Personalization lets your Etsy buyers add their own details to an order, such as a name to engrave, a font to choose, or a photo to upload. With Shuttle you set up these questions once in your settings, and Shuttle sends them to your Etsy listings.
You can also connect each question to a Shopify product metafield, so every product can show its own details instead of the same text everywhere.
This article explains how to set it up, how the two platforms stay in sync, and the limits to keep in mind.
Turn on personalization
In Shuttle, open your product settings and find the Personalization section on the General tab. Tick "Enable personalization on transferred listings".
Add your questions
You can add up to 5 questions per listing, which is Etsy's limit. For each question, choose a type:
Text: the buyer types an answer. You can set a maximum length.
Drop-down menu: the buyer picks one of the options you list.
File upload with labels: the buyer uploads one file for each label you name.
File upload: the buyer uploads files, up to a number you choose.
Etsy allows only one file upload question per listing, so if you add a second, it will not be sent.
For each question you can also:
Give it a title. This is what the buyer sees, for example "Name to engrave". If you leave it empty, Etsy shows "Personalization".
Mark it as required, so buyers must answer before they buy.
Add short instructions to guide the buyer.
List your choices, for drop-down menus and labeled uploads.
Connect a Shopify metafield (optional)
By default, every product that uses these settings sends the same question text. If you would rather each product show its own details, connect a Shopify product metafield to a question.
For example, you could keep a "Font choices" metafield on each product, with that product's available fonts, and connect it to a drop-down question. Each Etsy listing then shows its own fonts.
Under each field (the title, the instructions, and the options) there is a "Select metafield" button. Choose the metafield you want to use. A few things to know:
Only text metafields can be connected: Text, Multi-line text, and List of text. Other kinds, such as file, reference, or metaobject metafields, are not supported and will not appear in the list.
The metafield has to already exist in your Shopify admin, under Settings, then Custom data, then Products. Shuttle does not create it for you.
If a product has a value in the connected metafield, Shuttle uses that value for that product. If the metafield is empty, Shuttle uses the text you typed as a fallback, so you always have a sensible default.
Connect a different metafield to each field. If you connect the same metafield to two fields, they will overwrite each other.
How your details stay in sync
Personalization works in both directions.
From Shopify to Etsy, when you transfer or update a product, Shuttle sends your questions to Etsy. If you connected metafields, each product uses its own metafield values, otherwise it uses the text you typed.
Shuttle only adds questions to listings that do not already have any. It never changes or removes questions that are already on your Etsy listing. If you want to refresh a listing's questions from your settings, remove them on Etsy first, then update the product from Shuttle.
From Etsy to Shopify, when you bring an Etsy product into Shopify, or when you run an update with the Personalization option selected, Shuttle saves the listing's questions into the connected metafields. This keeps your Shopify data in step with Etsy.
Shuttle fills empty metafields freely. It only changes or clears a metafield that already has something in it when it is completely sure which question belongs to which metafield. If there is any doubt, it leaves your metafield exactly as it is, so your existing data is never overwritten on a guess.
On Etsy to Shopify updates, Personalization is its own option in the update window, separate from Metafields. Tick it when you want personalization saved back to Shopify. You can read more about transferring a product and updating a product in their own articles.
If something does not look right
A question shows your typed text instead of the metafield value: the product's metafield is probably empty, or its type is not one of the supported text types. Check that the product has a value, and that the metafield is Text, Multi-line text, or List of text.
A metafield is missing when you try to connect it: only text metafields appear, and the metafield must already be set up in your Shopify admin under Settings, Custom data, Products.
Your Etsy questions did not change after an update: Shuttle does not overwrite questions that are already on a listing. Remove them on Etsy, then update the product again to re-send your settings.
If personalization ever runs into a temporary problem, Shuttle skips only that step. The rest of your product still transfers or updates as normal.
Good to know: the limits
Up to 5 personalization questions per listing, and only one file upload question.
Question titles are 1 to 45 characters. Instructions are up to 120 characters. Text answers can be up to 1024 characters. Drop-down menus allow up to 30 options. File upload questions allow up to 10 files.
Only text metafields can be connected: Text, Multi-line text, and List of text.
A connected metafield must already exist in Shopify. Shuttle will not create it.
An empty or unsupported metafield always falls back to the text you typed.
Questions
If you are not sure how any of this applies to your shop, contact us through the chat bubble and we will walk through your setup with you.