Ultimate Guide to Printful Shipping Settings on Shopify
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Setting up Shipping Rates with Printful and Shopify
- Integrating Printful with Shopify
- Shopify Advanced Plan Requirement
- Flat Rate Shipping with Printful
- Calculating Shipping Costs
- Printful Fulfillment and Order Tracking
- How to Set Up Printful Shipping in Shopify
- Navigating to Printful Website
- Finding Shipping Prices and Turnaround Time
- Setting Up Shipping Rates in Shopify
- Domestic US Shipping Options
- Price-based Shipping Rates
- Weight-based Shipping Rates
- Determining Product Weight in Printful
- Conclusion
Setting Up Shipping Rates with Printful and Shopify
In this article, we'll walk you through the process of setting up your shipping rates when using the print-on-demand service, Printful, with your Shopify store. We'll address some common questions about integrating Printful with Shopify and provide step-by-step instructions on how to navigate the shipping settings in your Shopify store. By the end of this article, you'll have a clear understanding of how to configure shipping rates, calculate shipping costs, and ensure smooth fulfillment and order tracking with Printful and Shopify.
Integrating Printful with Shopify
Before we dive into the specifics of setting up shipping rates, let's briefly discuss the integration of Printful with Shopify. By connecting the Printful app to your Shopify store, you can seamlessly sync your products, automate order fulfillment, and offer a wide range of customizable merchandise to your customers. This integration allows for efficient management of your print-on-demand business, ensuring a streamlined workflow and excellent customer experience.
Shopify Advanced Plan Requirement
One important requirement to enable carrier-calculated rates for shipping with Printful and Shopify is having the Shopify Advanced plan or higher. This plan allows you to integrate Printful's live shipping rates into your Shopify store, giving you more accurate shipping costs based on the weight and dimensions of the products. If you're on a lower-tier plan, you'll have to rely on flat rate shipping options provided by Printful, either based on price or weight.
Flat Rate Shipping with Printful
If you don't have the Shopify Advanced plan, the most straightforward way to set up shipping rates with Printful is by using flat rate shipping. Printful provides predefined shipping rates on their website for different products, which you can incorporate into your Shopify store. These rates are determined based on factors such as destination (e.g., US, Canada, international) and product type (e.g., pillows, mugs, tote bags). We'll show you how to find these rates and set up flat rate shipping in the following sections.
Calculating Shipping Costs
One common question among Shopify store owners using Printful is how to determine the exact shipping costs for their products. While shipping costs can vary based on the customer's location and distance to Printful's warehouses, Printful conveniently provides a list of shipping costs for each individual product on their website. This list includes the shipping cost and estimated time until the product is shipped. We'll guide you on how to access this information on the Printful website, allowing you to provide accurate shipping cost estimates to your customers.
Printful Fulfillment and Order Tracking
Another question that frequently arises when using Printful and Shopify together is how to ensure that orders are fulfilled and tracked properly. When you have the Printful app connected to your Shopify store, Printful automatically sends fulfillment information to Shopify. This means that whenever an order is flagged as shipped and a tracking number is added, Shopify updates the order status accordingly. If you have email notifications set up, Shopify will also send tracking information to your customers, enabling them to track their packages. However, it's worth noting that if you have both print-on-demand products through Printful and other products that aren't fulfilled by Printful in the same order, the fulfillment process may require additional steps, as we'll explain later in this article.
How to Set Up Printful Shipping in Shopify
Now that we have a good understanding of the concept and requirements for integrating Printful with Shopify, let's delve into the practical steps of setting up print-on-demand shipping rates in your Shopify store. We'll guide you through the process, starting from navigating the Printful website to finding shipping prices and turnaround times. Then, we'll show you how to configure shipping rates in your Shopify store using either price-based or weight-based options.
Navigating to Printful Website
To begin setting up your Printful shipping rates, go to the Printful website (www.printful.com). This is where you'll find the necessary information about shipping prices and turnaround times for different products offered by Printful. By knowing these details, you can accurately set up your shipping rates in Shopify, ensuring your customers are charged the correct amount for shipping and have a clear understanding of how long it will take for their orders to be fulfilled.
Finding Shipping Prices and Turnaround Time
On the Printful website, locate the "How it works" section and click on "Shipping speeds and pricing." This page provides a comprehensive list of different products that you can print with Printful. For each product category, you'll find the shipping prices for various destinations, such as the United States, Canada, and international locations. Take note of the shipping costs for the specific products you offer in your store, as these rates will be used to create your shipping rates in Shopify. Additionally, Printful also provides an estimate of the days until the product is shipped, giving you an idea of the turnaround time. This information is vital for managing customer expectations and providing accurate shipping information on your Shopify store.
Setting Up Shipping Rates in Shopify
Once you have gathered the shipping prices and turnaround times from the Printful website, it's time to configure your shipping rates in Shopify. To access the shipping settings, navigate to your Shopify dashboard and click on "Settings" in the bottom left-hand menu. From there, select "Shipping" to open the shipping settings page. This is where you'll define how your shipping rates are calculated and set different options for domestic and international shipping.
Domestic US Shipping Options
Let's start by setting up the shipping rates for domestic US orders. Click on the "Edit" button next to "Domestic US" on the shipping settings page. In this section, you'll have two main options for calculating shipping rates: based on price or based on weight. Depending on your preference and the nature of your products, you can choose the option that best suits your needs.
Price-based Shipping Rates
If you decide to set up price-based shipping rates, you can specify different price ranges and assign a corresponding shipping rate to each range. For example, let's say you sell a pillow for $20, and you want to charge $10 for shipping within the US. In this case, you would enter the price range from $0 to $20 and assign a shipping cost of $10. Alternatively, if you offer a bundle deal where customers can purchase two pillows for $40, you can create another range from $20.01 to $40 and set the shipping cost to $15. This method allows you to define specific shipping costs based on the price of the products your customers are purchasing.
Weight-based Shipping Rates
On the other hand, weight-based shipping rates allow you to assign shipping costs based on the weight of the products. To configure weight-based rates, click on the "Add rate" button and provide a name for the rate (e.g., standard shipping). Instead of selecting "Order total" as the input, choose "Order weight" to base the shipping cost on the weight of the items in the order. To determine the weight range, you can refer to the product information in Printful. For example, if a pillow weighs 13.2 ounces, you would convert this weight to pounds and create a range that falls within the product weight. Assign the appropriate shipping cost for that weight range. Repeat this process for different weight ranges if you offer products with varied weights.
Determining Product Weight in Printful
To find the weight of a specific product in Printful, click on the "Products" section on the left-hand menu of your Printful dashboard. Locate the product you want to check and scroll down to find its weight information. Note that Printful automatically pulls in the weight data when you add a product through the Printful app in Shopify. Use this information to determine the weight range for weight-based shipping rates in Shopify.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You've now learned how to set up shipping rates in your Shopify store when using Printful as your print-on-demand partner. We covered the steps to integrate Printful with Shopify, the requirements for carrier-calculated rates, and the options for flat rate shipping. Additionally, we explored how to calculate shipping costs based on price or weight and discussed the fulfillment and order tracking process when using both Printful and other fulfillment providers. By following the instructions provided in this article, you can ensure smooth shipping operations and exceptional customer service in your Shopify store.
