Shoes made-to-measure were once the preserve of the rich and famous, or the unfortunate necessity for those with unusual shaped and sized feet. Not any more, mass customisation means we can personalise and procure idiosyncratically like never before. Shoe of Prey

offers a 3-D design process and delivers worldwide in 4 weeks, NIKE ID has already pioneered this in flagship stores and online and even Coke started personalising bottle labels in a bid to become more relevant. With Amazon experimenting with same day , 3 hour delivery and 3 D printing – it’s more than movies we can start to expect on demand. Companies like Chicago based eThreads are set to succeed where Levi’s and others made in roads and failed. The tech is better than it was in the 90’s and the distribution networks are there too. Ready, Set Go!

What does all this ‘on demand’ stuff mean for your business  /brand  /production /delivery / IT /eCRM ?  Customer experience innovation, brand and product managers, IT teams and logistics people can no longer afford to ignore some of these radical changes – even if the picture seems a little sci fi right now. It’s not, it’s more and more real every day.  Plenty has been written about mass customisation, check some of it out here.

Business models have to adapt, marketing has to keep up and customers are in charge…. all this we know , we’re told it so often it’s like wallpaper, but think about it again for a second. How prepared are you – what if your customers could order in the morning and get it by lunchtime, what if they could download the file and print a 3D version at home…. when I can order my own  personalised version of pretty much anything, I won’t want what you’re selling unless I can play around with it, and effectively get it on demand.