How to Dropship Personalized Products: An Ultimate Guide

Let's embark on a comprehensive guide on how to dropship personalized products. This article covers everything you are looking for, from selecting profitable items to connecting with reliable custom dropshipping suppliers. You will also get the art of designing and personalizing products. Remember to stay till the end to take inspiration from a Shopify dropshipping example!

Dropship Personalized Products 101

Before learning how to dropship personalized products, check out these simple explanations that will help you get started quickly!

What are Personalized Dropshipping Products?

Personalized dropshipping products are custom-made items that allow customers to modify details such as names, photos, messages, colors, or design elements. They range from small gifts, such as apparel, drinkware, and home decor, to multi-component items, including bicycles, modular furniture, and other complex products. They can be printed, engraved, embroidered, and more.

How Does Dropshipping Personalized Items Work?

Dropshipping personalized products works the same model as traditional dropshipping, but with one key difference: customization. You list a supplier's product in your online store, and when a customer places an order, the supplier produces and ships the item directly to them. Unlike standard dropshipping, this model requires you to design the product and allow customers to customize it, such as adding text, images, or other custom details.

How personalized dropshipping works

💡 You may also like: Product Customization for Dummies: Definition, Benefits, and Examples

Can You Dropship Custom Products to Make Money?

Yes. You can dropship custom products to make money. The potential for earnings is promising for some reasons:

• The personalized gift market grow fast at a CAGR of 35.45% in 2021 - 2024 (Teeinblue) and continiously expand at 6.7% (Research and Markets).
• Customers are willing to pay a premium for personalized items that hold sentimental or exclusive value. And customized goods can bring higher revenue.
• Personalized products achieve a high add-to-cart--to-checkout rate of over 32%, exceeding the eCommerce average of 28%. (Teeinblue).
• Dropshipping custom items benefits from less competition in comparison to more traditional markets.
• Long shipping times are generally more acceptable as long as you set clear expectations and maintain open communication.
• Satisfied customers who receive personalized items that meet their expectations are more likely to come back for more or refer your online shop to friends and family.

How to Dropship Personalized Products: 8 Steps to Start

Dropshipping personalized products requires more than listing items and forwarding orders to a supplier. You need the right tools, a clear workflow for handling customization, and a system that turns customer input into production-ready files without delays or errors. The following 8 steps break down exactly how to dropship personalized products, from choosing the right product type to setting up personalization and fulfillment that can scale as your store grows.

Step 1: Select Customizable Dropshipping Products

Choosing the right products sets the foundation for personalized dropshipping success. Not every product works well with customization, and poor choices often lead to low conversions or complicated fulfillment.

In this step, you focus on customizable dropshipping products that are profitable. They are items that customers want to personalize, that support on-demand production, and that ship reliably without increasing costs or delivery times. Here are the most profitable products (with their margins) to dropship:

• Apparel/Clothing (20%-50%): t-shirts, hoodies, sweaters, pants, and all-over-print leggings.
• Homeware & Decor (20%-45%): mugs, wall art, door mats, ornaments, and acrylic plaques.
• Pet (20%-40%): beds, bandanas, bowls, blankets, pet shirts, and tags.
• Accessories: phone cases, all-over-print socks, embroidery hats, and vintage tote bags.
• Jewelry (around 40%): engraved rings and memorial necklaces with photos.
• Others: 3D personalized gifts, stickers, branded merch, or packages.

An example of a personalized poster to dropship

Step 2: Connect With Custom Dropshipping Suppliers

After selecting your products, you need suppliers who can handle personalization accurately and consistently. Custom dropshipping suppliers must support on-demand production, process customer inputs correctly, and ship orders on time without errors. In this step, you connect with reliable partners who match your product requirements and can scale with your personalized dropshipping business.

To help you get started, here's a list of the best suppliers to dropship custom products:

• Dreamship: fastest production time (1-3 business days) and fast shipping time (2-21 days).
• Gelato: a top-notch choice for business following sustainability.
• merchOne: a global company with high-quality and high-profit wares, especially canvases.
• ShineOn: an expert in necklace personalization with multiple materials like gold, silver, stainless steel, etc.
• Printful: 450+ product categories with cutting-edge printing technologies such as DTG, AOP, embroidery, etc.
• Printify: 140+ print facilities, best serve the US, Canada, EU, and China markets.
• CustomCat: competitive prices with high-volume discounts for large quantities.

Step 3: Set Up an Online Store With Engaging Product Pages

In this step, you set up an online store with clear layouts, persuasive copy, and engaging product pages that showcase customization options and drive conversions. Strong product pages help shoppers understand how personalization works and give them confidence to complete their purchase.

There are two ecommerce places to sell personalized dropshipping: selling on a marketplace or building your store on an open-source platform. The following details highlights the key differences to help you choose the right option:

• Marketplaces like Etsy, Amazon, and Zazzle are best for starters looking for quick setup and access to a wide audience help you launch quickly by offering built-in traffic and simplified setup. However, it's highly competitive with limited branding opportunities, transaction fees, and marketplace restrictions.
• Open-source ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce are best if you want full control over your business and are willing to invest in the long-term online presence. You are free to manage branding, personalization experience, and customer data. On the other side, they require ongoing maintenance, the cost of hosting and domain, and great marketing efforts.

💡 You may also like: 7 Best Platforms to Sell Custom Products: Features, Pricing & Suitable Sellers

Step 4: Design an Engaging Artwork

Now, let's create engaging designs that support customization, align with your niche, and translate cleanly into production-ready files. Save the principles when designing for personalized dropshipping products:

• First, it is essential to identify what kind of design you want to create. Do you want to offer personalization for text, images, logos, or a combination of them?
• Next, you need to consider the type and size of the product you are designing for. Different items may have different requirements for the design, such as the print area, resolution, color, and format.
• Then, you need to choose a tool to create your design. There are many tools to create professional-looking designs, for example, Canva and Photoshop.

