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April Assortment Updates (Europe)

Spring cleaning is not over yet! It’s time to say good-bye to the era of the retro T-shirt. If you sell this product, be sure to adjust your Shop assortment accordingly. In other news, we’ve expanded the color options for the always popular tote bag. Here are the details…

Color Additions

Tote Bag (ID 56) this best seller will now also be available in pink and dark green

Product Deactivation

Men’s Retro Shirt (ID 144) will no longer be available once the remaining stock is sold

Any questions about the product updates? Let us know in the comments here or in the forum!

Why Merch For Your Small Business

Starting a business from the ground up can be pretty overwhelming. There’s all kinds of logistical things to think about: maybe it’s rent, inventory, processing, hiring, etc. One thing that shouldn’t be a headache: making merch. You might think, “Why do I need merch for my business?” But the benefits of making merch for your business go way beyond the face value of a t-shirt.

As a small business, branding is crucial in making you a recognizable and reliable source. An identifiable logo and possible tagline is something you should already have or be actively thinking about. Turning that into a wearable design will increase awareness in your own community and make you a more trusted source when people are talking about your business, or finding out about it for the first time.

Use For Employee Uniforms

IMAGE – Employees crowded together wearing merch

This is probably the most obvious reason why you would want to have your own merch.

You want to give your employees and company a cohesive look. If your employees are wearing mismatched everyday clothes, customers won’t be able to identify them and be able to go to them for service; no matter how relaxed and laid back your work environment supposedly is.

Maybe you already have a design in the can that you want to use. If not, take the time to map out possible lettering, images, and messaging you want to use to represent your business. If the creative process becomes draining, take a break, reassess, tweak ideas along the way; that way you’ll feel ready before you upload your final design into Spreadshop.

So, how can this merch tie into your small business’s message?

A business like All Saints Brewing Company has managed to make their employee uniforms feel stylized and specific while not being in your face about it. Fresh Beer is Better – All Saint: that’s what’s on their t-shirts. It tells you everything you need to know about their mission.

All Saints is a craft micro-brewery in Greensburg, PA not far from Pittsburgh that is focused on making high quality, good tasting craft beer with Western PA pride and passion behind everything they do.

They’re passionate about the craft beer community. By saying “fresh beer is better,” they’re asking you to taste it to see the difference and the care they put into it, but they don’t say in a way that feels obnoxious or self-important.

[IMAGE OF SOMEONE IN ALL SAINTS MERCH]

Everything can be tied back to that one phrase you see their employees wearing in the brewery.

That’s something to think about for your merch. How can you translate your business’s message and goals in different ways? This may help with your merch design or just your business strategy in general.

Another great thing that All Saints does to increase brand awareness is have their merch displayed in-house. If someone makes a comment about their t-shirt, or is really into craft beer and what they’re doing, an employee can just direct them to purchase a shirt hanging up on the wall.

Their environment and messaging have all been enhanced by the shirts they’re wearing, and given their employees a cohesive look that feels authentic.

Brand Awareness

IMAGE – People interested in your merch

When you have your logo and messaging down, you can start to build awareness for your brand through your merch. And it doesn’t matter where you are in your business journey.

Small businesses come in all shapes and sizes. You can just be starting, or have a long-standing history with an audience or area, like Papa Gino’s.

Papa Gino’s is a pizza restaurant chain with nearly 100 restaurants across New England. They started their restaurant as far back as 1968, but didn’t get into the merch game until recently.

The people of New England have a longstanding relationship with their brand. Papa Gino’s has been there for them through important life moments and milestones: childhood birthdays, high school graduation, family reunions, etc. And maybe they want to show that love in their clothing.

[INSERT IMAGE OF SHOP PAGE]

Using Spreadshop, Papa Gino’s has given their longtime customers an opportunity to show their support for their business in more ways than one.

They sell traditional logo shirts, merch celebrating their 60th birthday, toddler wear, water bottles, aprons, even Holiday themed pajamas.

They wouldn’t have had the opportunity to sell so many different kinds of merch anywhere else but Spreadshop. And all of this just adds value to their brand.

But you don’t have to be as established as Papa Gino’s to have a shop like this. Since it costs you nothing to have these designs on a site readily available to your customers, why not do it?

Direct family and friends to your shop to buy merch so they can wear it in their everyday lives and spread the word. Showcase it on your businesses social media to let people know what’s available and a different way they can support and help grow your business.

It will make you feel more confident when you go out into the world to sell your business. They’ll be impressed that you took the time to implement something like a merch shop for your customers. It shows how passionate you are about your small business and the potential and see for it to grow.

