The Order Import Tool allows you to import a .CSV or a .XLSX file containing multiple orders for Lulu projects that you've collected outside of Lulu. We'll print and dropship each order to your customers around the world!



How to Use The Order Import Tool

To use the Order Import Tool, first log into your Lulu account, then click My Stores in the upper right corner of the Lulu homepage. From there, click Order Import.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prepare Your Spreadsheet

To begin your order import, click Download Order Import Template and transfer your order data to the spreadsheet. Each row will need to match Lulu’s requirements according to the template. As an example, your CSV file with order data may look something like this.


Required Customer Information:

  1. Channel_Order_ID - This is a unique Order ID provided by the platform where the order originated. If you manually collected orders (i.e. at an in-person event) you will need to create and add your own unique ID here (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc).
    IMPORTANT: Each ID must be unique.

  2. Channel_Item_ID - This is the identifier of the product that was ordered by the customer. In platforms like Shopify, Kickstarter, etc. these IDs are part of the export. If you collected orders manually, you will need to create your own ID. This identifier is what you will use to map orders to your projects in the Mapping step of the import process, so it is important to understand which product each ID represents.

  3. Lulu_Order_ID - A Lulu Order ID is assigned to each order after the order import process has been completed. The column should be left blank in the template you prepare.

  4. Contact_Email - This refers to a contact email for the recipient. Couriers may use this to let the recipient know the item is being delivered if the recipient has signed up for this service.

  5. Contact_Phone_Number - This refers to a contact phone number for the recipient. Couriers may use this to let the recipient know the item is being delivered if they’ve signed up for this service. This is especially important, as couriers also sometimes need to contact the recipient for help delivering the package.

  6. Shipping Address Fields - Each line for the shipping address information has a character limit of 30. It is also important to note that any order with a PO Box address will need to have either Mail or Priority Mail shipping applied in the Select Shipping Options step. In the shipping country field, be sure to only use standardized 2-digit country codes, as seen in the official ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 Country Code naming convention.


Note: All fields on the import template are required except street2, state, and organization. The state field is only required when the shipping destination requires a state for address validation.


Preparing the Order Import

Once you have prepared your spreadsheet, return to the Order Import page on Lulu. 


Selecting a Store Channel

In the Order Channel Section, you can choose to create a Channel Name, or Select your Store Channel. 


If you have a Shopify, WooCommerce, or Wix store connected to Lulu Direct, use the drop-down menu to select your Store Channel. 



Selecting your store channel will allow the following features with your orders:


  • Lulu can update the status of your Shopify orders on the Lulu Direct Store Order Dashboard, which will also trigger order status updates in Shopify automatically. Upon the order's completion, the Shopify Status will update to "fulfilled", sending the customer their shipping and tracking information.
  • Lulu can import your store's custom packing slip information, and ship your branded packing slip with orders.


Note: At this time order status updates are not compatible with WooCommerce or Wix stores.


Opting In or Out

You have the ability to choose whether Lulu sends order shipping emails and tracking to your customer or not. If you do not want your customers to be automatically notified, you can opt-out of this by selecting "I'll handle my own order shipping emails" option. 



To opt-in, select "Send my customers an order shipment email for me." If you opt-in to Lulu sending shipping emails, but you do not have a store connected to Lulu Direct, you will need to add recipient information for the customer, manually.


Order fulfillment emails will be sent to the customer via a discrete, non-Lulu branded email domain.





If you opt-in and you do have a store connected to Lulu Direct, you will see your store information. 



Note: The address shown reflects whichever return address you have entered for your store's packing slip.



Creating a Channel Name

If you do not have a store connected to Lulu Direct via Shopify, WooCommerce, or Wix, enter a Channel Name, instead. A Channel Name serves as a label for your orders, allowing you to filter and track them more efficiently. You can choose any name, but we recommend selecting one that helps you easily identify imports for your records—for example, “Kickstarter 2022.”


Uploading Your File

Once your Store Channel or Channel Name have been prepared, upload your spreadsheet. Once it has been approved, click Map Your Products at the bottom of the page. 


Map Your Products

On the Map Your Products page, you will map each order in your import to an existing, published Lulu Project. Review the Channel Item IDs and map each one to a Project from the drop-down list. The Order Import Tool is only for ordering published print projects, so ebooks and draft projects will not appear in the list.



Important: Take care while choosing your Projects from the list to ensure the correct Project is mapped to each Channel Item ID. Every step of the import process is locked once you proceed to the next step.

Select Shipping Options

After all of your orders have been mapped to a Product, click Continue to Shipping.  


For shipping, all orders are grouped together by country. This means that all orders shipping to a country will be shipped via the same shipping option. For example, if you have 15 orders being shipped to Canada and select Mail shipping, all 15 orders will ship by Mail. By default, we assign the least expensive trackable shipping method to your orders, but the method can be adjusted on this page.


Note: On the shipping step, we show the shipping prices as "Starting at [amount]." This is because some orders in your spreadsheet may contain more than one item, which increases the shipping price.


Learn more about shipping with our Shipping FAQs.

Review

Next, click Continue to Review to review your orders. On this page, you will find all of the orders you just imported, a summary, and the price of each order. You can also click Export Details on this page to download a detailed report of the orders for your review. If everything looks good, click Accept and Checkout.

Pay


Each order has an added fulfillment fee. The fulfillment fee is the same regardless of the number of items in an order, but it does vary based on the currency you pay us to fulfill the order.

Fulfillment fees per currency:

USD: 0.75
GBP: 0.65
EUR: 0.75
AUD: 1.15
CAD: 1.05


On the Pay Order page, enter your billing details. If you would like to save your card on file for future orders, you can do so from this page by clicking the checkbox below the card information area. This will allow Lulu to include your payment information automatically during future imports. 



After you have entered your payment details and reviewed everything to ensure it is correct, click Pay Now. 


Note: Lulu.com discount codes cannot be applied to orders created with the Order Import Tool.


Once you’ve paid, your order import is complete! You will receive a single confirmation email that summarizes the information about the payment you just made. 

Order Management

Once the orders have been paid for, you can view them from the Lulu Direct Orders page. On this page, you will be able to filter by your Channel names, order status, date, and more. You can also export the results of a filtered search, which is useful for retrieving information such as tracking links for shipped orders. 


If any orders have shipped on a given day, you will receive a single email containing all of the order updates from that day. This email will contain information about your orders and let you know how many orders have been shipped. It will also include a link to the order list in Lulu Direct, which will be filtered by the Channel you created when importing the orders.