Connect Shopify: have orders printed and shipped automatically
9 min readUpdated
With the Shopify connection, paid orders with your SKUs reach us automatically. We print and ship them under your name and push the tracking back to Shopify. Connecting takes a few minutes; this article also shows how to set up your products in Shopify so everything matches.
In this article
How do you connect your Shopify store?
You need an approved reseller account, and you must be able to log in to Shopify as the owner or as staff allowed to install apps.
Open Connections
In your dashboard, go to the Connections tab and click Install from the Shopify App Store on the Shopify card.
Install the app in Shopify
Shopify opens the Printen.eu Print on Demand app. Choose your store if Shopify asks, review the permissions (see the next section) and click Install. You can also search for the app in the Shopify App Store yourself.
Click Connect reseller account
After installing, the app opens in your Shopify admin. Click Connect reseller account. A new tab opens on printen.eu; log in with your reseller account if you are not logged in yet.
Done
You land in your dashboard. Under Connected stores your Shopify store now appears with the status
active. Within a minute (or after Check again) the app in Shopify shows that the store is connected.
Which permissions does the app ask for, and why?
We only ask for the permissions needed to fetch orders and push tracking back. We do not read customer lists, payments or other store settings.
| Permission | What we use it for |
|---|---|
read_orders | Reading paid orders, so we can print and ship the lines with your SKUs. |
write_merchant_managed_fulfillment_orders | Finding your store’s open fulfillment orders and marking only our own lines as shipped, with tracking code and carrier. |
write_products | Publishing products from Printen.eu to your store, with the Publish to Shopify button in your dashboard. |
How do you add your products to Shopify?
The connection works by SKU. An order line only comes to us if its SKU in Shopify exactly matches the SKU of an active product in your Printen.eu dashboard. So you create the product in Shopify yourself, with the same SKU.
Create the product at Printen.eu
Under Products in your dashboard, save the product with your design and your own SKU, for example
POSTER-A2-MAT. Make sure it is set to Active. See Creating products.Create the product in Shopify
In Shopify, go to Products > Add product. Fill in the title, description, photos and your selling price.
Enter the SKU
Under SKU, enter exactly the same code as in your dashboard. Capitals, digits and hyphens must match exactly, with no spaces before or after.
Variants
If your product has variants (for example sizes), create a separate product per size in your dashboard and give each Shopify variant the SKU of the matching product.
Set up inventory and shipping
Set inventory, weight and shipping as described in the next section, and save the product.
What do you need to set in Shopify?
A few Shopify settings decide whether your customer can order and whether you make money on it. Check them for every product. Depending on the language of your Shopify admin, the names may differ slightly.
| Setting in Shopify | What to set | Why |
|---|---|---|
| SKU (on every variant) | Exactly your Printen.eu SKU. | That is how we recognise the line. A different SKU means: no order with us. |
| Track quantity | Untick it, or tick Continue selling when out of stock. | We print to order. With quantity tracking, your product shows as “sold out” after a few orders. |
| This is a physical product | Tick it and enter a realistic weight. | Shopify only charges shipping on physical products, and often by weight. |
| Shipping and delivery (shipping profiles) | Put the product in a shipping profile with rates that cover our shipping cost. | Our shipping costs differ per country. See shipping and the quote in your dashboard. |
| Price and tax settings | A selling price that includes your margin, and the tax settings that suit your business. | You pay us the discounted price plus shipping; the difference is your margin. See Payments and balance. |
How do orders come in?
- Paid orders only. An order comes in as soon as Shopify reports it as paid and it is not cancelled. Pending payments wait until they are paid.
- Only after connecting. We never fetch orders you received before connecting the store. If needed, place those yourself via Orders > Place an order.
- No duplicate orders. If Shopify reports the same order twice, we still create only one order.
- Same SKU is added up. If the same SKU appears twice in an order, we add the quantities together.
- Payment. The order is charged to your balance or your saved card, depending on your Payment method. If your balance is too low, the order gets Awaiting balance. See Payments and balance.
