Published on July 19th, 2023
Personalization reigns supreme. As businesses today look for ways to stand out and offer innovative goods, consumers are also looking for one-of-a-kind products.
Personalization can be a win-win solution both for brands and consumers. It allows brands to stand out from their competitors, which is advantageous in today’s saturated e-commerce world.
Personalization goes way beyond monogramming these days. While adding initials to an item can be a nice touch, consumers today are looking for products made just for them.
They want to know that brands are thinking of them as individuals with distinctive wants and needs.
With the rise of technology and AI, brands can anticipate potential buyers’ needs and market them with individualized products.
Below is a list of companies who serve as an example for how to individualize products for consumers.
1. Custom Pet Food Delivered
Pet owners want the very best for their furry friends. This includes what goes in their dinner bowl every day.
Long gone are the days when you went to the store and grabbed a bag of the cheapest kibble on the shelf.
Rather, pet owners are turning to companies offering fresh dog food designed for optimal digestion and nutrition.
Nom takes freshness a step further with personalized offerings for dog owners. After a quick survey, consumers can access a meal plan that meets their dog’s nutrition requirements.
Additionally, the plan can change and adapt as their dog ages and their needs mature too.
This company considers a pup’s specific breed, current weight, and food allergies to suggest a variety of customized meals.
Consumers can select a meal plan and subscription that works best for them and Fido, which ensures fresh food is always available when needed.
2. Made-For-You Insoles For Truly Happy Feet
Shoe shopping can be a decisive topic. Some people love it while others are frustrated by the mere thought of it.
With literally millions of options available, finding the perfect fit for your feet can be like blindly throwing a dart at a target.
While you may like how one pair looks, they may not be comfortable. And wearing improper or ill-fitting footwear can lead to long-term foot problems down the road.
Enter FitMyFoot, a footwear company that uses high-end tech to create and build customized shoes and insoles.
Established in 2014, FitMyFoot creates 3-D files that are unique to each customer’s feet. Best of all, customers don’t have to leave the comfort of their own home to get personalized footwear.
The 3-D files can be created based on photos taken via the brand’s app. With this file, FitMyFoot will create custom arch insoles or supported sandals and ship them directly to their customers.
3. Made-To-Order Shampoo
Personalized beauty is on the rise as Gen Z and millennial shoppers are seeking individualized solutions for their skin, makeup, and hair routines.
In 2021, the personalized beauty market was valued at $41.9 billion and is expected to more than triple within the next 10 years!
This market and demand for personalization is driven by the changing nature of the beauty world itself.
Personalization allows brands to meet users where they are in their beauty journey, providing recommendations and suggestions for those at a loss of where to begin.
Prose is one company that sells custom hair care to meet an individual’s specific hair needs.
A short online questionnaire asks potential buyers about their current hairstyle and their hair goals.
What sets Prose apart from other personalized hair companies is they also take the environment into consideration; the brand will adapt their formulas so someone living in San Diego with a temperate climate will see the same great results as someone living in New York City.
After finishing the quiz, consumers are able to add their personalized products including shampoo, conditioner, hair gel, and even dry shampoo to their cart.
Why Personalize?
As these three examples prove, personalization isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, and it really does run the gamut depending on the brand’s target audience.
However, you may still be wondering what the benefits of personalization are and how to adapt it for your brand.
To start, personalization is a way to generate customer loyalty and retention. If you provide a really great product and customer service to back it up, your buyers are likely to return.
And when you add this product to a subscription with a significant discount, consumers are even more likely to return.
Personalization is a way for your company to expand and really take off. The demand for individualized products is there, as customers are motivated to buy products with their needs in mind.
Taking a quiz or questionnaire to find out what’s best for them is part of the process — and is often seen as a fun, engaging tactic.
Prompting users to add their email address before seeing their results is one way to gain leads during the process too.
No matter what your business is selling, there is likely a way to add personalization into the mix.
Of course, don’t just offer personalization for the sake of it. Make it worthy and attractable to buyers to gain a loyal consumer base and to reap the maximum benefits.
