How will hyper-personalization and mass-customization impact the mass manufacturing of personalized goods? And how will that affect retailers?
Those questions and others are probed in a new study by PreScouter (Chicago), a research intelligence firm.
“The promise of unique products that improve our lives has led to an increase in consumer willingness to share personal information, making this an exciting time to consider hyper-personalization,” notes James Burns, PreScouter Project Architect and Co-Author.
One of the technologies with major implications for retailers that’s examined in the study is full-body 3D scanning, which captures the detailed shape of the consumer for optimal product fit and functionality.
“Recent advances in photogrammetry and computer vision technologies mean that they can process photographs taken by the average consumer using a smartphone to construct these 3D images,” the report notes. “This has significantly increased the use case for this technology and reduced the barrier to customized mass production.”
The study includes a case study about footwear maker and retailer ECCO, which uses 3D foot scanning with gait and pressure point analysis to make shoes unique for each of its customers. After the consumer provides the information using 3D scanning and gait analysis, parts are made with additive layer manufacturing to create made-to-measure shoes.
“A silicone footbed is designed based on the shape of your foot and the pressure and impact points in your gait analysis,” the study states. “This uniquely designed silicone footbed is then made for you in-store, with the whole process from scanning to the personalized product taking two hours.”
Click here for a summary of the full report.