Customers' online shopping preferences in mass customization

Abstract

Mass customization has become important to business because of the difficulties for customers in finding what they want despite an increase in product variety for many categories over the past decades. The emergence of modern technologies in production and communication, however, allows companies to offer customised products and services without relinquishing economies of scale. The advent of web interfaces has finally given the opportunity to achieve completely the involvement of the customer in the product's entire design process. The results of our survey on more than 500 European customers show a declining willingness of customers to compromise on the issue of suitability of products to their personal needs and preferences, the possibility for companies to break brand loyalty through mass customization and the influence of immediate availability, delivery time and price on the customer's willingness to take part in the co-creation process of products. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.