Personal Creations adds more personalization

While it probably won’t be available in time for the holidays, Personal Creations Inc. is rolling out new personalization programs for its e-commerce site.

Just prior to Father’s Day, Personal Creations, which operates Personalcreations.com and ranks No. 147 on the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, tested new rich media applications using a highly customized program from Scene7 Inc. that allows shoppers to see monogrammed merchandise before making a final purchase.

The program, which Personal Creations expects to fully roll out during the first quarter of 2006, lets customers select their print font and other details and then zoom in to see how the monogram or personalized message looks on the merchandise before placing it in the shopping cart.

The Father’s Day pilot allowed shoppers to see how their personalized message would look on a sample afghan and produced dramatic results: 50% of the shoppers who tried the new personalization tool placed the afghan in a shopping cart.

Designing the new personalization program is complex and probably won’t be ready for the holiday season, but will be up and running in the first three months of next year, says Julie Bridge, manager of e-commerce for Personal Creations. “The test showed that people will buy more personalized merchandise once they can see how it will look,” she says.

Personal Creations, which has 2004 web sales of $37 million and expects sales to rise by at least 15% in 2005, is also adding other site enhancements. In August, Personal Creations will add a new payment alternative from I4 Commerce Inc. for customers who want to finance their purchase. “We chose I4’s Bill Me Later program because it integrates well with our site and payment options,” Bridge says.