Printful Integration

[iamART]

How hard would it be for someone to create a plugin/app to integrate Printful.com with Invision's commerce addon? Printful has a plugin for platforms such as WordPress where you can import your products onto your store.

With the api you can do a whole bunch much like the WordPress plugin.

Printful api: https://www.printful.com/api

[Jordan Miller]

I am interested in this too!

[SC36DC]

This would be incredible. Interested here also.

[Jordan Miller]

Anyone? I actually came here to post a request to hire someone to create this and forgot I already posted in this once lol. 

Heyyyyy @Fosters 😎

[SC36DC]

I currently use Printful with my WooCommerce website, and love it. It would definitely be nice to be able to use it on my Forum store as well.

[Jordan Miller]

18 hours ago, SC36DC said:

I currently use Printful with my WooCommerce website, and love it. It would definitely be nice to be able to use it on my Forum store as well.

100%. I have some really epic merchandise I want to offer. I had a great experience with Printful when using it with Shopify. I want to launch my merch again but dont want to deal with the printing and fulfillment. 

What do IPB customers do in this scenario typically? Surely someone has an automated gateway set up somehow, right? 

[Eudemon]

I can build integration with their API

just curious how the service work, do you pay a fee to use their platform as dropship or you pay base on number of requests and the type of product sent?

[SC36DC]

1 hour ago, Eudemon said:

I can build integration with their API

just curious how the service work, do you pay a fee to use their platform as dropship or you pay base on number of requests and the type of product sent?

You do not pay a fee for anything. How they make their money is simply by producing the product and getting paid for that. I sell shirts on my site, shirts that they will make and ship for orders I get. 

[IPCommerceFan]

If you can truly build a fully functional integration for Printful, you can name your price as far as I'm concerned.  This goes for any developer reading this!

[Eudemon]

my primary motivation is whether i am interested in using it or not

build it for less than dozen potential customers in marketplace that takes a cut and upkeep to maintain and support it ain't worth it

of course i wouldn't work for free but my actual job as senior engineer pays me well enough to consider this as any sort of money making

[Bethanyrayne]

2 minutes ago, Eudemon said:

my primary motivation is whether i am interested in using it or not

build it for less than dozen potential customers in marketplace that takes a cut and upkeep to maintain and support it ain't worth it

of course i wouldn't work for free but my actual job as senior engineer pays me well enough to consider this as any sort of money making

He did say "name your price"

[Adrian A.]

If @Eudemon can't pick it up, I'm ready to do so in a few days. I've already talked about this with @breatheheavy.

[Eudemon]

you go ahead and pick up

[Jordan Miller]

6 hours ago, Adrian A. said:

If @Eudemon can't pick it up, I'm ready to do so in a few days. I've already talked about this with @breatheheavy.

8 hours ago, IPCommerceFan said:

If you can truly build a fully functional integration for Printful, you can name your price as far as I'm concerned.  This goes for any developer reading this!

Love that you see the value is in this. Printful is amazing. IPB is amazing. They're a match!

[SC36DC]

I'll be getting this plugin for sure. Thanks @Adrian A. for willing to work on this.

[Jordan Miller]

8 hours ago, SC36DC said:

I'll be getting this plugin for sure. Thanks @Adrian A. for willing to work on this.

Yes! 

Maybe we should brain storm ideas here so @Adrian A. has a better understanding, or? This application is gonna be 🔥 

[IPCommerceFan]

12 hours ago, breatheheavy said:

Love that you see the value is in this. Printful is amazing. IPB is amazing. They're a match!

Yup, we've run our business exclusively using Nexus/Commerce/Downloads since 2012, so this has a lot of value for us, especially since we'd like to offer "Merch" without sending customers to another site.

We've looked into solutions like BigCommerce, Shopify, etc in the past, but none can beat the fact that nexus is a store and support system in one.  We tried BigCommerce + ZenDesk as a proof-of-concept at one point, but it was a terrible fit for us.  CS-Cart, Magento, Freshdesk, and others were considered as well, but none could do what we really needed the software to do, which we've accomplished via plugins with Nexus/Commerce.

[IPCommerceFan]

As far as brainstorming goes, I think its a good idea to voice our expectations of such a mod, but I also feel that any developer that takes this on in earnest should be able to get an application/plugin 90% of the way there without the need for a whole lot of feedback. 

Unlike a site-specific request for customization, I feel an integration should essentially just connect as many end points as possible between one platform and the next (Payment, shipping, product listing), and implementation should be driven by the dev's willingness to explore and understand how both commerce and printful work. (signing up for a printful dev account, creating test products, using sandbox features, etc).

All in all, I feel it would be a non-starter if we had to spell out everything this type of integration should do from the get-go.

