How fulfilment works and how to get started

Understand the journey

Your customer orders from your store. The order reaches the agreed Colour Apparel fulfilment workflow with its product, variant, artwork and delivery details. After the required checks and payment conditions are met, it moves through production, packing and dispatch.

Print-on-demand means products are made in response to orders rather than every finished item being produced in advance. Your service agreement defines the products, destinations and responsibilities for your business.

Prepare for onboarding

1. Share the product range and artwork.
2. Explain your expected order pattern and delivery destinations.
3. Agree product mapping, payment and the order-release rules.
4. Agree who handles customer enquiries, changes, returns and exceptions.
5. Complete a test order before releasing the live workflow.

The readiness checklist keeps these steps together. A completed connection is one step; a mapped range and successful test are also needed.

Choose your store route

Already using Shopify? Follow the connection guide, then map products and run the test-order checklist.

Need a new store? Colour Apparel can create a Shopify store for you. Use the store-creation route to agree its range, scope, ownership, ongoing management and handover.

Manage exceptions

An unmapped product, incomplete address or payment issue needs attention before the affected order can proceed. Keep the original references and ask the team about the specific reason rather than sending the same order again.

Use the responsibilities and charges guides to understand the complete service, including how your customer receives delivery and support updates.

A complete order example

Imagine a customer buys one navy T-shirt in size M from your brand. The order needs to identify the exact garment, that colour and size, the correct artwork version and position, and the delivery address. Colour Apparel must receive and accept that specification under your service arrangement before production. Dispatch and carrier delivery are separate stages. This example describes the checks; it is not a promise that every store already has automatic order transfer.

What you need to agree

• The supported garment range and decoration, including how unavailable variants are handled.
• How orders reach Colour Apparel, when they can be changed and which conditions release them for production.
• Garment, decoration, setup, packaging and delivery charges, plus the VAT basis and payment timing.
• What your customer sees on labels, packaging, documents and notifications.
• Who responds to customer questions, where returns go and how faults are reported.

Start with one tested range

Bring your store address, designs, expected monthly orders and delivery countries to the team. Agree a sample and a controlled test before opening the full range for sale. Your retail selling price must cover more than the production cost: consider delivery, your selling fees and customer-service costs too.