Mixed carts. If your customer also orders products you ship yourself, we only take the lines with your Printen.eu SKUs. The other lines stay with you in Shopify, and you ship them yourself.
| Line in the Shopify order | SKU | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Poster A2 matte | POSTER-A2-MAT (active in your dashboard) | Goes to Printen.eu, is printed and shipped. |
| Black frame | FRAME-BLACK (your own stock) | Stays in Shopify; you ship it yourself. |
| Gift card | no SKU | Stays in Shopify; we do nothing with it. |
How does your customer get the tracking?
As soon as we ship the parcel, we mark only the open lines with your SKUs as fulfilled in Shopify, with tracking code and carrier. We leave lines you ship yourself alone.
We ship
The parcel leaves with your name as the sender. See White label.
Shopify is updated
In the Shopify order, our lines are now fulfilled, with the tracking link.
Your customer gets an email from Shopify
Shopify sends your customer the shipping confirmation with the tracking link, if that notification is enabled under Settings > Notifications in Shopify.
What happens if you cancel an order in Shopify?
Cancelling an order in Shopify does not cancel the order at Printen.eu. That is on purpose: a mistake in Shopify can never stop an order that is already in production. You cancel the Printen.eu order yourself.
Open Orders
In your dashboard, go to Orders and find the order (source SHOPIFY).
Click Cancel
Click Cancel and confirm. You see that button as long as the order has not gone to production.
Refund
If you paid from your balance, the amount goes back to your balance (shown as Refund under Transactions). If you paid by card, it goes back to your card.
Something not working? Here is how to fix it
Under Connected stores you see the status per store, the Last sync and, in red, the last error. Start there.
| What you see | Cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
Status reauth_required | Access to your store has expired or been revoked. | In Shopify, open Apps > Printen.eu Print on Demand and click Connect reseller account. Then check under Orders whether any orders are missing. |
Status uninstalled or disconnected | The app has been removed from your Shopify store, or you disconnected the store in your dashboard. | Install the app again with Install from the Shopify App Store and click Connect reseller account in the app if you want to receive orders again. |
| A red error next to your store | The last attempt to exchange data with your store failed. | Read the message. If it is unclear or keeps appearing, please contact us. |
| An order does not come in | The order is not paid yet, the SKU differs, the product is set to Inactive, or the order is from before you connected. | Check the SKU character by character and the product status. Place older orders yourself via Orders > Place an order. |
| Order shows Awaiting balance | Your balance is too low. | Top up under Balance & payment. The order then continues automatically. |
| Order shows Awaiting file | The product has no design file. | Cancel the order, add a product with a design and place the order again. See Tracking orders. |
| Customer gets no shipping email | The shipping confirmation is switched off in Shopify. | Switch it on under Settings > Notifications in Shopify. |
How do you disconnect your store?
In your dashboard, go to Connections, click Disconnect and confirm. We then also remove the app from your store, and the store gets the status disconnected. You can also remove the app in Shopify yourself:
Open the apps in Shopify
In Shopify, go to Settings > Apps and sales channels.
Remove the app
Find the Printen.eu app, open the menu next to it and choose Uninstall.
Check your dashboard
We stop fetching immediately and delete the access credentials. Under Connected stores the store gets the status
uninstalled.
Related articles
- Creating products: from catalogue product to your own SKUChoose a product, fix the options, upload your design, pick a good SKU, work out your margin and test your product with an order.
- Tracking orders, making changes and solving problemsTrack your orders, understand every status, place an order manually, cancel in time and know what to do about payment issues, address errors or damage.
- Payments and balance: top-ups, cards, discounts and VATTop up your balance, save a card, choose your payment method, and learn how discounts, VAT, invoices and refunds work.
- White label: your brand on the parcelSet your brand name, return address, packing slip note and logo, and learn what your end customer does and does not see and how returns work.
Still stuck?
We are happy to help, in person on working days and usually the same day.