Etsy product customization and personalization

Updated Sep 30, 2022

3 min read

With the handmade nature of Etsy products, shop owners can set up customization and personalisation options for their products. This article covers product customization, personalisation, and how to set them up through Etsy and Shop Uploader.

This article covers:

  • What is product customization?
  • What is product personalisation?
  • How to customize your Etsy products with Etsy
  • How to personalize your Etsy products with Etsy
  • How to customize your Etsy products with Shop Uploader
  • How to personalize your Etsy products with Shop Uploader

How to add product customization to Etsy?

What is product customization?

Product customization is where customers can contact a shop owner and inquire about having a custom product made for them.

What is product personalisation?

Product personalisation allows customers to change or add aspects to an Etsy product. One personalization option is adding a picture or text to the product. This type of personalisation is seen a lot on mugs and jewelry.

Image showing the add personalisation box on an Etsy listing.

Personalizations are not considered variations. You don’t need to add variations with every possible word or image combination to your listing.

How to customize your Etsy products with Etsy

To enable product customization, go to the Shop Manager, click settings, then options.

Navigating to the options page on Etsy.

Once in the options menu, find the custom order requests box and select enable.

How to enable custom order requests on Etsy.

How to personalize your Etsy products with Etsy

To add personalisation options to your Etsy products, you first navigate to the listings page. From there, select the listing and scroll down to the personalisation section. By default, personalisation is disabled. To turn it on, click the slider from off to on.

How to enable personalisation on an Etsy listing.

Doing this expands the section allowing you to set instructions for buyers, personalisation is optional, and character limit.

In listing Etsy box showing presonalisation options.

Instructions for buyers

The instructions for buyers section is where you enter instructions for the buyers. You tell them what to enter into the personalisation box. For example, if the personalisation is text on a mug, you could put “Enter the text you want to appear on your mug.”

Personalisation is optional

This check box indicates whether personalisation is optional or not. By default, personalisation is mandatory. Checking the box means customers do not have to enter personalisation instructions.

Character limit

The character limit section dictates how many characters customers are allowed to use. You can limit them to between 1 and 1024 characters.

How to customize your Etsy products with Shop Uploader

Enabling customization through Shop Uploader is simple. All you need to do is set the is_customizale column to true.

How to enable customization with Shop Uploader.

Note: Your Etsy shop must have customizable orders enabled. If they are not, then this column is ignored.

How to personalize your Etsy products with Shop Uploader

Enabling and updating personalisation options through Shop Uploader is similar to the process on Etsy.

To enable personalisation, you need to set the is_personalizable column to TRUE. This column is equivalent to changing the slider from off to on.

How to enable personalisation with Shop Uploader.

To enter instructions for buyers, you use the personalization_instructions column. Like with Etsy, you type your message into the box. You must enter something into this column if is_personalizable is TRUE.

How to set personalisation instructions with Shop Uploader.

To make personalisation optional, you use the personalization_is_required column. To make personalisation optional, set the value to TRUE. If set to FALSE, then personalisation is mandatory.

How to set personalisation is required with Shop Uploader.

Lastly, to enter the character limit, use the personalization_char_count_max column. Like with Etsy, you enter a number between 1 and 1024 in this column. You must enter something into this column if is_personalizable is TRUE.

How to set personalisation max characters with Shop Uploader.

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