Connecting Your Shopify Store to Printful in 6 Simple Steps

Starting an ecommerce store has never been easier. Not only are people buying trending products online more than ever before, but there are also countless tools to help you grow your online business.

If you’re starting a clothing brand to sell printed merchandise, one of the best ways to do it is by using print-on-demand dropshipping. That’s what Printful does—we take care of all the production, packaging, and shipping (with no order minimums). And you’re free to focus on designing custom hoodies and custom t-shirts and making your business the best it can be!

To use Printful, you’ll need to connect your store to an ecommerce platform. Printful integrates with a bunch of different platforms, and Shopify is one of the best, most intuitive options. In fact, thousands of merchants use Shopify every day to power their businesses.

By connecting your Shopify store to Printful, here’s just some of what you’ll get:

• No upfront costs—you won’t have to worry about investing in costly inventory

• Automatic order fulfillment—you never have to process an order manually again

• Customized branding—we make it look like you sent it out

Now that you know what Shopify is and how you can use it together with Printful, let’s go through the process of connecting the two.

How to connect your Shopify store to Printful

Step 1: Create your Printful account (it’s free!)

This is super easy and only takes a few minutes. Just click Sign Up from Printful’s homepage and you’ll be taken here:

Source: Printful

All you need is your name, email, and password, and you’re ready for the next step.

Step 2: Install the Printful app on Shopify

Log in to your Shopify account and go to the Add apps menu on the left-hand side of the dashboard. If Printful doesn’t show as a recommended app, click on Shopify App Store below.

Source: Shopify

When you’re here, search for Printful. 

Source: Shopify

Choose the Printful app.

Source: Shopify

Next, click Install and confirm the installation.

Source: Shopify

Click Install again and you’re ready for the next part!

Step 3: Connect your store

After you install the app, you’ll be asked to log into both your Shopify and Printful accounts. Just follow the steps and connect the two together.

Source: Printful

Then, confirm the connection.

Source: Printful

Step 4: Design and add your products

Go to the Printful Dashboard, and under Stores, select the store you just connected. Click Add product; this will take you to Printful’s Catalog, where you can choose what products to sell.

Source: Printful

Pick the product you want to design and add to your store. The product will open in our free Design Maker where you can:

• Choose the fulfillment technique (if multiple are available)

• Printing type (if possible)

• Product colors and sizes (you can select multiple)

• Print or embroidery placement (different for each product)

Source: Printful

Then, either upload your design on the product or create a new one with different free design assets and click Continue. 

Choose whether you want to create basic or custom mockups to display the product on your store, then click Continue. 

Finally, you’ll need to add a product description. Printful products come with a standard product description, but you’re free to change it however you wish. 

Use this opportunity to showcase your brand voice and let customers know what kind of experience they’ll have if they purchase your product

Printful also lets you set your own retail price, so you can change your margins depending on what works best for your ecommerce store.

Once you’ve finished adding your products, they’ll be visible on your Shopify store. You can click View in Shopify to see the product or Edit in Shopify to edit product details.

That’s how your first product shows on your Printful Dashboard under your store. 

Source: Printful

And this is how you can see the product on your Shopify dashboard under Products. 

Source: Printful

You can also add a product to your store through Product templates. On your Printful Dashboard, go to Product templates and click Create new product. Choose a product you want to design and add to your store. 

The product will open in our Design Maker view where you can upload your design or create a new one. When you’re done designing, click Save to templates. 

Then, hover over your product template and click Add to store. Choose the store you want to add the product to, select product variants, and click Proceed to mockups. Choose your mockup style and set product details and pricing. Click Submit to store and it’ll sync to your Shopify store.

Source: Printful

When you sell Printful products, we automatically receive your orders. We fulfill and ship each order to your customers, so you don’t have to worry about it!

From your Shopify dashboard, you can also access your Printful dashboard. There, you can see Printful’s Catalog, products, orders, and configure settings.

Source: Shopify

There are the 15 best Shopify apps for your ecommerce store

Step 5: Set up payments

Before you can start selling, it’s essential to have your payment system ready to go. This process includes both Shopify and Printful.

Setting up payments in Shopify

Shopify handles all transactions from your customers. When someone purchases an item from your store, the payment gets processed through your Shopify payment gateway, such as Shopify Payments, or a third-party provider like PayPal. To set it up, follow these steps:

1. In your Shopify dashboard, go to Settings > Payments

2. Choose your preferred payment method and follow the instructions to complete the setup

3. Shopify will collect payments from your customers and deposit the funds into your bank account based on your payment gateway’s payout schedule

How Printful charges you

Once an order is placed on your Shopify store, Printful automatically receives it and starts the fulfillment process. Here’s how the payment flow works on Printful’s side:

• You’ll be charged by Printful for the production and fulfillment of the product. This happens when an order comes in and gets processed.

• Printful offers multiple payment options, including credit card payments, Printful Wallet, and PayPal.

• Make sure you have a valid billing method added. On your Printful Dashboard, go to Billing > Billing methods > Add new billing method to set up your billing.

• The order charge will be taken from your chosen method automatically once an order is fulfilled.

For more detailed information, read A Complete Guide to Printful Payouts.

Step 6: Start getting sales

Now that your Shopify store is set up with Printful products, it’s time to focus on bringing in traffic to generate sales. 

The key is to attract visitors to your store, so they start placing orders. Once you have traffic flowing, Printful will automatically import and fulfill your orders, leaving you free to focus on growing your business.

To boost traffic and sales, consider:

• Running targeted ads on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok

• Using email marketing to inform subscribers about new products, promotions, or store updates

• Optimizing SEO by using relevant keywords in your product titles, descriptions, and blog content

• Collaborating with influencers in your niche to increase your brand visibility

Start promoting your store today, and once the orders come in, we’ll handle the rest, including fulfillment and shipping, so you can focus on expanding your business.

Sit back and enjoy

So give it a try, and set up your Shopify store! You’re free to play around and experiment with products as much as you want. One thing you’ll need to do before you can actually start selling is adding a billing method. After you’ve done that, you’re ready to make your first sale!

Do you have any more questions we didn’t answer? Let us know in the comments section, and we’ll be sure to address them!

Read more:

• 12 Best Free Shopify Themes
• How to Dropship on Shopify: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners