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How to Sell Your Merch Without Selling Out

You can sell your own merch without selling out. Generate sales and remain authentic to yourself by following our best practices in running and promoting your shop.

Spreadshop is designed to be a customizable, personal experience. We love celebrating peoples’ passions and obscure niche interests. And there are so many out there ready to let you into their community.

You don’t need to use flimsy trends to market your merch. Anyone can do that. People will support your merch when you’re authentic in all aspects of your shop. We’ve got some tips to help you sell your merch without selling out!

It’s a Personal Pitch

You don’t need to turn into a sales agent to convince people to buy your merch. If anything, that’s going to turn people off. You want to promote your Spreadshop as if you were talking to a friend. And this doesn’t just apply to your social posts.

Merch is the new business card. So, use it as an opportunity to tell your story and communicate your passions with likeminded people. Talk about the meaning behind your designs and why you were motivated to open up your own merch shop. You’ll be selling yourself instead of selling out.

Don’t pressure people into buying your merch, either. Consider doing lifestyle photoshoots of people in your merch to humanize things. People will appreciate seeing your merch behind the confines of your site. This makes it easier to find your target audience.

Hit a Bullseye

You shouldn’t feel like you have to sell your merch to everyone – that’s not an efficient or effective marketing strategy. You need to find your target audience. This can be through forums, hashtags, and ads.

Merch designs and social posts should come naturally when you’re engaging with an audience that understands where you’re coming from. They’ll be able to relate to obscure references or insider knowledge, and appreciate it. Having that edge can diversify you from other people in the marketplace.

When you find your target audience, it gives you power to grow. Create conversations that are meaningful instead of money-motivated. This can start with just a t-shirt.

Design Intentionally

Having great designs is key to generating merch sales. You want designs that you’re proud of and will speak to your audience. This is especially true for fandom merch.

Having a shop with a category like this gets into tricky territory regarding copyright laws, but it’s important to stay creative. How can you interpret that in your merch shop without selling out? Be original and use your own artwork – don’t steal other people’s artwork just because it’s popular. That will give your shop zero credibility.

If you’re still having trouble coming up with designs, ask your friends and family for advice. What would they want on a hoodie or a coffee mug? It needs to be something they can identify with. If you stay within a niche, this might come easier.

Power in Your Niche

Selling your merch feels natural when you have a niche. This can help you define your audience and their interests. At Spreadshop, we have hundreds of shops devoted to their own unique niches. You might not have heard of some of the niches – magnet fishing, bushcraft survival – but they have their own devoted followings.

A niche can give shop owners direction. You won’t get lost trying to find the purpose of your merch in the marketplace if it’s already defined in your niche. Find what platforms are most active for people in your niche. No sales pitch needed. Just because you sell merch, it doesn’t make you a sellout! You’ll find an audience by being authentic and true to yourself.

Looking for merch? Open your own Spreadshop today for free!

Behind the Merch Table: Trestles

We’re excited to launch our latest blog series – Behind the Merch Table – where we’ll be featuring bands and musical artists that use Spreadshop for their merch needs. Having a merch table (whether it’s online or in-person) is a must-have for musicians looking to connect with their fans and build a name for themselves.

Trestles, an indie band based in Santa Cruz, California, is our first feature. They started using Spreadshop in 2016 when they formed their first band in high-school. Trestles have big plans for music and merch this year. Check out our Q&A with the band below!

What’s the Trestles origin story?

Trestles formed out of the ashes of our old high-school garage rock band, Sweetwalker. We had a lot of fun making loud, angry music as every high-schooler does. But once we all moved off to college, we started something new that everyone could enjoy. After meeting new friends in Santa Cruz, we started playing fun, surf-inspired indie music. We’ve been playing all over town and around the Bay Area!

How would you describe your music to an alien life form?

Trestles’ music is all about having fun and enjoying the moment. After hearing the catchy surfy guitar riffs accompanied by the jumpy rhythms on the drums, you won’t be able to help yourself from dancing along!

What does 2022 look like for the Trestles? New music? More shows?

2022 is going to be quite the year for Trestles. We are finishing up the recording of our first full-length album, and you can expect it out by the end of the year! In addition to constant local shows in Santa Cruz, we have plans to go play shows up and down the coast during the summer.

How did you hear about Spreadshop?

We’ve been longtime users of Spreadshop. When we first started our high-school band in 2016, we opened up a Spreadshop and sold all sorts of goodies to promote our music. We’ve been using it ever since!

How does merch connect you to your fans?

Even back in the days of our old high-school band, there’s always been a sense of community when someone can show their support by wearing your designs around. We’d always love to see someone with one of our Spreadshop hoodies at one of our shows, or even at school. There’s also some fun connection between everyone whose sporting your merch. It’s super cool to know that you’re all proudly supporting local music! One of our favorite things is when we play an opening set for a much bigger band and we see people in the audience with our shirts on showing their support.