Market Your Products in a Creative Way

IMAGE – Person with a business networking?

Don’t think your business model translates into wearable designs? You can still keep the vibe of your business and a sense of self even if it might not seem as obvious.

Take Stephanie, for example. She runs an Etsy shop called Minerva Thirteen where she sells handmade, contemporary jewelry. Her personal style and the feel of her pieces are eclectic and all capture the kind of woman she wants to be and the business she wants to have.

When she started her Spreadshop, she was able to take creative ideas that didn’t seem like they would translate from jewelry making, but worked due to the feel of the designs and the way she marketed them.

Stephanie used the same banner she has on her Etsy page for Spreadshop and tied the designs into that kind of motif.

[IMAGE OF PERSON IN MERCH FROM IG]

One of her designs is a dagger surrounded by roses with the words Minerva 13 in a banner around it. Another shows two fists bumping together with a tattooed M on one and a tattooed 13 on the other.

Stephanie herself rocks tattoos and has a distinct edgy style. She’s able to bring in different elements of her personality that she can’t normally show in her jewelry making business through these merch options.

Another signature design from her (the Minerva Thirteen logo) actually ties in the jewelry element in a unique way: a tattooed hand with pointy fingernails reaching for a lightning bolt, wearing rings and bracelets.

That’s pretty much everything about Stephanie’s personality there: the individuality, the edginess, the creativity, the punk rock attitude of it all.

Don’t get yourself so set in the mindset that your merch has to be an exact replication of your business. You can use designs that evoke the style and feel of your business in a way that lets people know more about you like Stephanie did.

Seize the opportunity to tell more of your story.

Unique Promotional Tool

IMAGE – Person wearing SCP merch doing parkour

It doesn’t matter what area your small business falls into – there’s a way to market it on social media. For some small businesses, it might be more clear depending on the field they’re in.

Steel City Parkour knows their niche well. They’re Pittsburgh’s first and only strictly Parkour and obstacle course training gym. In their gym, they have trampolines, constructed ledges, and giant walls for people to hone their Parkour skills on, and even offer classes for different ages and skill sets.

With such an expressive medium, their merch is perfect for people who do Parkour and film themselves. People can take these videos of them wearing merch and doing Parkour at the gym or in real world environments, post them, and then tag Steel City Parkour on their Instagram.

This makes for a more interactive experience that can help promote the business to interested people in the Parkour community.

You can take this concept and you use it for your business, even if it’s not as physical like Parkour.

Own a cupcake business?

Wear one of your shirts and film a baking tutorial that you can post on all your channels: Spreadshop, website, socials.

Have an online shop for vintage clothing?

Have someone take photographs or film you going to thrift stores and estate sales searching for those treasures while you’re wearing your merch.

You want to think of things visually and how your business can best be represented – and lifted up – by embracing the interactivity of social media.

Having merch related to your small business is going to impact you personally and professionally on different levels. You’ll feel more authentic when you tell your story. People will be able to connect with you in a deeper, more meaningful way. Your brand will be seen as professional and passionate and you’ll be able to connect with new clients or customers with added confidence.

How to Use Instagram Hashtags in 2021

People always tell you to use hashtags on Instagram so you can reach more people outside your little social bubble, but they’re never sure what to do with them. Instagram hashtags, when used correctly, can be a valuable nugget to your shop’s success. They can connect you with interested parties and like-minded communities that share your passion. But if you use them carelessly and follow the mantra of more is more, you’ll get nowhere.

In 2021 when there’s so much competition among businesses – let alone ones that share a niche area of interest – it’s important to have the right hashtags with the right intentions behind them to help grow YOUR brand awareness and connect with YOUR audience on Instagram.

Why Hashtags Are Important

You can’t expect that when you build your profile and start posting about your products/services that people are immediately going to flock to your content. In 2021, you have to find channels that are best suited to what you’re creating with people that are engaged and actively interested in what you’re doing.

Say you have a merch shop dedicated to all things knitting. You turn insider knitting terms into cute and playful designs that fit your aesthetic and can appeal to those who knit. Or create your own crafting jokes that only crafters will get. You’re making stuff for a specific type of person.

People love knitting all over the globe. Miles or oceans could be between potential customers, but hashtags help to bridge that gap.

Using #knitting creates a wide umbrella for potential content and fellow creatives – 19.4 million Instagram posts to be exact. If playing with patterns is more your thing, use something like #knittingpattern to narrow down your search and appeal to those people – you’ll get a slimmer 608,000 posts.

