Integrating Printful with GrooveKart

Printful is a free and large print-on-demand platform that does not require any monthly fees. Our integration with this service allows you to bring products from Printful to GrooveKart. The integration has an automated form that sends orders to Printful and fulfills them on the GrooveKart side.

Please note: GrooveKart is not listed under confirmed vendors on Printful. Confirmed vendors are the ones with an integration that was done by Printful, whereas we created the integration ourselves. We are using the Printful Custom API, which allows us to offer almost the same functionality as a confirmed vendor.

Connecting PrintFul and GrooveKart

To connect Printful and GrooveKart, you need to have an active Printful account. If you do not have one, please click here to create a free Printful account.

Create a PrintFul store

Create a Printful store by going to Stores from the left menu inside the Printful Dashboard. On the Stores page, scroll to the bottom and under 'Manual Order Platform/API' click the 'Create' button.

Please note that you can point to an existing store. See below for how to sync Printful and GrooveKart stores together.

Preparing GrooveKart side

Preparing the GrooveKart side is easy as well. Inside the GrooveKart Dashboard, navigate from the left menu to My Products -> POD & Dropshipping. Find the Printful App, click on Learn More, enable the app, and click on the cog icon. For now, please keep this page/browser tab open; soon, we will return to it.

API Keys

Please note that we upgraded our Printful app to use new API tokens. If you are an old user with an API key, the app will still work as is until March 2023. You will also see a warning on the GrooveKart Printful App and on the Printful Dashboard as well. If you are a new user, do not worry; your keys will not become "stale" but are already considered API tokens.

First, we need to obtain the API key/token from the Printful side. To achieve this, please navigate to Settings -> Stores -> API from the left menu of the Printful Dashboard. Select the store that you will be using for GrooveKart and click on the button Go to Printful Developers. It will redirect you to a Dev Printful Platform where you need to authenticate with the same login and password you are using for your Printful account.

NOTE: You can just click here to be redirected to Dev PrintFul Portal immediately.

After this, you need to create a private token by clicking the blue button. The mandatory fields should be:

• the name of the token (required by PrintFul)
• the contact email (required by PrintFul)
• the expiration date (required by PrintFul)
• the access level (choose your store, required by GrooveKart)
• the scopes (select everything, required by GrooveKart)

Once you are done, click on Create new token and copy the API token from this page that appears.

Now, the only thing left is to go to the GrooveKart Dashboard at the PrintFul Application, insert this token, and save it.

Please note that you should not use API tokens for all stores. GrooveKart will give an error if it identifies an API token for all the stores. The store needs the token related to only one exact selected store.

Import and manage Products

Copy PrintFul Product to GrooveKart

The first step here is to go to PrintFul and use their great editor to create a couple of products for your store. Be sure that you are creating products and pointing them to the correct store.

Please note: any products created in PrintFul will not be automatically imported to the GrooveKart store, even if the correct store is selected. The import process from PrintFul to GrooveKart must be done manually through the GrooveKart interface. More information on this process can be found below.

Note that product mockups may take some time to generate. If you see a loading spin or "Generating" notification on the PrintFul product list, please wait before starting the import process.

Once you have completed the PrintFul side and are ready to import your products, go to the GrooveKart Dashboard. From there, go to the PrintFul Integration App and navigate to My Products -> POD & Dropshipping -> Learn More on PrintFul App -> Cog Wheel icon from the left menu.

Inside the PrintFul Integration App, you will find a tab called Products Search. Here, you can search for a specific product or click on "Search" to list all available products.

If you encounter a broken image, please wait a few moments. This may indicate that PrintFul is still generating mockups.

To import a product, on the right-hand side of the Products table, click "Add Product." If the product has already been imported, you will see the text "Imported" instead. Click on the "Add Product" button, check that the prices, descriptions, and variants are correct in the form, and then scroll to the bottom and click on the "Add to Store" button.

Please note: the import process may take some time. If you edit an unfinished product, it can disrupt the import process. If your product has more than 20 images and variations, it is best to wait a few minutes before editing the product. Unfortunately, there is no way to track the loading process, but waiting for a few minutes should be enough.

Once the previous steps are completed, you will have a ready-to-sell product on GrooveKart. If necessary, you can go to the product edit page and make changes to the product details.

If you notice missing variants after importing, please try deleting the GrooveKart product and importing it again. If the issue persists, please reach out to Groove support.

GrooveKart Product templates

Unfortunately, there is no way to bulk import all of your products at once. You will need to import them one by one. However, we have added a small feature to the PrintFul Integration that allows for bulk import of product data.

Inside the PrintFul Integration app on the GrooveKart side, there is a tab called "Product Templates." The main idea behind this is to minimize the time spent managing product content such as descriptions, tags, collections, and brands.

