High-street retailers, bespoke specialists, online shops and major brands are all embracing the potential to add personalised offerings to their ranges.

Personalised children’s book specialist Lost My Name, which started out with a single book product has now expanded its range to include a second book option,
alphabet posters and snap games. Earlier this year the firm announced that it has shipped its millionth book.

Richard Owers, director at Pureprint, which is one of the suppliers to Lost My Name, said that while he could not comment on specific customers, demand overall was dramatically higher than last year.

“Our digital team are very busy producing personalised products this year, approximately three- to four-times the volume of last year,” he said.

“As well as a significant number of books including a new one as part of the WWF Tiger Protection fundraising initiative, there are a whole host of other web-to-print enabled products from calendars to beauty product gift packs. Personalised printed products are now mainstream and creative professionals are enjoying the new opportunities that this offers.”

New entrant Petlandia, created by the Mind Candy team responsible for Moshi Monsters, has reported burgeoning demand for its personalised books and merchandise featuring customised pets, which are proving popular with both children and adults.

A spokesman told PrintWeek: “We’ve had over 500,000 pets created, and the positive feedback from happy customers is all over our social media channels @petlandiapost.

“We will be revealing the number of books in the new year - but we are very pleased with how people have taken to our products. We soft launched in June, but began promotion and opened ourselves up to high-volume production in August.”

Nottingham’s Prime Group is a supplier to Petlandia, and managing director Jon Tolley said the company was experiencing growing demand for personalisation across gifts, products, campaigns and promotions. “I don’t think anyone would deny that the demand and appetite of consumers for personalised products and brand experiences is here to stay,” he said.

“Every brand needs to think about personalisation now – and beyond that move towards truly tailored approaches to tailor customer journeys, show brand values and create engagement. Brands need to be looking at what their strategy for personalisation should be. As brands increasingly look to understand individual consumer needs, we’ll soon be enjoying products that increasingly reflect our own individuality,” Tolley added.

Last year, research by YouGov for Photobox predicted that consumers would increase spending on personalised gifts to £1bn, while the global market for non-photo personalised gifts is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11% through to 2020, according to Research & Markets.

Precision Printing in Essex, renowned for hitting ‘peak season’ at this time of year, handling some 60,000 orders per day, is also among those reporting growing demand.

Group marketing manager Emma Thompson said: “We have seen a massive uptake on personalisation this year. Customers are taking full advantage of the digital market with personalised gifts such as Advent calendars, wrapping paper, crackers, etc.

 “With our investment in the Motioncutter we have been able to open these doors even further this year and offer Personalised laser-cut greeting cards which appear to have gone down a storm. From a business perspective it makes no difference to us if the job is personalised or not, the process is just the same. But from a marketing curve for our customers, personalisation adds value and allows them to connect with their customers on an emotional level.”

Nutella has used television advertising as part of the promotion for personalised labels for jars of the sweet spread, while Marmite has taken to social media to promote its bespoke jars, which it described as “this season’s most exclusive gift” on its website.

The personalisation trend also lends itself to timely, UK production. Creative business portal Notonthehighstreet.com now lists more than 2,300 personalised products, of which 1,397 are made in Britain.

Personalised gifts have also become an increasingly prominent feature of Christmas gift guides in newspapers and magazines.