A manual order / API store is a special type of Printful store that lets you publish products and place orders without connecting to an ecommerce platform or marketplace. You should use this store type if you're building a custom integration with the Printful API or want to make manual orders easier.
How to create a manual order / API store
- Go to your Printful Dashboard.
- Navigate to Stores.
- Click Connect via API.
This will create a new store in your account where you can publish and manage products, just like with any other Printful store.
Will products appear publicly?
Products published to a manual order / API store won’t appear on any website automatically. They will only be visible publicly if you use the Printful API to:
- retrieve product data from Printful with the API
- display product data on your own website
- build a custom storefront
- programmatically manage product listings
Creating this store alone does not make your products visible to any customers.
If you're interested in building a custom integration, you can find our API documentation here: https://developers.printful.com/docs/.
How to place orders using a manual order / API store
You can submit orders to this store directly from your Dashboard:
- Click New order in the top right of the Dashboard.
- Select your store from the store list.
- Choose from the products published to that store and complete the order.
This method is helpful if you prefer ordering from published products instead of using product templates.
When should I use this type of store?
A manual order / API store is useful if you:
- place manual orders frequently and want to organize them under one store, or
- are planning to build a custom website or custom workflow using the Printful API
You should not use this type of store if you want Printful to host a store for you that’s visible to buyers; for that, you can look into Quick Stores.
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