With the increasing virtualization of products and services, the need to provide outstanding customer services is now more important than ever. Many companies and industry experts suggest adopting new procedures such as customization to meet each and every customer request. But due to the diverse needs of customers, this approach has become a sure-fire way to add unnecessary cost and complications to operations.
Companies all over the world have embraced customization. They want to provide unique value to their customers and improve the collective brand impression. The readily available technology and flexible workflows have made this possible. All this at relatively lower costs. A famous saying goes: “double-edged sword cuts both ways.” This applies to companies offering mass customization also. Companies have discovered that customization too has some drawbacks, if not many. As they get more into the business, they realize that they did not examine the kinds of customization their customers value thoroughly enough.
The more you look into the trends, the more you find that many start-ups and established companies fail to implement product customization. While product customization seems to work well for many entrepreneurs, it also is challenging and difficult for implementation. In this guide, we are going to take a closer look at the reasons for the failure of product customization and in what areas managers can expect the strongest resistance. We are also going to look into the mass customization advantages and disadvantages. Here’s a quick roadmap:
- 5 Key Benefits of Mass Customization
- Disadvantages of Mass Customization
- Fundamental Rethinking of Operations
- Costly and Tricky to Implement
- Manufacturing Efficiency
- Managing Customer Expectations
- Marketing Challenges
- Work with Product Customization Experts
5 Key Benefits of Product Customization
Nowadays, brands are aware that personalization creates value for customers. It is easier to start offering product customization, considering the opportunities it provides. Here are some more reasons why mass personalization is becoming popular:
- Generate More Sales
Not only do the personalized product have the potential to skyrocket your sales, but it also brings brand loyalty and word-of-mouth publicity.
A study suggests that 36% of consumers would consider buying customized products and services. Another study states that 1 in 5 consumers are willing to pay 20% more for a personalized or exclusive product. This indicates a shift in the general consumer mentality away from the economic cost and towards the inherent value of the product. A study even shows that 48% of customers agreed that they’re ready to wait longer for a customized product or service.
- Widen the Profit Margin
Most traditional printers buy raw materials from third-party manufacturers. The traditional business model always puts businesses at risk by stockpiling the products in bulk. All this with absolutely no guarantee whether the entire stockpile might sell or not.
With remote printing businesses and start-ups, entrepreneurs no longer require to print a number of identical items in the hope of making a profit. Anyone with a digital printer and a desktop computer can print short runs of personalized items quickly. It also minimizes the outsourcing demands.
- Makes You Look Unique
Consumers surely love to shop from stores which have hundred different products. Let us assume there’s a store that has a long-listed catalog with different images and patterns of their products. There’s another store where they could just walk in and ask for products with any image they want. Such as a quote, a cartoon, a superhero character, a family photo, and so on.
Given a choice, most people will always choose the latter one to get their dream product design. This proves to be extremely lucrative for the companies offering customization. Clients are more likely to see these businesses as unique and out of the box. This can make a huge difference in their buying decision-making process.
- Branch out Your Existing Printing Business
The biggest benefit of product customization is that the existing print companies do not need to trash their business model. They do not need to throw out all the existing equipment to buy fresh ones. All they need to do is just branch out of their existing business and increase their inventory.
All they will need is a product customization tool to design your ideas. they may require software like a print job manager, ERP manager, inventory manager, and so on. It all boils down to individual needs.
If you’re looking to get into customization but are unsure, here’s a tip. You can offer customization for the products that you already sell. Say, for example, if you’re selling bags and clutches, you can invest in the customization equipment and software that lets you customize your bags and clutches. With either option, you have to make a relatively small investment that would allow you to increase the mark-up on your existing products.
Explore BrushYourIdeas Customization Software to design your products now! It is a fully-responsive designer tool and is also perfect to create personalized designs on every printable material.
- Increase Customer Loyalty
Product customization is one of the best ways to build brand loyalty. When customers can personalize products according to their taste, they get exactly what they want, and their satisfaction level goes up to 101! They see the product as a unique item, with added value made just for them! If your customer feels like they have your undivided attention, they are more likely to establish a lasting relationship with your brand.
The customer data can work wonders for you too. Knowing the consumer trends and buying habits are strong tools in any business. Customer insights give you a strong competitive advantage. Normal businesses can only gather data and feedback on the items they have in stock. Product customization gives you an edge. You have the chance to know your customers in ways their competitors can’t come close to!
So, these were a few advantages of product customization. It is essential to take note here that despite these advantages, many mass customization businesses fail. If these disadvantages of mass customization are not taken into consideration, then they can convert into a catastrophe. Let us have a closer look at the challenges so that you can address them beforehand and plan accordingly.
Disadvantages of Mass Customization
The businesses implementing product customization are getting a new rise every day. However, it consists of some demerits too. About 20% of the printing businesses implementing large scale mass customizations go down in the first 12 months. Further, we have addressed the five main disadvantages of mass customization. This is followed by some tips and strategies on how to overcome these challenges.
1. Fundamental Rethinking of Operations
The first and most important challenge that product customization enforces is the fundamental rethinking of the way the operations run. Everything from web design to order management, shipping, manufacturing process, equipment, and so on needs replanning.
Once entrepreneurs decide to include customization, they also need to think about all the equipment to fulfill the customization demands. These changes need to accommodate accurately and must comply with the industry standards. Companies need to ensure that their processes scale efficiently and are agile enough to adapt to changes that the customer demands.
