Is the Best Product a Unique Product? Exploring Alternatives to Mass Customization with the Online Community of Threadless

Mass Customization has been portrayed as the ultimate form of marketing and the “business opportunity of the next millennium”. This paper presents the results of a case study undertaken with the online t-shirt manufacturer Threadless and its Virtual Community. The literary assumption that consumers want unique products, following recent renewed interest in Mass Customization has prompted this research. The aim of this study was to look at an industry where it is technically possible to deliver a “pure” Mass Customization experience and then to look at businesses adopting different approaches to see what they offer the consumer. Threadless' business model aggregates opinions of user submitted designs and manufacturers the most popular into limited t-shirts. This studies looks at why this model is an attractive proposition for customers, community members and for Threadless.The results challenge a number of assumptions which can be found in the wider MC literature. Respondents at Threadless are willing to accept a product which they did not create and is not unique. This is providing that the product is at least limited, and that they have had involvement in its creation. The other key finding is that whilst Internet may offer enabling technologies which reduce the cost of individualization, these same technologies may also reduce the cost of aggregation. This allows businesses to group and manufacture for ever smaller markets of customers sharing the same needs. The author rejects the notion that a unique product created by its purchaser is the definitive product, calling for businesses to look for ways to combine both involvement and exclusivity in product creation utilizing these aggregation opportunities.