Company:
Printify
Year:
2022
Duration:
3 Months
Overview
For many Printify merchants, growth came with a cost: hours each day spent answering “Where’s my order?” emails and handling reprints. But most didn’t want their customers to know they were using a print-on-demand service. Printify Connect solved this by giving end customers a clean, branded-free portal to track orders and resolve issues directly, without having to involve the merchant—freeing them up to concentrate on growing their business.
Problem
We needed to build our first feature that would face our merchants' end-customer:
That looked trustworthy and helpful
But felt completely invisible
While ensuring Printify remained behind the curtain
And giving merchants full control
Process
We started with a low-fidelity prototype and ran a series of interviews with merchants to gauge:
Whether they’d use a tool like this
What their dealbreakers were
How much autonomy and control they expected
Most merchants saw immediate value—it meant less customer service effort and smoother post-purchase communication. However, they voiced concerns about brand exposure and losing control of their customer experience.
To support internal alignment, I created a short storyboard-based narrative alongside a refined interactive prototype. This proved powerful when pitching to the broader product org and leadership—including the CEO, who championed the initiative.
Solution
We designed a minimalist, unbranded order tracking page, opt-in by default, and white-labeled by design.
It allowed customers to:
View their order items
See estimated shipping and delivery dates
Get notified of fulfillment and shipping status
Submit a support ticket with photo evidence, without needing to contact the merchant
All issues submitted via the page would be routed directly to Printify’s merchant support team, who could issue replacements automatically—saving merchants time and avoiding frustration on both sides.
Impact
High opt-in and adoption rates among merchants
Tested positively during the beta period
Became part of the Printify Premium subscription offering
Reduced both merchant and internal merchant support overhead
Improved end-customer satisfaction with quicker resolution times
Helped protect merchant privacy and brand consistency
Since the launch in late 2022:
26k stores opted in
58k reviews left
5k issues reported
Over 1m emails sent
Reflection
Printify Connect was one of those rare projects that required deep empathy for three user groups—the merchant and their end customer, and our internal merchant support team. Designing something seamless but highly functional pushed us to focus on clarity, neutrality, and trust.
The outcome is a quiet success story: simple, effective, and beloved by the people it was built for.
