How to Bundle Print-on-Demand Products on Shopify (Without Breaking Your Backend)

If you sell print-on-demand (POD) products and you’re thinking about offering bundles — great move. 

Bundles are one of the best ways to increase your average order value (AOV), boost discoverability across your catalog, and turn single-item buyers into multi-item fans.

But bundling made-to-order products comes with a unique challenge: your items don’t exist until they’re purchased. That means behind the scenes, you’ve got multiple SKUs, fulfillment timelines, and inventory settings that all need to play nice together.

Here’s how to set up POD bundles in Shopify the smart way — so you avoid inventory headaches, fulfillment delays, or frustrated customers.

1. Start by Syncing Your Individual Products

Before you even think about bundling, make sure each product you want to include is already synced with your POD provider (like Printful, Printify, Gelato, and Gooten) and set up properly in Shopify.

For example, if you create a bundle that includes a new mug design and a tote bag, but you haven’t added the mug to Shopify yet and connected it to Printful — your customer can check out, but your POD provider won’t know what to produce.

Here’s your sync checklist:

• Upload mockups and product details to your POD platform
• Assign the correct SKUs and fulfillment location
• Ensure every product is connected to Shopify and visible in your POD dashboard

Take the time to set up each SKU properly, upload the mockups, assign the right fulfillment location, and verify it syncs in your POD admin dashboard before creating the bundle.

2. Use the Right Bundle Type

The complexity of your bundle determines how you should set it up in Shopify and your bundling app. For example, in Simple Bundles, we see the three following types of bundles for print on demand products: 

Simple bundle without variants — if you want to sell a fixed set — say, a medium ash t-shirt and a large heather sock — with no choices for the customer. This is the most straightforward and easiest to manage because the customer just clicks ‘Add to Cart,’ and the system knows exactly which SKUs to fulfill.

Simple bundle with variants — if you want customers to choose from a few preset options, like size or color — as long as you stay within Shopify’s 3-option, 100-variant limit. This keeps things manageable but gives customers a bit more flexibility.

Infinite options bundle — if you want to offer lots of choices — like multiple colors, sizes, or designs — and you exceed Shopify’s limits. Here, a tool like Simple Bundles handles the variant logic outside of Shopify so you can offer more without breaking your store or your backend.

If you want help setting up any of these types on Printful, we actually have a video tutorial right here to make it easy:

3. Keep inventory and fulfillment clean

POD products are made-to-order, so you don’t need Shopify to track inventory for the bundle itself, especially because the main SKU for the bundle isn’t going to track the individual items that make up that bundle out of the box.

In fact, leaving inventory tracking on can cause Shopify to block sales because it thinks you’re out of stock — even though your POD provider can fulfill unlimited orders.

Instead, disable inventory tracking for the bundle in Shopify, and let your POD partner manage stock levels for the blank products they print on. 

Also, Simple Bundles breaks down bundles in the order admin. Even though fulfillment is done from the POD service, it's still worthwhile to breakdown bundles into individual components (so tracking at the child SKU level versus the parent SKU for the bundle as a whole) because you can get a feel of which bundle and items are selling well. 

Two reports from Shopify which makes bundle performance tracking even easier: 

1. The Total sales by bundle component report provides a breakdown of net units sold and total sales for each product that appears within a bundle. For example, if you sold a 3-pack bundle of shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel, each of those products will appear as separate rows in this report. It’s useful for understanding which components drive bundle performance.
2. The Bundle component and product comparison report compares the total sales of individual products when sold as part of a bundle versus when sold separately. Continuing the example above, shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel would each appear in the report with two sets of sales data: one from bundles, and one from individual product sales. This comparison helps you evaluate how bundling affects the performance of specific products.

Also, watch out for split shipments.

Remember, POD products can have different production and shipping times, especially if they’re made in different facilities. 

If you bundle items with very different timelines, the customer may get part of their order first and wonder where the rest is. Set clear expectations at checkout and in your confirmation email:

‘Some items in your bundle may ship separately at no additional cost.’

This small touch builds trust and cuts down on support tickets.

4. Be Smart About Pricing to Protect your Margins

POD products usually have higher base costs than bulk-inventory items, so don’t automatically offer deep bundle discounts, or you could hurt your margins.

Instead of heavy discounts, you can add perceived value:

— Include free personalization on one item.

— Add a low-cost digital bonus, like a downloadable print.

— Or simply frame the bundle as a curated set for a specific use case, rather than a bargain bin.

This way, customers feel like they’re getting something special without you sacrificing profitability.

The Best Tools for Bundling Print-on-Demand Products

Hopefully these four tips were helpful. Because, look, when you set up your bundles with care, you create a smooth experience for your customers, your backend systems, and your bottom line.

The Printful team also has a video tutorial to walk you through these steps in detail here:

And if you want to try it for yourself, you can get started on Simple Bundles for free here.

Fast FAQ: Bundling POD Products on Shopify

Can I bundle Printful or Printify products in Shopify? Yes — just make sure each item is synced to Shopify first. Then use a bundle app (like Simple Bundles) to create the bundle logic.

Do I need to track inventory on POD bundles? No. Turn off inventory tracking for the bundle in Shopify. Let your POD provider manage inventory on the actual print files.

How do I get around Shopify’s 100-variant limit? Use an infinite options bundle. Simple Bundles lets you manage variant logic outside of Shopify’s limits, so you can offer as many options as you want.

What’s the best bundle app for print-on-demand sellers? Simple Bundles is built specifically to work with made-to-order products. It breaks down your bundle SKU into individual components for clean fulfillment.

Will all items in a POD bundle ship together? Not always. They may ship separately depending on the print location or provider. Be sure to communicate this to your customers at checkout.