Activewear brands are ahead of other categories in product customization. As of December, close to a third of brands in L2’s Sportswear Index offered product customization vs. 11% of brands in the Fashion Index. Not only does customization bring more repeat visitors and increase the time they spend on site, it provides brands with insights on what consumers want.
Sportswear brands haven’t stopped at offering products in a range of color combinations, they have integrated customization into the path to purchase (of ready-to-wear as well). Seventy-two percent of brands that have customized products have made user designs sharable. Similarly, 98% link to customization tools from product pages and 72% allow users to save their creation for future reference or purchase.
Nike, however, is the true leader in customization. NIKEiD offers all of 17 features identified in L2’s study of activewear brands’ customization tools, and returns are free within the first 30 days. For each shoe model, Nike presents a gallery of chosen designs to give customers inspiration when creating their own Customers can take a quick snapshot of their NIKEiD design to share via Twitter, Facebook, email, or Pinterest. With the 360° view, users can rotate, zoom, and switch camera angles as they pick materials and colors.
