Table of Contents
Product Customization is the ability to produce goods or services based on customer preferences. This gives your customers the possibility to create and design their own variety of your products from changing the color, entering a text, or choosing a pattern that screams their style.
A retail and e-commerce research blog, PipeCandy, carried out research that estimated the number of e-commerce companies around the world to be over 2 million. This statistic is proof that for an e-commerce business to stand out, its decision-makers must go the extra mile. Knowing what works can be tricky at times, as user preferences are mostly unpredictable.
A business will be most successful to the degree that a strategy that promotes their clients’ preferences is adopted.
As a store owner or an aspiring entrepreneur who wants to be different in this competitive environment, you need a product configurator.
In this in-depth article, we’ll show you why a product configurator is important for your e-commerce business.
What is a product configurator?
To put it succinctly, a product configurator serves as a tool that empowers users to personalize and tailor various components and features of a product. By utilizing this tool, users can make specific configuration choices that align with their preferences and requirements.
The ultimate goal is to ensure that the final configured product fulfills the users’ expectations to the greatest extent possible.
Statistics on product customization
We all can agree that product customization is here to stay because the stats reveal that:
- According to Bain; “customers given the opportunity to design their own shoes gave companies a 50% higher net promoter score (NPS)”.
- Product configurators can cut photography costs by 90% and product returns by as much as 80%.
- 83% of car buyers in the US and Europe use online configurators to customize their vehicles, according to a 2019 study by Accenture.
- A 2019 study by 3D Hubs found that 42% of respondents said they would use an online configurator to design furniture according to their own preferences.
- The market for clothing configuration software is expected to grow at an annual rate of 10% from 2020 to 2024.
- According to Tacton, 60% of customers prefer automated self-service for simple tasks.
- Consumers are willing to pay more for customized products: 81% of customers would be willing to pay more for customized clothing, 79% for customized footwear, 76% for customized furniture, and 77% for customized fashion accessories and jewelry (Deloitte research, 2015).
How a product configurator can benefit your business
- Product customization makes product customization easy and fun for customers
Your customers have varying desires/needs that might not be in your catalog or possibly you don’t know about. Sometimes, going through a catalog gets tiresome, and in the end, the customer might not find what he/she wants, the time and energy wasted can lead to loss of interest in the product altogether!
Having your customer create his/her own unique product from a template is an easier and faster way to get them interested. Your customer can choose his/her preferred color, pattern, and style in a WYSIWYG mode (what you see is what you get), and that is the purpose of a product customizer!
It gives your customer the look and feel of their future product, it enables them to add their personal touch to your product. Customers love things made uniquely for them, some customers do not mind how long it will take them to find that flawless look for the product they want to purchase.
- Product customization helps you achieve customer loyalty
Since product customizers give your customers the opportunity of creating and delivering what they want and how they want it, this fosters a customer/service provider relationship that builds loyalty and also makes them stick to your brand. Customer engagement generally leads to customer fidelity.
When customers are loyal to your brand this results in customer retention. Customer retention refers to the ability of a brand/shop to retain its customers over a specific period, the difference between shops that grow and shops that do not grow, is how effectively they are able to keep their customers from defecting.
According to a survey by Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany;
“A customized product triggers customers to;
1) keep a current product longer and therefore postpone the moment of perceived obsolescence and
2) rebuy the same product or brand respectively significantly more often.”
Customers will only change brands if they do not get what they want.
- Product customization reduces the rate of product return
More often than none, customers who have the possibility of customizing their product do not see the need for a refund. An efficient product customizer like Visual Product Configurator gives customers an instant visualization and feel of their products as they customize them.
Another advantage to this is that customers also have the possibility to edit their customization before placing an order. Customers will have a natural affinity to the version of your product they personalize since it is based on their taste, and they will most likely not return it or request a refund.
- Product customization helps generate satisfaction/word of mouth
Customers derive more satisfaction from customized products customers, the fact that customers can create their own version of your products makes them happy. Satisfied and happy customers will not only keep buying from your brand but will recommend your brand to family and friends.
