How do I set up automated personalization for Etsy?

Automated product personalization on Printify lets you sell customized products with buyer-added text or images. With the new Etsy personalization experience, buyers can now include personalization details like text, images and graphics directly in the listing using text fields, dropdown selections, and image uploads—creating a more seamless buying experience.

Buyer personalization inputs are automatically imported into Printify and applied to your product’s personalization layers, helping streamline personalized order processing and review. Automated personalization is especially useful for scaling personalized product sales, since buyer inputs are applied to the design automatically and orders can be reviewed and approved more quickly before production.

In this article:

• How Etsy personalization works
• Steps to enable automated personalization for Etsy
• How personalized orders work
• How to manage orders with exceptions
• FAQs

How Etsy personalization works

The new Etsy personalization features allow sellers to create listings that enable customization selections ahead of checkout—buyers can customize products directly on the listing page before placing an order. Depending on the listing setup, personalizable listings may allow buyers to enter custom text, select options from dropdown menus, or upload custom images.

You can learn more about Etsy personalization in Etsy’s guide: How to Offer Personalized Listings on Etsy

Current Etsy limitations

Etsy supports a maximum of 5 personalization questions per listing. In Printify, this means you can use up to:

• 5 text and text option dropdown fields combined, or
• 4 text/dropdown fields together with up to 10 personalized image layers.

Multiple personalized image layers are grouped into a single image upload section on the Etsy side.

Steps to enable automated personalization for Etsy

To use automated personalization with Etsy, you’ll need to create a product in Printify using personalizable layers in Product Creator and then publish the product to your Etsy store. Personalizable layers created in Printify are automatically synced to Etsy personalization fields.

If you’d prefer to receive buyer instructions and customize products manually instead, you can use manual personalization rather than automated personalization.

Step 1: Open Product Creator

Pick a product from the Catalog and click Start Designing to open Product Creator. Most Printify products support automated personalization; however, embroidery products currently support only text-based automated personalization.

Step 2: Add personalizable layers

Personalizable layers allow buyers to customize specific parts of your design directly on Etsy. You can add both text and image personalization layers to the same product.

Adding personalized text

To let buyers enter custom text, add a personalizable text layer from the Personalize tab in the left-hand menu.

Then, configure the layer options:

1. Resize the layer
   • Buyer input text will be scaled to the layer width and height
2. Rename the layer with the pencil button
   • Buyers will see the layer name when entering text unless you change it in Etsy
3. Define the character limit and enter placeholder text
4. Set up text options with Add text options
   • Add available fonts
   • Add available text colors

Click Edit next to one of the text options to set them up:

1. Enter the Question label on Etsy, buyers will see this text above the drop-down menu
2. Add available colors or fonts, you can also use custom fonts
3. Enter the color/font names, buyers will see the names in the drop-down menu
   • Dropdown names can’t be edited later in Etsy, make sure that they’re set up correctly in Printify
4. Set the default option with the checkmark button, the default option will be used for generating mockups

How buyers see it on Etsy

• Text entry appears as a text box under the layer name.
  • You can add additional instructions later in Etsy.
• Font and color selections appear as dropdown menus.

Adding personalized images

To let buyers upload custom images:

• Add a personalizable image layer from the Personalization tab, or
• Add a regular image layer and enable the Personalizable image checkbox
• Configure the layer options:
  • Rename the layer with the pencil button, buyers will see the layer name when uploading images unless you change it in Etsy
  • Set the width and height, buyer-uploaded images will be scaled to the size you set

How buyers see it on Etsy

If the product has one personalizable image layer, buyers will see a single image upload field labeled with the layer name.

If the product has multiple personalizable image layers, buyers will see separate upload prompts for each layer grouped under one image upload section.

Step 4: Review personalization details and publish

Before publishing, review your personalization setup and make sure all personalizable layers are clearly named and configured as you expected.

Currently, editing Etsy personalization field names and instructions directly from Printify isn’t supported. Personalization fields on Etsy are automatically named based on the layer names you set in Product Creator. Our team is working on adding support for editing these fields directly from Printify in the future.

We recommend checking that you can clearly identify which text or image layer belongs to each field. Once the product is published, head to Etsy to review and improve the personalization field names and instructions for a better buyer experience.

