Lulu Direct , 73 reviews

Overall rating
3.5
Counts per rating level
  • 55% of ratings are 5 stars
  • 10% of ratings are 4 stars
  • 4% of ratings are 3 stars
  • 7% of ratings are 2 stars
  • 25% of ratings are 1 stars
Edited September 21, 2020

(SECOND REVIEW - 9/21/2020): Production times are over a month. I have customers complaining daily, asking where their orders are. This is not an issue of the USPS or Fedex, this is a production/manufacturing issue that Lulu has faced since we began working with them.

We get the same old runaround from customer service about how they are working on it. We have been working with Lulu for about a year now and it has just been painful from start to finish.

If you're serious about starting a print-on-demand product, look elsewhere. It will save you a lot of headache in the long run for your business. Do not be fooled by Lulu's flashy interface and design. It's all smoke and mirrors. Behind the scenes it's a mess.

(FIRST REVIEW - 4/27/2020): If you are planning to start a business around selling books, be vary wary before jumping in head first with this app. There are issues with the app as well as print quality control.

We have been using the Lulu Xpress App for about 4 months now to print thousands of books. Our library consists of about 90 titles and we have spent thousands of dollars with Lulu.

The app is riddled with bugs and issues. It is finicky and breaks easily. Many times it feels like wrestling a bear to get the app to do what it is supposed to.

Whether you're trying to view your orders or trying to upload/update a book, a new error or bug will present itself. The app requires various workarounds to avoid these bugs, but regardless a new one will pop up in its place, bringing production to a halt. "Internal Server Errors" seem to never go away. We hold our breath every time we launch the app, cringing at what broken mess we're going to run into.

This is not something that a business can afford to deal with on a weekly basis. As it stands, we have not been able to access the app at all in over a week.

We have been working with customer service to solve these issues. This is an additional problem in itself. The line of communication is not efficient. You will be in contact through an email support ticket chain. With this chain, your customer service rep will relay or mediate your issue to a "developer" who is "working on the problem."

It is just flat out inefficient and we expected more support and competency considering the volume we are producing and future plans of growth for our business.

To their defense, customer service does reply fairly quickly. They do try and it seems they are sincere in their efforts to help in whatever way they can. Unfortunately, they're dealing with a broken app.

The backend development of this app has a long way to go. The errors and bugs shouldn't exist to begin with.

Because we are in this far, we will continue using Lulu for the time being, in hopes that they are able to iron out these issues soon. I will update this review once they do. Until then, I would not recommend this app.

MotorsportMaps
United States
9 months using the app
Edited January 22, 2024

Recommended. The app works well. So far, all orders have been fulfulled properly. There have been one or two minor problems which customer service have handled well and promptly. In general customer service is excellent. [EDIT - over one year later, customer service continues to be excellent]

There are some downsides to consider before using the app:

- Orders to some locations seem to arrive very slowly... some took around three weeks. Need to let customers know about this, especially if they are expecting Amazon fulfillment times. Customers see the shipping time when they order, but this doesn't include production time to actually print the book, so from their point of view the book often arrives later than scheduled.

- There is basically no functionality for looking through your own orders and gathering data, even just how much you've actually given Lulu. You have to email them to ask for a csv file (which they do provide promptly). In general the app is very poor for looking at data, looking at past orders etc. Searching for past orders is glitchy.

- More costly than manually ordering from Lulu or making a bulk order. They add a fulfillment charge for orders through Lulu Direct.

However I am glad I am using the app, despite these limitations

The CES Book
United States
Over 1 year using the app
Edited March 25, 2020

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.

Commandinglife
United States
Over 1 year using the app
December 6, 2020

I am new to the Lulu xPress app, and I have had more than 100 orders go thru the app in the past 2 weeks. The problem is, I can only see my most recent 20 orders within the Lulu app, if I try to click beyond the first 2 pages - it does not show the rest. I am not able to access the status, tracking or customer information for those orders via the app and this is a potential nightmare waiting to happen during the holiday season.

Transit Design
United States
Over 1 year using the app
November 11, 2019

For YEARS I've searched for a solution like Lulu xPress. This is a complete game-changer for anybody wanting to publish a book and sell with complete ease. These guys are way ahead of the game and their prices rock too.

