jamey 3c788bff78 add Printful provider integration with HTTP client and order routing

Printful HTTP client (v2 + v1 for sync products), Provider behaviour
implementation with all callbacks (test_connection, fetch_products,
submit_order, get_order_status, fetch_shipping_rates), and multi-provider
order routing that looks up the provider connection from the order's
product instead of hardcoding "printify".

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-02-15 09:01:05 +00:00

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Provider strategy research

Status: Reference (research notes from Feb 2025)

Research session exploring multi-provider strategy for SimpleShop. Goal: identify the best additional POD providers to complement Printify, with a focus on UK fulfilment coverage.

The problem: Printify's UK coverage gap

Printify's API was queried for all 10 demo product types to check which have UK-based print providers:

Product type	UK providers	Notes
T-shirt	Print Clever (72), Monster Digital (29)	2 UK options
Hoodie	Monster Digital (29), Print Clever (72)	2 UK options
Canvas	Print Clever (72)	1 UK option
Tote bag	None	Ships from US
Mug	None	Ships from US
Cushion	None	Ships from US
Blanket	None	Ships from US
Notebook	None	Ships from US
Phone case	None	Ships from US
Laptop sleeve	None	Ships from US

Result: 3/10 product types have UK providers. 7/10 ship transatlantic from the US, adding cost and delivery time for UK customers.

No single Printify provider covers more than 3 product types within the UK. The Print Bar, Print Clever, and Printify Choice each cover 3 at most.

Providers evaluated

Prodigi (recommended)

Coverage: 9/10 product types from UK
Fulfilment: Own UK facility (Birmingham) + global network (US, EU, AU)
API: REST v4, proper sandbox environment (api.sandbox.prodigi.com), catalogue endpoints, shipping rate queries, webhooks
Auth: X-API-Key header
Pricing: ~10-15% more expensive than Printify on apparel (e.g. Bella+Canvas 3001: Printify ~£7.07, Prodigi ~£8.00), but lower shipping costs and no aggregator markup. Gap narrows on paid plans.
Strengths: Widest UK product range, mature API with sandbox, direct manufacturer (no middleman), lower shipping from UK
Weaknesses: Higher per-item base cost, smaller community than Printify

API highlights:

Sandbox: https://api.sandbox.prodigi.com/v4.0/
Production: https://api.prodigi.com/v4.0/
Catalogue: GET /v4.0/products (with country/currency filtering)
Shipping: GET /v4.0/shipping/quote (per-order quotes)
Orders: POST /v4.0/orders, GET /v4.0/orders/{id}
Webhooks: order status changes, configurable URL

Gelato

Coverage: ~6/10 product types
Fulfilment: Via partners in 140+ facilities across 32 countries
API: REST, webhooks, catalogue endpoints
Pricing: Subscription model (Gelato+), aggregator like Printify
Strengths: Massive global network, good for international sellers
Weaknesses: Aggregator model (same limitations as Printify), subscription cost, less UK-specific advantage

Inkthreadable

Coverage: 5/10 product types (strong on apparel, eco products, embroidery)
Fulfilment: Own UK facility (Lancashire)
API: Order-only — GET/POST/DELETE /orders. No catalogue endpoints, no shipping rate queries
Auth: AppID + SHA1 Signature
Pricing: Competitive on apparel
Strengths: Eco-focused (organic cotton, water-based inks), embroidery capability, UK-based
Weaknesses: Very limited API (can't fetch products or shipping rates programmatically), would need manual catalogue management

Two Fifteen

Coverage: ~4/10 product types (DTG, DTF, embroidery)
Fulfilment: Own UK facility
API: Primarily Shopify/WooCommerce plugins, sparse custom API documentation
Strengths: DTF printing capability, embroidery, UK-based
Weaknesses: Heavy overlap with Inkthreadable's coverage, weakest API of the bunch, documentation hard to find

