Customize your Valentine’s Day gifts (original) (raw)

Roses, lingerie or perhaps even diamonds for her. A wallet, silk boxers or new golf clubs for him.

Sound familiar? Sound clichéd?

Your best Valentine’s Day gift alternative may be to tap into the developing business of product customization. In other words, you conceive and design a unique item that you can order from a manufacturer or retailer geared toward individualizing products.

At Zazzle.com – a Redwood City online customizer that has impressed retail strategists with its technology – you easily can upload a sentimental photograph and transfer it to a canvas print in sizes ranging from small to “colossal.”

In that example, the customized product has obvious potential for occasions such as Valentine’s Day, anniversaries or family celebrations. Another idea from Zazzle and other sites: sculptures cut out of acrylic and made from cherished photos, such as a wedding picture.

But the ultimate appeal of “make-your-own” customization is that people can tailor any product to fit their needs, depending on their creativity and imagination. Consider this possibility:

What if your Valentine’s Day gift idea was to construct a Lego kit of the dream home you and your sweetheart envision? Lego offers consumers the option of downloading design software at www.legofactory.com, using it to build the virtual version of an original Lego model and ordering the pieces to turn the design into reality.

Experts say manufacturers and retailers face major cost and technical challenges in providing products that can be customized in a unique way by each consumer. Even so, customization has become a powerful trend, particularly when it fosters self-expression in ways as simple as words printed on T-shirts.

“Mass customization will turn out to be as important in the 21st century as mass production was in the 20th century,” said Joe Pine, an author and management adviser widely credited with anticipating the trend in the early 1990s.

Pine points to “mi Adidas” athletic shoes as an example of a highly developed customization system, although they’re available only in the United States so far through stores in San Francisco and New York City.

At those locations, consumers can make appointments to go through a detailed analysis of their feet, with the option of ordering shoes that differ in size for each foot and that include size variations beyond the standard choices. Factors including pressure points and running patterns are examined, and the consumer ultimately can have shoes made to those specifications after choosing from a wide assortment of styles and colors.

A customized pair of various Adidas styles would cost about 50morethananoff−the−shelfpair,saidaspokeswoman.UsingtheSupernovaandPredatorlinesasexamples,thatwouldraisethepricefromabout50 more than an off-the-shelf pair, said a spokeswoman. Using the Supernova and Predator lines as examples, that would raise the price from about 50morethananoff−the−shelfpair,saidaspokeswoman.UsingtheSupernovaandPredatorlinesasexamples,thatwouldraisethepricefromabout100 to 150andabout150 and about 150andabout200 to $250, respectively.

That type of customization entailsweeks before the product is ready for consumers. To take advantage of occasions such as Valentine’s Day, companies need products and shipping capabilities for quick turnarounds.

Jim Heckman, Zazzle’s chief strategy officer, said the company does “crazy sales” immediately prior to Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day because almost all the orders come from men who failed to plan their purchases ahead of time.

Zazzle, which Pine and others call the clear leader among online customizers, promotes itself as being able to manufacture and ship the bulk of its customized product orders within 24 hours. The key element is the rapid production of the item – printing someone’s personal design on a sweatshirt, for instance – while the consumer decides whether or not to pay extra for expedited delivery.

“Zazzle just blows my mind with what it’s able to do,” said Doug Fleener, a retail consultant in Lexington, Mass. “I don’t see anybody else doing anything to the same extent.”

But that only points up the challenges for other retailers, both online and in brick-and-mortar stores.

“I would be hard-pressed to understand how traditional retailers can do customizations beyond things like monogramming,” Fleener said.

One common twist on customization is to take a highly personal theme – your own artwork, for instance – and sell it as a product line. That has appeal for many consumers and can be handy when the products are designed for occasions such as Valentine’s Day.

Heckman says Zazzle, which is backed by the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers venture capital firm, typically does five to six times as many sales as normal on days preceding special occasions, and when that happens, he said, “all the guys are paying for overnight delivery.”

In other words, if you’re feeling creative, sooner is cheaper than later.

Originally Published: February 7, 2008 at 7:01 PM PST