Hey, it’s Wes from Printful!
Let me show you how to connect your WooCommerce store to Printful.
We’ll go through connecting Printful to an existing WooCommerce store, adding products,
setting up product personalization, shipping and tax on Printful’s side.
Remember that you need to set up your own hosting to use WooCommerce.
If you haven't done that already, you can try SiteGround.
It's a hosting platform that comes with WooCommerce and Printful plugins pre-installed.
To learn how to set up your own hosting account with SiteGround, check out the SiteGround
tutorial, link in the description.
CONNECTING TO WOOCOMMERCE
To connect an existing account, the first
thing you need to do is make sure your WooCommerce is up to date.
Some of Printful's features don't work with older versions of WooCommerce.
So to connect your store to Printful, you'll need to update your WooCommerce to its latest
version.
Next, you need to install the Printful plugin.
Go to your WordPress admin panel.
From the side menu choose “Plugins” and “Add new”.
In the search bar here type in “Printful” and here it is, the Printful plugin.
Now hit “Install”.
It can take a couple of seconds.
Once installed, be sure to activate the plugin by clicking here.
You can now access the Printful plugin directly from your side menu.
Now, when you click on the plugin, you'll see that you still have two things you need
to fix before you can connect your WooCommerce store.
For the WooCommerce API to work properly, you need your WordPress permalinks set up
right.
Head to the Permalinks settings by clicking here.
To get the WooCommerce API working correctly, under "Common Settings" choose any other link
structure other than "Plain".
I’ll pick the “Post name” option here.
Don’t forget to hit “Save Changes” here.
Now, go back to the Printful plugin.
Next, we are going to enable REST API so that Printful can connect to your store.
Click here to go to the WooCommerce settings.
Under the “Advanced” tab find “Legacy API”.
Check “Enable the REST API" box here and hit “Save changes”.
Now you can go back to the Printful plugin and connect your WooCommerce store to Printful.
Let’s click on “Connect” here.
It'll ask your permission to connect Printful with WooCommerce.
Hit approve.
You'll be redirected to Printful with the option to either create a new account or connect
to an existing one.
If you're logged in, you can connect the accounts without retyping your password - just click
here.
Confirm the connection and wait a little bit... all done, your WooCommerce store is now synced
with Printful!
Now you can start adding products to your WooCommerce store directly through our product
push generator.
ADDING PRODUCTS
To start, hit "add product"
and choose the product category and model from our selection.
For this tutorial, I'm going with a men's t-shirt under Men's clothing, "T-shirts''
and then I’ll choose this model.
Next, create your design.
You can create a design using our text and clipart tools, our you can upload your own.
First, choose where you want the design to go.
Then, by clicking “upload file” you can choose a file to upload from your computer
or pick a design from our sample files, by clicking here.
I`ll choose this design.
Now you can resize and reposition your print file.
Make sure to follow along with the print quality information over here for best results.
Once that’s done, under the “Product” tab select the colors and sizes you want to
offer the t-shirt in.
And now hit “Proceed to mockups”.
Here you can choose the type of mockups you want to show on your store as product photos,
and you can also choose the image format.
Then hit “Proceed to descriptions”.
Here, add your product title.
We’ll name it “Printful shirt”.
You can also edit the product description in this field.
As you can see, we already have the basic product info provided, but be sure to customize
when you add new products to improve your sales and SEO results.
For this example, I’ll leave it as is.
You also have the option to publish a size guide on your storefront, either imperial
or metric.
I`ll leave these settings as they are.
Once that’s done, proceed to pricing.
Here you can decide on your profit and retail price.
You can see Printful’s fulfillment price here and then set up your profit here.
Once you set the profit, the retail price is adjusted automatically.
Lastly, make sure that the product visibility box is checked, and add this product to any
of your store collections.
Then hit “Submit to store”.
Wait a few seconds for the product to load.
Now if you go back to your WooCommerce store by clicking here, in the Products tab you’ll
see the product you just created.
Don’t forget to set up your billing information with Printful in order for your purchases
to go through.
To make it easier for you we have made “Setting up billing” video, you will find the link
below!
PRODUCT PERSONALIZATION
We also offer the Product Personalization Tool for WooCommerce.
Note that product personalization only works with the latest Printful plugin, so be sure
to update to at least the 2.1 version before you start.
The products available for personalization are DTG products and wall art, and you can
personalize both texts and images with the tool.
I’ll show you one of the easiest ways of personalization with text-based designs.
Product personalization is only available when creating new products, so let’s go
to your store page on Printful.
Hit “Add product” and choose what you want to add, select the color and sizes here
and start to create your design.
Right now we are creating the part of a design template customers won’t be able to edit.