What’s your process for creating merch designs?

Much like our music, we don’t really have a consistent process for creating designs. It’s really whenever someone has an idea we all like, we bring it to reality. The first Trestles merch drop was literally a sketch that our bass player, Sophia, drew on the back of a flyer while we wear waiting to go on at a show. We liked the drawing so much that we digitized it and released it as our first drop on our new Spreadshop!

Do you have any upcoming merch drops in the works?

Oh, absolutely! We love putting out designs because in addition to being musicians, we’re also artists. We have lots of ideas drawn out that we’re eager to release. We may or may not have a single dropping soon. And we might just have to release some promotional merch for it!

Have a band? Write songs from your bedroom? Be the next artist featured in Behind the Merch Table! Drop your shop link in the comments, or tag us on socials.

Want to set up your own merch table? Open up a shop today.

Charity Merch: 5 Shops for Peace

Want to make a statement against the war in Ukraine? You can show your solidarity by supporting these 5 Spreadshops, and get some ideas for how you can use your Shop to take a stand.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, 3 million people have been forced to flee west. Approximately 2 million refugees have been taken in by neighboring Poland alone.

The invasion has triggered anger and dismay around the world, and many people wonder what they can do to show their solidarity. Attending peace protests, taking in refugees, or helping with donations are some of the things you can do. These 5 shops show you how to use your reach to send a signal against Putin’s war and call for a return to peace in Europe and the world. The proceeds from these pro-peace designs are being donated to various aid organizations.

Prinzenart: Art for peace

Prinzenart is an art project of two creative German sisters who love the sea. In their Shop, you can find beautiful watercolor drawings inspired by wind and waves. One of their favorite themes are seagulls. Whether it’s yoga gulls or other seagull characters – the water birds of Prinzenart are simply to fall in love with.

The design “Peacemöwe” is the German’s marine answer to the peace dove. The seagull with an olive branch in its beak flies in front of a peace sign, with “Peace!” written below it.

Prinzenart share the design under the hashtag #makeartnotwar. 100% of the profits will be donated to the Ukraine aid of Aktion Deutschland hilft, as well as children charities Kleiner Prinz e.V. and Hilfe für Kinder in Not e.V.. As of March 20, €750 have already been collected.

Prinzenart gives their customers a big selection to choose from with their Peace Edition, a Light Edition (white shirts, stickers and co.) and a Dark Edition (with navy and black articles).

Check out the website, Instagram, Pinterest or Facebook to find out how the sisters of Prinzenart promote their Peacemaker. Get inspired!

Getsocial: An advertising agency with Spreadshop

Getsocial is a Swedish advertising agency. Their work life usually consists of creating digital advertising strategies for solar-roof providers, content for lemonade companies or advertising films. The creatives have now put their heads together to launch a Spreadshop benefiting the Ukrainian cause.

With the help of our Spreadshop system, We Need Peace was created: a Shop with two peace designs, the profits of which go to the Swedish Red Cross’ Ukraine Aid. The designs are based on the dove with an olive branch – a recognized symbol of peace – and the national colors of Ukraine: blue and yellow.

Having the graphic design resources of an advertising agency helped Getsocial create two particularly beautiful designs. As social media specialists, Getsocial are also a particularly great example of how you can promote your designs and call for donations in a simple way. Check them out on Facebook, Instagram or their website.

Polkaholix: A Band with an Anti-War Message

Polkaholix from Berlin are – what else – a polka band. In their Spreadshop, fans can find fun merch tees, hoodies, and more. But the band also uses their reach to donate to Action Alliance Disaster Relief (consisting of Caritas, Unicef, DRK and Diakonie). Their T-shirt design, “MAKE POLKA NOT WAR.” is featured in white lettering on all-dark clothing.

Their Facebook post with the appeal for donations and the T-shirt got over 60 likes. The band also set a sign of solidarity with Ukraine by coloring the lettering on their Facebook cover picture blue and yellow.

Visit the website of the Polkaholix.

DFG-VK: Germany’s oldest peace organization

The DFG-VK (German peace society: United Opponents of War) is Germany’s oldest peace organization and campaigns against war and the military, promoting non-violent conflict resolution.

Recent designs against the war in Ukraine include the design NO TO WAR! or a design with peace doves.

The NO TO WAR design shows the slogan in German, Russian, Ukrainian, and English, showing that people everywhere oppose the war. Profits from the designs go to the organization’s peace work. You can also take a closer look at their work on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

Social Link DFG-VK

Mom writes a list: Children paint for peace

On Instagram, micro-influencer Julia has found success with her alias mamaschreibt_neliste. She’s shared humorous reels and tips from a mom’s everyday life, and she’s using her reach to call on children to submit drawings against war. The designs are then uploaded to her Spreadshop. In doing so, the little ones are making a very big statement.

“We donate 100% of the proceeds to a reception center here in Berlin. And the best thing about it is that our opinions count on shirts. Say no to war!”

