How to manage Etsy and Shopify orders in one place (for custom and personalized products)

I run a small 3D-printing shop in Connecticut, and I sell on both Etsy and my own Shopify store. A lot of what I make is personalized: a color choice, a size, a name. For a long time I ran it all out of two browser tabs. This guide is the system I wish I'd started with. Most of it needs nothing more than a spreadsheet and a printer.

Why two dashboards cause missed personalization

Etsy and Shopify each show you their own orders, their own way. When you work from two lists, three things go wrong:

• You forget one list. You clear the Etsy orders, feel caught up, and a Shopify order sits for three days.
• Details hide in different places. Etsy puts personalization in one spot, buyer notes in another, and messages somewhere else. Shopify shows line item properties, order notes and variant options in their own places.
• Due dates don't line up. Each platform has its own ship-by date, and nothing shows you both in one order.

The fix is to make one list that you trust more than either dashboard.

Start with one list: a row for every item

Make a spreadsheet with these columns:

Source	Order #	Item	Qty	Personalization	Material	Machine	Ordered	Promised	Status	Tracking

The key rule: one row per line item, not per order. An order for three engraved ornaments with three different names is three pieces of work. If it's one row, you'll make two and ship it short.

Keep the Status column to a few words you'll actually use: New, Ready, Making, Done, Shipped.

To fill it in bulk:

• Etsy: Shop Manager → Settings → Options → Download Data, then choose the "Order Items" CSV. It has one row per item, with the variations and personalization included.
• Shopify: Orders → Export gives you one row per line item, with variant options in the item name. One catch: Shopify's built-in export leaves out line item properties, which is where most personalization fields store the buyer's answers. Copy those from the order page, or use a reporting app that exports them.

Paste only the new rows each day. Sort by Promised date.

Paste the personalization, never retype it

This is the one rule that saves the most refunds. Copy the personalization straight from the order and paste it into your list. Retyping is how "Kaitlyn" becomes "Katelyn."

If the buyer put details somewhere else (an Etsy message, a Shopify order note), paste that into the same cell and mark where it came from, like [msg] make the second one blue.

Promise dates in working days

If your listing says "ships in 5 business days," count 5 working days from the order date and write that date on the row. Skip weekends and the holidays your shop takes off.

Then add a simple warning: anything due in the next two working days that isn't Done gets highlighted. In Google Sheets or Excel, a conditional formatting rule on the Promised column does it. Late work should be impossible to miss.

Put the work on paper

A screen is easy to misread when you're tired. Print a small sheet for each item, with:

• Order number and source
• The personalization in large type
• Material, color and machine
• The promised date

Keep it next to the machine, check the finished piece against it, and drop it in the box when you pack. A mail merge into a label template works well.

A 15-minute daily routine

Every morning, before you make anything:

1. Pull in new orders from both shops (CSV or copy and paste).
2. Check every new row's personalization. If something's unclear, message the buyer now, not on ship day.
3. Set material and machine for each new row.
4. Sort by Promised date and pick today's work from the top.
5. Group today's work by material and machine, so you set up each machine once.
6. Print sheets for what you're about to make.

At the end of the day, mark what shipped and paste the tracking numbers.

Cancellations, changes and tracking

• Cancellations: Etsy emails you "Your transaction has been canceled." Find the row and mark it right away, before anyone starts making it.
• Changes: Overwrite the cell, add the date, reprint the sheet and throw out the old one.
• Tracking: Each platform needs the tracking number on its own order. Paste it into your list, then into the order on the site it came from.

When a spreadsheet stops being enough

A spreadsheet works well for a long time. Signs you've outgrown it:

• You spend more than 20 minutes a day copying orders in.
• Two people are editing the sheet and stepping on each other.
• You're missing due dates even though they're written down.
• You've retyped a personalization "just this once" more than once.

At that point, look at tools built for made-to-order work. I built one for my own shop, called CrossBatch. It's a Shopify app, so it's for shops with a Shopify store that also sell on Etsy. Shopify orders arrive on their own as they're paid. Etsy orders come in when you forward Etsy's "You made a sale" emails to a private address (one Gmail or Outlook filter), or upload that same Order Items CSV. Every job shows the buyer's personalization, and job sheets print it in large type with a QR code back to the job. It doesn't connect to Etsy's API, so you still add tracking to Etsy yourself; it gives you a one-click copy of the number and a link to the Etsy order. There's a free plan for 50 orders a month.

Whatever you use, the rules above still apply: one row per item, paste the personalization, and put the work on paper.

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