Creating a Product Template
A Zazzle template is a product that contains images and/or text placeholders that are easily personalized by the buyer. This is a great way to allow your customers to make a product personal to them while removing the complexity of designing something from scratch.
Popular template products include greeting cards which allow the customer to upload their own picture, personalized wedding announcement invitations, business cards, and more.
Here’s how to make a templated product:
When customers view templated products like business cards or invitations, all they have to do is fill out one or more simple fields to personalize the product.
If you have created products on Zazzle before, you're already most of the way there! You can make a product become a template by simply defining which image(s) or text object(s) can be replaced by the buyer.
Example:
Add an image or text to a product. Click directly onto the design element to edit it. Once you’ve clicked on the design element, scroll down on the right-hand side and click the ‘More options’ button and then activate the ‘Make this a template object’ switch.
Once you’ve clicked on "Make this a template object," all the options available for defining this template image become available.
Now, to help the customer who is wanting to customize your design, change the ‘Product page label’ so they know exactly what field they are updating. This is the label the customer will see on the product page. It tells them the name of the field/s they can update. Descriptive label names corresponding to each field like ‘Your name’ (for text items) or ‘Your logo’ (for image items) are best. Tip: Using the same label across multiple objects will allow the customer to replace the label once and for the change to apply to all.
Note the other options you have once you’ve opened the ‘More options’ link…
- Make object(s) permanent and always visible
This option allows customers to move or scale an object within a design, but it does not allow them to delete the object from the design.
- URL parameter
If you are using the Zazzle API to pass data to this product from an external source, this is the parameter name the API will use. Avoid spaces or special characters. You can safely ignore this field if you are not working with the API.
- Allow editing on product page
This option should be checked to enable EZ Templates on a product page. Unchecking this option is usually only done when working with the Zazzle API.
When you’re posting your product for sale, you’ll note they ask for this additional information:
Notice the checkbox labeled "This product is a template.” This tells you that the product contains template objects and that it will be posted for sale as a template. Only uncheck it if you decide at this point to not allow customer personalization of this product; otherwise, keep it checked.
Congratulations! You have just created a template product!