How to Sell Books on Your Website: Shopify Lulu Xpress Setup

About this video

Dale walks through selling print books print-on-demand from your own website using Shopify with the Lulu Xpress app, as an alternative/dropshipping route to selling through Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, or Lulu’s own store. He discloses the video is sponsored by Lulu. The cost workaround he uses is Shopify Lite at $9 per month, versus about $29 per month for regular Shopify, by embedding Shopify’s checkout on an existing website. The overhead tutorial covers: getting the 14-day free trial at shopify.com/light, creating a store, installing Lulu Xpress (spelled X-P-R-E-S-S) from the Shopify app store, and adding a product with title, description, price and cost. His example is priced at $14.99, the price he says he uses on Amazon, with quantity set to 100 for illustration. He then connects the product to Lulu Xpress, chooses paperback, uploads the PDF interior (the same files used for KDP print can work), selects U.S. trade 6 by 9, black-and-white standard interior as the cheaper option, paper, perfect binding and a matte cover finish, uploads the cover, and reviews the print cost and profit per sale shown. Finally he adds cover/3D images, uses Embed on a website in full view, pastes the copied HTML into a new page on his site, shortens the link with the free Pretty Links plugin, selects the Shopify Lite plan, and tests checkout, noting standard or expedited shipping varies by customer location, and that Shopify has a test feature if you do not want to pay for a proof order. He claims you can sell at a lower price point yet still profit better.

Key takeaways

• Use Shopify Lite at $9 per month instead of about $29 per month for standard Shopify by embedding the checkout on your existing website.
• Install the Lulu Xpress app in Shopify, create the product first, then use Connect with Lulu Xpress to link print fulfillment.
• For the print setup, Dale chose 6 by 9 paperback, black-and-white standard interior, perfect binding and matte finish, noting colour/premium options reduce profit.
• Set price, item cost, quantity, weight and customs information in Shopify; orders are fulfilled through Lulu Xpress in the United States.
• Embed the product page with Shopify’s HTML code, shorten the link with Pretty Links, activate a paid plan, and test checkout before promoting it.

Episode details: published October 26, 2020 · 8:41 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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