FinerWorks offers FREE order fulfillment in the form of white label (drop shipping) for artists and photographers who want prints shipped under their name or brand.
This brief guide is meant to highlight those features we offer at FinerWorks for artists and photographers who use us as their order fulfillment service. At FinerWorks, we believe providing reliable order fulfillment must be simple. In addition, we want artists and photographers to be confident that their customers will receive the prints exactly as intended. There is no application process, and it does not take any special knowledge or technical expertise. If you know how to access photos or image files off your computer and use the Internet, your basic requirements have been met. If you have used FinerWorks before for online ordering, this guide will help you make sure you have not overlooked some of the tools we offer.
What is Drop Shipping?
One of the first things we did when we built our initial ordering system over a decade ago was provide an automatic drop shipping option. Drop shipping simply means you do not need to carry any inventory or worry about packaging and shipping. You commission the drop shipper (which would be FinerWorks) to send the order to your customers, but branded under your name, so it looks like you or your company shipped it.
Many big online companies rely on this method either solely or to let them ship products that they normally would not be able to inventory. Amazon.com uses this method for some of the items sold, and at the individual level, eBay and Etsy sellers use this method all the time.
How it Works
At checkout in the area where you select your “Shipping Method,” there will be a check box you can click to indicate you want it drop-shipped. If you provide a valid address in your account’s business profile, we will automatically check this for you. The order is then shipped and made to look like you are the sender. No information about us will be included. Prices will also be removed from the packing slip.
Some Examples
WooCommerce
The plugin allows you to sync your WooCommerce store with FinerWorks, enabling automated order fulfillment for your print-on-demand products. When a customer places an order on your site, it can be automatically submitted to FinerWorks for printing and dropshipping.
You’ll need the following:
- An active WooCommerce store on a WordPress site
- A FinerWorks account
- Access credentials (web api key and app key available via your FinerWorks account)
When you set up your billing and payment methods, each time your orders are successfully received by FinerWorks, the payment method you set up within your FinerWorks account will be billed.
You can configure your shipping preferences (how you want us to ship orders to your customers) within the Order Fulfillment App or your WooCommerce Integration. When doing so, we will attempt to ship the order via the method you prefer.
If you have Auto Export configured within the FinerWorks plugin, and your products are synced with your virtual inventory, any new orders will be retrieved based on the schedule you set.
After the order is placed, FinerWorks will update the order with pertinent status information as well as update the order with appropriate shipping information.
Yes, you can choose not to use the Auto Export tool within the FinerWorks plugin and choose the orders you want to export. Alternatively, you can utilize the FinerWorks Order Fulfillment App to retrieve orders from your WooCommerce store.
Only if you want to use the Auto Export tool will syncing your products to your virtual inventory be necessary. Without that, we will not know what products to print and ship. Syncing involved making sure that your Virtual Inventory sku, matches your WooCommerce product sku.
A product code can come in handy when it comes to speeding up the process however, you will need to manually export your orders or use the Order Fulfillment App to select the orders you want us to process.
The plugin is free to download and install. You will only be charged for orders placed for fulfillment.
If you are testing your connection via the plugin and you get a connection failed message, check the logs in the FinerWorks plugin menu. It will usually provide some sort of insight as to why you cannot connect your plugin to FinerWorks.
Here are the most likely reasons:
- Incorrect / missing web api or app key
- Business profile incomplete*
- Billing & payment profile incomplete*
- Shipping preferences incomplete*
The last three should be completed via the Order Fulfillment App.
If you still have issues connecting, reach out to our customer service team.
Order HD Chromaluxe® Metal Prints
Print your artwork or photography as custom-size metal prints. Using the dye-sublimation process, your image is fused to the surface of rigid aluminum panels. These provide a modern look when decorating your home or office. Choose from multiple metal surface options. Order it framed, with a float wall mounting or even with a tabletop easel back.