Abstract

Product personalization, which allows customers to tailor products according to their own preference, has become increasingly important to many companies. Although prior studies have investigated service personalization (e.g., offer personalization and web personalization), few studies have comprehensively explored why people are willing to purchase personalized products online. This study uses a qualitative approach with 71 semi-structured interviews to explore the reasons. The data was analyzed using content analysis. The results reveal that people purchase personalized products online primarily due to the following reasons: uniqueness seeking, emotional attachment, identity expression, enjoyment, vanity, innovation, ownership, and perceived control. These factors are interpreted based on uniqueness theory and the theory of planned behavior. In addition, other factors (specifically trust, price, and recommendation) pertaining to the website also explain why customers choose a particular website instead of other websites to purchase personalized products. The theoretical contributions of this study are discussed, along with practical implications and future possible research directions.