Can I merge multiple Printful products into one on Shopify?

mo13
Visitor
1 0 0

I have multiple products with the same design - male t-shirts,  female t-shirts that I want to show up as one product. They're created as individual products in printful based on the type of shirt. How can I show them as one product with different styles in Shopify?

Replies 21 (21)

Nick
Shopify Staff (Retired)
4531 434 1024

Hi @mo13,

 

Nick here from Shopify. 

 

If you have multiple products with the same design, your best bet is to set up the product with variants. Shopify has a guide going through everything you need to know about variants here. Something to note is you mentioned about male and female t-shirts. I would personally make a distinction like that a separate product and have the variants more for size, color, material, etc.  You can also see the Shopify help guide about adding variants to your products here

Printful also has a guide on product variants which might also be of some use to you. You can see it here

 

Hope this helps! 

 

All the best, Nick

 

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

CaelanBassett
Excursionist
24 1 5

Hello there. To add to this, is it possible to use a Shopify + Printful platform to create a merged variant to not size/color variants, but design variants?

For example, I have 2 products, tee shirts that show off my logo:
* Black shirt, white logo
* White shirt, black logo
 
Can this be merged into a single “Logo Shirt” product with a “Black shirt” and “White shirt variant” without being two separate products? Because I wouldn’t want a black shirt with black ink, and vice versa. Must these be two products?
 
Thanks in advance.
“Get it now, #OnVHHess!”
Nick
Shopify Staff (Retired)
4531 434 1024

Hi @CaelanBassett,

Great question! This is definitley possible through product variants. You can add variants to a product that comes in more than one option, such as size or color but will still remain as one product and not two. 

  1. In the Variants section of the Add product page, click Add variant.

  2. Enter a name for the option, such as Size, in Option name. Customers will see this name.

  3. In Option values, enter each option value followed by a comma, such as Black shirt - white logo and  White shirt - black logo and so on. Customers will see these option values when they are choosing a variant. When you enter a comma, the option values appear as tags. You can see an example using colors below: 

  4. 20-06-4xe6t-d2raf

  5. If your variants differ in more than one way, then click Add another option. You can have up to 3 options for each product. 

  6. 20-06-4qzri-ywhyv

    As you add the product options, a list of variants appears with the heading Modify the variants to be created. Uncheck the boxes next to any combination of options that you don't sell. You can also add prices, SKUs, and barcodes for individual variants, or use the defaults based on the product details:

  7. Click Save.

Something else to note is that you can show different product images for each variant with variant images. 

If you have already created a product and want to add a variant, there is a help guide below which goes through the steps as well, you can read it here

 

 

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

Fleurs
Tourist
5 0 6

I know how to make variants in Shopify.  My question is, is it still linked and automated in Printful if you do this?  Thanks.

Nick
Shopify Staff (Retired)
4531 434 1024

Hi @Fleurs,

Great question! It is linked and should sync with Printful quite shortly after. It can take from a few seconds to up to half an hour depending. Printful has an information doc on this which you can see here

19-17-w77lh-qgr0u

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

HisHersClothing
Visitor
1 0 0

Hello, sorry to resurrect this thread, but I'm trying to do the same thing and those videos no longer work.  I am using Printful and have the same design file that I'd like to us on several different products in the same product listing.  For instances, using the same image file for T-shirts, hoodies, tank tops, etc. and having them on the same product page. 

Is there an easy way to do this that is not manual?  This seems like something many people would want to do.

Thank you,

Tyler

Nick
Shopify Staff (Retired)
4531 434 1024

Hi @HisHersClothing,

Thanks for letting me know those videos were not available anymore. I edited the replies to the Shopify Help guide on variants and wonder could add a product variant work for you here? If not, can you elaborate a little more on what you're looking to do exactly as I'm not 100% sure otherwise. 

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

Nick_Mayer
Tourist
11 0 0

On a related note I sell phone cases and I've had to create 2 different products in Printify to cover all the phone models--1 for iPhone 5-11 & the other for Samsung & iPhone 12.  Can I merge these 2 products (both phone cases with the same design) even though they have different print providers depending on the variant?

Thank you!

Nick

Nick
Shopify Staff (Retired)
4531 434 1024

Hi @Nick_Mayer,

This is a great question and has me thinking. Just to confirm a few things if that's ok. 

You use Printify and have the same products but only the different variants would have different print providers? Do you use another POD supplier as well as Printify or would it be all with them? 

I'm wondering if the Locations feature could work for you here? From the help guide about Locations, there are some steps (shared below) which make me wonder if this is possible to distribute via a products variants, as in, have one variant of a product shipped from one location, and another from a different location:

17-28-b84rb-gf3un

Can you take a read of the Location guide here and let me know if you think this will work for you, please? 

