Their top customization trends for June 2018 lists 25 of the most popular products now being customized – everything from haircare systems targeting your personal hair goals to “alphabet” eyewear you can use to communicate messages from the comfort of your (raised?) eyebrows.  One of my favorites:  Woolly, out of Portland, got Kickstarter funding to build an interface that enables people to customize their wallets by choosing leather colors, stitching, pattern and inscription.  284 backers pledged $25,116 to help bring this project to life.

Source:  Woolly

Why is customization so popular?

Customization taps into deeper Trend Hunter–identified mega trends of personalization, co-creation, and curation.

Customization is also important because Millennials see customization as a form of luxury.  According to a MindSwarm study, Millennials perceive luxury differently than previous generations.  They recognize “True luxury” – think ultra-expensive Rolex watches – still exists but is not yet attainable.  But they also demand “My luxury,” where they can curate everyday experiences and products to make them their own.

So if Millennials are important to your business, customization could be an innovation opportunity.

Customization as an innovation opportunity

A client of mine, Knack, is disrupting the gift industry by enabling customers to create custom gift sets for just about any occasion:  employee appreciation programs, corporate events, thanking clients for their business, birthdays, wedding party gifts, college care packages, housiversaries (really, this is starting to become a thing in real estate) and even bad breakups.

When Knack looked at the market, it seemed saturated with gift baskets, florists, and “slap your corporate logo on this coffee mug” companies.  But nothing struck them as particularly innovative or fresh.  They researched giving from a number of different angles and learned, among other things, that when it comes to gifts, employees and customers really don’t want company swag, and that a lot of people care about where exactly their gifts come from.  Knack developed an ecommerce site that enables gift givers to custom tailor gifts by occasion, recipient, interest / product category, and ethos (local, handmade, sustainable, women entrepreneurs, < 10 employees).

They have been in business since 2014 and are getting great traction.

One of the most exciting parts about scaling a business is there are a lot of strategic choices to make.  That leads to a number of questions that Knack continues to revisit.

7 questions to ask when inviting your customers to design their own products:

• Are Millennials important to your business, either as direct purchasers or influencers? If so, how satisfied are they with existing solutions in your industry?
• What target segments are most important to prioritize, when it comes to customization?
• Who in your industry – or adjacent to your industry – is offering customization? What lessons can you learn from them?
• What dimensions should you customize on? Consider product features, how made, where made, and by whom.  What else?
• How much choice should you offer? Where’s the sweet spot?
• Will customers need help making a selection? What customer service is required?
• What technology is needed to make the user experience seamless and enjoyable?

I think regardless of industry, customization will continue to be an enduring trend.  I would love to hear about your experiences and share best practices.

Let me know!

This post was originally published by the American Marketing Executive Circle.