Pillow Profits

Pillow Profits is a Shopify fulfillment app that sells an exclusive catalog of print-on-demand footwear, blankets, bedding, bags, apparel, car accessories and home goods. Its homepage calls it "The Premier Footwear And Home-Goods Fulfillment App For Shopify", and the FAQ says the products are printed and shipped from Eastern Asia. A seller installs the app on a Shopify store, uploads artwork onto the catalog items, publishes them as products, and Pillow Profits prints, sews and ships each order to the customer. The service is for Shopify store owners only: the FAQ says that without Shopify it cannot provide fulfillment, and points sellers with a large wholesale order to its support team instead.

What a seller actually gets

The catalog is broad and leans toward all-over-print textiles and footwear. The pricing page groups it into blankets (premium, quilt, pillow, hooded and sleeved blankets), bedding sets in US, UK and AU sizes, quilt bed sets, footwear, car accessories, caps and hats, masks, apparel, jackets, cups and bottles, jigsaw puzzles, hanging signs, bags, wallets, door mats, decoration, storage, home and kitchen goods, sofa protectors, bathroom sets and accessories. Footwear alone runs from low-tops, high-tops and sneakers to leather boots, winter boots, aqua shoes, slide sandals and slip-ons. Home goods include area rugs, tapestries, metal and acrylic signs, wind chimes, coasters, oven mitts, flags and stair stickers.

Most products are printed, and a few come in an embroidered version with a separate embroidery template: high-tops, car seat covers, the classic cap and the snapback hat. The FAQ says the printer handles as many colors and as complex an image as the seller likes, as long as the file is a 300 DPI JPEG. Each product has a specification sheet and a template with a "Safe Zone", the area guaranteed to survive cutting and sewing.

Orders flow in from Shopify on their own. The FAQ says a new order appears in the app within 5 to 10 minutes, possibly up to 15. With "Auto Order Processing" switched on, orders stay "Pending" for at least 24 hours so the seller can cancel or hold them, and can sit there for up to 33 hours before they are processed. Orders Shopify flags as "Risky" go to an On-Hold folder by default for the seller to review. Changes (cancellations, address changes, removed line items, new sizes or quantities) are only possible while an order is Pending or On-Hold, and must be made in the app, not in the Shopify dashboard. The app resources page carries a video tutorial for each of these tasks, plus guides on publishing several shoe styles on one product page, handling fraud orders and fixing missing tracking numbers.

The seller pays by PayPal or any major credit card, according to the FAQ. Pillow Profits also supplies seller-side customer service material: a "stall sequence" of messages for impatient customers, scripts for lost packages and damaged orders, order confirmation scripts that set delivery expectations, and sizing charts with product descriptions to paste into the store.

Prices and what they include

Pillow Profits publishes its fulfillment costs in four columns: Regular, USA Tariff Price, Express and USA Tariff Express. The FAQ says shipping is already built into each price, with "no hidden or additional shipping costs for U.S. or International orders". Some examples from the pricing page:

• Low-top sneakers, men's or women's: $32.99 regular, $40.99 USA tariff price, $53.99 express, $57.99 USA tariff express
• High-tops: $33.99 regular, $41.99 USA tariff price; the embroidered version costs $39.99 regular
• Leather boots: $56.99 regular, $68.99 express
• Men's hoodie: $34.75 regular, $41.95 USA tariff price, $56.75 express
• Premium blanket, youth size: $22.25 regular; quilt blanket in king size: $50.75
• Bedding set, US Twin: $44.75 regular
• Car seat covers: $32.99 regular, $40.99 with embroidery
• Classic cap: $17.75 regular, $25.99 with embroidery
• Socks: $8.00 regular
• Pillow cover and cloth tote bag: $10.00 each
• Jigsaw puzzle: $23.99 for 500 pieces, $29.5 for 1000 pieces
• Metal signs: from $16.99 for 8x8in up to $79.99 for 22x22in

The pricing page notes that the prices do not include EU VAT from July 1, 2021, and the FAQ says customs duties, taxes and charges are the shopper's responsibility. The FAQ also publishes suggested retail prices, such as sneakers at $49.95 plus $3.95 shipping, canvas shoes at $55.95 plus $6.99 and crew socks at $14.99 plus $3.99.

Production, shipping and delivery

The FAQ lists production times by product. Pillow covers, cloth tote bags and crew socks take 2 to 4 days, leather tote bags and handbags 4 to 6 days, and canvas saddle bags, canvas shoes, suede boots, sneakers, flip flops, casual shoes and slip-ons 5 to 7 days. Standard orders to EMS countries arrive in an estimated 10 to 25 days with destination tracking; the EMS list includes the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Israel and others. Other international orders go by China Post in 2 to 4 weeks without final destination tracking. EMS orders not delivered within 45 days, and other international orders not delivered within 60 days, qualify for a refund or free reshipment. For orders placed in November and December, the delivery guarantee applies only to Express-Line products.

The Express-Line Product Builder is a separate set of products shipped by DHL. The FAQ says these are made within 3 to 7 business days and shipped in another 4 to 7, so most customers receive them 10 to 14 business days after processing. Express-Line reaches a long list of countries, from the US, Canada, Australia and Japan to most of the EU. Mixed orders ship in separate packages, and a standard catalog has to be rebuilt by hand in the builder. The FAQ names countries Pillow Profits cannot deliver to, among them Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru, Morocco and Egypt, and warns that orders to Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Bulgaria, Chile and Romania take more than 50 days.

Product details, policies and support

The FAQ is specific about individual products. Pillow covers are the cover only, 17.7 x 17.7 inches, made of 100% polyester, printed on one side, and fit a standard 18 x 18 inch insert the buyer supplies. The leather bags are PU leather, which the FAQ says is "not genuine leather". Shoes come in no wide sizes, and the only half size is women's 7.5. If a shoe does not fit, Pillow Profits makes a one-time free exchange without the original being returned, but gives no refunds for sizing, and a request more than 2 sizes off counts as customer error. A package returned to sender is reshipped free once after the seller verifies the address.

On designs, the FAQ says the seller confirms the rights to every uploaded design, and losses from customs seizures over copyright or trademark claims fall on the seller. Support runs through a contact widget on the website and in the app, and the FAQ says the team normally responds within 6 to 12 hours.

Who it suits and who it does not

Pillow Profits suits a Shopify seller building an all-over-print store around shoes, blankets, bedding, car accessories or home decor, who wants one supplier for a very wide range of those items and prices that already include shipping. The order tools (a 24-hour pending window, hold folders, risky-order review) suit a seller who wants control before anything goes into production, and the scripts and sizing charts help a small team handle customer service.

It does not fit a seller on any platform other than Shopify. Standard delivery from Eastern Asia takes weeks, so a seller promising fast delivery needs the Express-Line builder and its higher prices, and the pricing page's separate USA tariff columns are worth reading before setting retail prices for US buyers.