How to take bulk and custom orders on a small online store — without a quote button, a minimum-quantity rule or a single lost name

TL;DR

• • One product per set, options for the set sizes, each at its own price. The smallest set you list is your minimum.
• • Personalisation fields on the product: one labelled note for names or a message, a photo upload for a logo, paid extras the buyer ticks.
• • WhatsApp checkout so the buyer asks before paying; Order Notes at checkout for the needed-by date.
• • Advance by UPI, half on confirmation, balance before dispatch. Buy materials only after it.
• • The date promise is written: one confirmation message the buyer replies “confirmed” to.
• • Invoices come from each order as a PDF; GST, if you are registered, is your CA’s job.
• • Say no to impossible dates, no-advance buyers and designs that change after you have bought.

1. The product-per-set approach

Stop thinking of the piece as the product. The buyer is not buying a notebook; they are buying forty of them, printed and delivered. So list what they are buying: “Printed notebooks for events — set of 25”. Then open the product’s Options and add an option called “Set size” with the values 25, 50 and 100, each with its own price and its own stock. One page, three set sizes, and no one can order fewer than 25.

Price each set from its own full cost. Bigger sets are cheaper per piece for an honest reason: your fixed costs, the design set-up and the one delivery, are spread over more pieces, while the per-piece costs stay the same. Here is a worked example with round numbers: each notebook costs ₹90, printing ₹20 and packing ₹10; the design set-up is ₹500 and delivery of the lot to one address is ₹600; the payment fee is taken as 2% of the price. Use your own numbers.

Example only. Full cost = pieces × ₹120 + ₹1,100 fixed + 2% of the price. The 2% is a round figure, not a quote; check your gateway’s rate card. If you are registered for GST, decide whether prices include it and ask your CA.

Notice the margin stays about the same across the three sets while the per-piece price falls. That is the right way round: you are passing on real savings, not discounting your time. For sizes in between, the buyer orders the next set down and a few singles, or asks on WhatsApp and you quote. The product pricing calculator does this sum for any set.

2. Personalisation fields: names, logos, messages

Open the product’s Personalisation & extras card. It is deliberately small, and that is a good thing for bulk orders, because it forces one clear question.

• The text note. Turn it on and write the label yourself. The label is the question the buyer reads, so make it exact: “Names in order, spelt as they should print, one per line”, or “Message for the card and the function date”. There is one note box, up to 500 characters, so for a long list of names ask the buyer to send the list on WhatsApp and write “list sent on WhatsApp” in the note. The note travels with the order and shows in your dashboard.
• The photo upload. Turn it on for a logo, a photo or a design reference. Mark it required if you cannot make the item without it; the buyer cannot place the order until the file is attached. Buyers upload JPG, PNG or WebP; the file is shrunk to 2400 pixels on its longest side, which is fine for most printing. Ask for the original by email if you need a vector or a print file.
• Paid extras. Add optional add-ons the buyer ticks in the cart, each charged per piece: “Printed name on each piece +₹10”, “Gift box instead of pouch +₹20”. They are the clean way to charge for extra work without a separate quote.

Personalisation itself has no price field, so if personalising always costs you more, either build it into the set price or list a separate “personalised” set at a higher price.

3. The conversation: WhatsApp before the money

Nobody orders 100 of anything without asking a question first. Give them the shortest route to you.

• WhatsApp checkout is on by default under Settings → Checkout (“Show WhatsApp checkout”). The buyer builds the cart, taps it, and you receive the set, the option, the note and the extras as one message. Add your WhatsApp number under Store details.
• “WhatsApp is the only way to order”, in the same place, is the right setting for a store that sells nothing but custom work. Every order starts as a chat.
• Order Notes at checkout (Settings → Checkout → Checkout form fields) with your own label, such as “Needed-by date and the name of the function”, catches the one thing buyers forget to say.
• On the Growth plan (₹499 a month) the WhatsApp chat bubble floats on every page for pre-sale questions. On the free plan, put the number in your announcement bar and footer instead.

If WhatsApp is where most of your buyers already live, selling on WhatsApp with a store behind it shows how the chat and the store share the work.

4. The advance, by UPI

An order with no advance is a conversation, not an order. Buy nothing until the advance has landed. Half on confirmation and the balance before dispatch is fair to both sides, and for a repeat buyer you can take the balance on delivery.

