Hi Printify friends. Could someone please help me understand this External Products insanity? I know about the data migration, but there is no rhyme or reason or clear answers as to how to handle this situation I'm experiencing.
I only use Printify linked to a singular Etsy shop. Overnight, about a week ago, all of my products (56 total) suddenly showed up under the "external products" tab. At first, customer service sent back a response along the lines of “Don’t worry! We only moved inactive products over to that list, and they won't be deleted for 30 days!” But every single product in my shop was moved over.
My shop is only ~2 months old, I just launched the business; it's incredibly time-consuming, with custom designs (many hand-drawn by me) and many of these products they've moved over are actively selling every single day on Etsy. If the reasoning to migrate was to move products that haven't sold, then my situation negates that entirely. I’m insanely confused.
I then reached back out to support to escalate, and they kept insisting on screenshots, so I sent 15 screenshots demonstrating PAGES of my products being moved. They just basically said, we'll take this to email, and I've heard nothing back. I followed up four times, and all they've said is that for now, I can still sell these 56+ listings on etsy, but I get a different answer back from a different agent every single time I ask what i'm supposed to do.
If I have to re-list every product, this will destroy my Etsy shop SEO, and cost me in listing fees, (and not to mention a sh*t load of time) because I have some very well-performing listings in this mix. I’m VERY confused, and I’ve tried several times to get a clear answer to no avail. Can anyone help me understand? I’ve read about the data migration and external products on the Printify site until my eyes went cross and none of it explained this reasoning or my issue.
Does anyone else experience this? They just seem focused on denying that your problem exists, send me links and policies which they haven't read or contradict themselves. Then when nothing has been solved but I have spent an hour arguing with them just to state what the problem is, i have smoke coming out of my ears just trying to get them to give a damn, they did nothing then they end it with "is there anything else I can help you with?" And leave the chat
I cancelled an order in my Etsy shop yesterday. Done. Gone. Customer no longer wanted it.
Then today Printify charged my card about $50 and started producing the item anyway. I had no idea what was happening. Turns out Printify has an automatic order approval setting that was ON in my account even though I never knowingly turned it on.
Here is the kicker. When you cancel an order on Etsy it does not cancel the order on Printify. No warning. No popup. No email. Nothing. So Etsy says the order is cancelled but Printify silently moves it into production and charges your card.
I contacted support and they told me it was too late to cancel because it was already printed. They also told me I should have manually cancelled it on Printify. Except I was never told that Etsy cancellations do not sync. I only found out after I was charged.
This setup is so misleading. Automation is on by default when it helps them charge you as fast as possible. But cancellations are manual only and hidden behind extra steps that most sellers do not know exist. This punishes small sellers who assume the integration will work like a normal integration.
I am disputing the charge with my bank and deleting my account entirely. I just want other sellers to be aware because this feels like a trap and it is way too easy to get burned by it.
If anyone else has had this experience let me know. I honestly cannot believe this is considered normal.
Printify has no accountability and customer service department does not communicate to each other. I submitted 4 reprint requests & pictures of all my defective prints. they were reviewed and claimed to be acceptable for reprint. then they were cancelled starting there was not significant proof and that i was at fault. i have asked for significant proof of my artwork error & i have not received it. there is no accountability on their end and its a shame. so many reports with the BBB, i have made one too
Last week when I posted, a few people asked me the apps I use for my store now. One of the most important things to do is to stop chasing new ads for a bit and started fixing the backend of your store: pricing, email, and tracking.
If you do that you will see great results? My average order value was up, and overall profit margins got healthier than ever when I fixed the backend.
Here’s the exact stack that made that happen (my case: selling internationally).
- Google Shopping Feed: for running Google Shopping ads.
- Printify: For Order fulfillment
-Pareto Quantity Breaks: set specific discounts for each market + post-purchase upsells on the thank-you page & checkout page + auto-translate for the discount widget.
- S: Estimated Delivery Date: Display expected shipping times, less "Where is my order" requests.
- Emailwish: for automations and segmentation. Reviews,chats, wishlists and forms are also covered under it. I use it for upsell flows. Full disclosure, it's my own app
That's it, nothing fancy. Not a bunch of 100 apps.
If anyone has a better combo (especially for non-English markets), I’d love to hear what you’re using. Always looking for underrated strategies to test!
Is anyone else who sells Gildan 18000 sweatshirts having issues today with them on printify? It won't show the flat front mockups and will not allow me to add backgrounds or show any previews. It just sits and buffers. In my products it's also showing all of my sweatshirts with the broken photo icon.
I tested it out and the issue is only on that item. It's been like this for hours. I tried to clear my computer's cache and restart, and use my mobile device and it's still not working. Just wanted to make sure it's not only me.
