Zakeke allows you to create a customizable product from scratch, pick a product from your store and make it customizable or start from a third party provider product.
Summary
- What is a customizable product
- How to create a customizable product
- What's next?
- Most common product configurations
1. What is a Customizable Product
In Zakeke each customizable product is composed as follows: product > side(s) > print area(s).
It means that for each product you can offer one or multiple customizable sides (think about front and back of a T-shirt) and one or multiple print areas on each side.
If you have product variations, the hierarchy is valid for each product variation that you wish to make customizable. You'll get a print-ready file for each print area customized by your customer.
2. How to create a Customizable Product
Remember that Zakeke does not create products at your store, but it allows you to turn products in your store's catalog into customizable products.
Go to Customizable Products > Add
You may now see several options:
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Create a product from scratch: this allows you to create a product template that then you can use to turn a product in your store into a customizable product.
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Pick a product from your store: this is to start directly from a product in your store's catalog and turn it into a customizable product via Zakeke.
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Start from a Print-on-demand service: Zakeke integrates with third-party POD services, meaning you can pick a product from their catalogs and sell it as a customizable product.
2.1 Starting from your store
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You'll be asked to connect Zakeke to your store if you haven't done it yet.
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Once connected, you can pick the product you want to make customizable and start the configuration process:
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The first product side is pre-configured by pulling the product image from your store (you can change it if you like). You only need to define the print-area.
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You can add extra customizable sides (e.g.: front and back of t-shirt)
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Once the main product is configured, you can add variants. Read here a detailed guide or see below for quick and useful information:
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Zakeke automatically gets the product attributes and variations from your store. If your product has no variations in the store, you can't add them in Zakeke. Make sure that variations are properly set in your store first. If your product has the variants in the store, but you still don't see them in Zakeke, please read here.
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Import the attributes you wish to offer in the customizer.
PRO TIP
Do not import variations that do not affect how clients personalize your product. Example: if you sell t-shirts and offer both color and size variants, import only colors if the print area size is the same for all t-shirt sizes.
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Once attributes are confirmed, Zakeke generates the variants. You can:
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Change the image for each variant (as Zakeke just replicate the main product image for all variants)
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Change the print area size for each variant.
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Remove a variant or remove only a certain product side for a variant.
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Review and Save: This is a recap of the product configuration before publishing it live to your store.
Video Tutorial - Creating a customizable product starting from your store
2.2 Starting from scratch
By following this process you create a customizable product that you later can associate with one of the products in your store to turn it into a customizable product.
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Enter a name for the product.
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Upload the product image and define the print-area.
This is the image that your customers will see in the customizer. Your customers will be able to personalize the product within the print area that you set and print-ready files will be generated based on the print area. -
You can add extra customizable sides (e.g.: front and back of t-shirt).
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Variants: this setup system does not allow you to create variants for your product. If your product has variants, complete the setup first and then connect a store in order to import variants from your store (see the process below "starting from your store").
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Review and save.
You have now created a customizable product that is not connected with any product in a store. If you wish to start selling, you need to connect your Zakeke account to your store and then associate and then associate the product you just created with a product in your store by clicking on Publish in Customizable Products.
2.3 Starting from Print-on-Demand services
With Zakeke, you have access to multiple Print-on-Demand services, which means you can add hundreds of products from several suppliers’ catalogs to your eCommerce store, and have the orders fulfilled and drop-shipped to your customers automatically.
The POD option is currently available only for certain eCommerce platforms, that's why you're required to connect your store first. Please see below:
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Printful: available for Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce
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CustomCat: available for Shopify and WooCommerce
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Printeers: available for Shopify and WooCommerce
Please see our specific guides on how to enable and use POD services with Zakeke here.
3. What's next?
3.1 Customizable products statuses
Products can have two statuses:
- Published
- Not Published
When a product is Published it means that your customers can start the customizer via the CUSTOMIZE button on the product page at your store and customize the product.
A Not Published product is a product already set as a customizable product within Zakeke but not accessible by your customers, meaning they won't see a CUSTOMIZE button on the product page at your store.
3.2 Setting customization rules for your customers
Once your product is live, your customers can personalize it by creating a design on it. All basic customization tools (text, upload image, images gallery, ...) are active by default. However, you may need to limit the way your customers can personalize your product:
- If you need to disable or limit one or more customization tools on the entire product or each side (for example: allow customers to add text but no images or accept images only in PNG format) or you wish to customize the print-ready file options, you can create a Printing Method.
- If you want your customers to start from pre-made design or you need them to have strict rules on design elements positions and editing options, the best option is to create a Pre-designed template.
Take a look at our list of quick guides on the most common product configurations.
Other than that, Zakeke offers dozens of tools and options such as adding specific price rules to charge your customers based on the personalization they do, showing buyers a live 3D model of their customized product and allow them to see it in their own house with the Augmented Reality, and much more as described in our guide.
3.3 Testing your products
Remember that in order to test your customizable products and generate print-ready files for test you don't need to publish your product live, but you can use the internal test customizer.
4. Most common product configurations
This is a list of guides that explain to you how to create specific customizable products: