Connecting a store to the Shop: guided setup, import rules and what is shared

Connecting a store lets the Shop read its products and orders, so you stop copying them into SimplyPrint by hand. This article covers what is the same for every store: where connections live, what happens the moment a store connects, guided setup, the import rules, what data is shared, and each store's own settings. The store articles cover what is specific to Etsy, Shopify and WooCommerce.

Store connections are under Settings > Shop > Connections (/panel/settings/shop/connections).

Table of contents

• Connected is not the same as set up
• Where stores are connected from
• When a store connects
• Guided setup: a few questions about what you sell
• The import rules, field by field
• What data is shared, and why it starts small
• Each store's own page
• Sending a store's orders to its own queue group
• Reconnecting and disconnecting
• Related articles

Connected is not the same as set up

Two separate steps turn a store into orders in your print queue:

1. Connected means SimplyPrint can reach the store. Nothing has been imported, and nothing reaches a printer.
2. Set up means you've decided what to do with it: which orders and products come in, how printed items are told apart from things you buy in, how orders should arrive, and how much customer detail you need.

Until a store is set up, the Connections page says "A store is waiting to be set up" with a Set up button for it, and the Shop's Overview, Products and Orders pages show a card offering to set it up.

Where stores are connected from

Every store is linked from the place that store's own apps are managed:

In the connection list, choose a store to see its steps. For Shopify and WooCommerce you can type your store address, and SimplyPrint opens the right page of your own admin. During the pilot, SimplyPrint guides each pilot farm through installing the Shopify app and the WooCommerce plugin.

Stores that aren't ready to connect show "{store} is not ready to connect yet". You can still create orders by hand or through the API, and the rest of the Shop works the same way.

When a store connects

The first time your account sees a newly connected store, the Shop greets it: "Shopify store Fernwood Print Co. is now connected", followed by "SimplyPrint can read this store's catalogue now. Nothing has been imported, and nothing reaches a printer until you release it." Choose Set Fernwood Print Co. up to go straight to guided setup, or Not now to do it later.

Connecting several stores at once is fine. The greeting counts them and Set the first one up takes you through them one at a time.

Guided setup: a few questions about what you sell

Guided setup asks plain questions and writes the import rules for you. You can open it from the store's greeting, from Guided setup on the store's own page, or with Answer a few questions instead in the field-by-field editor. It asks:

1. What do you sell in this store? "Everything is 3D printed", or "Printed and other items".
2. How do we tell which items need printing? Only if you sell printed and other items: a tag in this store (such as 3d-print), certain categories or collections, or "I will mark each product myself". Tags, categories and collections are chosen from what your store already uses, and categories and collections are matched by the store's own ID, so renaming one in the store never breaks the rule.
3. How should orders reach SimplyPrint? Bring them in automatically from today onwards, or import them yourself.
4. Which products to bring in: all of them, only the tagged ones, or "I will choose them myself".
5. Mixed orders, only if you sell printed and other items. What happens to an order that has something you buy in (a light bulb, a magnet set) next to something you print: hold the whole order, or carry on with the printed items.
6. How much customer detail do you need here? None at all, just a reference number, enough to pack and post (name, email and shipping address), or a full customer directory.
7. When should an order start printing? Once it is fully linked, does it go to the print queue on its own once paid, on its own paid or not, or wait for you to press Release?
8. Do you keep stock, or print each order fresh? "I print each order fresh" (most farms) is the whole answer. "I keep stock" is for finished items printed ahead and bought-in parts, and for a store that can report stock it also asks whether to read the store's counts and show them beside yours (read-only, never written back), or leave store stock alone.

The last step shows Here is what we will set up and asks whether the answers apply to Every store (including stores you connect later) or only this one (Only Fernwood Print Co., with your store's name). Choose Apply these settings to save them.

If you'd rather do it all yourself, Set up manually closes the questions and leaves the import rules to you, field by field. Nothing you answered is saved.

