A New Personalized World: Innovations of Customization and Personalization in Consumer Products

A Rapid Growth Trend in the Product Development and Manufacturing Market

By Andrew Glickman

One of the growing trends in the consumer market over the past 5 years has undoubtedly been “product customization and personalization”.  Product customization has become an extremely popular approach to several industries throughout the consumer market and speaks to the ways in which consumer demand is changing and adding more personality to the product (from chopsticks to toothbrushes to alcohol to packaging to apparel to smart home to automotive and many more). It is often considered as one of the most influential pieces towards persuading a buyer to making a purchase and creating value.

What classifies as customization of a product? It’s the manufacturing ability to offer a variety of designs or details for a product, made specifically to a buyer’s liking in part due to the advances in technology and manufacturing production processes. The customization of a product means a b2b or b2c customer can select all different types of features like color, design, functionalities, and more to make a more unique and personalized item.

Customization helps to bring increased value in many ways, some of these benefits include:

• Increased sales/margins: when customers can pick personal things to be added to their purchase, it can sway their decision to purchase from one company versus another. A higher price can also usually be commanded for such products as well.
• Value and customer engagement: when a customer is involved in the design and has the ability to select certain pieces of the product purchase, there’s usually a deeper value and engagement to the product
• Brand loyalty: the ability to design the product to their needs and wants can increase customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Brand loyalty customers offer high value to a company through existing and future sales and referrals through friends/family

Some of the quantified markets showing just how much customization and personalization are growing while continuing that upward trend in the future include:

• Shoes: According to a 2021 IMARC Group report, the global custom shoes market reached $666.7 million in 2021 and expects to achieve $859.7 million by 2027
• Apparel: According to a 2021 Technavio report, the custom/personalized apparel market is set to increase by over $1.1 billion over the next 4 years

PCH International and Customization/Personalization – Products and Packaging

What PCH has found is that many of their existing customers and potential customers are asking more and more for this service, whether it’s on a phone or earphone case, speaker, sporting good, or piece of apparel.

Customized and personalized packaging has also become a factor as the experience begins with the initial contact and helps to build more value in the product.

Some of the innovative ways PCH works with product companies to create these are through:

• High-Quality Finishes and Accessories across different types of capabilities that consist of Laser etching, Dye-sublimation, UV printing, and soft goods)
• Individualized Packout and Fulfillment for Direct -To – Consumer Strategy
• Global Drop Ship Delivery