Shopify lets you control how orders are fulfilled through your store settings. You can choose whether you want Printful to import your orders automatically or if you’d prefer to review and request fulfillment manually for each order.
Here’s how you can manage your order processing settings for a smooth experience with Printful.
Set up order processing in Shopify
To manage your fulfillment preferences in Shopify:
- Go to your Shopify Admin.
- Navigate to Settings → General.
- Scroll down to Order processing.
- Under After an order has been paid, select one of these options:
If you want orders to be imported automatically by Printful:
- Select Automatically fulfill the order’s line items.
With this setting enabled, your paid Shopify orders will be automatically sent to Printful for fulfillment.
If you want to request order import manually:
- Select Don’t fulfill any of the order’s line items automatically.
With this setting, you’ll need to manually trigger import for each order. You can do this by clicking Request fulfillment from the order view in your Shopify Admin.
For automatic fulfillment to work, ensure Printful is listed as the inventory location
For Printful to automatically fulfill your Shopify orders, Shopify must have Printful listed as an inventory location for those products. If the product’s location is set to something else, Printful won’t be able to import the order or fulfill it.
You can check and update this in your Shopify Admin under Products → Select a product → Select a variant → Inventory. Make sure that Printful is listed as a fulfillment location for all Printful products and their variants.
If you see an Inventory will be stocked at option, make sure to select Multiple locations. If you don’t see this drop-down option, Multiple locations will be enabled by default.
Enable automatic import of synced orders in Printful (optional)
The recommended method is to manage order import through Shopify’s settings. However, if you’re unable to use Shopify’s automatic fulfillment, you can enable Printful’s setting to automatically import synced orders.
To enable this:
- Go to your Printful Dashboard → Settings → Stores → Orders.
- Under Sync as you go, enable Automatically import orders with synced products.
With this setting on, Printful will import all synced orders automatically, even if Shopify’s automatic fulfillment isn’t enabled.
How manual fulfillment works with Printful
If you choose manual fulfillment in Shopify:
- Open the order in your Shopify Admin.
- Confirm that the item’s Location is set to Printful.
- If not, click the three dots (...) next to the fulfillment location and select Change location to switch it to Printful.
- Click Request fulfillment.
- Confirm by clicking Send fulfillment request.
Once this is done, Shopify will notify Printful, and your order will appear in your Printful Dashboard.
Important to know about Shopify’s fulfillment orders system
- Shopify controls fulfillment locations: Printful only receives orders if they are assigned to Printful’s location in Shopify.
- Stock levels: For Printful products, stock is shown as 9999 units in Shopify. When out of stock at Printful, it will update to 0.
- Manual overrides: You can still request fulfillment manually from the Shopify Admin.
- Location priorities: You can manage fulfillment priorities between multiple stock locations in Shopify’s Settings → Locations.
- Post-purchase apps: You can use Shopify apps that manage fulfillment timing and location with Printful products.
What happens when you cancel an order?
If you cancel an order in Shopify before fulfillment starts, the cancellation request will also reach Printful. If fulfillment has already started, Printful will notify you that the cancellation has been rejected. You will see this in the order history from your Shopify Admin and also the Printful Dashboard.
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