Custom Request, Quote, and Product Order: Three Records, Three Decisions
A beginner's map of the three records in a custom-apparel project: what each one stores, who acts on it, and when money or fulfillment begins.
Custom apparel moves through three records that are easy to confuse because they describe the same project at different moments. A Custom Request describes what you want. A quote defines an offered production scope and price. A Product Order records the accepted commercial commitment and fulfillment.
Keeping them separate creates three deliberate decisions instead of one irreversible jump.
Custom Request: define the work
A Custom Request is the design and sourcing brief. It can begin from a known catalog product or from Free Customization. It holds the expected quantity, product context, garment surfaces, artwork, selected crafts, placements, preview references, and notes.
Submitting the request asks Labelix to evaluate and price the scope. It does not reserve production, collect the product total, or create a shipment. A request may qualify for automatic pricing or require manual review when its inputs fall outside standard matrices.
Quote: define the offer
A quote is the priced offer for a defined request. It connects products, quantities, decoration lines, sample fees, shipping context, currency, validity, and any manual decisions into a reviewable total.
The quote is the moment to ask: Is this the correct product, design, quantity, delivery context, and price? A pending review is not a quote you can accept, and an expired or invalid quote must be refreshed before conversion.
Product Order: commit to fulfillment
A Product Order is created when a valid published quote is accepted, or directly through ready-made checkout. For custom work, acceptance snapshots the agreed product, surfaces, prints, crafts, quantities, pricing, address, and shipping context into the order.
The order then owns payment, stock/production handoff, fulfillment groups, logistics, cancellation, and delivery history. It is not a live mirror of the product page or draft. Later catalog edits do not rewrite what was accepted.
Payment is related but still separate
The order defines what is owed. A payment intent and its attempts collect that amount through an available method. Reaching an order does not mean it is paid, and reaching a provider return page does not mean fulfillment can begin. The payment status must settle authoritatively.
Why snapshots matter
A custom project evolves before acceptance. After acceptance, fulfillment needs a stable record. Snapshots preserve the exact context used for the commercial decision even if a craft is later disabled, a product image changes, an exchange rate moves, or a saved address is edited.
This is why corrections should happen before quote acceptance. A note added after the fact cannot silently replace a different garment surface or decoration line in the accepted snapshot.
The whole flow in six steps
- Build and submit the Custom Request.
- Resolve automatic or manual pricing.
- Review a valid published quote.
- Accept it to create the Product Order.
- Complete and confirm payment.
- Follow production, fulfillment, shipping, and delivery on the order.
Use Custom Requests for design and quote progress. Use Product Orders after conversion for payment and fulfillment progress.
Frequently asked questions
- Does submitting a Custom Request create a Product Order?
- No. Submission creates the design and pricing record. A valid published quote must be reviewed and accepted before the custom project becomes a Product Order.
- What is the main decision made at quote acceptance?
- You confirm that the priced product, quantity, surfaces, prints, crafts, shipping context, and total match the work you want. Acceptance snapshots that scope into the Product Order.
- Why does the order not update when a product page or saved address changes?
- The order is a historical commercial and fulfillment snapshot. Later catalog, craft, exchange-rate, or profile changes must not rewrite the scope that was accepted.