Adding custom products to Shopify

[Windoz]

I run a small Shopify store selling stationery and gifts, and lately I've been getting requests for products with customers' names or personal messages printed on them. I've been thinking about adding personalised mugs, tote bags and a few other items, but I don't want to buy printing equipment or keep a large stock of blank products. I'd rather have a supplier handle the printing and shipping whenever someone places an order. Zendrop came up while I was researching print-on-demand services, although I'm not sure how practical it is for a shop that already has regular products and its own suppliers. I'm particularly concerned about how custom orders are processed, what happens if a customer submits the wrong text and whether the extra costs leave enough profit. Has anyone used Zendrop for personalised products alongside a regular Shopify catalogue? How did it work out?

[Alexunder]

The typo issue would bother me more than the printing itself. Someone will eventually type "Happy Birhtday", approve the order, and then decide it was somehow the shop's fault when the mug arrives exactly that way. I'd keep the personalised side on Printful or Gelato and add a clear preview or confirmation step before the order can be submitted. Make the customer approve the spelling and layout themselves, and put the custom-item return policy somewhere they can't realistically miss it.

[Freestylo]

The profit can disappear pretty quickly once the base product, printing, shipping and Shopify fees all land on the same order. And with custom products, you don't have much room to recover from a mistake because you can't simply put the item back on the shelf for the next buyer. Spend a few minutes with this Zendrop dropshipping review here: https://easync.io/articles/zendrop-review/ . Check the fulfilment flow and the actual costs against one of the mugs or tote bags you're considering before deciding whether it belongs beside your current suppliers. That will give you a much clearer picture of what margin is left after the personalised order is actually delivered.