Product Creation Services | Virtual Products - Production Spreadsheet
What information do we request and why?
Before we can begin production of your Virtual products we will contact you to ask for image assets and also setup information / data.
We have a predefined Production Spreadsheet that you will be asked to complete with Name, SKU and all pertinent setup information.
You will also be provided with a link to a One Drive folder so that you can supply us with any Artwork files that need to be used with your Virtual product(s) if you are unable to add publically accessible URLs to the spreadsheet (our preferred format).
We request this information simply because we don't know your Virtual products as well as you do, the better the information and guidance that you provide us with, the quicker our Product Creators can configure the Virtual products in our platform to meet your specifications.
We think of this information as an instruction manual that tells us how to put your Virtual products together.
Please note that we cannot schedule any work into production until we have all of the necessary assets and information.
Critical Note: Any delay in providing the product assets or setup information may lead to the job being rescheduled and any delivery dates being pushed back.
Common requirements for all Virtual Products jobs
Whichever type of Virtual product you wish us to create for you, there are two critical pieces of information that we require.
1. The Blank product
The first and most important thing that is required to create a Virtual product is a Blank product that can be used to create the Virtual from.
- If you are Self Fulfilling then you will have created your own Product Blank on CPP or used our Product Creation paid service and had us create your Blanks for you.
- If you have made an agreement with an existing Product Blank Fulfiller you may have been given read access to that Fulfiller's products on the platform.
In either case you will need to provide us with the ID of the Blank product that you wish us to use to create the Virtual product from. Note that if the same design is being applied to more than one type of Blank product, we require each individual Blank product ID.
Make sure that you have confirmation from the Fulfiller that you have an account with them if you plan to use their Product Blanks otherwise your orders will not be accepted when they are routed through our platform.
2. The Category for the Virtual products
Once we have created your Virtual products and you have approved them via our product onboarding system, they will be automatically transferred to a category of your choosing ready for you to access.
You will need to provide us with the category ID reference for your chosen category. This can be found by going to the categories page under Settings and searching for the name of the category. The ID is displayed in its own column when the results of the search are returned.
Production Spreadsheet
The Production Sheet is a cloud based document meaning that any changes you make will be automatically saved and accessible by all parties with access, which makes it the easiest way for you to share information with us and collaborate on your product creation.
Each Virtual product should be listed on a separate row in the sheet.
Important Note: We request information in this format as the sheets are imported directly into our platform onboarding system. This ensures your product production can be managed efficiently and the products created as quickly as possible.
Spreadsheet Breakdown
Critical: Anything marked in RED in the spreadsheet is a critical piece of information. We advise all field to be populated where possible/applicable.
Retail SKU - If you have a specific SKU you wish to use for your Virtual product please enter it here. This field is optional as the system will automatically generate a SKU by default if non is entered.
E-Commerce Design Name - This is the name of the Virtual product in the KornitX platform. Once the products are created the names can be changed via an eCommerce import or manually in the Platform itself if necessary.
Type- Whilst there are a number of types of Virtual product that can be created using the KornitX platform, there are essentially two types of Virtual product are available using our product creation services:
- Artwork Only (commonly referred to as Print on Demand)
- Manual (used for Personalised products featuring text or image elements that the user can interact with with specific formatting requirements)
Our Create your first series of tutorials also provides additional information about the various types of Virtual product available in the KornitX platform
Our production spreadsheet covers both of these types of setups, please fill in the appropriate optional columns with all the relevant information.
Please remember that we know nothing about your products at all, the aim of the production sheet is to create a kind of instruction manual for us to set up the products as you require them so please add every single detail.
Blank Product ID - Please specify the product ID of the Blank product in the KornitX platform that the Virtual is to be created from.
artwork_1_url - Please link to a publically accessible URL of the Artwork / Design file that you wish to add to the product. The design gets added to the 1st Print Area of the Fulfiller's Blank product
artwork_2_url - Please link to a publically accessible URL of the Artwork / Design file that you wish to add to the product. The design gets added to the 2nd Print Area of the Fulfiller's Blank product to cater for multi-sided products eg: T-shirt with Front and Back decoration areas. Please note that this is an optional field.
Product Assets - Use this column to link to the images or fonts that you have uploaded to the Drive folder relating to the product on that particular row.
Font and Font Colour - If Personalisation is required, you can add information regarding Fonts or Font colours to this column. If there are multiple personalisation areas, please provide the necessary details for each individual area.
Additional Notes / Guidelines - Use this column to detail any additional information against each job here to serve as instruction or reference.
Any URL to an existing product listing is particularly useful
eg if personalisation is required, you might specify:
- Max Number of characters
- Number of text fields
- Single Line or Multi-Line Personalisation
- Auto re-size
One Drive Folder
The One Drive folder provides you with a place in the cloud to upload the artwork files for your Virtual Blank products and also any ancillary files that may be relevant to the setup (such as font files).
The production spreadsheet allows you to specify a publicly accessible URL of an image that we can import directly into our platform. This is our preferred method for you to share your artwork file with us but if you are unable to host the image like this, please use the One Drive folder provided.
We have a dedicated article that deals with the image and asset requirements for Virtual Products, please refer to the link below for specific details depending on the kind of Virtual product we are creating for you.
If you are designing artwork for use with a Product Blank, check its Print Specifications once you have been given access on our system so that you can create your image to the exact same dimensions and dpi to ensure perfect position and scaling.
Please create sub folders in the One Drive folder for each individual Virtual product and place the relevant assets inside it. This helps our Product Creators easily find the correct reference for the Virtual product they are working on. This additional administration may seem tedious but the aim is to avoid any doubt on our side as confusion slows down the production process and can also lead to mistakes that will have to be rectified and lead to delays in you going live.
If you have multiple images or assets for the same Virtual product please ensure that they are named accordingly.
Summary of information required for Artwork only jobs
1. The Blank Product ID that the Virtual is to be created from (this could be your own Blank if you are self fulfilling, or it could be that of a Fulfiller on our Network)
2. The Design Name and Retail SKU for the Virtual product
3. The category on the platform that you wish the Virtual product to be added to (this will be somewhere in the category hierarchy created for your company)
4. We will require the piece of artwork that you wish to apply to the Blank product for each given Virtual design. It is advised that you consult the print specification of the Blank product in the first instance and create your artwork to match this specification perfectly (Please be aware of the dpi value used). This will ensure complete accuracy between the product preview and output.
Summary of information required for Personalised Predesign jobs
1. The Blank Product ID that the Virtual is to be created from (this could be your own Blank if you are self fulfilling, or it could be that of a Fulfiller on our Network)
2. The Design Name and Retail SKU for the Virtual product
3. The category on the platform that you wish the Virtual product to be added to (this will be somewhere in the category hierarchy created for your company) - see Common requirements
4. We will require all assets that are relevant to the Virtual product eg: Artwork files, gallery images, image masks, font files. It is advised that you consult the print specification of the Blank product in the first instance, and create your artwork to match this specification perfectly (Please be aware of the dpi value used). This will ensure complete accuracy between the product preview and output.
5. We will require detailed instruction on the nature of the personalisation for any given input field, please use the example questions earlier in this section to guide you in the type of detail that you provide us with.
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