Order fulfilment for in-house and outsourced production

Sign Customiser supports sign businesses that manufacture in-house, outsource production or use a mix of both. It captures the customer’s design. It then passes the same specifications into the order and production handoff.

Sign Customiser does not manufacture or ship the sign. You keep control of feasibility checks, supplier costs, approvals, production, delivery and installation.

From customer design to production

1. The customer chooses the sign text or artwork, dimensions, colours, materials, backboard, mounting and any extras you offer.

2. The customer finishes the design. The next step depends on your settings:

   • If Etsy is connected to your store, the button shows Continue to Etsy by default. The customer copies the design summary and returns to your Etsy listing to place the order on Etsy. Steps 3 and 4 do not apply to these sales. See Etsy integration.

   • If Etsy is not connected and Quote Mode is on, the customer creates a quote request. Sign Customiser saves the request on the Quotes page in your admin, where your team can open each request. It also sends the request by email. The email goes to the Receiver Email of the quote form that Quote Mode uses. If that field is blank, your store email receives it. Steps 3 and 4 do not apply to quote requests.

   • If Etsy is not connected and Quote Mode is off, the design goes through the cart and checkout of your connected store.

3. For a cart order, the order keeps the selected sign specifications and preview image. Your team does not need to type the brief again from an email.

4. For a cart order, Sign Customiser sends the configured order email to your production team, outside supplier or approval inbox when it receives the order. The email goes to the Receiver Email on the Manufacturer Email page of the customiser. If that field is blank, the email goes to the assigned manufacturer or to your store email. For an AI sign designer order, Sign Customiser holds the email if a manufacturing file is missing.

5. When enabled and supported by the sign type, the handoff can include SVG, EPS, Illustrator-compatible PDF or DXF file links.

What Sign Customiser automates

The software automates design capture, live pricing from your rules, preview images, order data and the configured email handoff. The default order email template shows the sign details and the preview image for each order.

What you still control

You decide which products are suitable for online sale and how pricing works. You decide which supplier receives each product line, and you can edit the Order Email Template that the supplier email uses. Completely bespoke projects can stay in Quote Mode.

Outsourced manufacturing

An outside manufacturer does not need a Sign Customiser account. Set their address on the relevant customiser. Then tailor the email template to the information they need.

To find the setting, open the customiser. Then, in the menu, go to Email Workflows > Manufacturer Email. If the window is less than 799 px wide, select Menu first.

See Supplier / Manufacturer Emails.