We have talked a lot in class about customization and there are many ways that firms can choose to implement it, I will discuss the example of design it yourself by HEMA. HEMA is a Dutch department stores which offers good quality products for a fairly low price (compared to the other department stores in the Netherlands).

HEMA has their own design it yourself ‘store’ on their website where you design anything ranging from clocks, aprons, photo albums, calendars, bicycles, wine labels and bags to cakes and baby clothes.

The toolkit for designing these products is really simple and it gives a good picture of what your product is going to look like.

They have options to create your product from the beginning or to use already existing designs and change them to fit your needs by adding for example your own name to it or by changing the colors etc.

With each change you make you can immediately see how it will look on your product and if you do not like it you can go back to your original design.

An example of this toolkit for aprons is shown beneath. This is one of the more simple toolkits, it depends on the product how extensive it is. In this example I have already chosen a specific design and font.

HEMA makes it a lot easier for people to customize their own products because you do not have to start from the beginning if you do not want to. It is also possible to pick up the product in the store (and save transportation costs) or to have it delivered to you at home. The maximum delivery time is no longer than one week.

HEMA is the only department store in the Netherlands which offers these services and this is definitely a competitive advantage for them. The products are not very expensive and the results look really good.

I actually found out about these services through a couple of friends of mine. One of them designed her own calendar with photos and texts in it and it looked really great and some other friends designed their own photo album using this service and the results were also very good. You can put photos on the cover of the photo album with a title above it and you can add text to your pictures and edit them.

The only point of improvement for me would be adding more options to the toolbox. Right now aprons for example are only available in 3 basic colors. It would be nice if there were more options to choose from.  All in all I think that HEMA offers a nice service to their customers and finds a good way to get them more involved with their brand.

Marjolein Hesselink (325349)

Source: http://www.hema.nl/winkel/hobby-en-vrije-tijd/ontwerp-je-eigen