I'm a branding & product strategist consulting leading lifestyle brands, start-ups and corporations. I analyze and predict market trends helping brands to envision they next product or service. Here to answer questions about branding or market trends.

Victoria Diaz

Oh mama, that's a damn good question.

I'll start by dividing the concepts of customization in two: one being "personal customization" (like proving the opportunity to add the initials or name on products) and the other being "design customization" (like letting customers change design features as prints, forms or colors as they wish.

I'll start with the cons:

Traditionally, only high-end fashion houses had the service of personalization for leader goods and home-wear. This is a tradition that is running from centuries ago where families or individuals would have their bedlinen, clothing or leatherwood's with their initials printed, embroidered or carefully engraved. Buuut today with re-selling and circularity in mind many people see luxury fashion goods as a form of investment. To purchase a Dior or Hermes handbag isn't seen as a form of life-long ownership anymore. The new collective mindset focuses on circularity conceiving shopping as a form of investment and to re-sale a Bally or Bottega Veneta's handbag with initials on it is difficult to sell and decreases its price by at least 40%. Nobody wants that, right?Another con of customization is that consumers want what they see. Buyers like the design as they saw it in the advertising and adding a longer name or in different font  or color might significantly change the original design resulting in unsatisfied customers.If you're a small company sometimes customizing products can be time demanding. A solution to that is to coop with another person or company who specializes in customizing.

So, what's the role of customization in modern fashion?

Remember a key aspect: Customization is not a product. Customization is a service. To offer such an option puts your brand in the service category and it can be a strategic option when coding your webpage, blog or store.

To offer customization might not be the first on your best-selling but it adds premium fashion sophistication to your profile and this is key for positioning.

My tips are:

Customize items your customer will never resale and items that are easily lost as for example: comb, lighter, etc. So you help them to brand themselves while offering a solution to track their product.If your brand is in the leather good market think of "removable customization". Something they can remove if they plan re-selling. Like in this example customization is on name initials that can be easily removed.Treat customization as a service for self branding. Give the opportunity to your customer to become your fashion collab. Self branding is becoming a big thing and for customers having their most personal products branded is a huge self-marketing aspect. Brands like Loewe, and Teeva have 16-36 % respectively sales solely on customization.And last one: "design customization" can include letting your customers create quotes, change colors or fonts as a way to "refresh" your classics.Hoping my answer brought some light and ideas and very much looking forward to meet you soon :-)Love,Victoria

I'll start by dividing the concepts of customization in two: one being "

 (like proving the opportunity to add the initials or name on products) and the other being "

 (like letting customers change design features as prints, forms or colors as they wish.

So, what's the role of customization in modern fashion?

Remember a key aspect: Customization is not a product. Customization is a service. To offer such an option puts your brand in the service category and it can be a strategic option when coding your webpage, blog or store.

To offer customization might not be the first on your best-selling but it adds premium fashion sophistication to your profile and this is key for positioning.

Adding the option for customer to customize products by adding their name or print on our products has been an idea we implemented but it doesn't bring the revenues and attention we expected. Please explain :-)

Victoria Diaz

What about customization? Is it a real business opportunity for fashion brands?