The 2019 Personalisation Report says, brands are taking steps toward making mass customisation of their offerings. The report, created by Sourcing Journal in partnership with Lectra surveyed 308 people across the apparel, accessories and footwear industries to find out what investments and adaptations clothing manufacturers need to undertake in order to make personalisation a possibility.
Almost half respondents, 49.2 per cent, are already creating smaller production runs to better serve market needs, and 42 percent have secured factories with quick-turn abilities. They’re undertaking other initiatives to prep, too: 40 percent are manufacturing closer to market and 32.6 percent are shortening development timelines through digitisation.
Around a third of respondents, 30.9 percent, said converting to mass personalisation is on their to-do lists within the next five years. Those companies are focusing first on product development tools, then factories. Of the companies that have already made strides, 34.9 percent said they’ve identified manufacturing facilities that are prepared to make personalized goods. Just over 27 percent are investing in product development tools, and 24 percent feel they’ve determined how to make the model profitable.
Predictions for when customisation would become mainstream varied, with 37 percent of respondents estimating it will take four to five years, 22.4 percent guessing six to nine years, and 20.8 percent reporting it will take only two to three years for these models to be the norm.
