Most e-commerce websites are starting to offer product customization to their customers, and yes, it is gaining in importance. It’s no longer a ‘fancy option’ or a luxury you can offer your customers – it’s a must. Here are a few reasons why it’s gaining in importance and how your business can benefit.
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Why is It Gaining in Importance?
So why is product customization increasing in importance? There is a simple answer: your customers want it. In fact, they expect it at this point. By offering custom products, you offer a wide range of variations, allowing your customers to choose different sizes, colors, and features depending on their wants, needs, and taste.
Not all customers are the same, but you also don’t want to offer every combination under the sun. You’ll be overwhelmed if you attempt this, as will your audience. Looking at your top purchases will help you select the best custom products for your customers.
It’s important to note that product customization has become the norm for businesses and consumers, and can be found on Amazon, Shopify, and other e-commerce websites in addition to companies’ own websites and shops. Custom apparel is also starting to gain in popularity as consumers want to stand out by wearing unique items. And imagine how you’d stand out by offering the option of personalized gifts!
Why You Need to Offer Product Customization
So your customers are looking for this option for their purchases, and there are a number of benefits to offering different variations to your products. A few to note include:
More Sales
The bottom line when it comes to offering product customization is that it will get you more sales. Offering a jacket in both navy blue and black will attract customers who prefer navy blue. Without that selection, if they had their heart set on that color, you could very well lose out on that sale to a competitor. Your customers want more options. If you’re offering the bare minimum, your sales will suffer.
More Profits
Of course, more sales will get you more profits, but there’s another reason you’ll see an increase in numbers: Your customers are also looking for personalized gifts or items and will pay extra for it. In fact, a study by Deloitte has found that 20% of customers will pay 20% extra for your exclusive products. You will also see an increase in marketing ROI by taking this route.
More Knowledge About Your Customers
By offering product customization, you get a better idea of what your customers actually want. Over time, you’ll be able to drop those undesired or under-performing items and funnel more money into the things your customers are buying.
You can also develop new product lines based on what they’re purchasing – inspired by custom apparel. You may find a whole new niche with the data that is uncovered here. This information will help you create user personas, allowing you to create more detailed marketing and sales campaigns.
Customer Retention
Since you’re providing your customers with what they want, they will keep coming back to your store, especially if your competitors aren’t offering product customization just yet. Customer loyalty can be difficult to come by, but by tailoring things to their taste, you can gain it quickly and improve customer retention as well. Increased customer retention will lower your marketing costs as it’s often much more expensive to market to a new client than it is to previous ones.
Customer loyalty also equals more word of mouth marketing. They will recommend it to their friends and family. One study showed that offering product customization will increase “perceived service quality, customer satisfaction, customer trust, and ultimately customer loyalty toward a service provider.” That’s another reason to provide custom products.
Money Saved
You may think that more options equals more required inventory. However, you can actually better target what you will need to purchase for your inventory thanks to product customization. For instance, you won’t accidentally order too many red purses when you sell more black. You can also avoid the opposite where you order too few of a popular product.
As mentioned before, personalized and customized options will also help you create more detailed and specific marketing campaigns. You can cut back on costs by using the data created from custom products to skip guessing games.
It’s no longer an option when it comes to whether or not to offer product customization. Your sales and bottom line could only benefit by offering more choices to your customers – and they will benefit too.
Are you curious about how to offer product customization to your customers? Or which e-commerce websites are best for offering custom products?
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Did you like this article? Then read about the main benefits of product customization on online selling.