Lulu Direct
The reviews for the Lulu Direct app on Shopify are mixed, with both positive and negative feedback from users. Positive aspects highlighted include the ease of setup, high print quality, quick shipping, and responsive customer support. Users appreciate the seamless flow of orders to Lulu for printing and fulfillment, as well as the reliability of the service for small publishers. However, negative themes include issues with customer support responsiveness, difficulties in managing shipping rates, challenges with phone number requirements, delays in order fulfillment, and glitches in the app interface. Some users also mentioned that the app is more expensive compared to ordering directly from Lulu's website and raised concerns about the app's functionality and usability.
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i wish i could speak to a live person quicker an more direct
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.
Lulu is a disaster. Their service and support is atrocious. I am trying to create a Book for publishing, have printed samples with other providers to Shopify so I can assess all quality, service and delivery times etc. The minute I requested help - You are sent on an AI loop, that keeps asking you to send the error message or to re-read their guides. You eventually raise a ticket and the support person asks the same thing. Attach a copy of the error message. (even after you begged in the ticket for them to access your account and assist) I am trying to build my store - and the amount of time I have wasted with Lulu is ridiculous.
We're sorry to hear about your experience and appreciate you sharing your feedback. We found your support ticket, and it sounds like the issue you experienced was related to publishing for global distribution, which is a different workflow from setting up to sell through Shopify with Lulu Direct. If you're setting up your Shopify store with Lulu Direct, our team would be happy to help you get everything running smoothly.
Lulu has been incredibly helpful!! We thank them so much for their responsiveness with their support staff, ability to fix the issues, their patience and understanding were great. We received our first printed, full color books and they were outstanding quality! Thank you
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