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

Nick_Mayer
Tourist
11 0 0

Thanks Nick, the 2 products I want to merge are both fulfilled by Printify, they just have different SKUs (i.e. 1851167511) identifying the specific Printify Print Providers, so I think I can just leave the Vendor as Printify and be OK.  I want to say I saw a video a while back about how to merge products and that is what inspired all of this, but not sure if that was from Shopify or Printify--does this ring a bell?  Here is an example of 2 products I'd like to merge:  the first 2 products, both Brook Trout Phone cases:  https://www.nickmayerart.com/collections/iphone-cases

 

Thanks,

Nick

Nick
Shopify Staff (Retired)
4531 434 1024

Hi @Nick_Mayer,

Gotcha, thanks for elaborating on that and sharing a link, it really helped me understand what you're looking for. From that, I did some investigating and did find something I think might help! Shopify has a help guide which goes through the steps to map different product variants into one product. You can see the blurb of what it's about exactly below:

18-50-conja-o0pnf

Do you feel this is what you're looking to do? You can see the full guide here

That video you mentioned, didn't ring a bell for me, but I did some more digging and found one from an app in the Shopify App Store Matrixify (Excelify). I'm wondering if this is the one you were talking about? 

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

Nick_Mayer
Tourist
11 0 0

Hi Nick,

Thanks for your help!  I actually reached out to Printify and have determined that this request is not possible because it is not only the SKU that Printify uses to route the production to a given Print Provider, but it is also the Product ID.  So even though the SKUs would point to the correct Print Provider, there would only be one Product ID and that renders this not possible.

Thanks,

Nick

Nick
Shopify Staff (Retired)
4531 434 1024

Hey Nick, 

Ah ok, while i'm glad you got an answer from them, it's a shame it isn't possible! I do like your store though and wish you the best of luck. 

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

Roar_Sweden
Excursionist
35 0 10

Im intressted of knowing if this is possible to do with an app from shopify?

 

I have both padded bra and non-padded bra from printful, they have different SKU but cant be merged from printful, which is a shame, i really do want the customer to choose between padded or non padded in the same product with a 5 dollar difference.

 

Anyone know if its possible at all?

 

BR

Nick
Shopify Staff (Retired)
4531 434 1024

Hi @Roar_Sweden,

I think It would definitely be worthwhile check this with Printful directly. The part I feel which might not be possible is the different cost aspect. While you can definitely have multiple variants within Shopify, it is still the same product and would be the same cost, just a different colour or size etc. I'm not 100% sure if Printful can enable a cost difference. You can reach Printful's customer support team here to ask them and find out for sure! 

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

Roar_Sweden
Excursionist
35 0 10

I have checked this with printful, but it wont work since it is not the same product with different design, one of the product got padded and one is non-padded with different SKU in their own system, which makes it tricky and not possible to fix as a variation. 

 

BR

Renars
Shopify Partner
284 31 332

Hello,

Renars here from Matrixify (Excelify).

Thank you for suggesting the use of Matrixify @Nick.

You sure indeed can group products with our app, but as @Roar_Sweden and @Nick_Mayer already have mentioned - this would not really work with Printful products.
Products are linked to their system by the Product and Variant IDs, but grouping products in any way would remove old IDs and create new Product ID or at minimum new Variant IDs which would not be linked to their system.

Of course, they have some form of solution for grouping their Products, please let me know so we can look into how to do that in bulk with our app.

Matrixify | Bulk Import Export Update | https://apps.shopify.com/excel-export-import | https://matrixify.app
Roar_Sweden
Excursionist
35 0 10

Hey 🙂

 

Yeah the form of solution with variation in their own system seems to be if you have the same sort of product with different design, im not sure how to solve it with different type of products.

If you solve this i would gladly try the app out 😉

 

BR

Tomas

Morandis
Visitor
3 0 0

Renars, can you merge products in Shopify if I pay you? I mean I have 4 to 10 products for 1 design and want to merge these 4 or 10 products into ONE product with various variants - tees, mugs, posters, etc. Possible for you to do it so in Shopify?

Renars
Shopify Partner
284 31 332

Hello Morandis,

 

The issue with this task is that due to how the Printful system is integrated with Shopify - you cannot really merge products as it would require creating new products and that would no longer sync to their system.

So you would need to ask Printful support if they have such an option on grouping Products, the method that you can do with our app would not work in this case on Printful Products thus we are not able to provide you a service to do that for you.

Matrixify | Bulk Import Export Update | https://apps.shopify.com/excel-export-import | https://matrixify.app

GGuyo
Visitor
1 0 0

@mo13 have you or anyone else come up with a solution to this yet? I want to have a t-shirt and a tank top as variants for the same artwork. I know I can use an app like teeinblue but then I would have to redo everything on my site.