This was updated in September of 2021. As always, posts may contain affiliate links. 

If you’re thinking about building a Shopify website to sell your Printful products, congratulations! I’ve done it twice and learned a few important lessons along the way.

If you’ve never heard of Printful, it’s a service that will print your beautiful designs onto products as soon as the order is made. This way you can focus on designing, and the printing experts can take care of the manufacturing of the t-shirts, hats, yoga pants, pillows, coffee mugs, sports bras, swimwear and more!

If you’ve never heard of Shopify, it’s a large ecommerce platform that integrates with hundreds of other ecommerce tools like ConvertKit, GetResponse, MailerLite, and obviously Printful.

Without further adieu, here are the most important lessons I learned while building my Printful drop shipping business on Shopify…

Lesson #1 – Pay Shopify Annually

In order to be able to integrate the shipping costs from Printful into Shopify, you need to pay $20/mo on top of the normal monthly fee. However, if you purchase the normal annual package, this functionality is included. This saved me about $300/yr once I finally pieced it together and switched to the annual fee.

Lesson #2 – Configuration is Key

If you are a “Ready. Fire. Aim.” kind of person, you will be tempted to get your first products up as quickly as possible without thinking through all of the details. Fight that urge!

Here are a few of the configurations that need to be set up properly to have a chance at sustained success.

Printful

The initial setup with Printful is pretty straightforward. Here’s a rundown of the Printful & Shopify integration that highlights the benefits and takes you to the Shopify app.

Having worked with several partners on these Shopify projects, I have noticed that some people get confused by how this works. So, let me be crystal clear…

All products MUST be added by logging into Shopify FIRST. Then you access the Printful app within Shopify. 

If you go directly to printful.com and add products, they will be in your library for later use, but they will NOT show up on your website. Accessing the Printful app after logging into Shopify is the only way for these platforms to work in harmony.

Facebook Pixel (Found in Online Store > Preferences)

Facebook & Instagram are HUGE platforms that will help target your ideal customer once you launch. Since both of them are owned by Facebook, you will need a Facebook Pixel on your site in order to advertise with them. Follow these simple instructions, but SKIP the part about the Javascript and go to your Online Store Preferences in your Shopify account.

(Hint: you can add /admin/online_store/preferences to the end of your base URL once you are logged in.)

Google Analytics (Found in Online Store > Preferences)

Found in the same location, you can add your Google Analytics account information. By adding this information, you are able to see what your site visitors are doing when they visit. Shopify has some reporting tools on the platform, but Google Analytics is robust and free. So, even if you don’t plan on using Google Analytics… you will thank yourself 1 year from now when you have historical data to go back and look at.

Here’s a very basic video about setting up a Google Analytics account.

Lesson #3 – Establish Email Systems

Email recently celebrated its 40th birthday. If you’re new to selling online, you may be tempted to think that email is antiquated and will eventually die due to tools like Slack. Email may decline over time, but don’t underestimate the revenue-driving power of email marketing. In many cases, it’s free to build your list and if you treat your subscribers well, you will be able to communicate directly to them for years to come!

Here are the platforms I suggest and the automated systems you should build…

Choose a Platform

Free Starting Options

• MailerLite – This is my top recommendation lately for people wanting to get started with a free email platform that integrates well with Shopify, especially since Mailchimp removed their app from the Shopify platform.
• SendInBlue – SendInBlue offers a quality solution along with a freemium model. You can have unlimited contacts, and send up to 300 emails per day before you need to switch to a paid solution.

Quality Paid Options

• ConvertKit – Great for bloggers and small businesses looking for a flexible solution with a robust suite of tools to help grow your list. (i.e. Sign up and receive this ebook, video course, etc.) If you’re not sure about using Mailchimp, just click the “Switch from Mailchimp” link in the footer.
• Keep (Formerly InfusionSoft) – Their reputation as a powerful platform is without question.
• Drip – This is a really robust tool that used to offer a free option, but now the low end of their offering is $49/mo. They are much more of a customer relationship tool than you average email platform is intended to be.
• GetResponse – Another awesome tool that starts out affordable, but can scale into something robust and powerful for your brand. 

Capture Emails

I can’t stress this enough. In order to build a relationship with your customers, you need to be able to communicate with them. There are really only two ways for that to happen… Paid Media and Earned Media. If you don’t have a ton of money to run ads with, then your earned means of communications are even more important. The best “earned media” IMHO is email. SEO, good press, and other forms are great, but harder to control and predict.

So, capture their email address in any way possible. Here are some of the bigger sources of new emails.

Website Popup – Yes, they can be annoying, but they’re effective for growing your list and you can make it worth their while if you think creatively. Most of the email platforms I suggested will help you get a popup on your Shopify site, but if you want to use a best-in-class tool, I’d suggest OptinMonster.

Give Something Away – I love using tools like Payhip or SendOwl to deliver free or inexpensive digital assets. Selz is my personal favorite because it’s free to get started and it’s simple to implement. SendOwl is a great choice as well and they have plans starting at $9/mo.

Signup at Checkout – When you integrate your email platform into the site, you’ll be able to turn on the ability for the customer to join your email list at checkout. Be sure to be short and simple on the checkbox for opting in. This is a great time to extend your brand voice as well. If you have a humorous brand, you could say something like “Sign up for spam… just kidding, we’ll only send emails you want (cute pictures of puppies).” 

Automate Everything You Can

You’ve worked really hard to drive traffic to your site and spent money to get them there and you got their email address… not what?

Introduce them to Your Brand – After the confirmation email, I would suggest creating on onboarding or welcome series. This is a short series of emails that are automatically sent out after someone joins your list. Introduce yourself/brand, ask them about their goals or desires, or extend the conversation on social. Whatever you do, set it up. You can always improve upon it later, but starting the conversation is better than saying nothing.

Set Up Abandon Cart Emails – These are emails that send your customer an email when they add an item to your cart, but didn’t complete the checkout. You can choose to simply remind them or provide a discount. Either way, this is a simple way to send personalized emails to your most likely to purchase customer.

Shipping Updates – If you’re using Printful to drop ship everything on your Shopify site, they’ll handle all of the shipping updates to the customer. To set this up, just go to Settings > Shipping >Active dropshipping and fulfillment services. Be sure to do a few practice orders to make sure everything is working properly.