How To Create Customizable Products In Shopify (Without an App)

Great products are available everywhere on Shopify stores. Customers of the 21^st century want personalization of products. They not only want a specific product, rather they expect stores to provide products tailored to their needs. Brands that operate in the digital space are expected that they provide multiple options to consumers. This is why allowing Shopify store customers to customize products  is a must on your store. Customers prefer to purchase from stores that offer them shopify custom products. When customers find custom products on shopify stores, they become interested as providing variants increases customer attention span as they explore the options. This also makes them more likely to purchase products off the store.

Shopify customized products include customizations such as uniquely printed caps, t-shirts, mugs, jackets and stickers. Some bigger customizable products include items like baby strollers, bikes, cosmetics, and even personalized furniture. When you allow customizations, it creates a feeling of attachment and attraction in the owner for the item. It gives a meaning of feeling to them, and increases their chances of buying from your shopify custom products options.

How to create shopify custom products without an app?

It is best to use shopify apps for custom products as the customization options can be added without knowledge of the code. But these apps affect the loading speed of your store which negatively affects the user experience. Additionally, the apps come at a hefty price. If you want to provide customized products to your customers, without an application then you require coding knowledge. The code must be injected into the backend of your Shopify website. You must first edit the theme code to collect all the customization information for products, and then add them as shopify custom products.

Note: If you don’t want to add customized products yourself or face issues, it is recommended that you hire someone to build Shopify store, and accordingly customize the product page on shopify.

In order to provide shopify custom products as options to the consumers, one will first have to create a template, then add the custom product options and finally activate the created template.

Create shopify custom products template

1. Log in to the Shopify admin panel of your store.
2. Click on your theme and then click on the Actions
3. Select the dropdown menu, and then click on duplicate.
4. Now go to the code editor as you have a duplicate theme.
5. Select actions and from the dropdown menu, click on edit code.
6. Redirect to the section for templates, and then click on add a new template.
7. Specify a new product template. Name the template as ‘shopify custom products ‘.
8. Copy and paste the name of the products from the documents. Make sure that you make no mistakes in spelling, or unintentional spaces as the name will appear in other pieces of the code across the store.
9. Use Control + F, or Command + F on Mac and find the line of code which states “section product template”. Then replace this line with “product customizable template.” In this step, we made the shopify custom products
10. Scroll down to the section of Sections.
11. Click on add a new section. Copy and paste the “product customizable template” from the document as it is. A new code snippet will appear but it is not needed. Select all and then delete it.
12. Click on save.
13. Now redirect to the Sections Find the “product template”.
14. Select all by using Control + A or Command + A.
15. Copy the contents.
16. Go back to the Sections section and then select the “product customizable template”.
17. Press Control or Command V.

The shopify custom products template is ready.

Add custom product options

We must now provide custom products options to the customers. You can also create custom fields by using external websites. These sites will allow the store owners to create a form that will be displayed and previewed on the right side. It will also generate code to automate code generation. It will provide options to add customized products by displaying radio buttons, long text, and dropdowns.

1. Click on the required option and copy it to the clipboard.
2. Now go back to where we left off at sections. Go to “product customizable templates”. Paste the copied code from the external site into the “R” code.
3. Press Control/Command + F and put: type=” submit”. This is the add-to-cart button for the customer to add the customized products into their cart.
4. Paste the code above this button tag. Remember to put it before or after a code block.
5. Provide some spaces and then click on save.
6. Now go to your online store. It will show that the last time it was saved was just now. Now since the version is not live, you can’t provide shopify custom products in the website until you switch the product templates.
7. Go to Action and then click on Publish.

Now, the last part is to update the previous with the newly created shopify custom products template.

Change template to shopify custom products

1. Go to the products
2. Go to the Theme templates and choose the template called “shopify custom products”.
3. Click on the save

Once you refresh the page, you will have successfully provided the customized products options to your customers. This will allow your customers to personalize their products for attributes such as size, color, style and prints etc. For other products, you can repeat the process.

How is an app better for product customization vs custom code?

Custom shopify apps are expensive, not every store can afford to purchase them. Additionally, they slow down the store by consuming resources. However, there are some reasons why it’s preferable to do it with an app:

• A professional atmosphere for personalization.
• No coding knowledge is required.
• Separate content management system.
• Device responsiveness.
• Automatic output file production which is synchronized to the cart.
• Photo-realistic preview of the finished product.
• Enhanced user interface.
• Product templates and designs.

App management also becomes a hassle for store owners and the maintenance becomes a challenge since most store owners are not accustomed to back end code. Thus it is always preferable to opt for Shopify App Development Services that can produce shopify apps for custom products. Customized apps are provide customers with a great customer experience. Additionally, development services are accompanied by maintenance services which ensures that the store provides the best experience.

Final Words

To create shopify custom products for your customers without an app, you can follow the 3 major phases for coding the solution and injecting it in your Shopify store. You must first create a shopify custom products template, then you must add custom product options, and then finally change the previous template and replace it with the newly created one. If this seems to hectic, there is no need to worry. It would be best to focus on the business and hire development services from experts. You can get in touch with developers at Trango Tech and hire their services to provide shopify custom products options, alongside other store features without compromising on customer experiences.