The import rules, field by field

Everything guided setup decides is a normal setting you can change afterwards. The account-wide defaults are under Settings > Shop > General > Import defaults, and any store can override them on its own page. The settings that decide what comes in:

• New orders: new orders can be chosen by hand (Choose orders manually), imported automatically (Automatically import eligible orders), or paused. Automatic import needs a start date, and only orders created on or after it come in. Saving doesn't fetch older orders; use Import orders for those.
• Payment eligibility and Fulfillment eligibility: by default only paid orders and orders with unfulfilled items come in.
• Which order items need printing: the rule that tells printed items apart, for example the product tag 3d-print. Other items stay on the order without needing a print mapping.
• Orders containing non-print items: hold the order for review, or import the whole order and print only the eligible items.
• Which products to import and Include SKUs / Exclude SKUs (one exact SKU per line; exclusions win).
• Automatically queue mapped orders, and Only queue orders that are paid. A fully linked order is then released as soon as it arrives, with the same checks a person's release has.
• Automatically update imported orders and Automatically update imported products: whether later changes in the store keep reaching SimplyPrint.
• Who owns a product's details: the store (its edits keep arriving) or SimplyPrint (store edits stop after import). Each product can be switched on its own later.

The settings that decide what happens later (refunds, unsliced products, shipping and the store marking orders fulfilled) are covered in Shop settings and permissions and Packing and shipping.

What data is shared, and why it starts small

Every piece of data a store can send is a separate switch, and Confirm data transfer has to be on before anything can be browsed or imported. Connecting a store counts as that confirmation for its catalogue, so a freshly connected store starts with catalogue data only: product and order names, SKUs, variant options, product photos, descriptions, categories and tags, and amounts. Personal data and stock counts stay off until you turn them on.

The switches you'll meet most:

Personalization and paid add-ons are separate on purpose: "Painting: Yes" is a work instruction, while an engraving box can hold personal information. Turning a switch off later stops new data coming in; it doesn't delete what was already imported. How customer details are stored and erased is in Shop customers and privacy.

Each store's own page

Open a store from the Connections list to see and change it:

• Edit settings: rename it (Store display name) and add Shop labels, so "Fernwood on Etsy" and "Fernwood wholesale" are easy to tell apart.
• Guided setup and Import settings: each setting shows whether it follows the Account default or has a Store override.
• Available operations: what this store can do right now (browse orders, browse products, customer directory, automatic intake, refresh, fulfillment updates to the store, read inventory quantities), with the reason when something isn't available yet.
• Connection health and Diagnostics: the last successful call and the last error the store reported.

Sending a store's orders to its own queue group

If you use queue groups, a store can send its orders to a group of its own. On the store's page, choose an existing group, type a name to create a dedicated group, or turn the store default off.

A few things to know:

• Only new orders without a destination of their own get the store's group. Changing it never moves orders or queue items you already have.
• A dedicated group starts empty, with your account's approval defaults and no printer restrictions.
• In the print queue, a group used by exactly one store shows that store's logo.
• An order that hasn't been released yet can be moved to a different group from the order page, with a reason.

Saving a store's queue routing needs account administration and the Queue groups permission.

Reconnecting and disconnecting

Disconnecting a store never throws your work away. SimplyPrint stops reading it, and its imported orders, products and mappings stay. Reconnecting the same store picks them all up again. Etsy is disconnected from its page in SimplyPrint, where you can also choose to delete the store's data. Shopify and WooCommerce are disconnected from the app or plugin in the store. Each store article has the details.

Orders placed while a store was disconnected aren't pulled in by themselves after a reconnect. Use Import orders (on Etsy: Import orders placed while disconnected) to bring them in, under your normal import rules.

Related articles

• The Shop: run your 3D printing orders from store to shipped
• Etsy and the Shop
• Shopify and the Shop
• WooCommerce and the Shop
• Shop orders: store orders, manual orders, review and release
• Shop settings and permissions
• Queue groups: organize your print queue by printer or purpose

Updated on: 05/11/2026