“Why do we not buy mass customised products?” – An investigation of consumer purchase intention of mass customised products

Mass customisation has become a prospective business strategy for many industries. Despite the great efforts that have been put into implementing product configuration systems (e.g., NikeID), the Deloitte Consumer Review 2019 indicated that nearly half of consumers still prefer to buy mass produced products. Another study by Khan and Haasis (2016) also concluded that the increase in mass customisation has led to a decline in customer satisfaction of the sales process. Given these considerations, this paper aims to investigate, from the consumer’s perspective, the factors that influence consumer purchase intention of online mass customised products. The primary contribution of this study is that we found in addition to price and design freedom, website information quality and the visual presentation of customisable products have significant influences on consumer purchase intention. Specifically, participants preferred to have intuitive and sufficient information as well as a 3D visualisation of the products to help them understand what the customisation options are, how to interact with them and to see a full view of the final products. In addition, we found participants responded differently to new companies and well-established companies. Here, lack of trust is one of the main reasons stopping consumers from purchasing mass customised products from new companies; while for well established companies consumer individual differences especially their personal preference is more determinant. Accordingly, we suggest that new startup companies and well-established companies should take different strategies to attract potential consumers.