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New Year, New Merch

It’s a new year, and that means it’s time for some new merch!

You can update the look and feel of your shop in just a few easy steps:

Exclusive Merch

If you want to drum up serious interest in your shop this year, you need to roll out limited edition merch designs. Tell your followers they only have a couple weeks or a month to purchase products with a design before it’s gone for good.

You can do this periodically throughout the year and even make your designs timely. Create a Valentine’s Day-themed design for February, or promote an annual summer event with exclusive merch. People like when they can get their hands on something that’s limited edition. It generates that FOMO feeling and can really drive sales to your shop when you put some marketing power behind these designs.

Stick With the Season

While it’s all well and good to have exciting new merch designs, you need to sell them on the right products. Make sure you alternate the products that are displayed on your homepage. Now’s the time to push hoodies and cozy pajama sets. Leave products like water bottles and tote bags for those hot, sunny days.

Your customers might not even realize you sell certain products in your shop. Merch is so much more than T-shirts, and a lot of people don’t realize that. Create marketing materials for your socials that highlight these special products. They might not know what they want until you show them.

Get Feedback

We’ve said it a thousand times, but the best way to know what merch your followers want from you is to just ask them. Be upfront and let them know you need their input on new designs for your shop. Ask them to vote on their favorites in a poll on Instagram, or offer design suggestions in the comment section for your latest YouTube video.

If you want to get your followers more involved, consider running a merch design contest. You can give the winner a small prize and and even send them FREE merch. Your followers will be more likely to buy your merch when they see you care about their involvement. You’ll generate interest in your new merch and creating meaningful conversations with your audience.

We hope these tips inspire you to create new merch for the new year!

Don’t have a shop? Launch your merch shop TODAY. It’s FREE!

How to Sell More Merch

You launched your merch, now what? Your merch isn’t going to sell itself. But it’s not as complicated as you might think.

Start selling when you target the right audience and market your merch effectively. We’ve seen a lot of shop owners find success using these strategies. They take the time to think about your niche and what potential customers would be interested in wearing. That’s key.

Here are some tips you can use to start selling more merch in under a week!

Create an Experience

The look of your shop can have a big impact on your sales. Potential customers will know immediately whether they connect with your merch or not. Make sure your site highlights your merch and showcases the aesthetic you want for your brand.

Pick the theme that works best for you and your merch needs. We personally love the CLASSIC theme. This allows you to have a banner across your homepage. Put a fun graphic of yourself or a photo that will stand out like Eric Feldman did for his online alter ego, Tami Langalang.

He made his Spreadshop look even more cohesive by continuing his brand colors throughout his site. When you use the classic theme you can also preview a number of products on your home page. This is a great place to feature new designs and products that match with the season, like hoodies for winter and tank tops for summer. You’ll make the purchasing decision easier for your customers.

Get the Word Out

No one’s going to know about your shop unless you talk about it. We’ve seen too many shop owners make this simple mistake. Even just telling your family and friends is so important. These are the people that are most eager to help and support you.

Before you roll out a whole online marketing strategy, make sure to tease your merch drop or at least mention your merch in your content. Talk about it in the intro for your latest YouTube video, or wear one of your designs and tag your shop in a TikTok post. This is a great way to drum up excitement before you officially launch your merch.

Start Promoting

Promotional materials are essential to selling more merch. Within a week of launching your merch, you should have quality photos, short videos, and call-to-action captions in your social posts.

Drummer and streamer Ludawissy recently launched her own merch. She did a great job rolling out her merch, especially on Twitter and Instagram. She took great photos of her rocking different products, like hoodies, tees, and hats. This is essential. People want to see real people in your merch, NOT stock models.

When you launch your merch, your customers can get 15% off your entire shop for a limited time. This is a great incentive for people – let them know! Make bold graphics that you can share on socials or you even add to your weekly newsletter or website. If you want to sell more merch, consider launching with exclusive designs that you’ll plan to expire in a couple weeks or a month. People want to feel like they’re part of something special, so give it to them.

The Right People

Having a niche is going to make it easier for you to market your brand and connect with the right people. When people launch their merch lines, they often don’t take the time to think about who their target audience is. As a result, they end up merch that appeals to a wide range of people, which can be difficult to sell. It’s important to have a clear understanding of who your target audience is so that you can create merch that speaks directly to them and sell merch.

