Printful Amazon Integration, Dropshipping Print On Demand Products

Starting your own t-shirt Print-On-Demand also known as POD business is cool and through Printful it is very much possible. Integrating this same business with Amazon, the global leader in e-commerce takes this business to the next level. This partnership opens a whole new section of the world to your business. And I am here to show how it is done.

What is Printful and Amazon Integration? This integration of services of these two companies allows you to sell your t-shirts and other print on demand products through the Amazon Marketplace selling platform. Orders received will be processed, fulfilled and sent by Printful. You will be paid a royalty on a per piece sold basis.

Sounds good and exciting, I bet. But there are many things to consider here to finally make this integration setup work out for you. And I am here to show you how.

Why Amazon?

You are probably asking yourself if you should sell t-shirts as well as an array of print on demand products on Amazon. The answer is absolutely yes.

Look at the 2017 numbers for this online giant:

$178 billion in net sales.
$108 billion in net sales from online stores.
50% of products bought on Amazon came from their Amazon Marketplace platform.
$3.4 billion in advertising spending.
It was the number one rated most preferred online store.
It shipped 5 billion orders through Amazon Prime.

My takeaway from these numbers are:

Amazon is earning lots of money
It is the store of choice for people which accounted for these big sales.
They don’t hesitate to spend quite a sum on marketing which probably has a big effect in their popularity.

Amazon has a reputation for offering excellent promotional options for sellers which can greatly assist you to introduce your products to their customers.

Your business would be riding along this ascending wave of popularity and advertising dollars. It will be a big win for you to be on this selling platform.

Let me just throw in a couple of other reasons why it is important that you be on Amazon in case you are still are still unsure about this.

First, there is an added credibility to say that you have a store on Amazon. It is a trusted place where a whole lot of people do their shopping from basic needs all the way to luxury items. It follows that you are adding legitimacy to your business if you say you are an Amazon seller.

The second reason is that having multiple online selling channels will only work to your benefit. Amazon is just one of many online selling platforms although it is the biggest. You are opening up your print-on-demand business to the developed world with this linkage.

I hope that I have convinced you by this time that Amazon is the right channel to work with in selling your products. You will have access to the North American and European countries with this channel.

Why Printful?

The second part of the equation is showing you how Printful undertakes the print on demand order handling for your business. You need not spend anything to sign up for Printful or be charged with monthly fees.

I will get straight to the matter and say that I treat Printful as my employee. The reason why I say so is that it does the monotonous, heavy lifting in my print-on-demand business. And I don’t have to do the nitty gritty work of printing myself.

It handles printing designs on a multitude of products such as t-shirts, hoodies, skirts, pillows, pants, canvases, bed sheets, mugs, and other items as soon as the orders come in. It will then process the same order and then ship it to the designated address. Sounds like something that your worker typically does for you, right?

That is the gist, but this is how it actually works.

Your online store will be connected to Printful. This same store contains the designs that you are selling.
When an order is received, Printful will print the custom item with the design selected. It will then pack it and ship it to the required destination. You will also get a system notification and a tracking number for you to check status of the delivery.
Your customer will receive your order using your own brand packaging. They will have no idea that you didn’t handle the printing yourself.
You will pay Printful a certain percentage of the amount your customer purchased the goods for.

The savings that you will realize here are enormous. You need not worry about having printers, storage area, and even inventory for this will all be handled by Printful. You will end up saving on rental, equipment, utilities, and labor costs.

Aside from Amazon, Printful also has ties with other ecommerce selling platforms and marketplaces such as Shopify, Woo Commerce, Weebly, Etsy, eBay, and others.

These setups and connectivities will also allow you to focus on what you do best – coming up with great designs and selling your products with the designs on it.

By the way, let me also add that through Printful, you can make free mockups of the various styles of products you are creating to give you an idea as to how it will look like when finished. You can utilize their own designing services, if needed.

Here are other things you must know about Printful:

They have four order fulfillment locations spread across the country. Think of it as four places where your products will be processed and ship from.
There is no set minimum order demand for them to start printing your t-shirts.
They will get orders automatically coming from your website or from other sources for processing.
They are partnering with global carriers to ensure that your shipments will arrive at the destination as safe and as cost-efficient as possible.

Just like with Amazon, I do also hope to persuade you to open a Printful account and link your online store to it.

How Will Printful + Amazon Integration Work

I will now go on and explain the requirements of this integration and how should you go about it. Always remember that Amazon has stringent setup and account maintenance requirements. I suggest that you read on all the materials about this and decide if this things is right for you.

I will start by listing below some important things to account for with this integration:

You have to enroll to the Amazon Professional Seller Plan and this will cost you about $40 per month. This is required for you to use their platform.
You have to pay referral fees for every item that you will sell. This can come up to about 15% of the product’s selling price.
t takes awhile to finish this setup with Amazon. There are technical stuff that you have to account for. I will try to assist you here by providing explanations.

There is a video detailing how to handle your Amazon setup from your Printful account. Check it out.

