The purpose of our research was to examine apparel merchandising issues associated with mass customization. A questionnaire was developed to explore preferences for mass customization product, process, and place that have the potential of affecting success of a mass customization program. The questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of 131 college students. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, McNemar tests, within-subject ANOVA, and Bonferroni multiple comparisons. Successful mass customization of apparel at retail is dependent on identification of appropriate dimensions of product, process, and place. Our implications address merchandising issues associated with customer involvement in customizing design and fit of apparel products in retail store settings.

This study examines whether an individual's preferred level for environmental stimulation was associated with the types of products, services, and experiences desired from mass customization of apparel.

Design methodology and process are studied in different contexts and diverse fields. Designing has the potential to generate new knowledge and is intimately tied to new technologies, such as digital textile printing. These open up a constantly expanding range of creative possibilities, and generate a complex set of decision points for designers. In this paper we show how the design process is impacted and how new products can be created through exploration of the limits and potentials of digital technologies for textile and apparel design. Changes in design approach were analyzed through four design phases with five design projects. The design process was shown to change as various technical problems were evaluated and solved with each successive garment design. What began as a sporadic process that centered on solving sub-problems, evolved to a linear design progression with increased time spent in creative conceptualization.

The present empirically examined customer satisfaction with Internet sites that vary in the opportunity for mass customization. The expectation–disconfirmation model was used as a theatrical framework of the study. Two children's apparel sites were developed as the stimuli: one with a mid level of interactivity and the other with a high level of interactivity, for selection of clothing design options. The data from 208 respondents were analyzed using LISREL 8.72. The finding indicates that both consumers' expectations and perceived performances for the mass customized sites included positive and negative aspects. The results suggest that expectations were not a significant predictor of satisfaction for this innovative shopping experience yet satisfaction was primarily driven by the performance of the site and predicted by disconfirmation of expectations. The findings also suggest that expectations are not related to performance perceptions, possibly due to consumers' lack of familiarity with mass customization. The more interactive site yielded the more positive performance as well as overall positive satisfaction. Nevertheless, the less interactive site, which offers fewer choices than more interactive site, yielded more positive behavioural consequences. The generalization of the results of this study is limited because of lack of random sampling and use of the mock site of children's apparel product category. However, useful theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

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