Historically, manufacturers and online retail companies have been forced to limit customization options based on quantity and scale.

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To produce an original design or custom option, manufacturers would need to produce a new mold, or set up large-scale equipment; if they only produced one item, they wouldn’t generate enough revenue to make up for those high initial costs. Accordingly, they demanded minimum quantities in their run.

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Customers who wanted something truly unique would have two options: pay out the nose for a single, customized item, or commit to buying at least 100 (or 1,000). And businesses didn’t have much flexibility–they could only offer customization to individual customers, at a small scale, if they could offer it at all.

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Two technologies are changing this landscape, allowing online retailers and manufacturers to offer customization options to customers at scale: CAD Software and 3D printing. How CAD Software and 3D Printing Work […]

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