How do I sell made to measure awnings on Shopify and charge the exact price for each size?
Shopify lets one product carry up to 2,048 variants and three options, and that is where a made to measure awning shop gets stuck. An awning sold in 1 cm steps from 200 to 600 cm wide and 150 to 350 cm projection has 80,601 possible sizes before anyone chooses a cover or a motor.
How do I sell made to measure awnings on Shopify and charge the exact price for each size?
Do not try to build every size as a variant. Keep one awning product, add a price calculator to the product page that reads the width and projection the customer types, and let it look the price up in your own price grid. Set the smallest and largest sizes you make, so nothing outside them can be paid for. Then make sure the checkout works the price out again from the same rules, so the customer pays exactly what the page showed. Inchy, a Shopify app for awnings and outdoor shade, does this as a product page block.
The demo awning at 420 × 300 cm with a navy stripe cover and a motor. The drawing and the total change as the size changes.
It is a trade worth getting right online. Allied Market Research valued the global retractable awnings market at $6,024.4 million in 2020 and expects it to reach $13,820.0 million by 2030.
Why do Shopify variants not work for awnings?
Variants are made for stock: a shirt in small, medium and large, a mug in three colours. Shopify's Help Center says each product can have up to 2,048 variants and up to three options. A made to measure awning breaks both limits at once.
Take the demo awning. It is made from 200 to 600 cm wide and from 150 to 350 cm projection. In 1 cm steps that is 401 widths times 201 projections, or 80,601 sizes. Round it to 10 cm steps and you still have 861 sizes. Add 4 covers, 2 frames, 3 ways to open it and 2 valances, and you are at 41,328 combinations. It also has six choices, and Shopify allows three options.
The usual workaround is to list a handful of standard sizes and ask everyone else to email for a quote. That turns a sale into a conversation, and a customer who wants 437 cm has to wait for your reply before they can buy.
How does a price grid by width and projection work?
If you make awnings, you probably already price from a grid: widths across the top, projections down the side, a price in each box. The customer's size goes up to the next column and the next row. In the demo grid below, 420 × 300 cm falls in the 450 cm column and the 300 cm row, so the awning itself costs £1,612.95. Every width from 401 to 450 cm costs the same.
With Inchy you paste that grid straight from your spreadsheet. If you price another way, it also takes a price per square metre, a price per metre, or one price per item with extras. Choices such as the cover, the frame or the motor can add a fixed amount, an amount per metre or square metre, or a percentage. In the demo, a motor and remote adds £280.00 to any size. How to set those extras is covered in how to price add-ons like a motor or a winter cover.
What should the customer see when they type a size?
They should see their own awning. The shopper types the width and projection, or pulls the end of a ruler on the drawing, and the awning is drawn again at that size with the price beside it. The total sits under the picture, and the button carries the price too: "Add to cart · £1,892.95". You can try it on the live demo.
A few small things matter a lot to an awning buyer:
A "How to measure" link right under the size fields.
The smallest and largest size printed under each field, for example "200 to 600 cm".
A button to order a fabric sample of the cover they picked.
A breakdown of how the price is made, so a motor or a frame colour is never a surprise.
On a phone, Inchy keeps the total and the Add to cart button at the bottom of the screen while the shopper scrolls through the choices.
What happens when someone types a size you cannot make?
You set the smallest and largest sizes you make for each product, and anything outside them is stopped before payment. In the demo, typing 700 cm shows "Width can be up to 600 cm" under the field, the total is cleared and the basket button will not add it. In its place the shopper reads "This size is made to order. Send us the details and we will quote you."
The same goes for big jobs. Orders above an amount you set can go to a quote form instead of the basket, and the request reaches you in the app and by email with every measurement in it. If you would rather see the wall first, the demo awning also has a "Book a home visit" button.
How do the orders reach your workshop?
Every size and choice lands on the order in Shopify, so nobody types it again. Inchy adds a production sheet to Shopify's own Print menu and prints a daily work list of everything still to make, explained in how to print a production sheet for made to order orders. And because the checkout works the price out again from your rules, the order total matches the product page. Why checkout prices can differ from the product page explains why that matters.
Questions and answers
Can customers enter sizes in inches?
Yes. Sizes can be set in centimetres, millimetres or inches. The demo awning lets the shopper switch between centimetres and inches on the page.
Will it work with my theme?
It works with Online Store 2.0 themes, which is every current Shopify theme. It is a theme app block that takes your theme's fonts and text colour. Nothing is changed in your theme files, and if you remove the block the theme is as it was.
Can I use it for other outdoor shade products?
Yes. Any product priced by size works the same way. Start from the awning template or from scratch. A product without a drawn picture can show your own photo for each option.
Who makes Inchy?
InterioApp. We have priced and sold made to measure products since 2011, in our own shop first, and our quoting software and calculators are used by made to measure businesses in the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
What does it cost?
$19.99 a month with every must-have feature and unlimited products, billed by Shopify, with no fee per order. Two extras cost $4.99 a month each if you want them: the Design pack, with every look and style, and Bundle kits, for sets of add-ons sold together at a saving.
If you sell awnings on Shopify, paste in your own price grid and test it on your own product page. See Inchy and try the live builder. Start the 7-day free trial on the Shopify App Store.
Sources
Shopify Help Center, Adding variants: up to 2,048 variants and up to three options per product.
Shopify, 2048 variants: limit raised from 100 to 2,048 variants per product, 15 October 2025.
Allied Market Research, Retractable awnings market: $6,024.4 million in 2020, $13,820.0 million expected by 2030.
Inchy live demo: sample UK prices, size limits and messages, read on 21 October 2026. Size counts worked out from the demo's limits and choices.
Written with AI. Every figure is checked against the sources listed above.
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