Are you wondering what the heck a Placeit Mockup is? A few days ago, I was in your shoes.

But my latest venture into an online store (Old Lady Biz Store), presents many new learning frustrations…err… opportunities.

I debated about creating this post at my Old Lady Biz site instead of here at Simply Stated Business. But then I decided there are definitely some business communication lessons learned from my venture into the print-on-demand (POD) world.

Table of Contents

How Old Lady Biz Store Clicks

First, let me give you a quick rundown on how my online store works. If you have similar interests, understand these were my choices. You have many, many options.

When I decided to open a print-on-demand (POD) store, I chose Shopify as my platform for my store’s look and administration. I opted for Printful to fulfill the POD orders.

Confused yet? Enter Placeit to add another layer of confusion. Below is a quick visual of how the workflow works.

What is Placeit and Why Choose It?

Placeit, acquired by Envato in 2018, is an online design tool with a template library you can use to design:

• Logos
• Product mockups, such as those shown on an online store
• Or other digital marketing assets (such as, audio, video, slide presentations)

Printful offers product mockups for your t-shirts, mugs, and other POD products. But I found the mockups and models at Printful limiting. After all, when your store is known as the Old Lady Biz Store, don’t you think some senior models would be helpful? 🙂

So, I did some research and discovered Placeit. Before signing on the dotted line, I wanted to make sure all the moving parts played well together.

• Printful even promotes Placeit to “Level Up Your Brand with Custom Placeit Mockups” and offers a 15% discount.
• Printful shares a video and additional information on how to use Placeit.
• But when it came to actually uploading the custom mockups, that’s when the real confusion began.

The Stuck-in-the-Middle Customer

Because there are so many moving parts to an online store, knowing which platform to use to upload my customized Placeit Mockup is not obvious.

• Do I upload it to Printful to replace their product mockup?
• Or do I go to my Shopify Products page and upload it there?
• When I spoke to Printful, I was told to go to Shopify.
• Shopify told me, “No, you have to add it on Printful.”
• Placeit raised its “We’re partners with Printful but not integrated” defense.

After a huge amount of time researching only to receive conflicting instructions, I figured it out myself. Next, I’ll share what worked for me.

Step-by-Step Guide to Add Placeit Mockups

As I said, this guide is only for the platforms I chose. If you have an online store with a different combination of tools, your steps may be different.

Step 1 – Go to your Shopify Dashboard.

Step 2 – Select Products.

Step 3 – Click on the product of the one you want to change the mockup.

Step 4 – Scroll down to Media.

Step 5 – Click on + sign.

NOTE: If you want to keep Printful mockups (which I did for the additional color variants), you can keep them as shown.

Step 6 – After the Select File pops up, upload Placeit Mockup by clicking on Add Media. Click Done after uploading.

Step 7 – If you want the Placeit Mockup to be the main photo, you can drag it over the existing image under Media.

NOTE: If you do not want the image you replaced (or any of the other images), you can delete it.

Click on the image you want to delete and when the image pops up, click on the Trash Can in the upper right corner.

Congratulations! You just added customized Placeit Mockups to your Shopify platform.

Business Communication Lessons

I promised to share some of the business communication lessons from this exercise in confusion. If you sell a product and you work with other platforms (and who doesn’t today?), consider these points for better business communication.

#1 – Understand your partnerships – Even if your two systems do not integrate, understand how the basic process works – especially when you’re promoting them on your site with a discount. A hands-off approach puts your customer smack in the middle and that is not good business.

#2 – Know your own process – I know, this sounds basic, doesn’t it? But the larger a company gets or if you outsource something like customer service, every representative should know your process or know where to find an answer.

I had an extremely courteous customer service representative at Shopify. He politely explained how I had to go to Printful to upload the mockup. But he was wrong.

#3 – Take ownership – Put the customer first. Although you are certain that what the customer is trying to achieve does not include using your platform to accomplish it, own the problem of finding a solution.

Everyone I spoke to was courteous and attempted to direct me to a solution. But no one offered a follow-up to ensure my problem was solved.

Tip for partnerships – have a direct contact at each business and use those contacts to work together to solve a customer’s problem.

A Mockup for Success

I hope I will spare someone the time I spent looking for a simple solution to my problem. Ultimately, better business communication is the solution to almost any problem.

What questions/suggestions do you have for business partnerships? Please share your thoughts in Comments.

Credit: Bigstock Photo
Credit: Canva
Product Images: Old Lady Biz Store

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Helping you keep your business communication simple, clear & uniquely yours.

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