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Growth of mass customization in fashion industry
March 8, 2017

( Estimated reading time: 4 min )

Customization has been a part of fashion industry since the beginning of haute couture. Due to sociological changes, it is becoming a larger part of production and sales in the fashion industry. Consumers want made to measure and personalized products and customization allows that. This practice has led to mass customization by brands in order to tap this increasing market segment.

What is Mass Customization?

Mass customization combines the personalization and flexibility of custom made products with mass production, and specific target groups. According to Lee and Chen, the fashion industry has mainly focused on dimensional (based on body measurements) and modular (picking separate components to create individualized products) mass customization.

Why Mass Customization is Important?

Mass customization is important because consumers are getting exactly what they want. Many consumers desire products that should meet their exact needs and standards. With consumers willing to pay for the customized products, companies’ profits are skyrocketing. This can be said especially in cases when a large target group demands customized products for them.

Clothing has always been a large platform for self-expression. Instagram nowadays is full of style bloggers. People are spending now more than ever on clothing and accessories and it is quite evident from the fact that the global apparel market is now valued at 3 trillion dollars. Apart from high profits, customization is also creating customer loyalty. Thus companies are able to offer return customers loyalty programs. Let’s say in a gaming event, a Nintendo gaming group gets together every year for a gaming meet, and every year they require some kind of fashion accessories as a memorabilia for that year. If a company offers a loyalty program to the gaming group, then the gaming group is more likely to return back to them for the following year’s accessories.

Challenges to Mass Customization

While mass customization in fashion has its perks, it also has its challenges. Some of the most common challenges are cost, production speed, brand identity loss, and return policies. Some consumers look beyond the challenges while others don’t.

The cost of mass customization is still slightly higher than a plain old everyday mass produced product. This is because the producers are only producing a small number of products rather than millions at one time for distribution. So, rather than absorbing the additional cost of design and producing smaller numbers, producers pass that cost on to the consumer. This raises the overall cost of the product. However, some producers offer a quantity discount based on your order. Hence higher the order number, lower the cost.

Production speed is another challenge in mass customization. While it is not as much of challenge when producing high volume of the same custom product, it is for producing a single item for one customer. Customization also takes time, especially when you have to switch the template or material out for every other product produced. Producers are working on reducing the overall time, but this will come with an increased cost as they will need additional equipment and space.

When people buy products from high-end luxury brands, then they are buying the heritage, and vision of the brand. If the consumers are allowed to customize the products to a large extent, then the luxury brands risk losing their brand identity.

Return policies on customized items is a question that is asked by producers and consumers alike. When consumer orders a product tailored to them or their group, it’s going to be hard to sell that specific product to another individual or group, as everyone has different interests and tastes. This issue causes producers to have a “no returns accepted” policy or they only refund a portion of the cost of the item. When a consumer cannot return an item if it doesn’t fit or if they just don’t like it then, they are less likely to purchase that item.

In Conclusion

Mass customization is now being adopted in the fashion industry at a high rate due to lack of innovation in designs and consumer becoming savvy about what they really want. With the growth of desire for individual expression,  and the advent of new technologies like AR, 3D scanning, and e-wearables, mass customization is surely going to change how you shop clothes online and at retail stores.

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Ankit
Ankit Upadhyay is a knowledgeable professional within the marketing industry as well as a a driven blogger with different interests. He is currently working at INFITEC GmbH as the Marketing Director and in his spare time creates content for ankitupadhyay.com in the areas of fashion, technology and business.

14 Comments


Brianne
March 9, 2017 at 9:34 am
Reply

I don’t know if this concept if for me, at least not right now, I’m so used to buying things online or on sale, I don’t see myself buying customized pieces that will cost me a lot.



Camilla
March 9, 2017 at 4:13 pm
Reply

I had no clue this was a trend! I know a few fashion houses offer the possibility to customize some pieces but I didn’t know it’s such a big direction.



    nick
    March 10, 2017 at 5:00 pm
    Reply

    It’s becoming popular especially with suits. Thank god for that 😀
    Over time, I think it will gain popularity because of lack of sales and shite creative direction from fashion houses. When I buy clothes, I don’t want them to represent a brand. I want them to represent me.

Riley
March 9, 2017 at 6:59 pm
Reply

Mass customization clearly has its fans, the people that are willing to be on a list and then pay a whole freakin’ lot to get their piece. It’s wonderful and all, but this should be done for high street fashion as well!



Chloe
March 9, 2017 at 10:29 pm
Reply

When you’re buying a Chanel jacket, you kinda don’t want to customize it, you want to buy exactly what the designer created. Why would you personalize something that is already different than 99% of the clothing we see on the street?



Victor
March 10, 2017 at 10:34 am
Reply

Won’t this dilute a brand’s identity? I mean it will be hard to be known for one thing when your customers want it personalized to its own taste.



    Ankit
    March 10, 2017 at 3:26 pm
    Reply

    Hi Victor,
    That’s why companies have allowed only limited customization. For example, Burberry allows monogrammed gifts as shown here https://uk.burberry.com/monogramming-gifts/

Claire
March 10, 2017 at 4:23 pm
Reply

For some reason I don’t see this happening and here’s why! We want faster internet, faster cars, we use a ton of productivity apps to make the most of our time, how does waiting for a custom, almost bespoke piece fit into this? I think this is a very small niche that might expand in time but it will still be a very small percentage compared to the overall fashion industry.



Surabh
March 10, 2017 at 4:53 pm
Reply

Hi Claire,
It’s not bespoke, only minor customizations. In the end, it won’t have any effect on delivery times.



    Terry
    March 10, 2017 at 5:02 pm
    Reply

    Then it’s good. 😀

Sophie
March 10, 2017 at 11:29 pm
Reply

This is a no for me and only because my budget doesn’t allow it… Heck, who wouldn’t want to have their clothing stand out instead of being in a Zara uniform?



Arianna
March 11, 2017 at 12:50 pm
Reply

I’ve noticed a lot of talks about minimal fashion lately and perhaps this whole customization approach will lead to that. It will be harder to hoard everything we find on sale if we order customized pieces, right?



Denyse
March 12, 2017 at 9:18 am
Reply

I find it insanely hard to find clothing I love 100% so I resort to personalizing it myself. Having my tailor on speed dial is a lot cheaper and productive than ordering customized pieces that you have no clue how they look or fit.



Andy
March 12, 2017 at 8:10 pm
Reply

LV is doing this for some time and it seems to be going great. I don’t know how long it actually takes to get your product delivered but if you want it so bad, I guess you can wait, right?



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