Briefly, dropshipping custom products are those products that are uniquely designed to adapt to customer preferences. They may differ in size, logo, image, color, or shape, and they are different from general products available on the market.

Overall, product customization is a big motivation for customers to place an order. The demand for customized and personalized goods is gaining momentum, and the number of companies actively responding to this trend has remarkably increased for the past few years.

1. Benefits of product customization

• Gain customer loyalty: Research shows that those dropshipping brands which sell custom products are more likely to keep customers stay engaged with them, and thus have a higher customer retention rate.
• Enhance customer experience: Customers feel more satisfied when they can have their creative ideas turned into reality.
• Promote brand advertising: when a customer owns an item tailored for him only, he often feels special and unique. That feeling motivates him to share that item with friends or share it online (social networks/blogs). By that way, that item itself and the brand can approach to more audiences.

2. Drawbacks of product customization

From entrepreneur perspectives, product customization may have many drawbacks.

• Impossible to build up stock ahead of time: custom items are those products that are based on customer preferences, so the production can’t be kicked off until customers place an order.
• Long shipping time: if customers buy general products already available in stock, the delivery time only lasts for several days (depending on their specific location). However, because it is impossible to build up a stock of custom items in advance, they have to wait longer.
• Additional cost: In fact, production in large quantities always costs less than production in small quantities (the principle economies of scale). Besides, the production of custom goods requires special machinery.

3. Who is it for?

Product customization is, of course, not for every business. If any merchants want to try selling dropshipping custom products, they need to know their customers well. To do so, they have to collect as much data as possible and ensure that items delivered to customers meet their expectations. Besides, selling custom products requires additional costs. So, those businesses on a tight budget should carefully consider.