This guide walks you through how to drop ship art prints with Etsy and creativehub, step by step. theprintspace fulfils every order — printing, framing and shipping from facilities in the UK, Germany and the USA.
Step 1: Sign up for your free creativehub account
Sign up for your free creativehub account. If you already have an account, simply login.
Step 2: Create your print products in creativehub
- Go to the Sell Art section of the creativehub sidebar and choose Create Products.
- Design your print products — choose papers, sizing, framing, editions, certificates and other options. Follow the quick tutorial to apply your settings and prices.
Step 3: Create your store on Etsy
- Head to Etsy and register your account.
- Once your account is created, go to the 'Sell on Etsy' option in your main settings menu and follow the steps to create your Etsy shop. This step must be done in order for you to connect with creativehub.
- During this set up journey Etsy will ask you to create a product in order to progress. Set up a manual product. You will be able to delete it later.
Step 4: Connect your creativehub account with your Etsy store
- Navigate back to your creativehub account.
- Access your main setting menu by clicking your name/avatar in the top right.
- Click 'Art store settings' from the drop down.
- Select 'Integrations' from the left hand side menu options.
- Select the 'Connect' button next to the Etsy logo.
- Log in to your Etsy account and connect your two accounts.
Step 5: Import your products to your Etsy store
- Once your prints are priced (step 2), these will be listed in your creativehub account in the 'Product list'.
- You will find it in 'Art store settings' > 'Product list'.
- Next, click 'Import all' if you wish to push all your products to Etsy, or import by product if you wish to import individually.
- Note that Etsy enforces 'stock quantity' on all products. For this reason, we import products that you have set to open editions with a predetermined stock quantity of 999. This 999 is split across variants — for example if you have 3 variants, each variant will have a stock of 333.
- Your products with limited editions saved will import with a stock quantity that reflects this edition number.
Step 6: Add a payment card to enable order fulfilment
When you sell a print in your Etsy store, the customer pays you the full amount via your chosen payment method (this is configured in Etsy's main settings). We then debit you separately for the production & shipping costs. You'll need to add a bank card to your creativehub account for us to be able to take this payment.
To do this, click your profile icon in the top right of the page and select 'Art store settings' from the drop down options, then click 'Payment settings'.
Step 7: Drive traffic to your store
Now you're all set up. When a print sells, we handle fulfilment and ship direct to your customer. You set your own retail price on Etsy — theprintspace charges you the fulfilment cost (print, framing, shipping) and you keep the difference as profit.
Costs of drop shipping art prints with Etsy
A couple of things worth knowing:
- There are no upfront or monthly fees to use creativehub — you only pay when orders actually sell.
- Etsy's own seller fees still apply (listing, transaction and payment processing fees).
If you're still unsure, please get in touch at info@theprintspace.co.uk — one of our friendly team will help.