From the food we eat, songs we listen to, and shows we watch, customization has consumed us. Although product personalization is not a new trend, it continues to gain huge momentum in the fashion industry. Earlier, which was only restricted to pieces of jewelry and other sectors, customization seems to be easily paving its path into the luxury businesses. It is not only restricted to providing a product that one would like to be designed as per his or her needs; it is about the journey now. Everything from selection to payment is customized, and in the coming years, we shall see more of it if you are a brand operating in the fashion and luxury domain. In that case, you must implement the product configurator software. This customization solution transforms your business model and helps brands get accustomed to new trends and technologies to spur the fashion market. The tool is well-developed to enable brands to let their customers feel free to design any product, including apparel, footwear, headgear, handbags, masks, mugs, and many other things. In short, it has everything brands have been long looking for.
Product Design Tools Enable Brands to Increase their Brand Value
There’s been lots of commentary in the past few years about consumers’ coming expectations for mass personalization of the products they want to buy. A new study says that time has now arrived. Research by Dassault Systèmes and CITE Research shows that people are more willing to experiment with personalization and don’t hesitate to spend extravagantly on these products. As per the report, about 83% of consumers expect products to be personalized within moments or hours, and consumers will pay an average premium of over 25% for personalization. Clearly, it’s critical now for producers to understand consumer expectations for their particular product lines and for the demographics they serve.
Besides buyers, customization also evidently works in brands’ favor. We have seen in 2020, marketers have increasingly turned to personalized marketing to improve customer engagement, and it is more likely to continue in the coming years. And while new technology is making it possible to personalize messaging on an increasingly granular level, marketers face mounting challenges when it comes to both tightening regulations and the difficulty of managing all of that customer data.
In order to successfully capitalize on this strategy in 2020 and beyond, marketers must walk a fine line between personalization and privacy and always put the customer at the heart of their efforts. If this seems too confusing to you, in this blog, we shall help to understand the difference better and how you can gain momentum in the fashion and luxury market. By carefully understanding other brands’ success stories, you will know how this new-age trend can help you gain traction.
Here are a few elements that can help companies to outgrow their business in the fashion and luxury industry:
- Personalization Brings in Diversity
In the fashion industry, brands have to offer something new and unique everything they are ready to launch something in their collection line. It is a basic survival instinct and a necessary step to stand out from the crowd. Here is a thing with customization; customers can independently design their apparel or footwear, or any product for that matter. Brands can allow their buyers to experiment with their looks without giving away too much control to them. Let them assume that they are driving the brand or sales, but you would know when and where to apply breaks in reality.
Snap that strap back. Adventure-ready Crocs just landed. pic.twitter.com/8zbibvotMu
— Crocs Shoes (@Crocs) November 4, 2020
For example, when Crocs launched a collaboration with Kentucky Fried Chicken this summer, it set off a small social media frenzy among customers who wanted to hoover up a pair of chicken-patterned clogs topped with drumstick-scented charms to pin on them. Certainly, this year would be registered as a memorable one in its history for the brand. Though the brand was forced to close many of its retail locations earlier this year due to the pandemic, sales are slated to be higher than ever. Accordingly, Crocs’ stock price has more than quadrupled since March 18. The brand reported a record $362 million in third-quarter revenues and expected to report at least 20% growth in sales in its latest quarter ending December.
The secret behind their immense and sudden success of Crocs was that the label live-streamed how to pair the footwear with various clothes. And this use of digital technology helped them to address a diverse population. Besides, in June this year, it unveiled a new store concept in Shanghai, which allows customers to personalize their Crocs in store.
- Customization Offers Platform to Express
Modern-day customers are smart, and they don’t want to follow what others are doing. And sometimes, even if they want to, a certain price stops them from buying the product. This is the place, custom-made products come in handy, as customers are free to design the pattern they saw their favorite celebrity wearing and using. And they would buy it. Besides, tailored items also provide them the space to speak up about what they like and how they want it to be manufactured. Let us consider the sisters’ case, and cofounders Kendall and Libby Glazer turned what was once a hobby into a multimillion-dollar business loved by both mothers and their children.
The Glazer sisters commenced their brand in 2009, and within a decade, it grew to become a go-to destination for customizable accessories, such as patches, high-end bags, and leather goods. They created Stoney Clover Lane as a reflection of their likes and aesthetics, bringing customers into their world and designing only what they would use and wear. This approach has helped build a tight-knit community with a recognizable brand style. They have even partnered with legacy brands, such as Hello Kitty, The Beverly Hills Hotel, Lele Sadoughi, and LoveShackFancy, to create limited-edition collections.
On similar lines, the 3d product design tools provide customization solutions enabling brands to allow their customers to express themselves through the eyes of fashion. The tool has a digital preview feature, which helps customers to view everything they design in 3d.
