Product customization is a great way to increase brand loyalty and sales. According to a 2013 Bain survey of more than 1,000 online shoppers, 25% to 30% are interested in product customization. That same survey reported that customers who had customized a product online:
- engaged more with the company,
- visited its website more frequently,
- and were more loyal to the brand.
Whether it’s embroidery, engraving, sublimation, or some other form of product personalization, the bottom line is this: you should be offering it.
But how do you do it effectively? By keeping everything under the same roof. Choosing a fulfillment provider that can handle in-house product customization only makes sense.
Here are 2 BIG reasons:
1. Costs
If you use a vendor outside your fulfillment facility, someone will have to coordinate the logistics of getting the order from the warehouse to the vendor, then back to either the warehouse or the customer.
Keeping product customization at the same location as your order fulfillment eliminates these unnecessary costs (not to mention the logistic headaches).
2. Lead times
It takes more than just money to transport orders from the fulfillment house to the personalization vendor, back to the fulfillment facility, and (finally) out to the customer. It takes time, too.
The back and forth can add an extra 5 to 7 days for out-of-house customization if everything is done right the first time.
With many in-house fulfillment partners, personalization can be completed within 24 hours of order receipt. Your customer gets the order faster, which is always a good thing. And if there’s an error during the customization process, inventory is close at hand, so there’s very little time wasted.
Not only is product customization a driving factor in customer satisfaction, it’s also a great way for ecommerce retailers to push some additional revenue to their bottom lines. Offering personalization options allows retailers to increase their product mix without increasing the number of products offered.