welcomed it. Soon, customers started sharing jars with their names on them on social media which created a great buzz. Everyone was talking about Nutella and how it looked on those breakfast spreads on Instagram.
Archies
Archies Limited is India’s popular social expression brand with over 60 percent market share in this organized sector. They started the business by selling only cards but later expanded to a complete social expressions company. At present, Archies Limited has 230+ exclusive and around 300 franchise outlets across India and neighboring countries.
It too provides personalized gifts and allows for free-hand customization by customers. It lets them upload photos, write text, and personalize the product for themselves.
Read to Offer Product Personalization?
Now that you know that there are numerous benefits of product customization, it is high time you offered it at your store. Looking for an online designer tool to help you provide product customization? See how our tool can help you by taking a personalized demo.
All product and company names are trademarks™, registered® or copyright© trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.