Step 5: Edit the personalization fields in Etsy

After publishing the product, go to your Etsy Shop Manager to review and improve the personalization field names and instructions shown to buyers.

Feel free to update the following personalization details:

• field names,
• field descriptions,
• character limits,
• image labels,
• whether a field is required or optional.

Changing these details won’t affect the Etsy personalization field and Printify design layer mapping, ensuring the automated process works.

Important
To avoid breaking automated personalization, do NOT make these changes on Etsy:

• add new personalization fields,
• remove existing personalization fields,
• add or remove dropdown options,
• change the number of image upload slots,
• change a field type,
• reorder fields of the same type,
• reorder dropdown options.

These changes may break or incorrectly remap the connection between Etsy buyer inputs and your Printify personalization layers. Orders may import with missing or extra inputs, or apply personalization to the wrong layers.

How personalized orders work

When a buyer places a personalized order on Etsy, the personalization details are automatically imported into Printify and applied to your product design based on the configured personalization layers.

For most orders, you’ll simply need to review the generated design, check that there are no warnings or errors, and confirm that the personalization looks correct before sending the order to production.

To learn more about personalized order processing and review, see:

• What are the personalized order submission settings?
• How do I review orders with personalized products?

How to manage orders with exceptions

Some orders may require additional manual review before production.

Handling unsupported image formats or size

Printify does not support certain file formats that buyers may upload through Etsy. If a buyer uploads an HEIC or PDF, or a file exceeding size limits, the order will hit an exception.

File requirements:

• Accepted formats: PNG, JPEG (under 100MB), or SVG (under 20MB).
• Resolution limit: Maximum resolution is 30000x3000px.

If a buyer uploads an unsupported file:

• Download the image to convert or resize it.
• Convert and re-upload the image to match the requirements.

Missing personalization information

By default, all personalization fields for products published from Printify are mandatory. However, if you edited the fields in Etsy they could be set to optional.

If required personalization details are missing:

• Contact the buyer through Etsy.
• Confirm the missing text or upload.
• Update the order manually if needed.

If optional personalization details are missing, you can review the design and submit the order to production with placeholder layers.

Unmapped personalization instructions

Orders may import with unmapped personalization instructions if Etsy personalization inputs no longer match the personalization layers configured in Printify.

This can happen if you:

• add additional personalization fields in Etsy,
• reorder personalization fields,
• remove existing fields,
• or make other unsupported changes to the Etsy personalization setup.

For example, adding an extra field such as “Enter any other custom instructions” will not map to any Printify design layers.

If the additional instructions are intentional, you can proceed with personalizing the order manually during order review.

If this outcome isn’t expected, review the personalization setup in Printify and republish the product to Etsy. Republishing will overwrite the Etsy personalization setup and help restore correct layer and field mapping for future orders.

FAQs

Is the new Etsy personalization replacing Personalization Hub?
Yes. Etsy personalization is the new automated personalization experience for Etsy products. Existing Personalization Hub products will continue working until migration is completed.

Is the new Etsy personalization replacing legacy automated text personalization on Etsy?
Yes. Products that have a single personalizable text layer without Personalization Hub will automatically transition to the new Etsy personalization capabilities as well.

Are there limitations to the new Etsy personalization compared to Personalization Hub?
There are some, such as the inability to edit the personalization fields from Printify or the lack of buyer preview. Our team is working on bringing missing capabilities to the new Etsy personalization to make the migration as seamless as possible. We welcome any feedback during this time, you can share it by contacting our Support team.

Will Personalization Hub products migrate automatically?
Automatic migration for compatible Personalization Hub products is planned for the second half of June. 

Most products should be eligible for automatic migration. However, products may require manual adjustments if they exceed Etsy personalization limitations, such as:

• more than 5 personalization questions,
• text, instruction, or dropdown option lengths exceeding Etsy limits.

What if my product can’t be migrated automatically?
In that case, you’ll need to migrate your products manually and make them compatible. We’ll share more compatibility details closer to migration.

Can I migrate products using manual personalization?
Support for migrating products using manual personalization is planned for a later phase.

Will migration affect my Etsy listing SEO?
No. Etsy has confirmed that migrating compatible listings to the new Etsy personalization will not affect listing SEO.