Thanks to an endless stream of products on the market, consumers have started to crave a personal experience when buying from their favourite brands. In 2019, the personalisation market was estimated to be worth £1 billion in the UK, with consumers able to personalise everything from chocolate to sportswear.
Thanks to mass customisation, retailers can cater to the growing trend. For those that do, the advantages are clear – selling an existing product in a personalised way and with a new price tag.
We’ve analysed 36 popular products to find out how much personalised versions of the original are being sold for. Which personalised products could your business tap into?
The highest margin
The top five products – with the biggest percentage increase – include tubs of Vaseline, jars of Nutella, and face masks.
At the top of the list is Vaseline – which may come as a surprise to many. From Boots, a tub of Vaseline costs £1.00, but adding a name the tub will cost £7.99 via Getting Personal. That’s a 699% increase for the popular petroleum jelly.
Nutella, the hazelnut spread produced by Italian company Ferrero, is in second. A non-personalised jar from Asda costs £2.90, while a personalised one from Etsy can be sold for £12.99 – 338% higher when adding your name or someone else’s.
In third spot, it’s a face mask. A standard, reusable mask from OnBuy.com costs £1.87. Look for a customised option online and the average cost is £7.56 – a 304% increase but one that gives people some lighter relief from the product’s purpose.
A 24-piece box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates costs £6.00 at Asda, but Not On The High Street has a personalised Ferrero Rocher sweet tree for £26.99.
The fifth highest increase belongs to Airpod cases, with Amazon selling a standard case for as little as £4.09, going up to £11.32 on average (177% higher).
The smallest risers
At the other end of the list, we have Sky remotes, Yankee Candles, Katie Loxton bags, Adidas Superstars clothing, and Disney medium-sized soft toys.
Sky remotes are the only product from the 36 analysed that did not include a price increase. Available from Sky’s website, customers can buy a customised remote at no extra cost for certain Premier League clubs and even a WWE The Undertaker edition for fans of wrestling and the Deadman.
The price of a Yankee candle rises just 4% when customers use the official website to personalise their choice of fragrance. The company charges £1 to create a unique own design. Adding a name to Katie Loxton bags, on average, will cost £4.99 extra (12%).
Adidas Superstars shoes have the same 12% increase, with customers able to personalise either shoe with nine characters worth of space to scribe their chosen name or word. Disney soft toys are slightly higher, with a 14% increase and £2.95 additional cost to add personalisation to famous faces like Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse.
On average
Across all 36 products, brands and third-party sellers increase the price for personalisation by £44.01, or 102% – with a clear indication that companies can benefit from satisfying customer demand.
From eight categories, toiletries have the highest increase with 138%, and toys have the smallest at 14%.
For options on what can be added to products to make them personalised, adding a name increases the price by an average 88%, only beaten by customisation at 90% – with giving consumers the flexibility to make a product theirs top of the wish list.
Adding a photo makes the cost go up by 4% and having something engraved adds an additional 15% to the price of items such as jewellery.
The need for personal buying experience is a trend that is likely to stay in the world of retail. With the busy Christmas period coming up, and the possibility that festivities may not be spent with multiple friends and family, adding a personal touch to gifts could be more prevalent this year.
