A system and method for facilitating the creation of personalized products is disclosed, wherein a user on a user computer can access a host merchant computer via a communication network, such as the Internet. The host merchant computer communicates with a products database containing information on products available for personalization and further contains manufacturing capabilities for the products. The method includes providing to the user via the communication network an assortment of product selections available in the products database, receiving a message from the user via the communication network indicating a selection of a product from the assortment, retrieving a set of manufacturing capabilities for the selected product from the products database, and providing to the user via the communication network a design interface including design tools which allow the user to select product configuration options and to create individualized enhancements, wherein the design tool is conformed to only allow configuration options and enhancements that satisfy the manufacturing capabilities.