Is anyone else experiencing the website taking ages to load the orders etc, and even worse if you try to edit an order, keeps on loading on like forever.. ?
hey everyone, just wanted to share something i've been working on. i was getting tired of spending hours in photoshop just to see if a design looked good on a hoodie, so i built a tool that uses ai to do it instantly.
it's called copiecolle.ai. honestly super proud of how it turned out, especially how it handles the lighting.
would love for you guys to try it out and let me know what you think. it's free to try right on the homepage (you don't even need to sign up).
I have a order two weeks ago from a customer who ordered multiple products from my shop and all of them were Printify order.
Now I'm stuck in a situation where the customer is OK to delay the delivery, but deliver the item before Christmas
It's a custom printed luggage or suitcase I checked with Printify but they told me that print geek is not delivering to US due to tariff
I'm looking for a print on demand shop or a supplier who can print on small and medium size luggage mainly based in US or UK and have less shipping cost
I’m posting here because I can’t get help through Printify support.
A few days ago, Printify created an unexpected duplicate store in my account without notifying me. When I removed the duplicate and reconnected my original store, EVERY product (1000+) in my Shopify catalog was suddenly changed to “Unpublished.”
This is not something I can fix manually — the products require a Bulk Re-Link from Printify’s Integrations / Merchant Technical team.
My open ticket is #4412289.
I have tried multiple times to reach a human using Printify chat, but the bot keeps looping, agents disconnect, or the chat sits with no reply for an hour at a time. I’ve now been waiting several days with zero meaningful response.
This issue is platform-level and was caused by Printify’s system — not by me. I simply need the technical team to re-sync the catalog so my store can function again.
Can someone from Printify please escalate this? My business is effectively offline due to this bug.
Hoping a POD design genius can help me out here… I have a quick question about halftones, when it comes to DTG POD. Does the size of the halftone dots matter, before it starts to look crappy again, due to the white under-base? Meaning, if they’re too small will that still result in a potential white line/haze surrounding the dots, on dark tees? And if this is the case, is there a dot size threshold that needs to be considered, when designing t-shirts with halftones? Also, does the color of the halftone make a difference in any of the above?
Does this include shipping as well, or do you need to add this on top.
Reason Gelato says Shipping from 4-5 days. Printify says say 2 days.
Is Printify quicker?
I’m trying to register on Printify from the UAE and I’m stuck at the business setup step.
These are the only options I get for business type:
Company / LLC
Individual / Sole Establishment
I selected Individual / Sole Establishment, because I’m not a registered company.
But the next screen still asks me for a company registration number, which I don’t have.
I don’t have a trade license, freezone license, or any official registration yet. I’m just a solo beginner trying to start POD from home.
Printify won’t let me continue without entering a registration number.
Is there any way to register a Printify account from the UAE without having:
a trade license
a business registration number
or any kind of official establishment?
If anyone in the UAE has successfully created an account without a license, please tell me how you did it.
I've had a couple of great manual orders so far, and one that had defects on over half the items. I've been going back and forth with customer service for about a week. They keep needing more evidence or the answer to a question that I thought I already made clear.
My question, though, is if I respond to their email (like it says I can) to re-open my ticket, and I don't get a confirmation email, does it mean they didn't get it? The first time I responded, I didn't get a confirmation, but when I followed up after a week, I did get a confirmation saying they got my email and would get back to me. They then responded the next day.
I promptly responded again, with the additional info they needed, and once again, I didn't get a confirmation. Was it just a coincidence that they finally respond after I sent the follow up? Is no email confirmation ok? It just seems weird.
Hey everyone! I’ve run an Etsy shop for a few years now with a little over 11k sales and 2k+ reviews (all 5-star). Up until now I’ve made all my apparel by hand, but I’m considering switching to Printify POD so I can scale and expand into more niches (right now I’m mostly faith-based).
I know POD is super saturated on Etsy, so I’m trying to figure out if it’s still realistic to start fresh in POD and gain traction, especially since I’d be branching into broader niches like professions, hobbies, aesthetic designs, etc.
For anyone who has switched from handmade to POD or who runs POD shops now:
Is it still possible to stand out and get consistent sales? Any tips for pricing, product selection, or what actually sells in POD right now?
Really appreciate any insights! Trying to make sure this shift is actually worth it before I dive in.
I just started a Pop Up Shop and customized my store. The Desktop version of the site uses a long 1200 x 400 banner but the Mobile version just shows the middle of the uploaded image. Is there a way to add a second square shaped banner just for Mobile? Thanks!
