How often does Prodigi charge me?
By default, we will charge you using the details we have available from your Prodigi account on a per-order basis once the order is placed.
I’d like to sell a particular product - when will it be available?
Expanding our product range is one of our core aims in the coming months. The Shopify print on demand app will never cover all the products we do - there are simply too many and they aren’t all appropriate to the average Shopify store.
The complete range of print on demand products is, however, available through our or Manual Order Form. If there are additional products that you’d love to see, please get in contact to let us know.
Are my customers automatically alerted when their item ships?
Yes - we let Shopify know of any updates to your orders, including when an item ships. Depending on the shipping rate used, we’ll also pass on the relevant tracking details when they’re available.
If your shipment is tracked: When the order fulfilment process is complete, tracking information will be automatically added to the Fulfilments section of the order in Shopify. This will include the courier and any tracking information. It may take a day or two for the tracking number to become active, so please don’t worry if you don’t see an update immediately.
You can change your preferences for tracked or untracked shipping in the app Settings.
Please note that not every delivery destination is covered by tracking.
Shopify asks me for a "shipping origin address", what should I put?
We recommend that you set your shipping origin in Shopify to your company address. Due to our worldwide fulfilment model, there’s no guarantee from where items will ultimately ship — we use a range of factors to decide the cheapest and fastest option for each order.
Do you have a user guide for the Shopify app?
Yes we do!
Our Shopify User Guide is available to download here.
How do I add payment details?
Currently, you can add your payment details from within your Prodigi account. Once you’re logged in, click on your email address in the top right-hand corner of the dashboard, and then select “settings”. The second section, “billing”, allows you to add your card details. We use Stripe to securely process payments, so your card details are never stored or accessed by us.
How do I set up shipping rates in Shopify?
Prodigi manufactures products in different locations around the world, so we are able to keep delivery costs and times low by shipping the order from a location most local to your customer.
How much it costs to ship your order will depend on: - Destination country - Product ordered - Your preferred shipping speed
We currently recommend three approaches.
1. Offer free shipping
Offering free shipping in your store is simple to set-up and is attractive to your customers. Free shipping is known to to have a positive impact on cart conversions according to Shopify.
If you want to offer free shipping, you should factor the likely shipping costs into your profit margins when setting your product prices.
For more information, check out Shopify’s guide to offering Free Shipping.
With free shipping you’re still in control over which shipping service is used. To ensure your orders are always sent using a tracked service, simply enable tracking within the app settings.
2. Carrier calculated shipping
When Carrier Calculated Shipping is enabled, your customers will see and be offered the exact price for shipping directly from our app, regardless of where they order from. This removes the need to configure shipping rules separately and gives you confidence that your customers are charged the correct amount.
It also works alongside any existing shipping rules you have set up - your core market can continue to benefit from free shipping, for example, whilst any orders from other countries can then use the correct price for their order and location. This makes it really easy for you to scale your store to reach a global audience!
To start using this today, ensure your Shopify account has carrier calculated shipping available or you’re on the Advanced Shopify plan, and then simply head over to the app settings, and enable Carrier Service. The automatic shipping rates will then start to appear for your customers, but you may need to double check that you don’t already have some shipping rates already configured that may override these.
3. Weight-based shipping rates
If you don’t have real-time carrier shipping, it is possible to manipulate the weight-based shipping model for the purpose of charging a per-item flat shipping rate (i.e. $4 per item).
We set things up so that all Prodigi products are published with a default ‘weight’ of 1 unit (kg or lb depending on where you are in the world). This means that you can set a rate for 0-1 units (i.e. 1 product), 1-2 units (2 products), 2-3 units (3 products), etc.
Make sure you check your average shipping costs carefully. You may wish to set up different rates for different regions to reflect the true costs - for example, charging more for orders shipping to South Africa (ROW) than France (EU).
We recommend following the guide from Shopify to configure these rates for your store. You can access our actual detailed shipping costs, or contact us for alternative formats.
Do I need to charge my own customers for shipping?
