American Shoppers Want Customized Apparel, So What's Holding Them Back?

Lanieri US Fashiontech Insights — research conducted online by YouGov for made-to-measure fashion e-commerce company Lanieri.com — shows half (49 percent) of American adults are interested in buying customized items. Three percent of these Americans are likely to spend more than $1,000 on made-to-measure products, with an estimated turnover of more than $4 billion. The survey gives a full view about customization and the main trends in the digital transformation of this industry, with Millennials to become the most interesting cluster in the next five years.

One in five Americans (21 percent) bought customized items last year: Millennials are the highest among the other age groups (34 percent) and would be willing to spend more money (42 percent) to purchase customized items than on non-customized items.

More than half (51 percent) of people interested in purchasing customized items would look for these garments online because they tend to be cheaper than in store and 68 percent would choose retailers with great customer service and free shipping. However, brick-and-mortar shops still play a strong role in customer decision making: 41 percent of Americans would prefer to buy customized items, but only if they could see them in a store before purchasing.

Nearly 1 in 3 (29 percent) would prefer to purchase high-quality, customized Italian fashion items online. Millennials are the greatest fans of Italian style (41 percent).

While 70 percent of Americans are worried about the use of their personal information for marketing purposes — with those above 55 years of age more worried (80 percent) than Millennials (53 percent) — about 1 in 4 Americans (23 percent) would like to speak with a chatbot that gives 24/7 personalized shopping assistance based on personal information.

"The FashionTech industry is exploding with the growing demand for made-to-measure items. By offering users from over 50 countries the ability to configure and order their custom Italian suits, Lanieri is a very representative case in this industry. The newly published research shows a growing trend that goes hand in hand with the Millennials' positive attitude toward online made-to-measure and the increase in their spending capacity," said Simone Maggi, CEO, Lanieri.com.