Living Entrepreneurship Blog / Babson Entrepreneurs

Product Customization & Personalization

The following post is from Jake Cho ’17, a Butler Venture Accelerator team member.

On November 11th, Sam Sternweiler ’17 of JEWELv, shared his lesson learned from his experience in product customization industry at a peer-to-peer session held by the Butler Venture Accelerator.

Peer to Peer with JEWELv

Peer to Peer with JEWELv

JEWELv is a jewelry-customization start-up at the edge of launching.  The ustomization industry has been growing as demand from consumers for personalized items have grown exponentially.  As a result, companies have started to customize their products including t-shirts, glasses, sneakers, skateboards, etc.  Sam has seen this opportunity and decided to sell jewelry that customers can customize on a website.

Sam shared his recommendations concerning with product customization for those in start-ups:

  • Visualization for customers is important as customers are not able to physically see and touch the product before purchase.
  • Brand image and trust for customers are important for customers to purchase customized product without seeing and touching the product before purchase.
  • Testing and choosing your manufacturer(s) directly influence satisfaction of customers and the brand image of your company.  Manufacturer is the one doing the customization process of products that you should test and constantly check quality of products manufactured.

Although there is a big trend of product customization, Sam pointed out the drawbacks of customizing products as a start-up.  Luxury items such as jewelry is expensive, therefore potential customers may be more concerned and even reluctant making the purchasing decision.  However, if JEWELv is able to manage quality of customized products and satisfy its customers, Sam believes that JEWELv will be able to gain trust from customers.