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How to Add a Gift Message to Shopify Orders and Print It on a Card
Add a gift message box to your Shopify store: order note, cart attribute or line item property, message rules at checkout, and getting the text onto a printed card.
In this guide
“Can I add a note for the recipient?” is the most common question a gift shop gets in December. If you want to add a gift message to Shopify orders, the box itself is the easy part. The harder part is where the text is saved, whether it fits on your card, and how it gets from the order to the parcel without someone copying it by hand.
This guide compares the places a gift message can live, sets out the rules worth enforcing, and ends with a printing routine that holds up on a busy day.
Three places to save a gift message
| Order note | Cart attribute | Line item property | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Set where | Cart | Cart or product page | Product page |
| One message per | Order | Order | Item |
| Shared with other notes | Yes | No, its own field | No, its own field |
| In the order CSV export | Notes column |
Note Attributes column |
No column |
| On Shopify’s built-in packing slip | Yes, order.note |
No | Yes, line_item.properties |
The export columns come from Shopify’s guide to exporting orders; the packing slip row from the packing slip variable reference.
The order note
Most themes can show a note box in the cart; in code it is the cart’s note field, as Shopify’s cart template docs show. Relabel it “Gift message” and you are done in five minutes.
The catch: it is the same box buyers use for “leave at the back door”. Your packer has to work out which part goes on the card, and a delivery instruction can end up printed for the recipient.
A cart attribute named “Gift message”
A cart attribute is a named field on the cart, such as attributes[Gift message]. It keeps the message apart from other notes, sits on the order under Additional details, and can sit next to related fields such as Gift or Gift wrap.
The catch: Shopify’s built-in packing slip template has no variable for cart attributes, so the message will not print on it. You need an order printing tool that reads attributes.
A line item property
A property saved from the product page stays with one item, which suits orders with gifts for different people. It prints on the built-in packing slip through line_item.properties.
The catch: every product that offers a message needs the field, and an order with three items can carry three messages that your packers must match to the right parcel.
Rule of thumb: one gift per order, use a cart attribute; several gifts per order to different people, use line item properties; the order note only as a quick start.
Set rules for the message
A message box with no limits invites problems. Decide these before the rush:
- Maximum length. Measure your card. A short card fits less than you think, so set a limit and show a counter.
- Required or optional. If you sell gift wrap, decide whether a wrapped order must have a message.
- Blocked words. A short list of words you will not print protects your packers and your brand.
- Characters your card can print. Emoji and some scripts may not exist in your card font. Test the font before you promise them.
Check the rules at checkout, not only in the cart
Rules in the cart only apply to buyers who use the cart. Shopify’s dynamic checkout buttons let buyers go straight to checkout: “When a customer clicks an unbranded button, they skip the cart and go to the Shopify Checkout.” And a limit enforced only by the browser can be worked around.
Shopify lets apps run a cart and checkout validation function that reads the cart’s attributes and can stop checkout with an error; Shopify’s own reference uses a gift note as its example. Shopify Functions in public apps from the Shopify App Store work on every plan; custom apps with Functions need Shopify Plus.
Get the message onto a card
This is where most of the time goes. A routine that works:
- Each morning, list the gift orders with their messages, for example by filtering for orders that carry the gift message attribute.
- Print the cards in one batch, several to a sheet if your cards are small, each with the order number on the back or in a corner.
- Read each card once before it goes in: names spelled right, nothing cut off, nothing you would not want to print.
- Put the card with the packing slip of the same order, so they travel together to the packing table.
If you handwrite cards, the same routine applies: one list per day, sorted by order number, ticked off as you go.
Where Knotly: Gift Wrap & Messages fits
Knotly: Gift Wrap & Messages uses the cart attribute route and adds the printing step.
- A gift message box in the Gift options block on the product page, the cart page or the cart drawer, next to “This is a gift”, your wraps and an occasion.
- Message rules: a maximum length shown with a counter, blocked words and a message required with gift wrap. An optional checkout rule, a Shopify Function, stops orders that break them and tells the buyer what to change.
- Saved on the order as cart attributes (Gift, Gift wrap, Gift message, Gift occasion), shown under Additional details.
- Cards to print in the occasion’s design (Christmas, birthday, wedding and more) with your heading and colours, as A6, postcard, or 4 per A4 or Letter sheet, plus packing slips without prices. Select gift orders in the app or in Shopify’s Orders list.
Cards are made in your browser; the app’s server never receives order, customer or message data. It does not email the recipient: the message goes on the printed card. See Knotly: Gift Wrap & Messages for the details, and our guide on offering gift wrapping before Christmas for the rest of the setup.
FAQ
Can customers add a gift message at Shopify checkout? Adding fields to the checkout steps needs checkout UI extensions, which are limited to Shopify Plus. On other plans, ask for the message on the product page or in the cart; a validation function can still check it at checkout.
Why doesn’t the gift message show on my packing slip? If it is saved as a cart attribute, Shopify’s built-in packing slip cannot print it; its template has variables for the order note and line item properties only.
How long should a gift message be? As long as your card fits comfortably in your card font. Measure a full card, then set the limit a little lower.
Can I stop rude words in gift messages? Yes, with a list of blocked words checked at checkout. A check in the cart alone can be skipped by buyers who go straight to checkout.