When creating products, you need to factor in the cost of shipping them to potential customers around the world.
The cost of shipping each order will be charged to you, so it is important that you make arrangements to offset that cost onto your customers.
You can do this in one of four ways:
- Increase the markup on the product. This is the most straightforward option. By increasing your profit margin, you can absorb the extra shipping costs with the added bonus of being able to offer your customers ‘free’ shipping.
- Set up Shipping Rates in your Shopify settings. If you’d prefer your customers to see shipping added at checkout, you’ll need to navigate Shopify’s weight-based shipping rates. For further guidance, check out How do I set up shipping rates in Shopify?.
- Switch on Prodigi Carrier Calculated. If you have real-time carrier shipping included with your Shopify plan, you can opt to have the exact shipping cost of your orders automatically applied at check-out. Switch on Prodigi Carrier Calculated in Settings > Shipping in the Prodigi app. Please note this feature is currently in Beta, and will only work for Prodigi-only shopping baskets.
- Check out 3rd-party shipping apps. Apps like Parcelify allow you to set specific per-item shipping rates (in place of Shopify’s standard weight-based rates). This option gives you the most flexibility, but again will require you to have a Shopify plan with real-time carrier shipping included.
Speak to Shopify about adding **real-time carrier shipping **to your plan.
What happens if I edit or delete a product outside of the Shopify App?
We generally advise against editing products outside of the Shopify app.
This is because it can cause products to no longer be ‘recognised’ by the app as “Prodigi-related” products (which means they may be missed from your automatic order notifications).
It’s fine to change surface-level aspects of your products, like photography and pricing. These don’t have an effect on how your orders are processed. However, you shouldn’t change or attempt to add new variants (sizes, colours, etc.) outside of the app. This will not work, and could cause you a big headache further down the line if customers attempt to purchase dud product variants.
Finally, one thing you must not change is the SKU. This is how we identify print on demand products on our database. If you change it, our ordering system will most likely fail to recognise the products contained in your order completely.
What happens when a customer orders a Prodigi product from my Shopify store?
Our Shopify app prints and ships all orders for distribution via our global print network automatically - without you having to lift a finger.
The process is as follows:
- Your customers visit your app or website
- When they purchase, we manufacture and print
- Orders are shipped and delivered worldwide
Our products remain linked (behind the scenes) to the Shopify app after they have been published.
This means that when a customer orders a Prodigi product, the details are forwarded to us along with the customer and shipping information.
Provided you have completed the account set up process, the order will enter the print queue immediately.
When an order is marked as shipped, its status in Shopify will be automatically updated to Fulfilled.
What will happen to my products if I uninstall the Shopify App?
If you’ve had a change of heart, or deleted our Shopify app by accident, don’t panic!
If you have previously deleted the Shopify app, you can simply reinstall it and all of your old collections and products will be there waiting for you.
However, any orders placed during the period of time when you did not have the app installed won’t have been sent to us. This is because the app is a necessary component of the fulfilment process.
Unfortunately, these orders have missed the boat entirely. You will need to place any orders that are missing from the Orders section using our simple manual order form. Don’t worry though - you’ll only be charged for orders successfully sent to us.
What if I don’t want to publish my products immediately?
There are a few reasons you might not want to go live with your Prodigi products straight away. Maybe you’re waiting on a sample order, or preparing for a specific launch date.
If you’re just experimenting with the Shopify print app for now, don’t worry - our Shopify app will only push products to your store when you tell it to.
When you upload and edit a design, the collection will be stored in the Prodigi App indefinitely until you decide to publish.
After you’ve published, you can easily switch products/collections on or off, and from published to unpublished.
Can I sell Prodigi products along with other products?
Yes, you can always mix print on demand products supplied by us with those from other print on demand suppliers as well as products you may stock and distribute directly.
How does Prodigi know which items to print, and when?
Prodigi products are designed to integrate seamlessly with your Shopify store. They function just like ordinary products - so you can categorise them, place them in collections, and put them in the same basket as non-Prodigi products. The only difference is under the surface: the Shopify app automatically lets us know when a customer orders a product, so that we can set about fulfilling the order on your behalf.