Someone like Clueless Bushcraft, for instance, knows who his audience is: people who want to survive in the wilderness. His brand of content is a subsection for people interested in wildlife and the outdoors, but it’s niche enough to be its own thing. Like his audience, he’s new to learning a lot of these things. His merch features catchphrases he uses and other fun graphics. This survival 101 design fits perfectly into his brand. Having a niche may sound limiting, but it actually gives you the power to fully be yourself and market your merch effectively using appropriate hashtags and messaging.

Create Quality Designs

It’s important that your designs look official and not like something your kid brother made. You can create quality merch designs yourself in 5 minutes. FREE design tools like Canva have built-in graphics and text you can use to make your designs. You can make transparent designs and size them to your liking.

If you want something that feels more original, it’s worth it to hire a professional graphic designer. Ask your friend group if they know someone with design skills that wants to gain experience. Use a design service like Fiverr to find someone to fulfill your merch design needs. Search the kind of design or style you want and hundreds of designers will pop up. You can pay them a small fee for their services and get print-ready designs that will look great on all kinds of merch.

Start selling merch with these tips – open you own shop for FREE!

2022 Spreadshop Year in Review

2022 in review saw many big things happen here at Spreadshop. We had the opportunity to attend VidSummit, and connect with our creator advisory board and giveaway winners. We collaborated with more creators and announced new integrations that made it easier for people to make money selling merch.

At the start of year, we were looking forward to all of the possibilities ahead – which is what makes this year end review so exciting! We are thrilled to be able to look back on all that we’ve accomplished and the impact we’ve had on creators.

So what did 2022 hold for Spreadshop? Let’s take a look!

Athletes Making a Difference

For years, college athletes couldn’t accept partnerships or make money off their name due to NIL (name, image, likeness) legislation. We were one of the first print on demand merch providers to partner with college athletes once they were able to monetize their brand. This opportunity has inspired a lot of athletes to give back, like Amari Carter.

Amari – safety for the Miami Hurricanes – is creating change with his nonprofit, Survive Foundation, which provides food and resources to underserved, homeless communities. His merch has allowed him to raise money, and it’s also been a great way for him to promote his message.

Exclusive Merch Partnerships

Spreadshop partnered with experimental rap/rock band Flobots for exclusive merch drops on their tour last spring! Limited merch releases took place throughout their run of tour dates in the US. We’ve been a big fan of them for years, so it was exciting to help them with this exclusive merch.

Buying band merch online is a great option for people who can’t make it to a live show and still want to support their favorite artists. That’s why it’s so important that all bands (big or small) have accessible merch for their fans!

Clamour Creator Summit

We flew out to Arizona in May to attend the Clamour Creator Summit. We connected with some of our favorite content creators, like Mixed Tarxan and Rachel Pizzolato. It’s the only conference designed exclusively for online video creators.

Spreadshop was able to reach a new generation of creators that want to monetize their brand and connect with their fans.

Workshop with Modern Millie

At Spreadshop, we believe creators are more than just a “commodity” or a buzzword to be exploited. In the age of the “creator economy”, there’s more pressure than ever to produce and feed the “content machine”. That pressure also with comes anxiety, creative depression, and burnout.

That’s why we partnered with Modern Millie for a workshop about how to find your content compass. Once completing this workshop you’ll be able to:

– Establish and stay on track with hitting your ultimate goals/dreams.

– Stay true to YOU as you grow as a creator.

– Maintain healthy boundaries to prevent burnout.

– Stay on track with your content without added stress.

The workshop is completely FREE to watch, and best of all, you can work at your own pace!

More People Can Make Money on YouTube!

This year, YouTube announced they were adjusting the requirements for their product shelf, making it easier for more people to monetize their channels.

YouTube Shopping now allows eligible creators (with at least 1,000 subscribers) to showcase their products and official branded merchandise directly on Your audience might not follow you on every platform, so having merch accessible on your channel makes it easy to monetize your content. Stop stressing about AdSense and sell your products on YouTube!

VidSummit Trip and Giveaway

Spreadshop was able to send 3 lucky creators to VidSummit with an exclusive giveaway! The contest required participants to record a YouTube video answering questions about their passions and what they envision for their channel.

A wide range of creators responded to the video challenge. Their Youtube channels cover an awesome range of topics. Van travel, cryptocurrency, original music, fishing, social commentary, comedy, and history creators entered. Each one shows great potential and we know that they all have the ability to grow their channels and succeed as content creators.

Grand Prize Winner: Fishboss (RJ Macalanda)

Runner-ups: Vanderwoman (Christina Doppler) and The Banks Sisters (Keisha and Courtney Banks)

Creator Advisory Board

We announced the formation of the first ever Spreadshop Creator Advisory Board. This is a huge step in our journey of empowering creators. Bringing top notch creators into our internal conversations will keep creators at the forefront of the Spreadshop decision making process.

