How about an App for that? That is the question we get as it pertains to having us drop ship prints for people. If you are new to FinerWorks, drop shipping is another way we describe blind shipping which simply means we keep ourselves unknown and the order looks like you shipped it to your customers. The percentage of orders we process as drop shipped orders at FinerWorks is well over 50% now. Some have us fulfill orders via our website while others placing very big orders go through our offline channels. Well the good news if you are selling your prints online through your own website you might be able to take advantage of some new methods telling us where to send your orders that will make things easier so that you do not have to go through the process of placing individual orders each time. You would actually be able to transmit a bunch of orders with just a few clicks. At the moment there is only one way to do this however we will begin launching some official alternatives in the form of apps in which we have been working over the past several weeks to bring to you.
I see something called an Api, but I don’t understand it?
Don’t worry. Most people wouldn’t unless you are a socially awkward programmer familiar with geeky concepts like REST, JSON and XML. We get a lot of requests from people wanting to integrate their website with FinerWorks for Order Fulfillment however most don’t have the knowledge or budget to hire outside help to use our API to develop a system for them to transmit orders to us directly in batches. We want to encourage the use our API to transmit orders however recognize simpler solution.
What about for Shopify?
Shopify is perhaps one of the most widely DIY online website and ecommerce shopping cart sites used by non-programmers who like to build their own online store. It allows you to easily setup your work as products and sell them to your online customers. For those selling prints of their work online it seems to be the more popular choice for artists and photographers with websites. As a result we get contact requests for a way for them to automatically transmit orders to FinerWorks. In the form of an official FinerWorks Shopify App for order fulfillment. Well, it is almost here!
Our work on the app is coming along quickly however in the coming few weeks we will need YOUR feedback so we know where we can streamline and make improvements before making it available to the general public. To be one of the first to use the Shopify App, email our customer service department so they can put you on a notification list and send you the link to install the app in your Shopify account when ready.
Will there be an Etsy order fulfillment app?
And for those selling with Etsy, we have not forgotten about you. Initially we had wanted to make an Etsy Order Fulfillment App available at the exact same time however Etsy’s integration ability is more challenging to work with. The good news is we hope to still have it available shortly after. If you are using both Etsy and Shopify, there will likely be some similarities however we anticipate the Shopify App to be more comprehensive. We will post more on that soon.
So what about custom products on demand?
We realize that many of our customers do create on demand / custom designed prints for their clients. As part of our roadmap is the ability to transmit those orders as well. We have decided to focus on that last since it will be a more advanced feature but we will focus on making it simple to incorporate as much as possible. Stay tuned for those details as they come about.
For now, as mentioned above, contact our customer service team if you want to be notified immediately of any of the app’s availability in the coming week.
Order HD Face Mounted Acrylic Prints
Printed on high quality photo paper and face mounted to 1/4″ acrylic with polished edges. Choose between satin luster or metallic photo paper. Included is easy to install hanging hardware in the form of a French cleat.