Hi, @LesVents .
This is Rae from the Shopify team. Thanks for reaching out with this question, and welcome to the Community!
I understand how using variants isn’t ideal with your products, and the inventory you currently have. With this in mind, there are a few workarounds I can suggest to set up your products in a way that allows customers to add messages to the cards they order.
The first potential solution I can offer is following this tutorial to add customization information to your products. Similar to the way this tutorial uses engraving as an example, line item properties can be used to allow customers to elect which message they would like to add to their card. However, this is an advanced coding tutorial, so if you aren’t comfortable with implementing this code yourself, I recommend reaching out to Shopify Experts for additional help with this.
Another option is to enable order notes on your cart page that allows customers to type which message they would like added to their products. If you’re using a free theme developed by Shopify, then our Theme Team may be able to assist with adding this feature to your account. If you would like to discuss this further, please let me know.
I know you also mentioned that you would prefer to not pay for an app to integrate this option, but for customizations like this, apps can oftentimes offer great solutions. With that said, I do want to share a few apps with you that can be used to add this feature, such as:
- Infinite Product Options - offers a free plan
- Infinite Options - requires a paid plan
- Bold Product Options - requires a paid plan
It’s important to keep in mind that the above apps are all third party integrations developed by teams who are external to Shopify. So, if you have any questions about setting up the apps to perform exactly to your needs, please reach out to the app developers directly for more information. The developers will also be able to provide more information surrounding the billing of their apps if you have further questions regarding this.
Let me know if there is anything else I can assist with and I’ll be glad to lend a hand!