Once you click on the "Add template" button, you can name your template (e.g. "T-shirts"), set a description with size charts related to T-shirts, and add tags, etc. Once you save this template and select it on your next PrintFul product import, you will see that all the data will be imported for the product. You can create multiple templates for different collections such as T-shirts, sneakers, and wall art to minimize the time spent on product management after import.

Manage PrintFul Product on GrooveKart

If you are reading this chapter, it means that you already have a GrooveKart product on your store that is synced with a PrintFul product. You can confirm this by looking at the "manage variants" section.

We import products from Printful, including their name, descriptions, variants, product images, and prices. You can change any details of your product under GrooveKart store, except for the data mentioned above.

NOTE: We do NOT allow you to remove any variants or change the SKUs if the product belongs to Printful. This is a security measure to prevent losing synchronization with Printful. However, you can still change prices, images, or even delete a variation from the table.

Please consider GrooveKart as the final destination for selling your product. If you need to change the price or any other details, use GrooveKart to update the product details. After importing the product, GrooveKart does not check for any changes made on Printful. We only maintain synchronization between the product and the order. If you change the description or price on Printful, GrooveKart will not be updated, and vice versa.

Order process

Send order to PrintFul

When a customer places an order on your GrooveKart store, GrooveKart checks if the products in the order belong to PrintFul and adds them to a query. The script then sends the data to your PrintFul account, which usually takes anywhere from 1 minute to 1 hour. This process is mostly automated and instant.

Once the order is sent to PrintFul, it appears as a draft with product details, variant selection, and the shipping address of the buyer. We do not set up a different order status on PrintFul to give you time to review the order before proceeding with the printing process.

If an order has not been sent after an hour from the order confirmation, there may be issues with the order details. You can go to the PrintFul Integration App on GrooveKart to see what's happening.

Inside the PrintFul Integration App, you will find a tab called Orders. The orders table provides information such as:

• GK Order ID (ID of the order in GrooveKart Platform)
• PrintFul ID (ID of the order in PrintFul App, if it's missing means order was not sent)
• Date of the Order
• Customer Name
• Total Price
• GK Status (Order Status on GrooveKart side)
• PrintFul Status (initial Status which was given after the first sync attempt)
• Action (explanation under this text)

There are two actions available for orders in this table:

1. Send Order: This action appears if the order could not be sent for any reason. By clicking "Send Order," you can attempt to send the order to PrintFul one more time. If there are any errors, such as missing products or variants, or mistakes in the address, you will see them at the top right of the page. You can fix the issue and try sending the order again.
2. Fulfill/Track Orders: This action allows you to manually check the PrintFul order status and update the status on GrooveKart. This process is also automated, but you can do it manually in case of any failures or issues.

Order Fullfilment

In the previous sections, you learned that when someone orders from your GrooveKart store, we automatically send the order to Printful with a draft status. This allows you to check and proceed with shipping and fulfillment on the Printful side.

GrooveKart runs a script every 4 hours to check for any changes related to orders on Printful. If the script finds a change in status or a tracking number, it will take action.

What will happen is:

• If the status is changed to "shipped" on Printful, the order on GrooveKart will also be changed to "shipped," and the buyer will receive an email.
• If the Printful order has a tracking number, it will be attached to the GrooveKart order, and the buyer will receive an email.
• If the Printful order has a status of "delivered," the order on GrooveKart will also be changed to "delivered," and the buyer will receive an email.
• If the Printful order has any other status, such as "failed," "cancelled," or "delayed," the buyer will not receive any notification. You will need to decide on the appropriate action to take.

Questions

I received an email that API keys will be staled soon. Will my keys still work?

No worries. The email you received about API keys becoming stale soon should not be a concern. The technical team at GrooveKart has already made the necessary changes to stay up-to-date with Printful. Please look at the section "API keys" on this page to find more information.

Why am I seeing an error when I insert an API key/token on GrooveKart?

If you are seeing an error message when inserting an API key/token on GrooveKart, it may be because you did not select the store when creating the API token on the PrintFul developer portal. Only keys created for a specific store will work. Please ensure that you have created a token for the correct store.

What should I do if I am having issues with variants when importing a product?

If you are having issues with variants when importing a product, the first step is to delete the product from the GrooveKart store. Then, go back to the GrooveKart PrintFul Integration App and try the import process again. Wait for at least 5 minutes before going to the Product Edit Page. If the issue persists, you can reach out to the GrooveKart support team for assistance.

What happens if a product is discontinued?

If a product is discontinued, PrintFul will send an email to the merchant with information about the item. GrooveKart does not have an automated system to control, disable, or notify merchants about discontinued items on PrintFul. You will need to refer to the notifications from PrintFul and disable or remove the discontinued products from your GrooveKart store on your own.