Mass Manufacturing Versus Mass Customization
It’s hard to believe that a few centuries ago, everything people bought were customized to meet individual needs and preferences. With mass manufacturing and the advent of the assembly line, getting clothing or any other product customized became wishful thinking. Consumers could only hope that fixed sizes such as small, medium and large could fit their uniquely-formed bodies, not to mention pre-set designs. The trade-off was a substantial price decrease across the board benefiting both the manufacturers and consumers alike. But this benefit didn’t come without its cons. Consumers were categorized based on broad labels such as gender and age.
Today’s technology allows for a good mix between customized clothing and efficient production. The most exciting aspect of customization in the retail sector is that it’s proving to be disruptive. Clothing chains are being hard-pressed to provide a personalized experience because more and more consumers want to have a say in the design of the clothing they buy. In the case of online shopping, the cost of maintaining retail stores is eliminated which allows the budget room for one-piece-at-a-time production.
Massive customization is possible with three new technological and scientific advancements—3D printing, biometrics and e-commerce. 3D printing is a new technology that is able to print objects in three-dimensional forms. Biometrics refers to metrics related to human characteristics. Currently, researchers have gathered data of hundreds of thousands of people into a database that is widely accessible. E-commerce or electronic commerce is essentially selling on the internet. The clothing sector is seeing massive shifts in consumer behavior. Many big retail chains like Aeropostale are reporting massive losses as customers are moving away from purchasing at brick-and-mortar stores to online shopping.
urSTORE is one such business that takes advantage of current technologies like e-commerce and has taken it one step even further by facilitating the ability for consumers to have their own online stores. What’s more, urSTORE gives 10% of the sales back to the owner of the online store the apparel was purchased from. This results in a unique relationship between the business and the owner of each of the thousands of active stores where the more products urSTORE sells, the more the consumer benefits. Once you create your online store at urSTORE and upload your graphics, you can have your logo imprinted on apparel and accessories. This creates brand exposure for your business or the cause you’re passionate about. urSTORE lets you market your brand like never when you do something as simple as wear a shirt with your logo on it.
The key to a successful apparel customization business is to cater to unmet customer needs and that’s exactly what urSTORE does. Moreover, customized products requires that you know your customers well and that’s when social media becomes key. Another reason for online businesses to stay active on social media is that without a retail store, they have no face-to-face interactions with customers so the only medium to connect becomes a Facebook page or a Twitter profile.