Orders with multiple items
If there are other products in your orders too, don’t worry. Our system only ‘sees’ the products created and edited in Prodigi, so there’s no risk of doubling up (on our side, anyway). For this reason you should avoid editing or duplicating products and variants outside of the app, as this can lead to unfulfilled orders.
Can I add other Prodigi products not currently setup in the Shopify app to my store?
Yes, you can! For print on demand products not currently featured in our Shopify app, you are able to add them to the published products within the Shopify store admin area as new variants.
When an order is placed for one of these new variants, the app wouldn’t be able to automatically fulfil them, but you would then be able to place those orders using our manual order form.
From your customers’ perspective, the end result would be exactly the same. Unfortunately, for the time being we wouldn’t be able to provide any product previews of those custom options for you, but we are looking to expand our preview generator to cover more products and this will soon be available outside of Shopify in the near future.
Can I use my own product photography in Shopify?
Yes, not a problem. You can replace product imagery without altering the way your products are printed.
However, product photography can’t currently be replaced using the Shopify app itself. You’ll need to manually add or replace images in the Products section of your Shopify account.
If you’re replacing the product imagery completely, make sure you pair the right photo with the right product variant to avoid confusion further down the line. (You’d be surprised at how many people have accidentally mixed up the colours!)
What size artwork should I use in the Shopify App?
The optimum image sizes are displayed in the **Prices & Edit **screen for each product in the app.
You can also find them in the Products catalogue on our website.
When creating products in the Shopify app, the resolution meter should give you an indication of how the artwork will translate to print.
It’s easy to replace the artwork with a different file if you need to - just use the Replace Image button in the toolbar.
You can also download product specific artwork templates for the most precise results.
Does Prodigi integrate with Shopify?
Yes there are a number of tools available to place your Shopify orders with us. You can choose from either our Shopify App, our Manual Order Form or the CSV Importer Tool for bulk ordering.
Can I still place bulk orders if I manage multiple ecommerce stores (Etsy & Shopify, for instance)?
Yes both Etsy and Shopify allow you to very easily download your orders into a CSV format, both of which our dashboard recognises automatically. If you manage a store through other platforms, you can use the Prodigi CSV template to manually log orders as well. You can upload as many CSV files as you like, they will all be added to your dashboard and processed as normal.
Our CSV Importer allows you to download your orders in bulk directly from your Shopify account, and import them into your online dashboard with Prodigi in just a few quick steps.
Of course, you could also use the Shopify App for Shopify specific orders, then use your online ordering dashboard for orders from other stores.
Do you have a user guide for your Shopify CSV Importer tool?
Yes, our Shopify CSV guide is available for download in pdf format.
Product personalisation feature
Our product personalisation feature lets you easily offer personalised products in your Shopify store. By enabling your store for personalisation, your customers will be given the option to personalise print images before they’re sent on for printing, including adding bespoke text and imagery.
You can place orders into one of three different production flow categories within the app depending on what type of order it is:
Automatic ** Suitable for Prodigi orders that **do not require any personalisation, orders received by the app that are marked as ‘automatic’ will be automatically sent to us for fulfilment within four hours.
Manual ** Suitable for Prodigi orders that **do require personalisation, orders received by the app that are marked as ‘manual’ will be held to allow you to make any necessary adjustments. Once these adjustments have been made, you can then click to send your order to us for fulfilment.
Ignore Suitable for orders that you do not want Prodigi to fulfil, this setting will prevent all fulfilment by Prodigi for your orders and, as a result, they will not appear in the app.
Where can I find my customer's personalisation details for my personalised orders?
Orders that require personalisation will be paused by the app and held to allow you to make any necessary adjustments.
Upon receiving a personalised order, simply log into the Prodigi app, click ‘orders’ and find the order marked as ‘manual’ from your order list. You can then use the order number to check the customer’s specific request back in Shopify, before returning to the app and clicking ‘edit order item’ to upload the personalised artwork.