Free designs for your Shop

We at Spreadshop have created a few free designs for you to download. You can sell them through your own Shop and donate the profits to an organization of your choice.

Did the work or designs of one of these Spreadshops appeal to you? Then get inspired and add protest designs to your own Shop!

Spreadshop is new to you, but you feel like making a statement for peace in Ukraine and raise money by selling protest designs? No problem! You can set up your Shop in just a few minutes.

Open Your Spreadshop

Spreadshop and Flobots: Exclusive Merch

Spreadshop Partners With Flobots for Exclusive Merch

Spreadshop is excited to be partnering with Flobots for exclusive merch drops on their tour this spring! Limited merch releases will happen throughout their run of tour dates in the US. Grab these designs while they last!

Fun With Flobots

The first round of band merch designs in the Flobots shop features a cranium graphic with a 2022 date. But there’s more to come. Flobots will be swapping out designs every two weeks, so get on this one before it expires in the coming days!

Buying band merch online is a great option for people who can’t make it to a live show and still want to support an artist. Did you know: we sell posters! If you’re like us, you might have too many band tees for your own good. They’re a wardrobe staple. But if you want to switch it up, posters are a unique merch item and look great when framed.

Flobots are also selling coffee mugs and stickers in your shop. These are great items for everyday use and will remind you of your favorite band every time you look at them. Band merch is powerful. And it can be personal, too.

Behind the Merch Table

We’ll be launching a new blog series – Behind the Merch Table – within the next couple weeks. This will spotlight bands and artists who use Spreadshop for their merch needs. Discover artists in all kinds of genres and styles and learn more about their creative process. Why did they start making music? How do they create their band merch designs?

Want to be featured? Tag us on socials or drop your shop link in the comment section below. Spreadshop seeks to empower artists and inspire fellow creators. Now’s the time to start making merch! Open your own FREE shop today.

Why Merch is the New Business Card

Merch is the new business card. Save paper by making t-shirts and more. You’ll leave a memorable impression and stand out from competitors.

Spreadshop makes it easy for you to make merch featuring your logo and other brand messaging. It will look like you put in more effort in the eyes of potential customers and collaborators. And it’s going to have personal intention behind it, something a piece of paper just doesn’t have.

Learn more about how merch can benefit your brand and business!

Pleased to Meet You

If you want to leave an impression on someone, merch is the way to go. It’s easy to lose or forget about a business card someone hands you. Merch is more tangible and helps establish an initial connection.

Whether you’re attending a networking event like a conference or just have it in your office space, merch shows how much you care about what you do. You’ve taken the time to create something tangible for your business. That t-shirt, tote bag, or, hey, even sticker, takes your brand to the next level. Handing out merch for free can be beneficial. The return can be greater than the investment. Even if other competitors are selling merch, it’s not going to look like yours.

Be Personal

Merch shows that you care about your company, but it also shows you care about your customers. It’s more than just a face value connection. It helps you stand out when attending big conferences or events in your community. Having merch in place of a business card feels more personal, in general.

When people are surrounded by your merch, they can’t help but form a connection with you. Especially if it’s something they use everyday. They’ll see that sticker you gave them when they reach for their planner. That tote you handed out during an event is their go-to for running errands. Around 50 percent of people who receive promotional products use them daily.

People will feel like they’re part of something special. Running a business is a team effort involving co-workers AND clients. And merch, even just a t-shirt, is a symbol of that.

Branding 101

Establishing a brand can sound overwhelming. But it’s easy when you follow the values of your company and stick to a stylized look. Graphics and a set color scheme are essential to this. And having merch for your business solidifies your brand. So many businesses are using merch marketing to help define their brand and stand out in the marketplace. And it takes seconds to upload designs onto products with Spreadshop.

Use your logo or create designs based around your brand colors. You want your merch to feel cohesive and like an extension of your brand. When you enforce branding with merch, it will become easier for people to identify you. They’ll immediately associate your logo and color scheme with your business. Which is important when you’re in a crowded marketplace.

Set Yourself Apart

Whether it’s in your community or the niche group your business is in, it’s important to stand out from competition. Merch gives you that edge. When others continue to hand out tiny pieces of paper, diversify your business with t-shirts, sweatshirts, stickers, and more. Don’t be deterred from being the first to make merch, that should actually be an incentive. It’s important to set yourself apart. It’s hard to say if having merch will attract more clients/customers, but it definitely gets your name out there.

Interested clients will associate your company values with your company branding. This can create more responsibility, but should be taken seriously to benefit your organization. You will become a unique and engaging brand. Whether that’s people investing in your resources, or sharing your social media posts, it’s all beneficial. You might even inspire others to make merch.

Merch gives you so much branding potential, which makes it the new business card. Be personal and extend your core company values into another space. This will attract more customers and shake-up your competitors.

Want to make your own merch? Open your own Spreadshop today!