How to connect and use CustomCat with Zakeke

CustomCat is a very popular POD for online merchants. Catalog includes clothing, bags, hats, accessories, jewelry, and drinkware.

With Zakeke, you have access to CustomCat services, which means you can add hundreds of products for personalization from their catalog to your eCommerce store, and have the orders fulfilled and drop-shipped to your customers automatically.

Important

Please note that this integration works only with Shopify or WooCommerce stores. 

Connecting CustomCat with Zakeke

1. Go to CustomCat website and sign up or log in if you already have an account;

2. In the CustomCat back-office, go to My Stores and click on Create API Order under the API icon.

   Important: make sure to choose API even if your store is on Shopify or WooCommerce platforms otherwise the connection won't work.

   

3. Enter the Store Name and Store URL and click Connect

4. Fill in the form with the required information and click on API in the right top corner.

   

5. Copy the API key with Read/Write access level

   

   Important

   You have got two API keys, make sure to copy the one with Read/Write access otherwise the connection won't work.
   
   

6. Go to your Zakeke back-office > Print-on-demand services > CustomCat and paste the API keys just copied and save. 

   

7. The connection is now enabled and you can start adding customizable products from CustomCat catalog.

Please Note

If you use our native integrations with the POD services, the PODs' catalogs will be available only for the first store (master sales channel) that you integrate and won't be available for the extra sales channels you might add to your Zakeke account.

Adding customizable products from CustomCat catalog

1. In your Zakeke back-office, go to Customizable Products > Add a Customizable Product
   
   

2. Choose CustomCat to open the catalog of customizable products

   Please note that only a limited number of products from CustomCat are available via Zakeke.
   

3. By clicking on a product, you'll be guided through a few steps. In particular:

   • Edit the default name and the description of the product;

   • Choose the colors and the sizes, if available;

   • Select the sides of the product, if applicable;

   • Set the retail price of the product and your profit;
     
     

4. Once you finish all the steps, save the product. A new customizable product will be created to your store and your customers will be able to personalize it by clicking on the CUSTOMIZE button on the product page. 

Note

for products imported from third-party catalogs, it is not possible to change the product images and size and position of print areas because they are automatically provided by the POD services and must follow their rules.

However, once the product is created, you can:

• Add a 3D view of the product by using the Zakeke real-time 3D preview feature. You can use this feature instead of the Printful mock-up generator to show a real representation of your products.

• Change the product price.

• Add a pre-made design with editable parts on the product.

To do the above actions, go to Customizable Products and select the product from the list.

How to get orders fulfilled

The way orders get sent to CustomCat for fulfillment changes based on the e-commerce platform you use and payment/check-out settings:

• Shopify

• WooCommerce 

For Shopify merchants

Orders are automatically sent to CustomCat as long as Payment Capture option is set on Automatically capture payment for orders in your Shopify settings.

In order to check your Payment Capture settings go to your Shopify admin panel > Settings > Payment Providers > Payment Capture section.

Please note that orders won't be sent to CustomCat automatically if:

• your Payment Capture option is set to Manually capture payment for orders (read on the difference between the two options here). In this case, orders will be sent to CustomCat only once you have captured payment for the order in your Shopify back-office.

• you allow your customers to pay their orders also through a manual method (such as Cash on Delivery or Bank Deposit). In this case, orders will be sent to CustomCat only once the order is manually marked as paid in your Shopify admin panel.

For WooCommerce merchants

When an order is placed, follow this process:

1. Access the Orders section in your Zakeke back office;

2. Select the line of the new order and click on it;

3. Use the "Send to the POD" button on the top right to get the order sent to the POD.

Please remember

If you accept manual payment methods (such as Cash on Delivery or Bank Deposit) or you have disabled the Capture charge immediately option for payment by Credit Card, even if you click on Send to the POD button, orders won't be sent to the POD until the order is "on hold" status because of no confirmation of the payment. To check the payment settings of your store, please go to your WordPress dashboard and then go to WooCommerce > Settings > Payments.

 

How to automate the process

If you wish, you can automate the process and have the orders automatically sent to the POD without having to click on "Send to the POD". Read here how to make it.