Lulu Direct

Lulu has been extremely helpful in setting up our foray into POD and the Shopify integration makes processing these orders simple too. The books are great quality and their customer service team has always been available to guide us and answer our questions.

Have tried multiple times to get this app working and all I have to show for it is a lot of frustration and wasted time. Absolutely the WORST app experience I've had so far. Incredibly disappointed, expected much better from such a major company.

LOVE LULU!!! There is nothing I dislike about the app. Make sure you aren't using in Safari, Chrome works great. The main thing is putting turnaround times on your site so customers aren't expecting overnight shipping. Even through the Covid ordeal, this company was awesome to work with and never shut down. Once set up this app really does allow you start small and grow quickly. And AWESOME customer service. They resolved any issue quickly and were really communicative. Their printing costs are comparatively super low as well. I have moved to bulk orders and they are still the cheapest domestically.

I'm just getting started with this app but, at first glance, this looks like a dream come true! :)

I launched a print on demand store for stationery. And have had a horrible experience in terms of the length of time it takes for orders to be delivered in addition to customer assistance. The "estimated time frames" are merely suggestions. The real dates of arrival could be more than 2 weeks past then... Also, they never actually say how long production takes. however, once they list your order's status as "in production" they refuse to allow you to cancel your orders. Would definitely look into other print on demand partners for books

Everything about this app is easygoing but the processing and shipping are insane. I am better off ordering in bulk in processing the orders myself.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Poor communication, especially with price increases, delays etc. I wish they would communicate with us about pending price increases as they affect our bottom line.

UPDATE: Rating updated from 3 to 4. The company is committed to making things work, and it is seen. Customer service is 10 stars! Top notch. They are very responsive and kind and work very hard to resolve issues. Things have improved since my last review. Give them a try. I believe in this app and will keep using.

Old review
Not sure how to review this app. On one hand, I am happy to have the app, but it is so new they are STILL working out bugs. Very frustrating.

Lulu is a dream come true. You are able to print books on demand and ship them all over the world! But that is where my love affair stopped. The app is new and there are constantly kinks.

The support team is responsive on half of the issues and none responsive on the other half. So I am somewhere in the middle of loving this app and hating the growing pains.

PROS
You can get your book printed on demand and shipped all over the world.

CONS
My first order was messed up, thank goodness I was the guinea pig on the order. I always do a test order to see what the customer sees. Still waiting on a response for a REAL reason why my book was printed incorrectly and everyone else was not.

If you are selling a few books this app is great. If you are selling a few hundred books, be prepared to spend hours manually fulfill all those orders yourself. Very time-consuming. I am so happy for this app, that I am willing to overlook this. But the app within Shopify is very difficult to maneuver back and forth for order fulfillment. You will need patience.

International shipping is not tracked. I hope they resolve this issue soon as of right now there is no way to provide proof of delivery. (as sellers we need this protection) Cheapest shipping option internationally says 'priority', but priority shipping has no tracking info. The next best options will cost twice as much as your book. Again, happy to have the app, so will keep overlooking these issues and pray Lulu works it out.

I will wait patiently until they work the kinks out. When they do I will update my review.

At first I was intimidated by Lulu’s self-publishing platform because I had never published a book and am not proficient in Adobe Suite products which several of the templates require. My customer support expert, Tim S, was fantastic. He answered all my many questions, in detail, within 1-2 business days and was helpful in sending me templates to help me format my book. He even helped prepare my files when I ran into a printing issue with certain images not printing correctly - he helped me understand what the problem was with my file and fixed the issues for me so that my books would print correctly. When I received a damaged book I ordered for myself as a sample, he issued me a refund so that I could get a new sample book clear of shipping damage, which was considerate. He was always professional, positive, responsive, and immensely helpful in the setup process of my book. I am so grateful to have had his support through the file creation process and initial ordering process to help me get my book set up online correctly. I'm proud to now officially be a published author and happy the quality of the books looks very nice. I can't speak to other customer rep experiences at Lulu but Tim S. was 5 stars! Thank you Tim!!

Update: 2/5/2021. I am no longer using this app. I had a lot of calendars ordered that took months to arrive, and only did get printed and shipped because I contacted customer service relentlessly. I have entire threads of emails. Customer service did help get the orders fulfilled after customers started complaining, and after MANY emails back and forth. The calendars were really nice, and I would have preferred to keep using Lulu but not at the expense of my customers' business. Update: I really wanted to come back and change my original review saying things were resolved, but I can't. After multiple attempts, I finally got a human on the phone, who I thought was helpful. They did enable my product in my store so that customers could order, which they did, however, it has been 20 days now and the order has not even gone to production because the original issue was not fixed. I am stuck with $400 in sales, no product, angry customers, and still, no answer when (or if) they will get their product at the height of the holiday season. If I could give zero stars I would since they have done nothing to assist nor can I get any product. I made a calendar for my Shopify store, it shows up in my store but you can't order it, I keep getting an error message when attempting to place an order. I have contacted their customer service, no response. I contacted Shopify, they confirmed it was not on their end and contacted Lulu xPress's customer service copying me on the email and I did get an email back several days later. I sent screenshots as requested and since then nothing. I have tried for 10-days to resolve this and nothing. I will move on to another app and start over.

A little slow on actually processing and shipping orders but amazing customer service and high-quality book production.