Tommy Owen Design & Publishing
United States
26 days using the app
Lulu Publishing replied January 29, 2020

Thank you so much for your positive feedback and for taking the time to post this review. We're glad you're happy with the xPress experience so far and hope you will continue to prosper with your books!

October 10, 2022

I am very disappointed with the Lulu app. When attempting to edit my books the page will not load. I can't make any updates to my books because of this. The shipping time is marketed at 3-5 business days but all of my orders have taken 10-15 days to deliver. I get that shipping may take longer under certain circumstances but if the majority of my orders are going to take almost 2 weeks to deliver then this app is not worth my time and I would rather go a different route. If someone could help me with these 2 issues that would be much appreciated but as of now I am looking for other options.

zenfulnote
United States
11 months using the app
April 13, 2019

I decided to create notebooks and practice guides for my upcoming training academy and wanted to offer additional copies to my students at a reasonable price. It was so easy to set up my Shopify store, connect the Lulu xPress App and create products. I love the fact that I do not have to buy in bulk and ship any orders myself. This app saves me so much time and money that the free time I do have, I can spend with family. Thank you you so much Lulu for making an app that allows me to connect with my students and create some wonderful training tools.

Altered Aesthetics Training Academy
United States
17 days using the app
Lulu Publishing replied April 17, 2019

Altered Aesthetics, thank you so much for your positive feedback and for taking the time to post this review. We're glad you're happy with the xPress experience so far, but please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any issues. Best of luck with your training academy and thanks again for your review!

December 14, 2018

While the product creation was fine, and the order process appeared to go smoothly, I've ordered a total of 5 books between two orders, and haven't received a single one.

**edit**

Customer service via Joseph has been very helpful with my initial problem, my review has gone from 1 to 3 stars after resolving the misunderstandings that were easily resolved. Holding off for the exciting conclusion to give a final review.

**second edit**

After some swift service from Joseph, my initial order was reprocessed and I finally had 3 copies of our book in hand, and they're absolutely beautiful. Far exceeded my expectations.

I'm hesitant to give the full five stars, because there was definitely some kind of mix-up in shipping with the first order, but the quality of the books and customer service is four stars well earned. I've reinstalled the app and will be giving it another go.

The Rogue Crusade
United States
8 months using the app
September 5, 2018

I think the book printing drop-shipping model is a fantastic idea, and I would use it for many books, but both test copies I've received have been printed incorrectly. There is an issue with the templates that make seemingly centered designs print off-center. The other issue is that our customers don't want to wait 20 days to receive their book. For these customers to get their package in a timely manner, the book would then cost three times what it should, rendering it a useless product.

While we'd love to work with this platform, and while we think that printing one book at a time instead of ordering in bulk would be amazing, this app has a while to go before we feel comfortable using it.

We'd need to proof every single customer's order, and that would take way too much time.

Once the templates are adjusted, and once the shipping rates change, this app will be AMAZING.

Dead Ends Entertainment
United States
12 months using the app
September 17, 2022

The app is very glitchy and there are major issues with their fulfillment and printing of the books. Their site has a production time of 3-5 business days which is false advertising. When emailing them about how it is taking much longer, now on 12 business days they respond saying that they're aware of it and that I should tell customers that it is a custom printing job for each and every book and that should keep them happy. This is before the shipping even occurs. I'm only in the stage of printing out proofs and am realizing I likely will not be able to use this for print on demand and dropshipping directly to customers due to the insanely long print time. This is not a sustainable model for print on demand and more so a better model for printing in bulk and holding inventory.

Travwell
United States
3 months using the app
Lulu Publishing replied September 20, 2022

Thank you for your feedback.

Our average production times throughout the year are estimated at 3 to 5 business days. However, production times can vary based on factors such as order volumes, national holidays, seasonal changes (tax season, the start of the academic school year, etc.), or even uncontrollable/unexpected delays that may arise at the print facility (machine maintenance, inventory shortages, COVID, etc.). And while production times will always be a factor, with print-on-demand you will not have to manage product inventory or manually ship each order. That means you can spend less time on the logistics of running your business and more time growing it.