You can make it as elaborate as you want by including your custom designs or Printful’s
sample designs.
You can also leave the template blank and include only the customizable element.
Then, add a placeholder for the element you want to be personalized.
It’ll appear on the product mockup you’ll push to your store.
This time it is going to be text-based.
You can change the font, color, size, letter spacing and position of the text.
Your customers will be able to switch to a different color on their side when ordering.
Make sure it’s properly aligned and contained within the safe print area.
Once it’s placed, check “Allow text personalization” over here to make the text box is customizable.
Make sure to adjust the text area for personalization so it can fit any longer words your customers
might want to use for this design!
Remember that images can be used for personalization as well.
Your customers will personalize your design by uploading their own images.
The print area size and placement of the image added by your customer will be the same as
its placeholder image.
Note that you have to tell your customers about the requirements for image upload such
as file format, size, and acceptable content.
We`ll leave a link to it in the description below.
You can add multiple elements that your customers can personalize in one design, and mix text
with photos.
Just remember to check the “Allow text personalization” box for each layer.
Once you’re happy with everything, push the persanolized product to your WooCommerce
store.
Remember to tweak the product name and description to make sure that customers see that it’s
available for personalization.
Once you’re finished, the product will appear on your storefront with a new “Personalize
design” button.
You can change the text and the color of the button on your Printful plugin settings on
WooCommerce.
Go to Printful on the side menu here, click on Settings and type in the text here.
Choose the color here.
Don’t forget to hit “Save changes” when you’re done.
Now, let’s go over this feature on your customers’ end.
After clicking Personalize design button, a pop-up will appear with a basic version
of Printful’s mockup generator where the customer will be able to edit the elements
you’ve made customizable.
Depending on what the customer wants to add, you can see the importance of choosing the
right size for the text area.
A longer word has been resized to fit the text area.
Remember that customers can also customize the color of the text.
Once your customer is happy with the design, they’ll complete the order as usual and
make their purchase.
When the personalized order’s paid, it’ll appear on your Printful Dashboard with a bright
blue P next to it.
SETTING UP SHIPPING
Next, we need to set up shipping.
Keep in mind that the shipping settings applied through Printful’s plugin will be
enabled only for the products that are fulfilled by Printful.
But you can use our shipping rates in combination with other rates you have set up on WooCommerce.
You can find your shipping settings by going to the “WooCommerce” plugin in the side
menu.
Click “Settings” and then - “Shipping”.
If you don’t see "Shipping" here, go to the "General" tab and find the "Shipping Location(s)"
option.
Make sure you have enabled shipping settings here, and there you go - click on “Shipping”.
To enable Printful’s live shipping rates, click on “Printful Shipping”.
Here you need to check the “Enable this shipping method” box.
You also have the option to “Disable standard WooCommerce rates for products fulfilled by
Printful”.
This means that if you have other manual shipping rates set for products not fulfilled by Printful,
those will not be visible at checkout for Printful products.
Leave this blank if you want to use shipping rates other than the ones offered by Printful.
Now hit “Save changes” and that’s it, live shipping rates have been enabled.
You can also manage the shipping methods you want Printful to use for shipping your orders.
Find the Printful plugin in the sidebar and then the “Settings” tab.
Here you can specify which Shipping speeds are available for this store, based on location.
Uncheck the ones you want to disable.
Keep in mind that checking "Flat Rate" enables Printful flat rates as a shipping option - the
order will be shipped with the least expensive shipping method available, regardless of what
others you've enabled.
So if you want to use only specific shipping methods, make sure "Flat Rate" is disabled.
If you want all of your orders to be tracked, be sure to disable the ones that say “Without
tracking”.
When you’re done, click “Save changes” and from there, our algorithm will determine
the fastest, most cost-effective, and most reliable method for each order.
Depending on where your end customer lives,
Printful may charge tax on your orders, such as Sales Tax in the US, or VAT in the EU.
You may also be liable to collect tax from your customers.
We recommend you consult a tax specialist on your specific situation.
For some U.S. states we calculate sales tax automatically - to enable that, you need go
to the Settings tab in the Printful plugin and check the “Calculate sales tax” box
here.
You can see the full list of states by clicking here.
For other locations and questions about WooCommerce tax settings, get in touch with their customer
support team.
And that’s it!
If you pop back to the Printful plugin, here in the “Dashboard” view you can follow
your order once any information comes in.
Here you also have a selection of quick links that'll take you directly to your Printful
account.
While you are setting up, you can also play around in our WooCommerce demo store to see
how it works.
If you have any other questions, make sure to go through our WooCommerce FAQ for more
info.
You’ll find the links in the description below.
So go ahead, add more products and start selling with Printful today!