Significance of Personalizing Products using Web to Print Technology

Online retailers of apparels, handbags, posters, gifts etc have finally understood the importance of letting their customers design their own products. As they have realized that personalization of products can boost customer engagement, they are putting in efforts to facilitate mass customization using web-to-print technology. Retail giants like Amazon have achieved a lot of success due to personalized shopping experience it offers to its customers.

Let us study the importance of personalization using web-to-print software in detail.

Driving customer engagement

A survey conducted on 1000 shoppers by Bain & Company proved that even if only 10% of customers have chosen to customize their products, nearly 25 to 35% are interested in following the same path. It is difficult to identify the potential of product customization using web-to-print. But if 25% of footwear sales is customized, it would contribute to a market share of $2 billion every year.

Apart from the above figures, it was observed that customers who had customized their products using a web-to-print tool showed more engagement with the company. Their online behavior included visiting the website frequently, staying on the page for a longer time and showing loyalty towards the brand they chose.

Establishing an edge over competitors

In today’s times, as internet has made it easy for customers to make price and quality comparisons; enabling personalization of products using web-to-print technology helps retailers to establish an edge over their competitors. It shouldn’t come as a surprise if after some years; products with standard features sell less as compared to the customized ones.

Making enhancements

Due to the influence of social media and online presence of brands, the styles and trends of products keep changing. Keeping updated with the trends in personalization helps companies to fine tune their software and make changes with their products whenever there is a scope of doing so. Also, as online retailers get a real-time insight into shopping preferences of the customers, they can come up with a range of their choice in future.

The magic of co-creating

It is always fun to invite friends and family online and co-create products that hold a sentimental value. Superior quality web-to-print software can offer the option of sharing product designs on social media and collaborate with others during the designing process. For eg. A company named North Face displays a gallery of designs which is created by its customers for their product named "Denali Jacket". This marketing technique, inspired other customers to create and share their own designs.

As several retailers and brands are giving the ‘design-it-yourself’ option by employing product personalization extension, it is helping them to boost their revenues and connect with their customers at a better level. In order to achieve success through web to print technology, retailers need to know their objectives and understand the type/amount of customization they can offer to their customers.

Mr. Pratik Shah is Creative Head at Brush Your Ideas, Web-to-Print technology solution provider that offers Custom Product Design Software as well as Web-to-Print Storefront Solutions.