Running a custom tumbler shop

Personalized tumblers are one of the busiest custom categories: a name, a design, a color and a size, often for a whole bridal party at once. Whether you laser engrave powder-coated tumblers on a rotary or press sublimation wraps, the work is the same puzzle: lots of near-identical orders that must each come out exactly right.

What goes wrong in a tumbler shop

• Rotary and press setups. Switching between 20 oz skinny and 40 oz handled tumblers means re-setting the rotary or swapping wrap sizes.
• Color mix-ups. Twelve tumblers in six colors with twelve names is where the wrong name ends up on the wrong color.
• Group orders split apart. A bridal party order needs to ship together, but its items get made on different days.

Batch by model, size and color

Make your batch key the blank (model, size and color) plus the machine. Run every 20 oz skinny in one rotary setup, then move to the 40 oz. For sublimation, batch by wrap size so the press and the printer settings change once.

One sheet per tumbler

Print a sheet for each tumbler with the name in large type, the design choice, the color and the size. Stick it to the tumbler, or keep it with the tumbler, until it's packed. For group orders, keep every sheet in the order together so nothing ships short.

How CrossBatch fits a tumbler shop

CrossBatch is a Shopify app that puts Shopify and Etsy orders on one production queue, one job per item.

• Machines and materials: add your laser with its rotary, or your sublimation printer and press, and list your blanks as materials ("20 oz skinny, white").
• Product rules: each product or variant sets the blank, the machine and the lead time. CrossBatch suggests rules from your products' options when you install it.
• Batches by material and machine: start a batch for all the 20 oz white tumblers and they move to In production together. Batches are on Starter ($19/month) and up.
• Job sheets: a sheet per tumbler with the name and design in large type.
• Proof approval: send a mockup and wait for the buyer's approval before engraving (Pro).
• Etsy orders: forwarded sale emails or Etsy's Order Items file, on the same queue as Shopify.

Not on Shopify? The free Etsy job sheet maker groups your Etsy orders by any option, like tumbler size or color.

Etsy is a trademark of Etsy, Inc. CrossBatch is not affiliated with Etsy.