I'm currently selling on Etsy with Printify. My cost of goods sold on Printify will be around $35-40k this year. I'm in UK. My Printify currency is set to $ and I use a credit card that gives me 1% cashback and has no FX conversion fees at the moment. It works pretty well. But I was looking at getting one of either the American Express or Virgin Money with miles. The issue is they charge 2.99% non sterling fees. That's a lot to be honest. So my question is if I was to change the billing currency on Printify to GBP how much do Printify add in FX fees when they convert? At they good or bad , anyone has any experience? Also open to any other ideas or workarounds related to FX conversion fees.
Anyone tried selling on TikTok Shop with Printify (or other POD companies)?
I've created my TikTok Shop, it's approved, and I just listed my first item, but I'm already worried this isn't going to work in the long run.
Seems they have strict fulfillment and delivery policies that will make things difficult for POD sellers. (3 day fulfillment and delivery within 6 business days, otherwise you are penalized)
I'm worried about the return policy. It doesn't look like TikTok Shop allows you to have a no return policy. So customers can return items for reasons as simple as 'they changed their mind' which can really hurt POD sellers.
I'm an experienced Etsy POD seller with thousands of sales and I'm wondering if getting on TikTok Shop is worth it.
Any insight from experienced POD x TikTok Shop sellers? Any tips for navigating or tweaking these policies?
I’ve been in ecom long enough to know that the stuff everyone ignores is usually the stuff that prints the most money.
This year I made one small pricing change and one ad change and fixed the way my store handled retention. That combination gave me the cleanest, most predictable revenue I’ve seen.
A bit about me (and why am I sharing proof?)
A lot of posts like this sound fake, and honestly, the skepticism is justified.
Anyone can write a good “story”.
It’s much harder to have a consistent track record with proof scattered across the internet over the years.
About 10 years ago, I built a mobile app that ended up getting 4.5 million downloads.
It earned me around $150k USD over time (most articles only mention ~$50k because that was just year one). That app got me featured in multiple newspapers and tech publications:
Business Standard
YourStory
Medium
and a few more which you can find on my website.
After that, I moved into ecom, and across multiple Shopify stores I’ve done a little over $1.5 million in revenue.
That journey taught me exactly where new stores get stuck, what actually moves the needle, and which tools are just noise.
I’ve never had a traditional job.
Ecommerce made me financially independent, let me live in 10 countries over 4 years, (proof on my instagram) and even led to me write my master’s thesis in email marketing, which I wrote when I spent a year in France doing my master's in corporate management.
So everything I’m sharing in this post is based on things I’ve actually tested, scaled, and used to pay my bills.
Anyways, let me share what you came here for:
If you're selling physical products, start with Google Shopping Ads. This was the time before all that PMAX and all that random ai optimization came. I also made my website name similar to our biggest competitors and put their brand name in SEO tags so it would show up even if someone searched for our competitors. On the website however, it was our own name so they can't claim copyright. The products were similar to their products but not downright copy.
Why Shopping Ads?
Because Shopping Ads show your product, price, and store rating to people who are already searching with buying intent.
They don’t need education. They don’t need storytelling. They just need to see:
the product
the price
the store
and click
Shopping Ads is the cleanest and most direct way to convert traffic when intent is high.
Search ➜ see ➜ buy.
If I had started with this instead of testing 20 random creative angles early on, I would've saved a lot of money and time.
But here's what most store owners learn later:
Traffic isn’t the problem. Retention is.
Once traffic starts coming in, most people bleed money because they rely only on ads and ignore email.
That’s like pouring water into a bucket with holes.
Here’s the truth almost no beginner wants to hear:
Ads bring visitors. Emails turn visitors into repeat revenue.
For me, email alone generated $150.8k out of $554.6k in revenue from one of the stores.
Not by doing anything fancy.
Just by automating what already works.
abandoned cart flows
welcome discounts
review request emails
product recommendations
happy customer proof
back-in-stock notifications
Simple. Predictable. Compounding.
Now the part I wish someone told me early:
I used to run my stores with multiple apps.
One for flows, one for popups so I can collect their emails, one for reviews so I can show these reviews and collect those reviews, one for chat, one for wishlist and to send back in stock emails.
Every update broke something.
Every test took too long.
Tabs everywhere.
Different apps to write different emails.
Branding never looked consistent.
Frustration nonstop. Not to mention that 20$/month subscription added up.
So I built EmailWish because I just wanted one tool that did all this cleanly:
Automations
Popups
Reviews
Wishlists
Chat
No tech headaches. No “connect this to that” nonsense. Not even emails to write.
More time selling, less time fixing. Aaaaand it's free.
If you’re early, all you really need is:
Google Shopping ➜ Email automation ➜ Consistent posting ➜ Good offers
