Challenges in Product Customization and How to Resolve Them

Summary: The key to achieving repeat business in a print shop is offering what your customers need. From simplifying the design creation process for customers, ensuring the initial design meets the final output to streamlining mass personalization, this blog will discuss all the product customization challenges and impactful strategies to rectify them.

With the rising demand of online shoppers, the requirement for personalized products with unique preferences is also rapidly increasing. As per research, approximately 50% of online shoppers believe customized printing products to be a great gifting option and about 48% of shoppers don’t mind waiting extra time for a customized product.

This trend is necessitating the adoption of Top custom web to print software for enabling seamless designing, printing and delivering custom products to the customer's doorstep. However, there are some major challenges faced by growing print shops while offering online product customization to customers.

In this blog, we will delve into these critical challenges and discuss how to overcome them with effective strategies. Let’s begin.

Product Personalization Challenges and Strategies to Overcome Them

Below discussed are the top challenges faced by print shop owners in delivering customized print products and the transformative strategies to tackle them.

Challenge 1 - Poor Features in Ordinary Design Tools Hindering Productivity

Utilizing an outdated design tool can cause several challenges due to the absence of advanced designing features, adaptability and responsiveness to multiple devices, leading to customer dissatisfaction, and less chances of conversion.

Strategy - Choosing a Designer Tool with the Right Features

To overcome these challenges, choose a web to print software with an online designer studio that has modern features including the following -

• Simple customization options like ready-to-use templates, capability for adding text, images, graphics, as well as selection of paper type, finish type, border thickness, image effects, color, quantity and others can make designing effortless even for beginners.

• A responsive and dynamic design tool can enable users to design on multiple devices like laptop, desktop, mobile, as well as tablet and ensure that it can adapt to market changes to provide a competitive edge for your print shop.

• 3D product preview functionality can enable your customers to visualize their designs in 360-degree and its appearance in the real world, enhancing their purchasing decisions.

• Seamless integration capability between your print ecommerce store and the designing tool is essential to ensure a smooth implementation process.

Challenge 2 – Complexity in Pricing Custom Products

Managing the varied cost differences for every print product customization can be quite tedious and manual calculations for each order can hinder the productivity of your print shop.

Strategy - Developing an Effective Pricing Method for Custom Products

• Offering customization-based pricing to your customers is a guaranteed way to ensure they get the right price for their designs which includes high cost for premium design options and low or medium cost for basic design options set by the print shop owner.

• Leveraging subscription-based models can enable print shop owners to purchase only the required design features, ensuring profitability.

• By conducting thorough market research, print shops can determine suitable pricing for each of their design features to stay competitive.

Challenge 3 – Inconsistencies between Virtual Designs and Actual Products

Delivering your customers with the exact product and design as shown in the 3D preview is crucial for ensuring customer satisfaction and reducing returns.

Strategy - Ensuring Consistent Quality in Custom Printing Products

• Automate the prepress processes and quality control checks with a robust web to print software to remove any inefficiencies in the prints.

• Utilize high-quality materials and appropriately use the selected options by customers for ensuring the final product meets your customer’s expectations.

• Invest in advanced printing equipments and skilled personnels to ensure seamless production processes and the creation of eye-catching prints.

Challenge 4 - Complexities in Managing the Product Journey and Meeting Delivery Timelines

The product lifecycle from customized order intake to successful product delivery involves numerous challenges including co-ordination between multiple departments, handling unique customization orders, ensuring precise quality control, secure shipments and timely delivery.

Strategy – Automating and Optimizing Print Operations from Start to End

• Leverage Advanced print order management software for automating processes from order intake to delivery for effectively meeting deadlines and ensure customer satisfaction.

• Streamline supply chain management operations by ensuring robust co-ordination between vendors, and efficient inventory management through a unified platform.

• Streamline production scheduling to organize print jobs based on their priority levels, ensuring optimal resource allocation, proficient production, and adjusting delivery timelines to meet customer expectations.

Challenge 5 - Overcoming Internal Communication and Organizational Challenges

Poor co-ordination across teams, data silos, delayed responses and lack of transparency can severely hinder the ecommerce product customization process, failing to fulfill the needs of the customer.

Strategies - Enhancing Team Coordination by Implementing Web-to-Print Software

• Centralize data and operations as well as address complex challenges by implementing an advanced web to print software like the ones offered by OnPrintShop, facilitating real-time collaboration for managing personalized orders and improving productivity.

• Foster open communication across departments and leverage the dashboard showing the status of each order, to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

• Offer comprehensive training and support for all team members, ensuring they effectively utilize the web to print software, understand the customer requirements and contribute to the overall success of order completion.

Challenge 6 - Managing Customer Expectations for Personalized Products

Products with unique design specifications might have differences in pricing and varying delivery times, necessitating clear communication between print shop owners and customers to prevent misunderstandings and customer dissatisfaction.

Strategy - Effectively Communicating and Providing Robust Customer Support

• Ensure transparent communication about customization capabilities, pricing, and delivery times to build customer trust and loyalty.

• Provide precise price estimates for your customers with web-to-print based price estimating software showing an instant reflection of the price change associated with the selected attribute.

• Provide regular updates of the order status to your customers such as shipped, out for delivery, or delivered to foster confidence in your print shop.

• Offer robust customer support via multiple modes like phone, chat, and email to address customer queries promptly, encourage customer feedback and provide help resources like FAQ’s and guides.

Challenge 7 - Difficulties in Scaling Product Customization for Mass Production

With the increased volume of customized print orders, it becomes difficult to manage each order's intricate details, maintain consistent quality across many products, and allocate resources effectively.

Strategy - Modern Approach to Scale and Maintain Operational Efficiency

• Flexible production processes can be achieved by partnering with a trusted web-to-print software provider like OnPrintShop that enables you to handle diverse customization requests.

• Leverage data analytics and reporting to identify popular product customization trends and optimize inventory management, ensuring resources meet customer needs and preventing both overstocking and shortages.

• Partner with supplier and logistics providers to simplify the management of high-volume orders, ensuring a reliable supply chain and efficient delivery processes.

• Regularly conduct workforce training programs to make your team familiar with the complexities involved in mass customization, ensuring high quality and efficient production.

Wrapping it Up!To conclude, product customization poses several challenges that can be resolved by implementing a powerful web2print software and utilizing intelligent approaches.OnPrintShop’s web-to-print software streamlines the product customization journey for print shop owners and end customers with its new age capabilities.If you would like to know more about OnPrintShop, don't hesitate to request a personalized demo and our team of experts will shortly get back to you.