A Market of One

Google has also developed personalized search capabilities for its popular search engine that change the results users get from the service. Unless a user specifically opts out, Google automatically records all the searches a user performs. The personalized search service then shapes your search results mainly by noting the types of sites you’ve selected from previous search results. For instance, if you do a Google search on “dolphins,” your previously demonstrated interest in football will get you results on the Miami Dolphins rather than sea mammals.

Some companies are simply using the connectivity of the Web to facilitate interaction with customers and offer customized products. For instance, on www.jonessoda.com, customers can upload a photo that can be used to make custom labels on bottles of Jones Soda. Others are offering customers interactive experiences that are meant to entertain while raising brand awareness. One of these is Burger King’s Subservient Chicken . A person in a chicken suit (a prerecorded segment designed to look live) will perform up to 300 actions when asked; visitors are invited to “Get chicken just the way you like it.”

However, many firms, especially consumer-focused businesses, are using technology to specifically enhance the purchasing experience. The Swedish clothing retailer H&M, which has stores in Woodbury and at the Mall of America, offers a customized shopping experience on its Web site. Users click on the “Dressing Room” feature to create a model of themselves by entering height, weight, and other measurements, indicating body shape, and even choosing a hairstyle. Then they can “try on” clothes from the H&M catalog.

Another Swedish-based company in Minnesota, the home-furnishing store IKEA, offers customers the ability to arrange its furniture in virtual rooms. Shoppers can download programs from the IKEA Web site that aid in kitchen, bedroom, office, wardrobe, or bathroom design—customers enter their room dimensions and features and then fit IKEA appliances and furniture to the space. The tools allow you to try out different furnishing styles, see a three-dimensional view of the final plan, and print out a shopping list.

On www.nikeid.com, the performance apparel company lets customers design logos to be printed on its Nike Pro line of sportswear. Users can arrange and rearrange graphics and text in an online program, and see what their design looks like before they order.

Refining the customer experience is not confined to the Internet. In Japan, an entire shopping area will soon be wired to serve individual shoppers. A group representing the Japanese government and several high-tech companies plans to install 10,000 radio-frequency identification tags and other wireless technology all over the Ginza shopping district in Tokyo to help guide shoppers. Visitors will be able to rent special handheld devices that communicate with the tags and provide directions, give information about nearby retailers, and even display special product offers.

Companies that are targeting other businesses as clients have been slower to adopt customization tactics, but the strategy is beginning to take hold. For example, Sun Microsystems, a network-computing technology company based in California, offers users a personalized portal called MySun. Based on their purchase or download history, customers using the portal might be shown training classes that are available, relevant blogs, or links to unreleased code.