Printful

Coverage: Wide (~8/10 types)
Fulfilment: Global (UK via Latvia/Spain, US facilities)
API: Mature REST API
Pricing: ~£8.50 for Bella+Canvas 3001, most expensive of the lot
Strengths: Mature platform, good API
Weaknesses: Highest pricing, UK fulfilment is actually from EU (Latvia/Spain), not genuinely UK-based

Pricing comparison (Bella+Canvas 3001 t-shirt)

Provider	Base cost	UK shipping	Total to UK customer
Printify (via Monster Digital)	~£7.07	~£4-5 (from UK)	~£11-12
Prodigi	~£8.00	~£3-4 (from UK)	~£11-12
Printful	~£8.50	~£4-5 (from EU)	~£12.50-13.50
Inkthreadable	~£7.50	~£3-4 (from UK)	~£10.50-11.50

Net cost is comparable across providers for UK delivery. Prodigi's higher base cost is offset by lower shipping.

Recommended strategy (revised Feb 2025)

Phase 1: Add Printful (revised winner)

Original analysis recommended Prodigi for UK coverage (9/10 types). But Prodigi has a critical gap: no mockup generation API. Sellers would need to manually create and upload product mockups, which is too much friction for SimpleShop's target audience.

Printful wins because:

Mockup generation API — dedicated async endpoint, generates mockups on actual product blanks
Own UK facility (Wolverhampton) — ~252 products, DTG/embroidery/DTF/sublimation
Full catalogue API — browse, filter, pricing, availability, all via REST
Live shipping rate calculator — POST /shipping/rates with recipient + items
Mature API (v1 stable, v2 beta) — same Bearer token auth as Printify

Trade-off: ~30% more expensive per item than Printify on base cost (e.g. Bella+Canvas 3001: ~$11.50 vs ~$8.88). Gap narrows with UK shipping savings.

See: printful-integration.md for full implementation plan (~16 hours)

Phase 2: Prodigi (conditional)

Still the best option for shops that are price-sensitive and willing to handle mockups manually. Good sandbox environment for development. Worth revisiting if:

Dynamic Mockups API integration is added (third-party mockup service)
Prodigi adds their own mockup API
A seller specifically needs Prodigi's product range

Phase 3: Inkthreadable (conditional)

Only worth adding if there's seller demand for:

Eco-friendly apparel (organic cotton, water-based inks)
Embroidery products
Niche UK-only products not on Prodigi or Printful

The weak API makes integration harder — no catalogue sync, no shipping rate queries. Would need manual product management.

Skip: Two Fifteen

Too much overlap with Inkthreadable's coverage. Weaker API, harder to find documentation. Not worth the effort unless they offer something unique that Inkthreadable doesn't.

Skip: Gelato

Aggregator model like Printify — same fundamental limitation of routing to whichever facility has capacity, with less control over where items ship from.

Smart fulfilment (future vision)

Once multiple providers are integrated, the system could offer intelligent order routing:

Catalogue collation — unified product view across providers, showing which providers can fulfil each product type
Smart recommendations — suggest the best provider per product based on customer location, cost, delivery time, quality ratings
Order routing — split a multi-item order across providers to optimise for cost, speed, or eco impact (e.g. UK items from Prodigi, US items from Printify)

This is Tier 5 thinking — the architecture supports it via the Provider behaviour, but the UX and business logic are complex. Start with manual provider selection per product, graduate to smart routing once there's data.

Architecture notes

The existing codebase already supports multi-provider through:

Provider behaviour with callbacks for sync, orders, shipping
ProviderConnection schema linking shops to providers with credentials
provider_data JSON field on products storing provider-specific metadata
Shipping context grouping by print_provider_id for combined shipping calculation
Provider.for_type/1 dispatch (currently Printify-only, extensible via app env)

Adding Prodigi requires:

lib/simpleshop_theme/clients/prodigi.ex — HTTP client
lib/simpleshop_theme/providers/prodigi.ex — Provider behaviour implementation
Migration: update provider_connections to support "prodigi" type
Admin UI: provider selection during setup

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