- Custom-made Products Make Great Gifts
We have seen people agonized with the worldwide lockdown, travel ban, and social distancing in recent months. With the holiday season coming up, people are bracing themselves for it and planning their holiday. However, the pandemic cannot rob consumers of a celebratory remote holiday soirée. Today, it’s all about the journey. More to the point, the time has come to uplift modern times’ spirit, which requires reassurance, solace, and happiness.
Today, consumers are breathing a sigh of relief as brands are reopening their stores, and once aging, people have the chance to fill out and shop. In fact, these days, brands are taking extra care to look after the needs of customers. Modern-day buyers prefer brands that are sustainable and offer a fresh style. The trend also allows many companies to rediscover their lost brand value. And what could have been the better time to re-explore oneself than a holiday season. This is the period, people would be willing to experiment with their gifts, and customization is the best tool that allows them to do so. For example, 8 By YOOX ‘s beret is made in Italy and is synonymous with quality and design creativity. Borrowed from menswear, this beret is 100% soft leather and an unexpected detail for a contemporary loop at any time of the day. You can let your consumers make the same kind of cap using customization tools.
Here is the case of another company that is doing some phenomenal work in providing a platform that can be used to create awesome handbag gifts. Inspired by his desire to be creative while quarantining at home, Joseph Altuzarra‘s idea for the reversible tote was based on versatility, customization, and playfulness. When purchased, the tote will be accompanied by a box of colorful Sharpie markers — inviting the owner to be able to customize her tote while simultaneously taking part in creating a one-of-a-kind version of this Altuzarra classic.
- Tailored Services Help Gathering Data
The biggest advantage of shifting the traditional model into customization is that it opens various brands to gather relevant data. Not all data helps brands understand what people are more focusing on. Still, these specific ones, such as last purchase, the product they spend most of their time on, sizes they are buying, all these factors contribute to business growth significantly. These researches enable brands to reflect on their product and target consumers’ habits, and represent their future behavior. It’s also important that there is enough of it to account for statistical deviations and variations.
It is understandable that creating a data pipeline is daunting in itself as brands have to gain this information at regular intervals. One way to achieve this target would be by making a pipeline a part of labels’ core product and shopping experience. The US and UK based online personal styling service Stitch Fix is doing just that. They create curated fashion experiences where shoppers answer questions about their preferences and expectations before getting matched with a stylist who creates a “fix” (a set of five items) that they think would work for the shopper.
And during this time of the festival season, people are more than willing to share their details with fashion and luxury brands. As at this time, they want something unique that they can show off to their family members and friends. Customization is the best way to help them turn their imagination into reality.
- Mead-to-Measure Items Ensure Eco-friendliness
The need for sustainable products is rising exponentially. Their cut-throat competition in the fashion, especially the apparel market, to offer the best quality product while ensuring no harm is caused to the environment. Earlier, the companies’ struggle to go through when they manufactured the eco-friendly clothes were its premium prices. The amount of hard work was put in to produce was beyond our imagination. This was also happening because there were lesser companies that emphasized the significance of nature-friendly clothes. But as more labels are joining the stream, never in the history of the planet has clothing been so cheap and so plentiful. On average, we’re buying five times as much clothing per person as we did thirty years ago.
Unmade, which was started in London in 2014 and has raised $12 million to date, supplies technology that enables fashion and sportswear brands to let their customers place custom orders at scale, providing photo renderings before the customer places the order. And Unspun, a startup based in Hong Kong, is applying tech to ensure that the jeans it produces are not only made to order but made to measure. The company uses 3D body scanners to take customer measurements, then produces a custom pair of jeans.
Customization can also play a big role in curbing this carbon emission and waste of products. The concept behind bringing this model into the fashion industry was to let customers wear what they actually want to wear. The seasonal trend and constant cut-to-cut competition were making the business worse. Thus, with custom-made solutions, brands were sure all this would end, and customers will be happy that they are donning the apparel they created. Besides these advantages, the tailored model enabled companies to streamline their supply chain and manufacture only what has been asked. Thus, it automatically cured the problem of over-production and made it possible for brands to teach consumers the concept of responsible consumerism where they buy what they need and won’t dump anything.
What After This?
From the facts and figures mentioned above, it is apparent that personalization is certainly taking the industry by storm. The technologies involved in these platforms are already playing a pivot role to make the fashion ecommerce a simpler and feel-good industry. Today, fashion and apparel brands are at a cross-road where they need to consider all possible options that help take-off in the business. Customization is the only way forward for companies as it enables them to include all plausible measures in their business model and boost sales. It all indeed seems easier than done, but the product design software by iDesigniBuy is one such personalization tool that supports brands in gaining momentum. The tool is well-designed to accommodate any diverse needs put forth by the buyers. It solves problems by incorporating a generous level of creativity from users and taking into account all of their small irrational habits. It is not just like a straightforward math problem with logical conclusions. We understand that buying a light floral dress for the summer holidays might not be exactly the same as buying a new iPhone; therefore, we have developed such a unique tool that can cater to each and every demand and challenge in the future.
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