As for how I'd use it, I'd love to be able to create a blank product in Commerce (just to generate a package id), link it to a product I created on Printful (perhaps by entering the product ID of my product on printful into a field on the commerce side), and have the ability to sync pricing, stock level (if applicable), size, color, etc into the blank "shell" of a product.

[SC36DC]

Since I use the the Printful plugin for WooCommerce on my Wordpress site, I'd say just mimic exactly how it works there, but for IPB. That should be good enough. 👍

 

[Jordan Miller]

4 hours ago, IPCommerceFan said:

Yup, we've run our business exclusively using Nexus/Commerce/Downloads since 2012, so this has a lot of value for us, especially since we'd like to offer "Merch" without sending customers to another site.

We've looked into solutions like BigCommerce, Shopify, etc in the past, but none can beat the fact that nexus is a store and support system in one.  We tried BigCommerce + ZenDesk as a proof-of-concept at one point, but it was a terrible fit for us.  CS-Cart, Magento, Freshdesk, and others were considered as well, but none could do what we really needed the software to do, which we've accomplished via plugins with Nexus/Commerce.

 

4 hours ago, IPCommerceFan said:

As far as brainstorming goes, I think its a good idea to voice our expectations of such a mod, but I also feel that any developer that takes this on in earnest should be able to get an application/plugin 90% of the way there without the need for a whole lot of feedback. 

Unlike a site-specific request for customization, I feel an integration should essentially just connect as many end points as possible between one platform and the next (Payment, shipping, product listing), and implementation should be driven by the dev's willingness to explore and understand how both commerce and printful work. (signing up for a printful dev account, creating test products, using sandbox features, etc).

All in all, I feel it would be a non-starter if we had to spell out everything this type of integration should do from the get-go.

As for how I'd use it, I'd love to be able to create a blank product in Commerce (just to generate a package id), link it to a product I created on Printful (perhaps by entering the product ID of my product on printful into a field on the commerce side), and have the ability to sync pricing, stock level (if applicable), size, color, etc into the blank "shell" of a product.

Well said. I agree that having it directly in our IPB sites would be incredible. I have the Auto Drip campaign app as well, and there's an option to send an automated email campaign after a member purchased a product. That right there is SUPER amazing. I was never able to figure that process out with Shopify + Printful + Mail Chimp. It was too messy. 

I'm trying not to get my hopes up about this IPB + Printful application haha. But I would be super thrilled to have it and I know many of us would, too. 🙏 

I am in no rush for 4.5 just yet because I want to get all the testing / app / plugins updated before switching, so hopefully there's a 4.4 option available. Ok, now I'm reaching for the moon 😂 

1 hour ago, SC36DC said:

Since I use the the Printful plugin for WooCommerce on my Wordpress site, I'd say just mimic exactly how it works there, but for IPB. That should be good enough. 👍

Sounds like a good idea. Let's not reinvent the wheel considering the wheel that exists (the Wordpress plugin) is spot on. I used it too and it was great. I know IPB is totally different software, but functionality-wise hopefully it can be mirrored. 

Edited June 27, 2020 by breatheheavy

[Adrian A.]

Started the development process. FYI.

Those interested in early testing let me know, it will come with a discount for those helping the development process, once I figure out the price of this integration.

Edited July 2, 2020 by Adrian A.

[Jordan Miller]

2 hours ago, Adrian A. said:

Started the development process. FYI.

Those interested in early testing let me know, it will come with a discount for those helping the development process, once I figure out the price of this integration.

Love love love!! Super excited for this 👏!!

I'm down to be a part of the development process. 

[SC36DC]

4 hours ago, Adrian A. said:

Started the development process. FYI.

Those interested in early testing let me know, it will come with a discount for those helping the development process, once I figure out the price of this integration.

I'm definitely interested in helping out. As stated before, I currently use the Wordpress Printful plugin on my site, and can provide feedback or bug reports if any.

[Time Travel Institute]

5 hours ago, Adrian A. said:

Started the development process. FYI.

Those interested in early testing let me know, it will come with a discount for those helping the development process, once I figure out the price of this integration.

I would be interested in helping with this. I've done plenty of frontend web dev work (I run a web department at a tech company for a living) so I have a good handle in what kind of things to poke at to help troubleshoot or build something out. Feel free to PM me whenever you get that far, sounds amazing.

Edited July 2, 2020 by Time Travel Institute

[Jordan Miller]

1 hour ago, Time Travel Institute said:

I would be interested in helping with this. I've done plenty of frontend web dev work (I run a web department at a tech company for a living) so I have a good handle in what kind of things to poke at to help troubleshoot or build something out. Feel free to PM me whenever you get that far, sounds amazing.

Omg @Time Travel Institute @SC36DC

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by breatheheavy