Duration: 15:49
🛍️ The Side-Hustle Challenge: Meet Fabian
Alexandre Pulman, Business Analyst at Odoo, introduces us to Fabian—a student selling personalized Linux merchandise as a side hustle to support open source. Before Odoo, Fabian's life was complicated: managing inventory across multiple sizes and colors, coordinating with suppliers, handling shipments personally, and running to the post office for every single order. For anyone selling customized products (t-shirts, mugs, phone cases), the operational burden is enormous.
This talk demonstrates two powerful capabilities: how customers can personalize products directly on your e-commerce site, and how Odoo's integration with Gelato (a print-on-demand platform) eliminates inventory, production, and shipping headaches entirely.
🎨 Customer-Side Personalization
The first demo shows traditional product customization. A visitor to the Tiny Linux website browses to a Linux pen in the shop and sees personalization options: add a name to either the upper or lower part of the pen. The customer enters "Alexandra," adds it to cart, completes checkout with address and delivery method, and confirms payment.
On the backend, Odoo registers the sale order with full customization details. When Alexandre navigates to the delivery screen, he can see exactly what needs to be done: pick the pen from the shelf, personalize it with the engraving machine, pack it, and ship it to the customer.
The traditional order flow:
- Place order
- Process order (receive notification)
- Pick and pack (including personalization)
- Ship and deliver
This works, but it comes with major pain points: stocking inventory (imagine 10 sizes × 10 colors = 100 t-shirts for just one design), managing suppliers (price changes, delivery delays), and manual fulfillment (packaging and trips to the post office for every order).
🚀 Enter Gelato: Print-on-Demand Integration
Gelato is a global print-on-demand platform offering hundreds of customizable products with local production in 32 countries, serving over 200 countries and regions through 140+ partners. The integration allows sellers to design products once and let Gelato handle printing, packing, and shipping—automatically.
Alexandre demonstrates by purchasing a Linux-branded t-shirt (not customized by the customer, but designed by Fabian). After selecting size L, viewing the cart, and proceeding to checkout, the system automatically pulls shipping options from Gelato: standard delivery (€4) and express delivery (too expensive for a t-shirt, so declined). Payment is processed.
Unlike the pen order, this t-shirt order has no delivery icon in Odoo's backend. Why? Because Gelato handles everything. The order is automatically pushed to Gelato's platform, where it appears in the order queue. Gelato prints the design, packs the product, ships it, and sends tracking emails—all without Fabian lifting a finger.
Alexandre confirms this works: he received the t-shirt yesterday. In fact, he's wearing a size S version and offers it to anyone in the audience.
⚙️ Setting Up the Gelato Integration
The configuration is straightforward, fully documented by Odoo:
- API Keys: In Gelato's developer mode, create a new API key. Copy this into Odoo's Gelato settings.
- Webhook: Set up a webhook in Gelato following Odoo's documentation. This allows real-time order sync.
- Product Templates: Design products in Gelato's interface (phone cases, t-shirts, mugs, etc.), download preview images, and link them to Odoo products using the template ID.
Alexandre creates a new product live on stage: a phone case with a Linux penguin design. He selects the phone case template in Gelato, drags the penguin logo onto the case mockup, resizes it, and continues. Gelato shows pricing: €16 for the product, approximately €7 for shipping.
He saves the template, copies the template ID, creates a new product in Odoo, pastes the template ID into the sales tab, and synchronizes. Instantly, the e-commerce description and images populate. He adjusts the selling price to €20 (to avoid losing €14) and publishes it. Done.
The new order flow with Gelato:
- Order placement (Odoo)
- Order processing (automatic sync from Odoo to Gelato)
- Pick, pack, and print (Gelato handles everything)
- Ship and deliver (Gelato ships directly to the customer)
💼 Benefits of Print-on-Demand with Gelato
Low entry cost: Designers and creators can launch products in 20 minutes with zero upfront inventory investment. Tomorrow, you draw a new design—upload it to Gelato, link it in Odoo, and it's ready to sell.
Outsourced logistics: No stocking, no packing, no delivery runs. Gelato manages the entire supply chain.
Unlimited possibilities: Thousands of products (t-shirts, hoodies, phone cases, mugs, posters, and more) with endless design variations.
Hybrid approach: Sellers can mix Gelato products with self-fulfilled items. Some products go through Gelato; others you stock and ship yourself. This flexibility lets you test new designs risk-free and transition to self-fulfillment if a product becomes a bestseller with better margins.
Global reach with local production: Fast shipping and reduced costs thanks to Gelato's distributed production network.
Odoo itself uses Gelato to produce the branded mugs distributed at events—precisely because it simplifies operations and avoids customs headaches (like post-Brexit UK taxes).
💬 Fabian's Happy Ending
Fabian can now run his Linux merchandise business entirely from home. No warehouse, no inventory anxiety, no supplier negotiations, no post office visits. He focuses on what he loves: creating designs and supporting open source. Odoo and Gelato handle the rest.
Viewpoint: Odoo Perspective
⚠️ Disclaimer: AI-generated creative perspective inspired by Odoo's vision.
This Gelato integration embodies the Odoo philosophy perfectly: empower small businesses and creators to compete globally without enterprise-level resources. We've always believed software should remove friction, not add complexity. Print-on-demand eliminates the operational burden that kills so many creative ventures before they start. By integrating Gelato directly into Odoo's e-commerce and inventory workflows, we're giving entrepreneurs the same capabilities as major retailers—automated fulfillment, global logistics, real-time tracking—all from a unified platform. And we're not just building this for others; we use it ourselves for Odoo-branded merchandise because it works. When the tools are this simple, anyone with a good idea and a design can build a real business in 20 minutes.
Viewpoint: Competitors (SAP / Microsoft / Others)
⚠️ Disclaimer: AI-generated fictional commentary. Not an official corporate statement.
The Gelato integration is a smart move for Odoo's SMB and creator economy positioning. Print-on-demand has democratized product entrepreneurship, and tight workflow integration reduces friction significantly. However, enterprises operating at scale typically require more sophisticated supply chain orchestration: multi-tier fulfillment strategies, complex SKU management, compliance tracking, and deep analytics across fulfillment partners. While this solution works well for small-to-midsize sellers testing designs or running lean operations, larger brands often need control over inventory, quality assurance, and fulfillment SLAs that third-party platforms may not guarantee. Additionally, margin optimization at volume often favors in-house or contract manufacturing over per-unit print-on-demand pricing. That said, for the target audience—side hustlers, creators, and growing e-commerce businesses—this is a compelling, low-barrier entry point. The real question is scalability: can sellers graduate from this model without migrating platforms?
Disclaimer: This article contains AI-generated summaries and fictionalized commentaries for illustrative purposes. Viewpoints labeled as "Odoo Perspective" or "Competitors" are simulated and do not represent any real statements or positions. All product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.