Let us look at an example of one of the world’s largest garden equipment manufacturers: John Deere. To keep up with the evolving industry standards and customization, they started to offer more products, which eventually resulted in a proliferation of parts and processes. The company, despite being aware of this, stubbornly resisted to simplify its product offerings. Although they were able to add flexibility to their value chain, later on, this happened only after risking the very survival of the company.
How to Overcome This?
Well, there is no one perfect solution to this problem. As the mass customization industry is still at its growing stage, you may not find many plans, roadmaps, and approaches to it. Hence, research well. Take whatever information is available and make the best out of it. If you branch out of your existing printing business, make sure you decide on a budget around the new business and use it wisely. Try customizing items that you already sell first rather than customization of new items. See how it goes. Frame a plan accordingly and flourish!
2. Costly and Tricky to Implement
While it may look good in theory, the implementation part is a tough one. Product optimization on Ecommerce websites is not the easiest to apply. Even many customers would not be able to follow through. With a product designer tool, it becomes more difficult to see a spike in the sale. This is generally due to the wide range of options that customization provides.
The customization tools give a lot of options to the users, in which they may not have an interest. Also, getting a customization platform designed for your website is usually very expensive. This is why it is important to work with experts and find a cost-effective product designer tool. We have something that fits exactly this description.
How to Overcome This?
There is only one way to solve this problem, and that is to face it and deal with it mindfully. A lot of product designing companies offer a SaaS-based product design tool on your website for a fixed monthly fee. You can set it up instantly on your website. Powerful customizers like BrushYourIdeas offer business owners control over the customization experience. Further, it also offers you free support, service, and upgrades for the initial few months. The biggest advantage of using a product designer tool is that scaling becomes very easy. It provides the latest designing features and a simple and quick upgrade whenever you need to.
3. Manufacturing Efficiency
Setting up and implementing mass customization can alter things at a very core level of your print businesses. For each and every customized product, you will need a different logistics method as it will have its own design, shape, and size.
For a business model, it is not possible to predict all the different combinations of designs from your offerings. This enables various challenges for mass customization.
- Production Timeline
The production timelines of customized products are different from regular mass-produced products. Many additional factors also contribute to extending the timeline. Such as changing the printing process to fit customized design, the time taken to convert files into printable formats, and so on.
- Inventory Management
It is impossible to predict the designs that the customers will order. This makes the stocking of inventory a huge challenge. If the demand exceeds your capacity, you will find yourself in a puddle of problems and lose revenue. You can stock excess inventory, but it will then include warehouse costs too.
- 3rd Party Vendors
Many businesses depend on vendors for supplies used for the production process. This demand will be variable for customization businesses, and the vendors might not be able to accommodate these orders.
How to Overcome This?
To prevent the above-mentioned three problems, you can plan the purchases by getting insights from your running business. Make a list of the percentage of raw material quantity needed instead of listing actual quantity number. You can come to these percentages by studying your overall trends, past order trends, and even customer behavior. You can also invest in a product design tool that lets you do exactly this. For example, product design tools like BrushYourIdeas provide you with print-ready design files that are compatible with all types of printing methods like Screen Printing, DTG, Sublimation, Laser engraving, and so on.
4. Managing Customer Expectations
The print industry has a huge competition going on, with companies offering discounts, competitive pricing, same-day deliveries, and so on. Hence customers always expect more from your business. With mass customization, product prices increase. It also enforces longer delivery timelines. As a result, many customers may not go for the customization process.
Further, when you manufacture unique products for individual customers, the return policy will not be possible. Even if you do offer flexible return policies, it would be at the cost of your product. This again might scare away some customers. With most ecommerce businesses offering a “no-questions-asked” return policy, how will you sustain?
How to Overcome This?
Customer insights can help you manage customer expectations. While writing your policies, make it clear on your website and web-content that you are offering a premium service with customization. This way, you can justify your pricing as well as the production time. If you are charging extra for each customization element, clearly mention it before your customers start designing. This will save them both time and effort. Plus, customers appreciate upfront honesty and transparency.
You can promote transparency by offering live pricing during the customization process too. You can also offer design preview options to edit and modify at all stages of the order. Try BrushYourIdeas for this.
5. Marketing Challenges
For mass producers, the target group is not only about spotting differences. The marketers also need to identify the needs that are similar. Traditional marketers often lack knowledge and tools for mass customization. When urged to add more variety to their product lines, they are likely to face challenges. Marketing trends may help you a little, but relying unimaginatively on the trends of the past is also not a solution.
How to Overcome This?
As the mass customization industry is still in its inception phase, there are not many strategies laying around as to how to market these products correctly. So, we recommend you to work with experts on this. Talk to print industry experts who have been working in this area for a while and research the current trends to frame marketing strategies.
So, these were the mass customization advantages and disadvantages. For more information regarding mass customization, product customization and product design tools, you can visit our knowledge station.
Summing It Up
Hence, so far, we have covered the most common challenges faced by companies implementing mass customization. We also saw the advantages and disadvantages of product customization. We also mentioned the tips to overcome challenges and ace this market.
The industry is shifting its course from a product-centric focus towards a customer-centric one. Many companies are unsuccessful in managing this change. The current print industry domain is set with a certain dominant logic. This logic is generally by the attitude, behavior of the people working in the industry. However, mass customization has brought a shifting focus towards value creation with true customer-centricity. This requires a radical change in the management mindset, too.
Implementing mass customization in the print industry has its own merits and demerits like any other enterprise. But, by using the correct product customization tool, you can transform the mass customization scenario and turn it into a scalable and profit turning asset.
We at BrushYourIdeas, have experienced and skilled developers. Our developers dedicatedly work on developing the latest and robust software solutions to cater to your needs as per your business requirements. For more details contact us and talk to our experts.
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