• Payment details. Under Settings → Payments, fill in your UPI ID, bank name, account number, IFSC and the account holder’s name. They print on every invoice, and a buyer who chooses the Bank transfer / UPI option at checkout sees them right after placing the order. Send the invoice as the receipt once the money shows in your account.
• Through your gateway instead. If you would rather the advance went through your own Razorpay, PhonePe or Cashfree account, create a 50% coupon code under Settings → Discounts and give it to this buyer; the store collects half online now, and the balance is paid by UPI before dispatch. Coupons have no per-customer limit, so make the code specific and set an expiry date.
• A UPI QR in your WhatsApp reply makes the advance a two-tap job: our free UPI QR code generator makes one with the amount filled in.
• Large amounts often move by bank transfer, because UPI apps and banks set their own per-payment limits. Check yours before you ask a society treasurer for a big UPI payment.
• No cash on delivery on bulk. A 100-piece parcel refused at the door is a loss you cannot recover. With the advance plus balance-before-dispatch structure there is nothing to collect at the door anyway. Keep COD on for single pieces if you like, with an extra COD charge under Settings → Checkout.

5. A delivery-date promise in writing

Work out your lead time once: supplier days, plus making and packing days, plus courier transit to the buyer’s city, plus three days of buffer. Put that total in the first line of every set product’s description. Then, for each order, send one confirmation message and ask the buyer to reply “confirmed”. It should contain:

• • the set and the option (“Set of 50, kraft box”), and every paid extra ticked;
• • the names, the message or the logo, exactly as they will print, pasted back;
• • the price per piece and the total, the advance received and the balance due;
• • the dispatch date and the courier, or the date and time you will deliver yourself;
• • the delivery address and the phone number of the person who will receive it;
• • one line saying changes after this message are a new quote and may move the date.

That reply is your contract, and it is the message you will scroll back to when someone remembers it differently. For the store itself, put your last order dates for the month in the announcement bar (Settings → Branding) and, when you are full, turn on Pause ordering under Settings → Checkout with your own message. There are no pre-orders or delivery slots as features, so the words carry the promise. Shipping charges for big cartons are covered in how to set shipping charges for an online store, and a bulky set can carry its own “Delivery fee for this product” so the standard charge is not applied to it.

6. Invoices

Every order on a SitesPlaced store has a PDF invoice you download from the order, with the items and their options, delivery, any COD fee, the total and the payment details you entered. Send it with the dispatch message. What it does not have is GST fields; if you are registered for GST, ask your CA how to issue a GST-compliant invoice for the order and send that separately. Schools, societies and companies will often ask for one, so sort this out before the first big order, not during it. More in PDF invoices for small sellers.

When to say no

• The date is inside your lead time. Offer the next possible date, or offer less personalisation for the same date. Do not shave your buffer; that is what the buffer is for.
• No advance. “We always pay on delivery” means you are lending them the cost of the materials. Decline politely.
• The price of a 500 lot for 40 pieces. Your set prices are honest. Show the table, and hold it.
• Changes after you have bought. A new colour or a new name list after the advance is a new quote. Say so in the confirmation message so you never have to say it in an argument.
• An item you cannot source again. If five break and you cannot replace them, the whole order is at risk. Pick products your supplier can restock in days.
• Cash on delivery on the whole lot. Explained above: no.
• A “friend’s rate” on a bulk order. Bulk is already your lowest per-piece price. A discount on top is your margin, gone.

Where this applies

The same six steps cover wedding return gifts and favours, where the quantities and the pricing per piece are worked through in how to sell wedding return gifts online; school and society orders for events and festivals; and small corporate orders. Companies are a different buyer with their own pitch, GST expectations and multi-address delivery, and that is its own guide: corporate gifting orders for small businesses in India. All of it runs on the free SitesPlaced plan: ₹0, 0% commission, unlimited products and orders, UPI and cards through your own gateway account, cash on delivery, WhatsApp checkout, coupons and invoices. When the buyer forwards your link to a 200-person society group, a paid plan matters: on Starter (₹199 a month, or ₹199 paid once for 30 days with no autopay) and up, a store’s pages answer about 4× faster than on the free plan, about 75 ms instead of about 330 ms in our 28 September 2026 measurements on live paid stores. “Answer” is the moment the page starts arriving on the shopper’s phone, before the photos load. The season’s other guides are on the wedding season hub.

Frequently asked questions