When you connect your Shopify store to Printful, you can choose between using automatic flat rates or enabling live shipping rates. Both options help ensure your customers see accurate shipping costs at checkout, but there are a few important limitations to keep in mind.
Jump to:
- How flat rates work for Shopify
- Important limitation of Shopify flat rates
- How to enable live shipping rates for Shopify
- How shipping works with mixed carts (Printful and non-Printful)
- Learn more about setting up shipping with Shopify
- FAQs
How flat rates work for Shopify
Flat rates are fixed shipping costs that Printful provides for your print-on-demand products. These rates are pushed automatically to Shopify through shipping profiles.
How it works:
- When you sync a product from Printful to Shopify, we’ll automatically push the correct shipping profile to your Shopify store.
- If the profile already exists, we’ll simply assign your new products to it.
- These profiles only apply to Printful products.
Switching back to Printful profiles
If you made changes to your shipping profile setup on Shopify and would like to revert them, you can add Printful profiles back to your product:
- Go to Stores → View store (or My products → Published)
- Edit the product
- Click Switch to a Printful profile
Important limitation of Shopify flat rates
Shopify doesn’t currently support adding extra shipping costs for additional items within the same shipping profile. This means:
- If a customer buys one item (e.g., a t-shirt), the shipping cost will be accurate.
- If they buy two or more items from the same profile, Shopify will still only charge shipping for one item, not per item.
- If products from different shipping profiles are purchased together (e.g., a t-shirt and a hoodie), Shopify will calculate shipping separately for each group.
This is a Shopify limitation, not something controlled by Printful.
To work around this, you can:
- Use Printful live rates (they calculate based on the full cart weight/destination)
- Enable free shipping and include the shipping cost in your retail price
- Set up custom shipping profiles with a different pricing logic
- Use third-party apps like Advanced Shipping Rules to manage more detailed shipping scenarios.
How to enable live shipping rates for Shopify
Live rates are real-time carrier-calculated rates based on the order’s weight, destination, and delivery speed. The availability of this feature depends on the Shopify plan you’re on.
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Eligibility for live rates:
- Basic plan (after Jan 1, 2023): Live rates aren’t available.
- Grow plan (Standard Shopify): Contact Shopify Support and ask them to enable carrier-calculated shipping for your account. Enabling this feature on the Grow plan costs an additional 20 USD per month.
- Advanced plan: Live rates are available by default.
- Plus plan: Available by default.
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If your Shopify plan allows live rates:
- Go to your Printful Dashboard → Settings → Store settings → Shipping.
- Find the option Enable Printful's live shipping rates for your storefront.
- Check the box and click Save.
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When live rates are enabled:
- Printful will automatically remove its flat rate shipping profiles from your Shopify store.
- Your products will be reassigned to Shopify’s General profile, where Printful’s live rates will be applied.
- In Shopify Admin → Settings → Shipping and delivery → General, you’ll see that the shipping rates are listed as calculated by the Printful app.
- Live rates will only apply to Printful products, but live rates can work alongside any other rates you’ve set up in Shopify.
How shipping works with mixed carts (Printful and non-Printful)
If your customer’s cart includes both Printful and non-Printful products:
- Shopify will combine shipping rates: it adds Printful’s rate (flat or live) to the non-Printful shipping rate.
- Your customer will see one combined shipping cost at checkout.
Learn more about setting up shipping with Shopify
- How can I set up free shipping for my Printful products on Shopify?
- Why aren’t my customers charged extra shipping fees for additional items in Shopify?
- Do Printful shipping profiles automatically replace or override other shipping options in Shopify?
- How can I add a handling fee to Printful live shipping rates on Shopify?
- Can I use live shipping rates for products imported from my storefront?
FAQs
What happens to my existing flat rates when Printful updates them?
If Printful updates shipping costs for a category (like t-shirts), we’ll update the existing shipping profile automatically on the next store sync. Any products already assigned to that profile will automatically use the new, updated rates; there’s no need to reassign them manually. New products will continue to use the same updated profile.
How can I set up free shipping for Printful products?
- For existing products, reassign them to a Shopify free shipping profile.
- For new products, you can choose Display with free shipping during the product push from Printful.
Read this article for more detailed instructions: How can I set up free shipping for my Printful products on Shopify?
Can I edit Printful’s shipping profiles on Shopify?
We don’t recommend editing Printful’s profiles directly. Any changes will be overwritten during the next sync. Create custom profiles in Shopify if you need to set specific rules.
Still need help? Our Support Team is here for you—reach out anytime through our contact form or start a chat with us.