Since the beginning in 2002, creators, influencers and entrepreneurs have partnered with the Spread Group family of brands. Promoting made to order merchandise helps creators diversify revenue streams and grow their brands. Putting out merchandise boosts your bottom line and helps deepen connections with your followers.

Learn more about the 12 creators!

Spreadshop in Print!

Roberto Blake is one of the leading creators in the creator economy that’s helping motivate other creators to succeed and find ways to monetize their content. And he just published a book all about it!

In his new book, Create Something Awesome, Roberto explores the opportunities available for creators in the creator economy. He provides insights on how to unlock these opportunities and grow a successful channel as a full-time creator.

Roberto has helped hundreds of channels grow from zero to 100,000 subscribers and knows what it takes to succeed in the content game. In his book, he covers topics such as understanding the “creator mindset”, setting goals, and monetizing your channel. Spreadshop is proud to receive a shout out from Roberto in the book!

If you’re looking to get started in the creator economy or want to take your channel to the next level, Create Something Awesome is a must-read. Order your copy today!

Make and sell your own merch for FREE! Who knows, you might end up in our 2023 year in review.

Top Shops of 2022

There were so many amazing shops that launched in 2022! It’s impossible to name them all. That’s why we collected a few of our favorites!

We love seeing the different niches and how people express their passions with merch. The more creative the better. Animal shops dominated, as did TikTokers, podcasters, and other creators.

We want to feature your shop! Make sure to post about your merch on socials and tag Spreadshop to be featured on our many channels. Merch inspo incoming!

Melon and Finn

Melon be smellin’ and Finn’ be sniffin’! After all, they’re two adorable cats with sensitive snoots. They’ve gone viral on TikTok with their reaction to different foods, 180 at this point.

Their merch shop has also been a major success! Melon and Finn have a bunch of designs that feature their likenesses, even some good gag reaction graphics. They’re definitely have a niche area of interest, but they’ve managed to tap into their audience with some cuteness and crude humor.

Soso Swag

TikTok creator Sophia, soso_swag, has found a dedicated following on the platform thanks to her hilarious content. She posts fun commentary videos about what it’s like to be a lesbian in the dating world. We can definitely see her becoming a stand up comedian in the future.

Sophia has formed her own little community with this niche and her merch helps deepen the bond with her followers. Spreadshop has helped empower Sophia as a creator and given her the opportunity to build her brand. Her pride-themed designs are quirky and unique. Check out her shop!

Junkyard Fox

This is a shop for outdoor lovers and adventurers. Junkyard Fox is primarily a YouTube channel that teaches viewers wilderness survival skills and hunting and gathering techniques. Whether you’re an expert explorer or eager beginner, there’s something for you.

Their merch also pulls double-duty as perfect camping essentials. Camper mugs, bandanas, and totes are all multi-purpose items that can be useful when you’re out in the elements.

Lucy Lumen

Lucy is a photographer and content creator that shares her analog adventures up and down the Gold Coast. She documents this on YouTube while also giving tips and tricks to fellow photographers.

We love how she has a cohesive style across her channels and her merch is an extension of that. It’s important to be as distinct as possible with your branding, like picking specific colors and using a graphic style that’s instantly recognizable. Lucy’s shop does that perfectly.

Nikki Connected

It’s never too late to make merch! Nikki has been in the content game for 7 years (!) and she launched her first merch line earlier this year. She’s a finance blogger that helps people make money online. Nikki helps viewers budget their money and gives tips on how they can build their wealth. That’s much needed info right now!

Her merch is designed with girl bosses and hustlers in mind. She took great photos of herself rocking that designs that she blasted out on socials. That’s a fun and easy way to promote your merch shop.

Want to be a top shop in 2023? Launch your own merch today!

Happy Holidays from Spreadshop

We wanted to take the time to wish you and yours a very happy holidays! Our holiday wish this year? To help amazing shop owners like YOU succeed with your merch.

We hope you’re taking some time to relax and enjoy this time with family and friends. That’s what matters most. And once the holidays are over, you can get back to your shop and create some amazing merch. If you need some help, make sure to keep an eye on this blog: we post tips and tricks every week just for you!

The year isn’t over yet – we have a 2022 recap coming soon – but we just wanted to say how thankful we are to have you as part of the Spreadshop family. Happy holidays!

Don’t have merch? What are you waiting for?!