Attracting the attention of your customers and hitting your sales targets in a highly competitive environment requires advanced marketing tactics. Gone are the days when you could win over customers with mass offerings. Buyers are getting more sophisticated by the day, and to stand out from your competitors, your business needs to give them exactly what they want.
Bringing customization into your marketing plans and enabling shoppers to customize your products according to their tastes and needs will help you boost satisfaction rates and increase sales. In this article, we’ll dig deeper into this trend and reveal tips that will help you succeed.
What Is Product Customization?
Product customization is the manufacturing ability to offer a variety of product designs made specifically to a customer’s needs and preferences. Customization of products means enabling a customer to select features like color, pattern, material, functionalities, or add-on components to create a more unique item that meets your customer’s specific taste.
Customization can be applied to any kind of product and is an essential element in delivering tailored customer experiences to your buyers. Just by letting your clients pick a product color, you can make them feel they are customizing their product and making a choice, which, in turn, will drive customer loyalty and satisfaction.
What Are The Benefits Of Product Customization?
Allowing your potential customers to customize your products prior to purchase can benefit your business in many ways. Here are some of them:
- Customer satisfaction. Delivering tailor-made products will help you create a personalized customer experience for each segment of clients, therefore improving customer satisfaction.
- Word-of-mouth marketing. When customers are happy with their personalized products, they are more likely to recommend your brand to family and friends. They might even take to social media to share the positive experience, thus contributing to your word-of-mouth marketing and providing your business with an organic way to grow.
- Boost sales. One in five consumers prefers to pay 20% more for a customized product. While it might be cheaper to order products in just one basic form, remember that you can charge more for the customized products, which can increase your profit margin.
- Build customer loyalty. If customers get what they want, they are more likely to return and buy again, especially if you make them feel valued. Moreover, repeat business is less costly and more profitable.
- Stand out from the competitors. By enabling your buyers to customize your products you can differentiate your brand from your competitors. You can make your customization a USP to increase sales.
- Spot trends. Product customization can give you valuable customer data that can improve your sales strategy. You can notice trends and explore buying habits that will help you improve your products or even create new ones.
10 Rules For Successful Product Customization
Now that we know what product customization can achieve, let’s explore the best practices to keep in mind when you start offering customized products to your shoppers.
1. Start Small
Is your business new to product customization? Remember not to rush into a new concept without testing it. Start with a sample group to try out your idea and better understand how your business can leverage product customization. For example, you can do that by offering customizable options as add-on features for your loyal customers.
2. Consider What To Customize
While customization can bring many benefits to your business, remember that not every product is custom-friendly. Customizing for the sake of it will cost you more money, so make sure you customize products or product groups that can maximize your added value. Identify those products by asking yourself questions like: Do your customers often request alterations to some of your products? Can your product be adapted to the physiology of the buyer?
Image Source: indochino.com
3. Keep It Simple
If your customers are confronted with too many personalization options, it can become overwhelming, and confusing and many potential buyers could be turned off. You should keep it clean, simple, and straightforward to improve user experience and engage your target audience. For example, you can start by limiting personalization options and clearly separating the available steps and features.
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4. Create Compelling Images
It’s important to present your products in a professional manner when selling them. Compelling images of your customizable products will attract more customers and increase the chances of them making a purchase. Photo retouching is one of the most effective ways to achieve this by allowing you to remove the blemishes and flaws in your photographs. For example, use the UK Clipping Path, the leading photo retouching company that allows you to improve your images without mastering any photo editing software.
5. Make It Shareable
Often, after personalizing their product, customers are eager to share them with their friends and followers. Such user-generated content is beneficial for your brand and can attract new customers. So make sure you give your buyers the ability to share their designs on social media by using “share” buttons and dedicated hashtags.
Image Source: nike.com
6. Adjustable Price Range
Product customization can be a strategy also for high-end items like jewelry. While you should always showcase your jewelry products in the most finest and detailed way, you should also ensure that your customers can find the products they envision within the price range they can afford. You can do that by enabling them to set a price range.
Image Source: jamesallen.com
7. Inspire Customers And Allow Them To Save Their Creations
Product customization can give buyers exactly what they want, but that might also keep them from discovering new features. You can change that by providing inspiration and examples that highlight what other customers have chosen. Remember to also let your customers save their customized products and styles for future purchases to make sure they come back to your site.
Image Source: eu.louisvuitton.com
8. Promote Your Online Store
Make sure your target audience learns about your product customization offers by promoting your eCommerce store online. For example, when it comes to promoting products, content marketing, and guest blogging promise more traffic than you might realize. When you’re selling a product, you want to offer value to a customer. Think of your content strategy the same way and make it valuable by offering practical tips, examples, and case studies to introduce your audience to the benefits of product customization and help them make informed decisions.
9. Think About The Labels And Packaging
While labels and tags have a very tiny space to use, you can take advantage of them to share information with your customers. For example, you can print QR codes to share your brand’s story and connect the buyers with your digital platforms. Some tools will allow you to create QR codes from your short links and you’ll be able to track the scan statistics and analyze the effectiveness of this strategy. By sharing personal messages through product labels and packaging, you can improve customer retail experience, and engagement, increase loyalty and ultimately increase sales.
Image Source: functionofbeauty.com
10. Save Time With Print-On-Demand Services
Print-on-demand companies make it possible to start selling custom products in minutes. Especially if you’re a small business owner, such a service provider can help you with everything from sourcing and storing products, printing products, and packaging materials, to shipping orders to customers.
Wrap-up
If you look to improve your customer’s shopping experience and satisfaction rates, incorporating product customization into your eCommerce strategy is a must. However, instead of making everything customizable, remember to be strategic about the options that you offer your users. Avoid being confusing and complicated, instead focus on a flawless customer experience. That way you will not only increase the chances of customer retention and generate word-of-mouth recommendations but also boost your sales.
