Lulu Direct

Lulu Direct

Pricing
Free to install. Additional charges may apply.
Highlights
Popular with businesses in United States
Rating
2.9 (77)

Create, Sell and Ship books easily with the Lulu Direct App

Entrepreneurs and business owners agree that having control over your product is critical to successfully growing your business. The Lulu Direct App connects our global print and fulfillment network to your Shopify storefront for a more efficient way to sell your books. Now every time an order is placed for your books, we’ll print and ship the order, and provide you and your customer tracking to ensure everyone is happy. It’s that simple!

Entrepreneurs and business owners agree that having control over your product is critical to successfully growing your business. The Lulu Direct App connects our global print and fulfillment network to your Shopify storefront for a more efficient way to sell your books. Now every time an order is placed for your books, we’ll print and ship the order, and provide you and your customer tracking to ensure everyone is happy. It’s that simple! more
  • Easy to Use: Connect your books in a matter of minutes.
  • Flexible Formats: Over 3,000 book format options, binding types, and layouts.
  • Professional Quality: We deliver high quality printing at competitive prices.
Highlights
Popular with businesses in United States

Languages

English

Product customization

Design tools

Products

All-over-print

Shipping options

White label, Custom shipping, Global fulfillment, Order tracking

Pricing

Free to install

Merchant pays for books printed and shipped by Lulu Direct.

All charges are billed in USD. See all pricing options

Reviews (77)

Overall rating
2.9
Counts per rating level
  • 52% of ratings are 5 stars
  • 9% of ratings are 4 stars
  • 4% of ratings are 3 stars
  • 8% of ratings are 2 stars
  • 27% of ratings are 1 stars
August 13, 2024

They have fundamentally broken this App after the recent "update", by removing mapped shipping and not implementing an equal alternative.

Essentially useless as a hands off print on demand service, where you now have to baby every single order to make sure the shipping method is correct, otherwise it defaults to a more expensive method and you lose money on the sale.

Pre update this was a very useful service that ran perfect for many years.

Tia-Clair Toomey
Australia
Over 5 years using the app
July 1, 2024

I am having the hardest time getting my products properly linked / set up through Lulu Direct. All of the instructional videos are out of date, so all the information and instructions that they are giving doesn't apply to this new format, making it a huge pain to set up. If you update your entire structure, you need to update your videos too. Otherwise, you are just leaving people in the dark, which doesn't make for very happy customers / users of your platform.

Nightgod333 Secrets Revealed Shop
United States
About 1 month using the app
Lulu Publishing replied August 30, 2024

I sincerely apologize for the difficulty you had with our app shortly after it was updated. We have fully updated our videos and knowledge base articles to reflect the most recent version of our app. If you have any questions or need any support, please contact us.

June 1, 2024

When i am trying to connect Lulu direct to my shopify store and open the app, it fails to load and brings up a new tab saying unable to find correct link to website. So this leaves me unable to use Lulu direct for my needs. If anyone could help me out on this situation, I would be very grateful thankyou.

Queer Blend
United Kingdom
Over 1 year using the app
April 3, 2024

I am noticing a very inconsistent product when ordering. I ordered 3 copies of a book entitled "Life's A Journey" that should have been printed in an 8 1/2" x 8 1/2" book format. I received 3 books in 8 1/2" x 11" format. As I didn't need them immediately I didn't open the package until to longer after the order.

Then I ordered a 2nd book entitled The Wonderfully Wacky World of those Crazy Critters Around Us!". Again 8 1/2" x 8 1/2", color book. It came in the correct size but was in B/W. LuLu's put in a request to reprint it with expedited shipping. Shipping was delayed, it arrived in color, whoever, the shipper had managed to mangle the book.

I am now attempting to secure an updated version of the 2nd book; however, the system isn't allowing me to connect it to the right item. Therefore, I can't get it in their system so I can request a printed copy to see what I might get this time.

More than a bit annoyed at the lack of quality. I can see how my customers would feel if getting charged for a product that didn't arrive as specified and requested.

RosaLee's Notables
United States
4 months using the app
Edited November 2, 2023

11/1/2023
I updated my review from a 2 to 4 after receiving a helpful email directly from Lulu about how to configure the Shopify checkout to ensure tracking auto-populates an order. The problem should be fixed now.

My other concern regarding error notifications is already being addressed in an upcoming app update. There is no ETA when the new features will be available, but it is being worked on by the development team.

Also, I would like to say the printing quality of the book is beautiful and a lot better than what Amazon can produce.

I applaud Lulu for their excellent customer service and ability to address their customer concerns in a timely manner. I look forward to using the new updates.

----------------------------------
Old Previous review....

The app is easy to use, and the prices for printing are double that of Amazon, but overall, it works well and gives the seller full control over their paperback book profits. Another good feature of this APP is the orders are processed automatically.

Now for the negatives. The APP does fall short. A developer can't state that an APP is integrated with Shopify if it is missing critical key features that are common across all Shopify APPS.

What is missing is error logging and notification. If an order is invalid or fails to process, it is critical this information is sent automatically to the Shopify Admin. I should not have to check my order page daily to find errors. This lack of notification support can cause customer service issues.

Secondly, your APP does not update tracking information or notify the customer when their package is shipped. The Admin gets notified, which is strange because I get notified of a shipping notification but not for order errors.

I have to add the tracking information to an order manually, which is another large gap in the design of your APP. These are common things that are in every APP.

These gaps need to be fixed and are large enough to cause my rating to drop from a five to a two. Your APP completely misses the customer service part of the Shopify business. Your design does not support the sellers properly.

Please correct this in your next update to the app. The features are not hard to implement and need to be integrated ASAP. I will update my review when these features are implemented.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review and input. I am open to assisting with developing or testing these features when ready.

Rachel K Stone
United States
2 months using the app

Support

Lulu Publishing can answer any questions you have about Lulu Direct.

Developer

Lulu Publishing

P.O. Box 12018, Durham, NC, 27709, US

Launched

April 26, 2018

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