How to personalise print on demand products with Shopify
Want to sell personalised products on Shopify? With our personalisation tool, you can let your customers add their own names or any text-based customisation to your print-on-demand products.
It's an easy, no-coding-required way to give your products a unique touch!
Our app adds a text input field to your product page, allowing customers to personalise the text on selected Shopify products. Note: they can only edit the text, not its font, colour, or size.
This feature works for all printed products - apparel, accessories, wall art, you name it!
If you're already selling personalised gifts, say goodbye to manual ordering; we've automated the process. Or if you're a brand, adding personalised items to your catalogue could boost sales and increase average order value. Fancy cross-selling a personalised mug with your trendy pieces? Now you can!
Step 1: Reinstall the Shopify app
Don't worry, you won't lose any product links when you reinstall using the same Shopify store and Inkthreadable account.
To uninstall, click the following link and then "Disconnect" to remove your Shopify app:
Now, re-install the app from the Shopify app store by following this link:
Finally, a page will appear stating that you already have an account here. Click "Link Account" to restore your product links and you'll now have access to our latest features.
Step 2: Update your Shopify product template
Before we stock any personalised products, we need to add a new Inkthreadable app section to your Shopify product template.
From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes.
On your current (live) theme, click the Edit theme button.
In the theme editor, look for the page/template selector dropdown at the top centre of the screen (it typically shows "Home Page" by default).
Click on this dropdown menu.
Select Products from the list of template types.
Choose Default product from the product template options.
In the left sidebar, you'll see a list of sections that make up your product page (like Product information, Image gallery, etc).
Click on the section where you want to add the Inkthreadable personalization block - this is typically the Product information section.
Once you've selected that section, you'll see its existing blocks listed below it, and there should be an "+ Add block" button at the bottom of that section's block list.
Then, click 'Apps' and select 'Personalization'.
After adding this app block, drag it above your buy buttons to prompt users to enter their text before buying the product.
On the left hand side, you'll also see some customisation options for the app block. Feel free to change the title to fit your product, such as to "Personalise this mug", but do not change the 'Wrapper Class' or 'Item Class' fields.
Finally, hit "Save" and give yourself a pat on the back! You've successfully updated your Shopify product template!
The personalisation tool will only be displayed for products that have personalisation switched on, regardless of the product template used. Optionally, you can create a separate product template just for personalised products, but you'll need to remember to assign each new product to this template.
Step 3: Create a product for personalisation
For personalisation to be enabled, you must create a new product and export this to Shopify.
To begin creating your new product, upload your design to the product designer using the "Upload Image" button.
Then position and scale your design within the print area as you'd like it to be printed.
To enable personalisation, we need to add a text field to the design. Click "Add Text" and enter a placeholder such as "Enter Name".
Then, click the > right arrow to find customisation options like font, colour, text alignment and more. These styles will be saved to the design and can't be changed by your customers when personalising the name afterwards.
Once you're happy with how your text looks, scale and position to where you'd like it to be printed.
The size and the position of your text will remain the same regardless of which name is entered by your customers, so make sure this isn't too big, or too little!
You can add up to 2 text fields, and to keep this mug design symmetrical we've duplicated the text and positioned it on the left and right-hand side.
Once you're happy with the mockup, click "Create Product" to save this design.
Step 4: Upload to your Shopify store
Next, we need to make this product available on your Shopify store.
From the product page, click the three lines and the "Export" button to begin moving this product to Shopify.
On this page, you should add your title, product description, brand and resale price.
Then, add your variations to export. On this example product, we only want to add the White mug, so we select White and then click "Add all variants of the current option".
Once all of the variations you want to offer are in the "Variations for Export" field, you can select "Export to Shopify" to upload this product to your store.
When it's finished, a pop-up will appear to confirm that the product has been exported.
Step 5: Enable personalisation for this product
There's just one more step; we need to enable personalisation to allow your customer to add their own name! To do this, we need to edit the linked product and tick the personalisation box.
First, you should locate the linked product from the Shopify Preferences page:
If you have a lot of products, use the search bar with your Shopify product name to find it easily:
Click "Edit" and then scroll to the bottom of the product.
You'll see a tick box at the bottom of the page, below your print files: "Allow customers to personalise text on this product".
Click "Enabled" and more options will appear underneath, one section for each text field you added when creating your design.
We added two text fields, one for each side of the mug, and so we'll need to make both of those editable by clicking the tick boxes next to each one.
The options are as follows:
Title: This will be displayed on the product page where you added the Personalisation App Section.
Align: This option will determine whether the left is left, centre or right aligned. I recommend using Centre alignment.
Min length: The minimum character length that your customer can input for personalisation. I recommend 4.
Max length: The maximum character length that your customer can input for personalisation. I recommend 16, although this will depend on your design.
❗ If you used a placeholder such as "Enter Name" in your design, you'll also need to tick "Required" to ensure that customers enter a name before buying the product.
When this is checked, customers won't be able to add this product to their basket until the text field has been edited.
Once this is checked, hit Save and we're done!
Previewing the Personalisation Tool
Before announcing your new personalised items I'd suggest double-checking that it's working as expected in your store.
When you preview your new product page, you'll see that a text field has been added, and your customers can enter their personalisation before placing an order!
When a customer enters text and adds to their cart, the name will be displayed in the basket, and also on the Shopify order once it's placed.
The design file will be updated automatically, and a custom design file and mockup preview will be displayed on your Inkthreadable order before you pay.
FAQ's
How do I switch off personalisation?
Simply untick the checkbox on the linked product, and the personalisation features will be removed from your Shopify product.
If you need any further support, please feel free to reach out to our support team.