It doesn’t make sense to not use hashtags when it’s essentially free promotion for your business. It’s a way to interact with an audience that relates to the same things you do, and why shouldn’t they relate to your shop, too?

They may be looking for ways to show their love of knitting, and your merch designs play right into everything they were looking for. People want to show what they’re passionate about – you just need to give them the opportunity.

Finding Your Hashtags

If you can’t put your shop into words, then who can? Being able to define your shop in different keywords is essential to not only strengthening your brand, but ultimately helping you find the right hashtags.

If we continue to use the knitting-themed merch shop as an example, we’ll start to see a pattern with the types of Instagram hashtags we have that best suit our audience.

With a shop as specific as this, you have the more standard and popular options. Hashtags like #knitting, #knitwear, and #yarn are all obvious. They describe what area you want to appeal to in basic, broad terms.

When you type these hashtags into the Tags search bar, other options will pop up below that can be relevant. You can also see how popular each hashtag is by the number of times it has been used.

When you just type the #knitting, other options will come up like #knittingaddict and #knittingismytherapy that each caters to different types of knitting enthusiasts. The word “addict” describes someone that is more hardcore about their passion for the crafting pastime. “Therapy” captures a person that uses knitting as an escape to help ground them.

Breaking It Down

This all might sound very obvious, but understanding what words you want to use determines what kind of person you want to appeal to.

Do you want a potential customer that’s whole life is living and breathing knitting? Or a potential customer that turns to knitting in their “me time”? Does your shop cater to one over the other? These are the kinds of questions that you need to be asking yourself to build a hashtag list.

It’s best to stick to the area of interest your shop centers around. Even though it’s technically knitting merchandise that you’re selling, you need to focus on attracting the knitting community. The #merch is in 3.6 million posts on Instagram. And even if you try to get more specific, it doesn’t work out: #craftmerch is in 301 posts.

You can’t dip your toe into every field imaginable, so you need to be strong with the more specific hashtags that you do use.

Types of Hashtags

Depending on what you’re posting about, there’s different types of hashtags you can use to best represent content.

Individual

If you’re promoting a shop/business, you want to avoid anything to do with individual hashtags. These include personal hashtags (#selfie, #vacay), daily hashtags (#workoutwednesday, #motivationmonday), and acronym hashtags (#tbt, #lol).

They’re not relevant to what you’re posting and will be a waste of time because they are such wide areas for content. The chances of you finding users in those hashtags who will have any investment in your shop are incredibly slim.

Professional

Instead, stick to professional hashtags that increase your exposure to important areas of your community.

Community

Instagram community hashtags are the most common when you’re trying to appeal to a particular kind of user. They’re all the hashtags having to do with what you’re promoting, like knitting, yet again.

Broad

The broad hashtags of knitting apply, while other hashtags like #knittingismytherapy and #nevernotknitting would also be considered community hashtags because they’re related to the topic.

Cultural

Cultural movement hashtags are anything related to social change. This includes #blacklivesmatter, #pridemonth, #stopasianhate. If something in your shop is themed around a cultural movement, or you are donating a portion of your sales to one of these charities, these would be ideal to use. Just make sure the post you’re using these hashtags with has relevant information.

Location

You can use location hashtags if you want to appeal to a certain area. If you live in Chicago and want to reach to those in your area, try something like #chicagoknittingcommunity, even its that’s specific. You can even search what state knitting is most popular in (turns out it’s Idaho) to use that statistic to your advantage in a hashtag.

Event

Event hashtags might also be useful. Look to see if there are any knitting or craft conventions happening in the United States, or even abroad. Maybe they want to wear shirts and other merch that shows how dedicated they are to knitting. This makes them more relatable to the people around them, as if they didn’t have enough in common just being there.

Hashtag Best Practices

Finding the hashtags you want to use is half the battle, now you must put them into action.

You should use hashtags on every Instagram post, because why not? People might want to stray away from that because they feel they can make your posts look clunky. But if you’re concerned about that, I recommend typing them in the comment section of your posts. This way, they won’t be right next to your captions, and will still work just as well.

The maximum number of hashtags you can use on an Instagram post is 30, but that doesn’t mean you should. I would stick somewhere between 8 to 12 hashtags per post. This narrows down the people you want to connect with and won’t distract or alarm users with a big clump of hashtags.

Diversify Your Hashtags

We talked about creating a go-to list for your brand but remember there are different types of hashtags that won’t work for every Instagram post. You want to make sure you’re using them effectively. If you continue to use the same hashtags over and over, Instagram might get suspicious of your account and ban you for spamming users and operating like a bot.