- Product customization gives leverage to custom pricing
According to Investopedia, Customer-driven pricing is the practice of setting prices according to the customer’s perceived value of the goods or services. Since customers value uniquely made products, you can leverage this to increase profit.
Offering product customizations allows you to charge more for the products because the customers know that it takes more than the norm to make quality customized products.
The Deloitte Consumer Review study shows that;
“36% of consumers would consider buying customized products or services. And that :1 in 5 of these consumers would be willing to pay 20% more for a personalized product!”
Apart from charging more for the product in general, there could be upcharges/ you could charge extra for longer names, colors, patterns, designs, etc.
- Product customization makes your brand standout among competing brands
The online market is highly competitive and overfilled with different stores, now it’s up to you to either blend in or stand out! Customers of today have pretty much seen all kinds of products, from the originals to the copycats, in order to stay ahead of the competition you need to give them something unique! And what better way to stand out than to offer customized and well-made products?
Based on a survey carried out by Invesp,
“53% of the online shoppers feel that brands who offer product personalization provide a valuable service.”
When customers know they are getting quality service or products, they will always choose you over other brands.
- Product customization can boost your product’s online presence
A survey showed that; “customers who had customized a product online engaged more with the company, visited its website more frequently, stayed on the page longer, and were more loyal to the brand”.
Product customization will keep your customers coming back for more, as said earlier, they will refer your brand to friends and family and also spend more time on your page, this will drive traffic to your store which will give your brand a stronger online visibility and propel it to the next level.
Brands that make the most of Product Configuration
Apple
Apple is a renowned American corporation that specializes in computer technology and consumer electronics. The company has gained widespread recognition for its groundbreaking creations, including the iconic iPhone, iPad, and Macintosh computers.
With a market capitalization exceeding a staggering 2 trillion dollars, Apple stands as one of the largest and most influential companies on a global scale. They now also offer their customers the possibility to personalize their products before purchase.
July Luggage
July Luggage is a brand that allows customers to custom-make their luggage online. Customers, after selecting their choice of luggage or bag, are able to choose their text, favorite lettering style, and colors.
Athan Didaskalou the CSO of July Luggage said;
“Customers tell us all the time that people stop them in airports and on trains to ask where they got their suitcases. People are intrigued by the idea of their initials on their suitcase, and when they learn they can choose the color palette too, they get excited.”
Nike
According to Productimize; “When Nike wanted to increase the Direct to Consumer sales channel, they came up with the idea to sell customizable shoes to the end consumer. Customized shoes were sold for 170$. Nike not only increased their sales but also earned huge PR for its innovation in the shoe industry”.
Nutella
Nutella, a food brand of sweetened hazelnut cocoa spread that is manufactured by the Italian company Ferrero, allows their customers to personalize Nutella jars customized with their name! This brought about huge recognition for them on the internet because customers were sharing the product with their name on it.
This also proves that there is no limit to product customization.
Conclusion
Now that you know you need a product customizer for your product, What next?
The next step is to get the most efficient product Customizer; you can choose between our Visual Product configurator or Staggs.
Visual Product Configurator is a WooCommerce product customizer that:
Is so easy to use and does not require any technical knowledge. It only includes features you need to increase your sales. It’s blazing fast and highly performant no matter what.
The Visual Product Configurator for Woocommerce gives you the ability to ease your customers’ pain by customizing their perfect product visually.
Works with any complex product such as:
- Controllers
- Bikes
- Vapors
- Furniture
- Helmets
- Sunglasses
- And way much more… The fact is that it’s so flexible that it can be used for any kind of product.
Staggs is also a product customizer that:
It gives you a complete toolkit for building configurable and visual products in WooCommerce. You can create unlimited product configurators right from your WordPress dashboard.
With Staggs you have access to various features like import and export data, translation attributes, inventory management and many more.
The most important thing is to find the tool that works perfectly for you, therefore we hope this article has provided you with enough information to make a decision.