Four Ways a Customisable Product Experience Can Elevate your Customer Journey

By Bradlie Houldsworth, Head of Product at Remarkable Commerce.

With the retail landscape rapidly changing and competition more rife than ever, it’s important brands meet the growing demand of customers wanting a more personalised shopping experience.

Nike is one example of how the world’s biggest retailers are investing in their customer experience. Its Nike by You service lets customers design the exact shoe they want, while Tesla offers an industry-first in being able to design a car online. Customisable product experiences were once seen as the next big thing in e-commerce but now, they’re firmly planted in the fabric of mainstream retail.

This approach benefits not only customers but retailers too. From customer retention to reduced delivery pressure, there are a number of ways implementing a customisable product experience will elevate your customer journey.

• Increase in customer satisfaction

It’s clear that customers value the opportunity to make their own bespoke products. In short, they want more control over what they’re buying.

Retailers of all shapes and sizes are now going down the route of product customisation. In fact, it’s found that in many categories, 50% of customers are interested in buying customisable products, showing that there’s a huge market to get in front of.

The modern consumer is smarter and more demanding (and why shouldn’t they be?). Customer satisfaction is at the forefront of good customer service and e-commerce platforms have a big role to play in offering a personalised, customisable experience.

According to The UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), app and website experiences attract some of the highest rates of customer satisfaction.

• Gain deeper insight into buyer behaviour

Customers are more willing to share data if it means receiving a personalised shopping experience.

Thanks to updates in GDPR and the impending changes to third party cookies in 2023, retailers run the risk of losing a host of customer data and putting marketing channels at risk. Offering a customisable product experience is giving retailers the opportunity to gain deeper insight into their buyers and their behaviour.

Giving the customer the ability to personalise and design their own product specs can also help unearth customer tastes and preference trends, which can feed back into everything from recommendations to future product design decisions.

Any attempt to strengthen the relationship between gaining in-depth consumer data and elevating your customer journey is certainly worth considering.

• Reduced pressure on delivery and lower return rates

A customisable product experience gives a retailer some flexibility when it comes to the delivery of products.

Around half of consumers are prepared to wait longer for a bespoke product as they accept it may take longer to produce more generic, widely-available products.

While we have seen a significant shift among online retailers offering same-day shipping and next-day delivery, this is a welcome relief from the pressures of the modern e-commerce delivery landscape.

Return rates also tend to be lower although some customisable products may not be refundable. This is hardly surprising as highly visual customisable interfaces ensure customer expectations are in line with reality. Essentially, customers are receiving exactly what they want, by their own specifications.

This is a win-win for both the customer and the retailer – the customer is satisfied, while the retailer will save on return and restocking costs.

• Reduced risk of basket abandonment

Empty baskets could be costing retailers millions of pounds each year. According to a Barclaycard survey in 2018, shoppers in the UK abandon online baskets worth almost £30 a month, potentially resulting in more than £18bn in lost sales every year.

On the face of the issue, the best way to reduce basket abandonment is to create a product or service that customers really want to buy. Sounds simple, right?

Allowing customers to personalise their products can result in a lower rate of basket abandonment with customers far less likely to walk away from having spent time tailoring a product, rather than buying something readily available.

The psychology behind this shows that customer basket abandonment rates are lower because spending time personalising a product actually strengthens checkout confidence and purchase intent.

Personalised products are here to stay

Customisable product experiences are no longer something to aspire to but a rapidly growing industry norm. Retailers simply cannot rely solely on good products and clever marketing to really offer an excellent customer experience and those who do risk being be left behind.

Customers want more control over the products they purchase and offering a personalised shopping experience may be the key to offering a top-class customer journey.