The main thing to remember here is to follow the steps and identify the global marketplaces where you wish to sell. In this case, there are 2 places possible – North America and Europe. You can have one or go for both.

Synchronizing Your Products With Amazon

As soon as your GTIN (Global Trading Identification Number) or registered brand is authorized, you can now add your t-shirts to Amazon through Printful. You will need a GTIN for the individual product category that you will be selling.

GTIN requires that you submit an exemption support letter to Amazon.

Here are some reminders about this particular step:

It usually takes 24 hours to synchronize your products in Printful with Amazon.
There is a set limit set by Amazon on the quantity of products you can upload with every use. If you exceed it, just try again after some time.
If there are issues with product synchronization, check again your GTIN number.
You have to follow Amazon’s guidelines on product images. This is a non-issue if you would do this using Printful’s own mock generator program.
You will also have to follow Amazon’s product titles and description guide. This will provide an easier time for their customers to find your products.

Shipping And Taxes Setup

I recommend that you use the default rates set here by Amazon to avoid complications. They are defined based on the industry standards for each product category.

I also advise you to get an accounting professional to help you handle the taxes part of this setup.

Maintaining Your Amazon Account

Around this time, you should be finished with the setup for your Printful and Amazon integration. You should be about to reap the benefit here pretty soon.

Remember that this setup is a privilege. And just like any privileges, there are obligations. And your obligation here is to try as hard as you can to make the buying experience of Amazon’s customers pleasant.

Amazon has very strict standards when it comes to this part. They really do take care of their customers which explains why they are highly rated.

If your store has repeated substandard performances or violations, you will definitely get warned, penalized, or even suspended. This is a risk that you have to take with this situation.

I advise you to keep a very close eye on the Performance tab on your Amazon account. This will show you the following information among others:

Number of negative reviews for your product.
Number of cancellations prior to delivery.
Number of shipments that have missed out on promised times.
Other performance metrics.

You can review Amazon’s FAQs regarding this and other matters.

How To Work With Printful’s Order Fulfillment

Please note that Printful allocates six days from the time the order was received up to the time it was fulfilled, meaning it got delivered to the destination. This is on average their longest time in handling an order received from Amazon. You wouldn’t be penalized by Amazon as long as your order ships out within six days.

If you would set up a shorter number of days for this, then you may run into complications. This, apparently, is the set maximum amount of time that Printful needs to fulfill the order.

Handling Amazon’s Customer Support

I mentioned earlier that Amazon prioritizes the satisfaction of their customer over anything else. This is why customer support is a priority within their operations.

Some things to keep in mind here are:

You need to reply to all emails within 24 hours or earlier. Your customer satisfaction depends mightily on these responses.
Amazon customers are asked to give their review on every delivery made. This is critical for you so that you need to give them the best customer service that you can provide.
When needed, issue returns and refunds. This is to keep these same customers happy and satisfied. You can have a very clear returns policy as an alternative safeguard here.
Since you are selling wearables, give out very detailed size charts and photographs of your products to avoid confusion.

Other Print On Demand (POD) Services With Amazon Integrations

Printful is not the only Print On Demand services that has a connectivity with Amazon. It is not even the first to do so.

I will share the other PODs with an existing relationship with Amazon and give a brief description of their services.

You may consider using one or all of the three setups mentioned below if you can duly afford it. Remember, it is to your interest to have as many online channels that you can obtain for your products.

Merch By Amazon (MBA)

This was started by Amazon to help mobile app creators to sell branded merchandise for their games. It snowballed from there and Amazon decided to enter the POD arena with this.

There were issues here for it seemed that Amazon didn’t anticipate the demand for people joining this program. They couldn’t keep up with the demand for printing t-shirts, crewneck sweaters, hoodies, pop sockets, and others.

Even trying to join this platform for a creator might take months to process the application.

However, since this is Amazon, being part of this MBA is a benefit. When Amazon decided to have these products be Prime eligible, there was a big boost in sales quickly realized.

You also get to keep you brands with MBA. You control the brand name and can put all your products under the same brand.

It is unfortunate though that the brand name is not exclusive to you. Others can also use the same brand name.

There are also free design programs for use with membership here.

Teespring

Teespring is known for its tremendous amount of products especially t-shirts. They also have other products. For now, it seems that only rush eligible items are the ones being prioritized in the integration with Amazon.

It is unfortunate though that you will not be able to keep the branding for your products. They will appear as part of Teespring brand.

Creating an account with Teespring is free though. You will be up and running creating your first design soon.

Shopify/Amazon With Teelaunch

This is a very wide reaching service for it permits you to tap into niches not reached by other designs. It also grants you to have the most number of differing product selections available.

There is an issue of not being Prime eligible here since the shipment will be taken care of by another third party. Also, it is not cheap to avail of this Shopify and Amazon connectivity. Aside from the $40 fee for an Amazon sellers account, you are required to shell out $9 a month for Shopify access.

You will have to perform customer service here and strictly follow Amazon’s prescribed rules.

However, ths partnership gives you the best method in brand building. You can have a branded store with branded Amazon pages and you can brand your product information across all created pages.