Recently we dived into Printful, and here’s why we highly recommend it as your print-on-demand provider. You may have caught my previous post about it. If not, go ahead and read it here.
These are the general categories for choosing an integration. Let’s go a bit more in-depth to figure out the best platform for your business outside Printful. So first, why do you need an integration?
Easy enough, Printful is a print-on-demand provider that creates your products, packages them, and ships them to complete the fulfillment process. However, your order has to first make it to Printful and here’s where integration comes in. It acts as a bridge for your order to get to Printful without you manually having to do it. Passive income with a passive ordering system!
There are three core types of integrations with Printful: E-commerce, Marketplace, and Custom API
When choosing a platform for your new Printful business, you need to factor in additional costs (subscription fees/ transaction fees), setup time, and how much of the process is automated.
So let’s break them down.
E-commerce Platform integrations
If you are familiar with website platforms, that’s exactly what this is. The only difference is that these are e-commerce providers. They provide you a place to list your products for sale with an integrated payment processor; it’s basically an all-in-one platform for shops.
Some popular integrations:
If you have changes in your store such as a product being out of stock, Shopify presents this information to your customers.
WordPress user? Then your direct integration would be Woocommerce which is a free open source e-commerce add-on to your existing WordPress site via a plugin. It needs a hosting provider and integrates with Printful directly. Using this integration automates the product push to the shop, and you can offer personalization services to your customers.
Squarespace is a popular platform for small businesses with its minimalistic website builder and great starter themes. It runs on a monthly subscription starting at $26, but unfortunately doesn’t automatically push products from Printful, so you will need to do some manual “pushing”. Moreover, it doesn’t display the stock status, so you will also need to keep that updated. If you are a current user then give it a try, and see if it works for you before you jump to another platform.
Weebly is great for first-time website users. Its e-commerce provider is Square which is all for small businesses and startups. They make it extremely easy to get started with building a website when it comes to Printful. Your products will automatically be pushed to your Weebly site, and display stock notices so no need for manual updates!
It runs on a monthly subscription starting at $12 with its annual plan.
Another great platform to sell branded products with Printful is Gumroad. It has two tiers that you can use to get started, free +5% + charge fee (3.5% + 30¢), and $10 a month with 3.5% + 30¢ per charge only.
It connects instantly with Printful, but you will need to manually push products to your Gumroad, and it doesn’t show stock notices.
As you can see, there are a number of factors to take into account with any integration available. But if you are currently on a listed platform, try out the integration before you move on to another to see how it works for you. Of course, if you are looking for a “set it and forget it” option, then make sure your integrations update stock and push products automat
ically to your shop.
Get started with Etsy for free or upgrade to a paid plan starting at $10 a month. It instantly connects to Printful and pushes products to your Etsy shop but doesn’t publish stock notices. A plus with Etsy is its product personalization tool on your published products to allow your customers to add that personal touch to your product.
When it comes to Printful, it takes an extra step before you can connect your Amazon. You will need to request a GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) exemption to move forward with connecting your shop.
Your products will be pushed to Amazon but won’t add stock notices, so manual updating is needed.
If you are looking to get started with an eBay store, you will be able to directly connect Printful, and push your products to your shop. Make sure you set up your PayPal account on eBay to help with orders and your set. Although it doesn’t have monthly fees, 10% of every sale is charged on you, so keep that in mind when making prices for your products.
Wish is a newer mobile marketplace to sell your products for free + % of sales. You may directly integrate with Printful, push products automatically to Wish, and it actually displays stock notices. With Wish’s strict shipping policy, Printful does limit the products you are able to sell on the platform to fulfill within the 5-day limit. If you miss the deadline, Wish charges you a $50 fee.
Storenvy is similar to Etsy where you have a store to sell your products and have a social marketplace for your products without leaving the platform. You get your first 1000 product listings free of charge. An upgrade is also available, starting at $14.99 a month.
You may directly integrate your Storenvy shop with Printful, and push products to your shop automatically while also displaying stock notices.
Connecting sellers directly to buyers, Bonanza is free to get you started, but you will have to pay final sale fees starting at 3.5% once you sell an item. You are able to automate your products being pushed to the shop, and it will display stock notices. You will need to work on building your fee into your product in order to not lose profit when selling on this platform.
And lastly,
Printful API
This is for developers or large retailers who are using a solution that doesn’t allow for direct integration. You will need a developer or code experience to get this installed.
If you can’t find integration or not willing to hire a developer for this project, you may also submit manual orders.
So that’s it! All the points to look for when you are choosing integrations for your new Printful shop including a quick break down for each available integration.
Have questions? Leave them in the comments section
If you are ready to get started with Printful, I have a wide range of resources: self-paced courses, workshops, and hire us to get it set up for you.