The Instagram algorithm – which determines the way and order in which users will see your posts – rewards proper hashtag usage with diversification. You want to be as specific as possible. Even if what you’re posting is similar, you need to find various words that represent what you’re showing as mentioned before. Instead of using #knitting all the time, try #yarnwork, #knitwear; slightly different words that are still accessible for your target demographic.

When you do this, it lets the Instagram algorithm know you are engaged with your posts and doing the work to properly promote them in different hashtags.

To best use hashtags on Instagram, you always need to be thinking about who would most benefit/be most interested in what you have to offer. Know the ins and out of your shop. How you would describe it to a friend gives you everything you need to use Instagram hashtags effectively and efficiently.

Ready to make and sell your own custom merchandise? Start your free Spreadshop now.

Podcaster’s Guide to Selling Merch in 2021

In the mid-2000s, Youtube was able to take someone with a shoddy video camera and an internet-ready personality and create a new career path: the “content creator.” It proved that you didn’t need to have all the right tools to reach an audience. In a crowded content landscape, people are turning to a burgeoning new medium to have their voice heard: the podcast. While podcasting isn’t new, it has exploded as a medium over the past few years. Now that there are many affordable and effective ways to record at home, it makes more sense than ever. We’ll detail how you can use podcasts to build an audience and sell merch today using our Podcaster’s Guide to Selling Merch.

Podcasts allow for way more freedom than other forms of media. Since it’s just your voice, you can talk about anything you want and create a thread of information around a topic that spans across episodes: true crime, sports analysis, movie discussion, etc, etc.

Think of a topic, and there’s already a podcast for it (and potential merch).

As more and more people turn to podcasts, the demand for podcast merchandise has grown. Merchandise is an excellent way of generating revenue from your audience while building relationships with them on a deeper level than just producing content and moving on. Podcasting in 2021 is all about increasing listener engagement by selling merchandise that is themed to your podcast that they can’t get anywhere else.

Merch for content creators is not a new concept. Youtubers have taken this idea and run with it. It’s a way for fans to feel closer to their favorite influencer. And it’s already easy for a Youtuber because they have a platform to promote it.

Same goes for podcasters.

The Local Podcast

Expand Your Product Range

Merchandise will allow you to get your brand out there and be creative for your fans. It can take many forms. We’re not just talking about just t-shirts here – you could potentially sell anything from mugs, to pins! Small items like stickers are great because people can rep their love for your podcast anywhere they want – laptop, water bottle, notebook – at a low cost.

The options are endless when developing merch for your podcast, but certain ones prove to get better results.

Should You Invest in Merchandise?

The simple answer is yes. As a podcaster, it can be difficult to attract revenue because of a crowded market. Say you have a podcast about baking hacks, but it gets buried when people go to look up baking podcasts on Spotify. Building and selling merchandise is an excellent revenue stream that you need to take advantage of to get your name out there. It is also an important way for your community to feel connected to you and your podcast.

Items like hats or mugs are everyday products that can hold special meaning for listeners of your podcast and work as promotion for family, friends, or strangers that see them rocking it in the real word.

It also solidifies and strengthens your brand.

You’ll feel more professional if you are able to carry your podcast brand into an established area like merchandise. It gives you more leverage when you are trying to partner with other podcasts or work with potential advertisers. To say, “Hey, I have t-shirts for my podcast available”, is actually a bigger deal than you may think.

When Should You Create Merchandise?

There is no point jumping the gun with merch creation and developing designs if you don’t have an audience yet. As a new podcaster, it is important to at least build up some sort of regular audience before you invest in merchandise.

Analyze what episodes have gotten the most views, if there is a particular topic that gets more engagement than the rest.

But, honestly, the best time to create merchandise for your fans is when it feels right to YOU.

There is no perfect time or formula, and you will best be able to tell if your merchandise will be well received if you create it. You can even draw up some drafts and pose the question on your podcast, and social media channels like Instagram and Twitter, to gauge the interest of your followers. Get them involved. What do they want to see? What will they actually wear? If they’re involved, they’re more likely to follow through and buy your designs because it’s something they’ve proved they’re interested in.

Drawing Up Designs

There are so many different options you can make when creating merch: use your logo, pull a funny quote from your podcast, use a quirky hashtag – there are endless options. Consider creating something that fits with your brand and that you would be happy to wear yourself. Many creators will use merch as a cash grab and not put enough thought into their designs – but to truly connect with your fans you need to make the effort.

