Customers often remember something only after they have paid: "leave it with the neighbour", "it's a birthday present, please don't include the receipt", or the message for the card. Order notes & gift messages puts an Add option on the Thank you page and the Order status page, so they can tell you themselves instead of emailing support.
Turn it on
In Tacey, open Editing Tools.
Find Order notes & gift messages and turn it on.
Click Configure to choose what customers can add (see settings below).
Click Save.
Make sure the Tacey block is placed in Shopify's checkout editor (Thank you page) and customer accounts editor (Order status page), and that Let customers edit their own order is on in Global settings.
What the customer sees
The customer opens the tool and is asked What would you like to add? with a choice of A note for us or A gift message (only the ones you turned on). They type their message and press Add to my order. For a note, they are told "This is added to your order. It does not replace an earlier note." Afterwards they see Note added and "We've got your message."
Where each one lands
What the customer picks | Where it goes | How you see it |
A note for us | Your order's own Notes field in Shopify | On the order page, as a new line starting `[Tacey · customer · 27 Sep 2026, 11:00 UTC]`. It is added underneath anything already there, so your own notes and earlier customer notes are never erased. |
A gift message | A separate field on the order called Tacey gift message | In the order's Metafields section. A new gift message replaces the previous one. See Where do I find a gift message a customer left on their order? |
One of your own order fields | The field you picked | Wherever that field normally shows. See How do I let customers see or edit my own order fields? |
A note and a gift message never share a field, so one can never overwrite the other.
Every setting
Setting | Default | What it does |
Let customers add an order note | On | A note for you, visible on the order in your admin. |
Let customers add a gift message | On | A message intended for whoever receives the parcel. |
Gift message box label | Empty (our wording, "Gift message") | The heading customers see above the gift message box. Leave empty to use our wording, which is translated into your customers' language. |
Gift message prompt | Empty | An optional line under the gift message box, for example "We'll print this on a card inside the parcel." |
Maximum length | 500 characters | How many characters a customer can write. Anything from 1 to 5,000. |
Order fields customers can see or edit | None | Your own order fields to share with customers. |
When it is refused
Empty message: "Please write something first."
Too long: "Please keep this under 500 characters." (your limit). The message is refused, never cut off, because a delivery instruction cut mid-sentence can mean the opposite of what the customer wrote.
Edit window closed: the tool is refused with the usual window-closed message.
Order cancelled or combined into another order: refused with a message saying so.
The customer has used all their allowed changes on the order. Each note or gift message counts as one change toward your Maximum edits per order limit.
The tool stays available on orders you have tagged with a blocked tag, and on order types that cannot have their items changed, because a note does not change what ships or where.
What gets recorded
Every note or gift message appears in the order's history in Tacey as Note or gift message added, with the text and who added it.
What this does NOT do
It does not email you when a note or gift message is added. Check the order.
It does not appear during checkout. It only runs after the order is placed.
It does not let customers edit or delete an earlier note. Notes are only ever added.
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