Gooten: Print on Demand

Gooten is definitely a go to for creators! They have tons of customizable products and it's super easy to use.

I have been using Gooten for a year. The quality of the products is great, and it integrates well on whole. However they do NOT do well when it comes to addressing valid and fairly significant issues, such as needed original shipping information passed from their manufacturer to the original carrier, then on to USPS, so that I have what I need to file a claim with the carrier for losses when packages are lost. Gooten's response? "Not our problem - explain what to expect to your customer." When I mentioned that their system had no way to note a VAT paid by a UK customer via Etsy custom order, so that the customer wasn't billed for VAT twice, I was told they hadn't heard any complaints yet from their manufacturers, so there was no issue to address. I'm sure customers billed for VAT twice and anyone ordering via Etsy would disagree. The list goes on. Plus, CS is only available via email and can take days. Slowly but surely their refusal to address major problems and deficiencies in their system are outweighing the quality of their product.

Update 3: Adding two stars. Gooten has finally improved their mockup generator...sort of. Their mockup generator now produces reasonably sized images for the products that they offer. It's still a bit clunky. About 50% of the time, when uploading files according to their specs, I had to go back screens and re-click buttons in order to trigger their mock up generator because it didn't trigger the first time. But it does seem like they are making constant efforts to improve their app and their team has been quick to offer trouble shooting support.

Update 2: I'm removing the star that I added in my last update. It's been over a month now and Gooten is still hasn't corrected the issues discussed below. At this point I'm loosing faith that they will ever be able to do so.

Update 1: I'm adding a second star because since posting this review, Gooten has gotten back to me about the issues below and I appreciate the responsiveness of their support team regarding my concerns.

Here is what Gooten said, "this small sized images, has been a major complaint from a lot of our current users and we have devoted a lot of time improving the technology that generates the images. Our CTO informed me that this will be ready in the next 2-3 weeks. I can assure you that once we have this implemented, and you begin using our platform, you'll want to move all of your products over to us from the Printful."

I really hope this is the case and look forward to using Gooten if it is. Will update this review again once I've seen the new implementation.

First Review: I'd really like to be able to like this app as much as I'd like to be able to use it. Sadly, no dice for either.

Gooten does not have a mock-up generator or even any comped psd files so that one can manually make mock-ups of their products with ones designs on them. In order to display a product listing image on your website, you will have to buy a sample of everything in their catalog and make your own mock-up.

For me, this would be time and cost prohibitive. Not to mention a huge act of faith for a company with sketchy and scant reviews about their quality and customer service.

Another option for create listing images of Gooten products on my site is to display a blank product, next to a flat of the design. But that is not very compelling for shoppers and would be poor practice.

I contacted Gooten about this issue asking them if they planed on adding a mock-up generator or comped psd files, letting them know that without these features I would be unable to use Gooten. Two different customer support reps got back to me and both mostly talked around the issue I'd emailed about and offered irrelevant info.

One of the customer service reps replied that Gooten generates a thumbnail when you create a product. The thumbnails Gooten generates for preview are barely larger than my actual thumbnail and as such, are inappropriate and insufficient for displaying to shoppers on my website.

To reiterate, without a mock up generator or comped psd files, I will not be able to use Gooten at all.

Printful, a competitor service offers both a mock-up generator and psd comp files and works beautifully. And I've had a great response from Printul's customer support so far. Hopefully Printful will grow their product catalog to the size of Gooten's in the near future.

Great quality products, huge selection of items. My only criticism is the shipping times, which can be longer than what customers expect, although they do take 4 days (usually) to produce the products so that’s part of the process.

I wanted to find a print on demand company that offers puzzles, and I am so glad I found Gooten from this initial search! They have SO many wonderful products that I can't wait to add to my shop!

Easy to set up and lots of excellent products to choose from! I was able to link to my Shopify account quickly. The quality looks great as well.

Gooten is easy to design with and has a great product selection. It connected easily with my Shopify store and has reasonable pricing! I recommend!

gooten is greats; I love their metal
Prints. Easy intuitive interface, well-priced. Highly recommend!

I really want to love this app. They have so many items that are not available anywhere else. But trying to figure out shipping costs is a total nightmare. Every product and product variation differs by state. There is no list for shipping costs until you input the specific parameters. Making it really hard to try to build shipping costs into your retail prices. Even one you have entered the product, you have to search each state separately for costs.

Shipping to canada is way higher than other POD services. For example, a shower curtain with liner is $43.57 then $25.61 shipping to Canada. Making the cost almost $70 USD BEFORE markup. A basic 14x14 throw pillow costs $7.98 - but shipping to Canada is a whopping $25.61!!!

Last example: Throw Pillow-Spun Polyester -36x36 costs $52.61 plus $38.15 shipping to Canada is $90.76 USD before markup. With the exchange rate, is about $120 Canadian - FOR ONE PILLOW.

I badly want to use Gooten for so many things... but I also do want customers to run screaming from my store when they see some of the pricing.

Hopefully in the future this will get a little better. For now, I can find better pricing on etsy. :(

A variety of products so I'm excited to get my sample products (pins, AOP sweatshirt and stickers)... I'm still waiting 2 weeks in for my order to be processed....
However, no complaints from my customers so far for the greeting cards I've ordered.