Graphic design can be intimidating, but you don’t have to be an expert to get something that’s clean and represents you. Use online design tools that make it free and easy to upload images or build your own from available fonts and other design elements.

And don’t feel rushed.

Take your time seeing what’s right. Maybe you thought purple and grey were your colors, but now you’re realizing that they don’t look good in certain fonts or with the photos you wanted to use. When you put out something, you want to be proud of it. So, take your time and flesh out your designs and any themes before you go onto the next step.

Using A Print House

The easiest way to sell merchandise is to use a print house that specializes in merch creation. Don’t throw yourself in at the deep end and try to make everything yourself; it will become complex and costly. It’s more convenient to use an on demand service that will handle everything on your behalf.

Easily upload designs and choose what styles and what colors you want your merch to be. Elements like placement and sizing are all up to you, and new products can be created at any time.

Outsourcing your merch through a specialized service will also allow you to spend more time actually working on your podcast and creating better content. You don’t have to deal with fulfilling orders and providing customer support – they’ve got that covered. If you already have a website, you can easily link your shop to your site or vice versa. And you know that the quality will be better than what you could’ve done with a cotton t-shirt from your local retail store.

Peoples’ expectations are high these days, and if they’re not satisfied with the quality, they’ll stop supporting your podcast and your merch.

Advertising Your Merch

Once you take the leap and decide to make merch for your audience, it’s now time to get the word out. The easiest and most obvious way to promote your merch is to mention it in your podcast.

A simple mention at the end of your podcast advising your listeners to check out your merch might be enough to get the ball rolling. Social media is also a great place for you to start advertising your merchandise. Consider creating social posts linking to your shop. Make a video of yourself wearing your merch to show it off. Even create some sort of banner advertisement to go in your cover photo.

As a podcaster, merchandise is a great option for providing extra income, and strengthening your brand. You’ll be able to carry your passion for what you talk about on your podcast into tangible merch people can wear to support YOU. It sounds like just a podcast investment, but it’s also a personal one.

What are the top selling merch items for Podcasts?

With hundreds of products out there to choose from, you might want to know what actually sells the best for real podcasts. Nobody wants to be stuck with a bunch of custom all-over-print socks or silly keychain bottle openers. And that’s one of the greatest things about print-on-demand. You won’t have to worry about getting stuck with products, and you can test the waters by offering one or two items and switching it up as you see fit.

It might seem surprising to you, but the #1 selling product for creators of any kind on our platform is the basic t-shirt. That also goes for podcasters.

Based on our own internal data, and talking with our shop owners who run podcasts, there are a few other items your listeners may want more than others. Stickers and the contrast coffee mug!

Same Brain Podcast

The Same Brain podcast does an amazing job of offering up a cute design that their listeners want to put on laptops. And instead of offering TONS of products, they stick to just those two offerings.

What’s the best merch strategy for Podcasts?

For podcasts that are just launching their merch line, we suggest you focus on one or two items as well to start and roll out new merch over upcoming episodes. Not only does it allow you plug your merch in an organic way during your shows, but you can also create scarcity by disabling designs and letting listeners know there’s only one more week to get the old design before you release the new line.

So, what’s your podcast about?

We love podcasts. Do you have one? Drop us a link in the comments and pick up a few new listeners.

Ready to make & sell your own merch? Get your free shop now.

Uncover Best-Selling Designs in Your Statistics

This new feature has been heavily requested, and it’s finally arrived. You can now see how a design performs in comparison to your other designs. You can find the performance of each design under: Designs > Select Design > Design Performance.

Identify your best-selling designs

By narrowing in on your best sellers, you can learn more about your target group and improve your Shop accordingly. Typically, designs that have fewer sales should be taken offline. This will keep your Shop fresh and make it easier for shoppers to quickly find what they’re looking for.

To get the most out of this new feature there are a few things you’ll want to pay special attention to. Like how much you’ve earned with your designs so far, how often they’ve sold; and on which sales channels or products they’ve been most successful. In your statistics, a graph will also show you when your designs were doing particularly well or when you’ve sold fewer of them.

Improve your product selection

Now that you know which designs sell best, you can refine your product selection. If a design sells really well on hoodies and long-sleeved shirts in the winter; then you should offer the same design on other cold weather products, like jackets and sweaters. As you get prepared for the upcoming spring and summer season, the same principle will apply. Find out now which designs your customers like most on T-shirts and other warm weather merch. By focusing on these designs, you should be able to increase sales in your Shop.

Any questions? Let us know in the comments below!