This guide walks you through your first personalizable product from start to finish. You pick a starting point, decide what shoppers can change, choose how it appears on your store, and publish it. It is written for a new merchant who has connected their Shopify store and wants to ship one product live. Each step links to a deeper guide if you want more detail.
Pick a starting point
Every product starts by choosing where the base item comes from. During onboarding, Composerie offers two clear starting points: browse the print-provider catalog or start from scratch. The catalog is the quickest route because the product, variants and fulfillment details are already available.
Open New product
From the dashboard home, click New product. You can also open Products and start there. During onboarding, Pick your first product shows the catalog and blank-product choices as two cards. Create a product has a picture of the page and covers each route in more detail.
Choose a starting point
Pick the path that matches your product:
- Browse the catalog (recommended): thousands of print provider products ready to customize, filtered to your categories.
- Start from scratch: a blank custom product you build on your own canvas.
The full New product page also links to saved templates when your workspace has them.
Browse the catalog
When you open a new product, the catalog browser loads by default. You see a grid of print provider products. The header offers Start blank, and Use a template once your workspace has saved templates.
Pick a product and continue
Select the item you want, then continue. This becomes the base your shoppers will personalize.
Design what shoppers can change
Next you open the Design Studio. This is the canvas where you place text, images, and shapes, then mark which of them a shopper can change. A field you mark as editable becomes part of the customizer your shoppers see on the storefront. Anything you leave fixed stays the same on every order.
Open the Design Studio
From your product, open the Design studio. The canvas opens with your product surface ready to edit.
Place your elements
Add the text, images, and shapes you want on the canvas. For example, add a text layer for a name, or an image slot for a photo.
Mark what a shopper can change
Choose which elements a shopper can edit, such as a name field or a photo upload. These are the fields your customers fill in when they personalize the product.
This is the heart of your product, so it is worth learning the canvas well. For the full tour of layers, fonts, and effects, read the Design Studio overview. To control which fields shoppers can edit, see make fields customer editable.
Choose how it shows on your store
When you publish, you choose how the product appears on your storefront. On the Publish screen, review How customers buy this. The available modes depend on your product.
Open Publish
Open your product, save your changes, and select Publish. Review the selected stores and This goes to Shopify before choosing the buying mode.
Pick a storefront mode
Choose one of the three options:
- Linked: your storefront looks exactly the same and Composerie works in the background. Best for designs that do not need customer changes.
- Embedded: the customizer lives right on your product page, with no redirect. Best for products with a few options where customers want to order fast.
- Full page: a button leads customers to a dedicated customizer page. Best for products with lots of design options.
Under the switch, show preview draws what each choice produces. Linked is the one worth seeing before you pick it: nothing changes on your product page at all.
Confirm your store and mode
Check the selected stores, mode, and any warnings or blockers before publishing.
Publish and check it on your store
Now you finish the wizard and see the product live. Always open the product on your own store and try it as a shopper would. That is the fastest way to confirm the customizer is in the right place and the fields behave the way you set them.
Publish and read the result
Select Publish and wait for the result for each selected store. A Shopify draft or a failed store result is not a live product.
Open the product on your store
Go to the product page on your Shopify store and confirm the customizer is there.
Before publishing, use Preview on the product page to test the customer flow without placing an order. The button at the bottom reads Preview only rather than Add to cart, which is the point: you can fill in every field and watch the design change without anything reaching a cart. After publishing, open the product from your Shopify storefront and repeat the same check.
One note in that screenshot is worth explaining: We can’t check the print quality yet appears above an uploaded photo when the product has no print size to measure it against. Add a variant with print dimensions and the same upload gets a real quality verdict instead.
Personalize it yourself
Fill in the fields the way a shopper would. Check that the live preview updates and the product adds to cart.
If the customizer does not appear, your theme block may be switched off. See switch on the customizer in your theme, or read customizer not appearing to work through it. If you get stuck, contact support.
Which starting point should I choose first?
The print provider catalog supplies a starting product and print setup. Review costs and required design surfaces before publishing. Templates and blank products are useful when you want more control.
Do I have to mark fields as editable?
Only if you want shoppers to change them. Anything you leave fixed stays the same on every order. Mark a field editable to turn it into a customizer field.
Can I change the storefront mode after publishing?
Review the product's settings for the connected store and choose an available mode. Check the updated result on that storefront. The storefront modes guide explains the trade-offs.
Why is the Linked mode unavailable?
Linked shows no customizer on the product page, so it is unavailable when your product has editable fields. Choose Embedded or Full page instead.
Next
For the same path written as a timed walkthrough, read your first product in an hour.
For the full publication review and per-store checks, read publish a product to your storefront.