Photo personalization is easy and high-demand

Step 5: Personalize Your Dropshipping Items

Depending on how much you want to customize your dropshipping items, you can choose from two levels of options: basic and advanced.

• Basic options: color, size, shape, and material variants; normal text or simple photo upload.
• Advanced options: clipart, street/star maps, curved text, photo upload with background removed, etc.

Once you have decided on the options you want to offer, you need to know how to implement them in your store. There are two ways to make it:

• Manually editing the code involves modifying HTML, CSS, or JavaScript to create custom input fields and design logic. This method gives you full control and avoids extra app fees or subscriptions. However, it requires strong technical skills, increases the risk of errors or conflicts, and often proves time-consuming and unstable for long-term use.
• Installing a product configurator offers a faster and more practical way to personalize dropshipping products. You use a third-party app or plugin to add customization options without requiring technical skill. It provides advanced personalization options and a smoother setup, but it may involve additional fees or subscription costs.

Step 6: Set Prices for Personalized Dropshipping Products

A critical part of how to dropship personalized products is determining the prices of personalized dropshipping products. Start by calculating supplier charges, personalization, and marketing costs. Then mark up a margin of around 40% to ensure profit.

Do not forget to price your custom items competitively while protecting your profit margins. Personalized items support higher prices, but you still need to stay aligned with customer expectations in your niche.

Plan your discount strategy carefully by using limited-time offers, bundles, or seasonal promotions instead of constant markdowns. A thoughtful pricing and discount approach helps you attract buyers without reducing the perceived value of personalization.

Bonus: If you need a calculator specifically for personalized products, try Teeinblue's product pricing calculator!

You can sell custom products at a higher price

Step 7: Promote Your Personalized Items to Get Orders

Now you need to promote your personalized dropshipping items to get orders. Here are some of the most effective ways to reach your target audience:

• Paid ads requires investment but high returns because it drive high-demand consumers quickly.
• Utilize social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, and Reddit. Maintaining regular posts, managing groups, and seeding your products is working.
• Use email marketing to send abandoned carts, follow-ups, promotional emails, or newsletters to build relationships.
• Collaborate with influencer marketing who match your brand image and values to create user-generated content and reach target buyers quickly.

Step 8: Send Custom Dropshipping Orders to Suppliers

After a customer completes checkout, you need to send the order details. You need to ensure that personalization data, design files, and customer information are accurate so dropshipping suppliers can produce and ship each custom item exactly as the customer requested.

Depending on how you integrate with your dropshipping supplier, you can send the order information in different ways. For example, you can:

• Use an app or plugin that automatically syncs your orders with your supplier's system.
• Use an email template that contains all the necessary information and send it to your supplier manually, or else you can use an email template builder for guidance.
• Use a spreadsheet (a CSV file) that lists all the orders and then upload it to your supplier's portal or website.

With the above clear steps, learning to know how to dropship personalized products is much easier.

It is important to check the custom design of buyers

Example: How to Dropship Personalized Products on Shopify

This example shows how you can dropship personalized products on Shopify. This product page uses Teeinblue Product Personalizer to configure options. When a customer visits this product page, they can see your product and customize it according to their preferences. They can also see a live preview of how their product will look before they add it to their cart.

When a customer places an order, Teeinblue automatically generates a print-ready file and sends it to the chosen dropshipping provider, like Printful, Printify, etc. The provider then prints and ships the order directly to the customer. You don't have to do anything else.

An example of dropshipping personalized product on Shopify

To create a store like the demo above, you need to

• Pick a Shopify plan and set up a website.
• Install Teeinblue from the Shopify App Store.
• Connect your website with any personalized dropshipping supplier.
• Personalize print-on-demand goods in the app.
• Publish your products to Shopify and promote them to get orders.

💡 You may also like: Find Your Best Product Customizer Shopify to Win Customers' Hearts

FAQs: Dropship Custom Products

Can I dropship products that are customized on demand?

Yes, you can dropship products that are customized on demand by using print-on-demand suppliers. They produce each item after the customer places an order and then ship it directly to the buyer.

What platforms are best for dropshipping personalized products?

The best platforms for dropshipping personalized products are Shopify, Etsy, and WooCommerce. They support product personalization, third-party integrations, and on-demand fulfillment workflows.

What are the challenges of dropshipping personalized items?

Dropshipping personalized items often involves challenges such as customization errors, longer production times, and the need to transfer accurate order data to suppliers. In addition, managing returns is also a challenge because you cannot resell personalized products.

What is the best tool to dropship personalized products?

Teeinblue is one of the best to dropship personalized products. You can sell unlimited options with a live preview. High-resolution print-ready files are ready to use after customers place orders. Direct integrations with many personalized dropshipping suppliers make fulfillment fast and easy. The workflow is simple, you can check it out in this video:

Dropshipping personalized things requires some planning, research, and creativity. You need to find a reliable supplier, design artwork, create your store, launch a marketing campaign, and send orders to fulfill. You also need to choose the best tools to make your selling process easier and faster. If you need further discussion about how to dropship personalized products, feel free to leave a comment below or join Teeinblue Global Group. Happy dropshipping!

RELEVANT ARTICLES

Product Customization: All You Need to Know Before Rolling in

15 Most Successful Custom-made Products Examples

Best Website to Sell Custom Products: The Ultimate Review

How to Sell Customized Products on Shopify for Starters

Etsy Personalization Guide for Dummies: The Easiest Approach