How to Sell Custom Blankets on Shopify (2026 Guide)

Who buys custom blankets

Custom blankets sell to a few clear groups:

• Photo gift buyers: family photos, couples, grandparents, best friends. Big at Christmas, Mother's Day and Valentine's Day.
• Pet owners: a blanket printed with their dog or cat.
• New parents and gift givers: baby name blankets and milestone blankets (with an important safety caveat, covered below).
• Memorial gifts: a loved one's photo and dates.
• Teams, schools and events: logos, names and years.

Here is what shoppers pay at established photo gift sellers, as listed in October 2026:

So a well-made personalized blanket at $45 to $70 sits right where buyers expect to pay.

Choose the blanket type

The material changes how the blanket feels, how the print looks and what it costs. Here is how the providers describe the main types:

What to know before you choose:

• Printed blankets are one-sided. Printful's throw blanket is printed on one side with a white reverse side, and Printify's velveteen, fleece, sherpa and minky blankets are also printed on one side. Say so on your product page.
• Sizes can vary. Printify says its velveteen blankets may arrive up to 3 inches shorter than listed, and its sherpa blankets can vary by plus or minus 3 inches.
• Woven blankets are different. The design is woven with yarn rather than printed, so photos look softer and less detailed than on a printed blanket. Printify offers separate "photo" and "artwork" versions.
• Start with one or two types. Velveteen plush is the low-cost bestseller (Printify tags it as one), and sherpa is the premium, cozy upgrade.

Compare print partners and costs

Here is what a blanket cost to make in October 2026, in USD, before shipping:

A few notes:

• Printify Premium (from $24.99 a month billed yearly) lowers these prices. The 50x60 velveteen drops from $20.91 to $15.15.
• Pick a US provider for US buyers. Printify's UK provider for arctic fleece charges $41.59 to ship one blanket to the US.
• Printful ships blankets separately from other items in an order, so a blanket plus a mug costs two shipping charges.

Our comparison of the best print on demand for blankets goes deeper on quality, and our ranking of Shopify print-on-demand services compares the partners overall. Order a sample of your best-selling size and wash it before you list it.

Get the photo and design right

A blanket is huge compared with a phone photo, and that's where most disappointed customers come from.

What the providers ask for:

• Printify says blankets print at 120 to 150 DPI, and recommends uploading JPEG or PNG files at the largest size you have. Its blanket guide suggests keeping important details 1.5 inches from the edge.
• Printful asks for sRGB color and PNG or JPEG files, and says to keep important details away from the edges.

Do the pixel math. Multiply inches by DPI. At 150 DPI, a 30x40 blanket needs 4500 x 6000 pixels, a 50x60 needs 7500 x 9000, and a 60x80 needs 9000 x 12000 (the canvas size Printify mentions). A standard 12-megapixel phone photo is 4032 x 3024 pixels, so stretched across a whole 50x60 blanket it prints at roughly 60 to 80 DPI, well below what the providers recommend.

What that means for your designs:

• Offer photo collages (4 to 12 photos) or a single photo in a framed layout with a solid or patterned background, instead of one photo stretched edge to edge.
• Use full-bleed single photos only on smaller blankets, or ask for the original full-resolution photo, not a screenshot or a social media copy.
• Warn customers before checkout when a photo is too small for the size they chose.
• Keep faces and names away from the edges, because sizes can vary by a few inches.

Our guides to adding photo upload and the most common photo upload mistakes cover the details.

Price custom blankets

Blankets are heavy to ship, so build shipping into your price. US standard shipping in October 2026:

Three worked examples, with free shipping built into the price:

Pricing tips:

• Price each size separately. A 60x80 costs far more to make and ship than a 30x40.
• Charge more for sherpa and minky, and position them as the premium option.
• Charge for design work. If you build a collage by hand for each order, add a design fee or build it into the price.
• Plan holiday cut-offs. Production plus shipping is about a week, so post your Christmas order deadline early.

Set up the blanket product on Shopify

Variants are for what changes your cost: size (30x40, 50x60, 60x80) and blanket type (plush, sherpa, fleece). Shopify allows up to three options and up to 2,048 variants per product, so size times type is easy.

Personalization is for what the customer creates, and it's saved on the order:

1. Photo upload, one field per photo for collages, with clear labels ("Photo 1 of 6").
2. Text fields for names, dates and a short message, each with a character limit.
3. A layout choice (single photo, 4-photo grid, 9-photo grid) as a dropdown or swatches.
4. A live preview that shows the photos and text on the blanket before checkout.
5. An add-on fee for extras such as a hand-designed collage or gift wrap.

With PIMW Product Personalizer (our app), text fields, the live preview and add-on fees work on every plan, including Free. Customer photo upload is on Pro (up to 20 customer photos per personalizer, enough for most collages) and Unlimited. For a full walkthrough of the designer setup, see our step-by-step guide to building a blanket designer in Shopify. If you sell other gifts too, our page on the tool for selling personalized gifts shows how the same setup works across products.

Place a test order and check that every photo reaches your print partner at full size.

Baby blankets: safety and the rules

Baby name blankets are popular gifts, but they come with responsibilities.

Safe sleep. The American Academy of Pediatrics says soft objects and loose bedding, including blankets, increase a baby's risk of suffocation, and that there should be no blankets in a baby's bed, for babies up to 1 year old. The CPSC's safe sleep guidance says not to add pillows or blankets to a baby's sleep space and to avoid weighted blankets and weighted swaddles.

So on your product page:

• Never show a baby sleeping with or under a blanket in your photos.
• Position baby blankets as keepsakes, for supervised tummy time, the stroller or the nursery chair, not for sleep.
• Add a clear safe-sleep note, for example: "Not for use in a baby's sleep space. Keep blankets out of the crib for babies under 12 months."

Children's product rules (US). The CPSC defines a children's product as one designed or intended mainly for children 12 or younger. These need third-party testing by a CPSC-accepted lab and a Children's Product Certificate, and the CPSC's textile guide says they also need permanent tracking labels. Printify tags most of its blankets "For adults", so selling one of those as a baby blanket can make you responsible for that certification. Before you sell baby blankets, ask your provider whether the specific blank comes with a Children's Product Certificate, or choose one that does.

Avoid unverified claims. We found no CPSC flammability standard written specifically for blankets, so don't advertise safety claims you can't back up.

Share care instructions

Copy your provider's care instructions onto the product page and the packing slip:

• Printful: machine wash at no more than 30°C (86°F), no bleach or dry cleaning, hang dry if possible or tumble dry low.
• Printify velveteen: machine wash cold (max 30°C or 90°F), tumble dry low, do not iron, bleach or dry clean; hand washing extends the print's life.

Your custom blanket launch checklist

1. Pick your main buyer: photo gifts, pets, babies, memorial or teams.
2. Choose one or two blanket types and order samples.
3. Pick a US-based print partner for US customers.
4. Offer layouts that work with phone photos, like collages, and warn on small photos.
5. Price every size with base cost, shipping and payment fees.
6. Set size and type as variants, and photos, names and layout as personalization fields.
7. Add a live preview and say clearly that the print is one-sided.
8. For baby blankets, add a safe-sleep note and check for a Children's Product Certificate.
9. Add care instructions and your holiday cut-off dates.
10. Place a test order and check the print file your partner receives.

Get the photo size, the safety notes and the pricing right, and a custom blanket becomes one of those gifts people keep on the couch for years.

Keep exploring

Best print on demand for blankets

How to build a blanket designer in Shopify

How to sell personalized products on Shopify

• How to sell custom canvas prints online