Lulu Direct
Lulu Direct has received a mix of positive and negative reviews from users. Positive aspects highlighted include the seamless process from purchase to receiving books, excellent customer service, high-quality prints, quick shipping, and easy setup with Shopify. Users appreciate the automation of orders flowing straight to Lulu for printing and fulfillment. However, negative aspects mentioned include issues with shipping errors, difficulties with phone number requirements, delays in order fulfillment, lack of live customer support, glitchy app performance, and higher costs compared to ordering directly from Lulu's website. Some users also expressed frustration with the lack of features like error logging, order notifications, and tracking updates.
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Our experience with Lulu Direct has been wonderful. The process from purchase to books received is so seamless and requires no involvement on our end, unless there is something specific to check on. The customer service is quickly responsive and always resolves issues quickly and effectively. Our customers love their high-quality, beautiful prints. Printing and shipping is a complex business with so many parties and moving parts involved, and Lulu coordinates it wonderfully. We appreciate the personal service we receive on our account and greatly value our relationship with Lulu Direct!
We use Lulu for some of our magazines and it works perfectly. The support team is very nice and always helping. We love how easy it is to set up with our Shopify store.
i wish i could speak to a live person quicker an more direct
We’re sorry to hear you’ve had trouble getting in touch with us. We weren’t able to locate a recent support request associated with your account, but we definitely want to help. A member of our team is reaching out to you directly now so we can better understand what’s going on and get you the support you need. You can also contact a live support representative anytime through the support link within the app or by visiting our help center. Our support team is available Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm EST. We look forward to connecting with you and getting the issue you are experiencing resolved.
Shipping errors: Lulu should be applying the lowest available shipping rate, per their documentation, but this doesn't work in practice, it's not "set and forget", and the head-scratching caveats essentially mean you can't manage shipping effectively unless you're on the Shopify Advanced or Plus plans. Phone number required by Lulu: There's no way to collect phone numbers for one product in Shopify, so if you're not *only* selling books then you'd be forced to collect phone numbers for every product, which is a total disaster for digital product sell-through. It's not Lulu's fault per se, because the global phone number setting is Shopify's decision, but I'm sure Lulu could find some way to collect phone numbers via their app instead. So... I mean, technically it is an app that works, so yay. The caveats are critical though. UPDATED: To the response: This is a good note to read because it's not clearly documented in the support docs that the phone number is the key to the automatic shipping assignation.
We understand how this requirement can be frustrating, especially for stores that sell both physical and digital products. Carriers require a recipient phone number for all shipments so they can contact the customer directly if there are delivery issues or to help manage delivery. Because of this, it is important that the phone number belongs to the recipient, not the merchant. This information must be collected during checkout, and Shopify currently only allows phone number collection at the store level rather than per product. This limitation is part of the Shopify platform, not the Lulu Direct app. As long as you collect the customer's phone number and the shipping address is valid, we will automatically assign a shipping method to each order and you won't need to manage shipping. We appreciate you sharing this feedback, as it helps clarify these carrier and platform requirements for other merchants considering Lulu Direct.
I highly recommend the Lulu Direct app. The setup took just a few minutes, and now every order flows straight to Lulu for printing and fulfillment with zero manual work on my end. Print quality is consistently excellent, shipping is quick, and customers get tracking updates automatically. I’ve tried other POD services, but Lulu Direct is the only one that delivers the same high quality every time and ships reliably worldwide. If you’re a small publisher looking for a dependable fulfillment partner, Lulu is hands-down the best choice.
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