Can customers add their own text, choices or files to a product?

Adding personalization fields to a Volume product page with custom options, and what they do and do not affect.

Yes — Volume has a family of Custom options blocks built in, no app needed. There is one block per input type, and they are all named the same way in the Add block list:

Custom options: Single line text, Custom options: Multi line text, Custom options: Checkbox, Custom options: Dropdown, Custom options: Pills, Custom options: Swatches, Custom options: Color picker, Custom options: Date, Custom options: Measurement and Custom options: File upload.

They are available in the Product overview section, and also in Featured product and the Quick view section.

1

Add the block

In the Theme Editor, open the product template, click Add block in the Product overview section and pick the type you need. Add one block per question.

2

Fill in Option name

Option name is the key the answer is saved under, so it is what you will see on the order — use Engraving, not Option 1. It has to be unique across the blocks on the page.

If Option name is empty the block renders nothing at all and the answer cannot be saved with the order. If a custom option is invisible on the storefront, check this field first.

3

Fill in Option label and the rest

Option label is what the customer reads above the field. Then, depending on the type: Options (the choices, comma-separated — Option 1, Option 2), Make required, Info tooltip, Layout (One column, Two columns, In a row), Swatch size, minimum and maximum number of selections, Max character length, Minimum number of days from today and Last allowed date.

Custom options: Measurement takes its units in square brackets inside Options: Chest[cm], Waist[cm], Hip[cm].

If the fields appear but their labels do not, the culprit is a theme setting, not the block: Theme settings → Variant picker → Show labels hides the labels of custom options along with the variant labels.

What they are, and are not

Custom options are saved as Shopify line item properties. They travel with the order and appear in the cart, at checkout and in the Shopify admin.

They do not create variants. They do not change the price and they are not tracked in inventory. If a choice has to cost extra or be counted in stock, it needs to be a separate product or variant — or an app that turns properties into charges.

Make required is enforced by the product form, so the Buy now button — Shopify's dynamic checkout — skips it. If a required option must not be bypassed, open the Buy buttons block and untick Show dynamic checkout buttons. The same applies to anything else that adds to cart outside the form, such as a quick-buy button on a collection card or an app.

Full walkthrough, including how to show custom options on some products only, in Custom options.