Integrating Offline Print Partners Into Your Print On Demand Marketplace

How it works (step-by-step)

Shipturtle’s infrastructure is built to let you onboard offline printers / print-providers (i.e., actual printing companies, warehouses, or local production houses) as vendors — even if they don’t use Shopify themselves. This transforms a simple POD store into a full-fledged multi-vendor POD marketplace.

I. Create POD templates

• As the marketplace owner/merchant, you begin by defining POD templates. These are essentially “blank products” — e.g., a plain t-shirt, a blank mug, a tote bag, a phone case — with defined variant options (size, color, dimensions) and print areas where designs will go. 
• You configure for each variant: color (possibly via HEX code), size (e.g.,, S, M, L, XL), and other relevant options (like print side, material type, etc.). 
• You also set the base printing cost (for sides or surfaces, if applicable). This cost will be used to calculate the final retail price after a vendor uploads the design. 
• Optionally upload mockups or base images (for instance, blank t-shirt or mug), with alt-text for accessibility or SEO. 
• Save the template. Now the template appears as an available “POD product type” for vendors.

Why this matters: Templates allow standardization — all vendors work off the same base product, so you maintain consistency across variants, base cost structure, and product definitions for your marketplace.

II. Onboard offline printers as vendors

Printers can:

• Manage products and variants
• Set product and shipping costs
• Control fulfillment regions
• Update production timelines

With the template in place, offline printing companies (or warehouses / local printers) can be added as vendors in your marketplace. Since Shipturtle provides a dedicated Vendor Dashboard, they don’t need their own Shopify store — they just need access to the dashboard. 

Once onboarded, vendors can:

• Select from the POD templates you created (e.g. blank mug, blank t-shirt, blank phone case). 
• Upload their own designs/artworkpricing/commission to the POD templates — placing graphics on desired surfaces, fronts, sides, etc. 
• Choose the variants: e.g. t-shirt color and size; mug color/print side; phone-case color; tote-bag style; etc. 
• Define pricing/commission, rules: they can set how much they want per variant (on top of base printing cost), so that once a customer orders, they get the right payout.
• Manage their own product listings, inventory status (if relevant), and fulfillment settings (e.g. shipping regions, lead-times) via the cloud dashboard, which gives full control without needing Shopify access.

This step transforms offline printers into fully functioning vendors — the same way an online-only POD provider would work — but with added flexibility and local control.

III. Approve Their Products

Because multiple vendors may upload different designs, colors, variants etc., you as the marketplace owner need to maintain quality and brand consistency. Shipturtle’s workflow ensures this via an approval process.

Workflow:

• Vendor submits the new POD product (design + variants + pricing).
• On your end, you review the submission: check mockups/design placement, variant choices, pricing (print cost + margin), product description, images, and compliance with quality/brand guidelines.
• You approve or request revisions.
• Once approved, the product becomes part of your marketplace catalog and shows in the storefront under the vendor's listing.

IV. Start selling

After products are live, your marketplace is ready to sell custom products. Here’s how orders are handled:

A customer places an order from your storefront (on your Shopify or WooCommerce-powered site) — selecting the variant, design, and product type (t-shirt, mug, etc.).

• Based on preset rules (location, vendor region, availability, cost, shipping preferences), Shipturtle’s system automatically routes the order to the most appropriate vendor/printer — be it a local warehouse or offline printing company. 
• The assigned vendor receives order details in their Vendor Dashboard: selected product template, design file, variant, customer shipping address, and shipping method.
• Vendor (printer) prints, packs, and ships the product — using shipping integrations if set (since Shipturtle supports multiple carriers). 
• The customer receives the product, and the fulfillment status is updated in the dashboard — visible to both the vendor and the marketplace admin.

Because of this automation, you no longer need to manually split orders, coordinate logistics, or track shipping — it all happens in the background.

V. Automated payouts

Once an order is fulfilled, Shipturtle calculates the payout automatically — using the commission structure you and the vendor agreed on (base printing cost + vendor margin). 

• The vendor gets paid (via configured payout method — PayPal / Stripe / Razorpay)
• Your marketplace takes its cut (if applicable), and you retain control over pricing, fees, and revenue distribution.

This ends up being a fully automated fulfillment + payment + vendor-management cycle — but with full flexibility to handle offline printers, custom products, multiple vendors, and print-on-demand orders.