Month: July 2020

Categories
News

PRESS RELEASE: ‘Creator commerce’ drives Teespring to hyper-growth

Teespring has released new statistics demonstrating the power of creators monetizing their audiences through creating and selling their own merch. Powered by a category dubbed as ‘creator commerce’, the platform has reported four quarters of compounding growth with 97% growth in Q2 2020 alone.

Teespring pivoted in 2018 to focus on building a creator-first platform and forged deep partnerships with YouTube, Twitch and Instagram that has resulted in explosive growth of 300,000+ creators signing up to the platform to build their socially integrated ecommerce stores. Teespring revealed it has on average 2400 global creators signing up to its platform every day, and has paid out over $80M in creator profits over the past 2 years. Average revenue per successful creator has grown by 31% since lockdown, showcasing the power of creator commerce during COVID.

In response to ongoing monetization challenges for creators, Teespring has focused on building a platform-wide approach, making many, if not all of its features available to creators of all sizes. Whilst the platform hosts some large creators eg. Phil DeFranco [6mil YT subscribers], Liza Koshy [17mil], Faze Clan [8mil], Will Smith [8mil] and Mr Bean [21mil], it also supports more niche creators—the likes of Team Kentucky, Mauna Built, and the Fitness Marshall. The effects of COVID-19 on online shopping have been monumental – retail websites generated 14.34 billion visits in March 2020, up from 12.81 billion global visits [Statista.com] in January 2020.

Teespring stats show that its growth in successful selling creators on the platform has been monumental with 213% growth since 2018. One key catalyst of success for the business has been moving away from its roots of tees and apparel. In mid 2019, Teespring rebuilt its technology to allow creators to design their own bespoke products. Bespoke and non-apparel products have driven $49M in sales since launching and are currently growing 109% YoY. As they continue to accelerate, it is expected that non apparel categories will be the majority of all sales by the end of 2021. 

CEO, Chris Lamontagne comments “For us, tees and apparel should be like what books were to Amazon—it was only the beginning. It will always be core to our business, but the future is deep diversification of product range, allowing our creators to sell anything to their communities. Teespring is leading the way in bringing an unrivaled offering to creators which can only be achieved through our deep-rooted relationships with the creators we work with.”

The company’s return to ‘hyper-growth’ follows a dramatic and well documented turnaround led by Lamontagne. The business has pegged its next phase of growth as potentially its most transformative, as it undergoes a radical facelift [due in early September] as well as a product redesign that will help carve the way for selling digital goods and a new set of deep social partnerships soon to be announced.

Teespring, CEO, Chris Lamontagne comments “It’s our continued objective to make ecommerce social. We continue to strive to create a platform that will act as a utility for our creators in helping them build their businesses. By removing all of the difficult parts of selling online – eg, design, social selling, customer service and fulfillment, we are in essence, creating a Shopify designed specifically for creators. We have a lot of work to do, but it’s great to be back on our growth track”.       

                                                           

For all media and press enquiries please contact Teespring at teespring@rebeccaabigailpr.com 

Teespring is the leading social commerce platform which empowers creators with an end-to-end solution to design, promote and sell customized on-demand products without cost, risk or hassle. Integrations with YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, Discord and Streamlabs have helped Teespring to become the go-to company for over 300,000 creators to monetize their content creation and create and sell authentic products to their fans. Teespring has most recently announced its Brand Partnership Program, connecting creators with enhanced merchandise options from top-level brands like Champion, changing the face of e-commerce for creators. In 2019, Teespring became the fourth top visited apparel website in the United States and announced its profitability.

Categories
News

Create merch for the *entire* family with new pet hoodies 🐾

*UPDATE* We strive to ensure all the products you create and sell are of the highest quality for your community. We make meaningful relationships with our vendors to do so. Unfortunately, our Pet Hoodie vendors have been unable to make the products adhere to the highest standard that we hold. Therefore, we have made the decision to discontinue pet apparel as part of our product offering. We are very sorry for any inconvenience and would like to thank you for your patience. 

As of today you can create merch for *all* members of the family including dogs, cats, bunnies, pigs, and more! Create pet hoodies instantly in the Teespring Launcher and offer a variety of size and color options to fit all your customers’ furry friends. 

Product details

Not only do pet hoodies look adorable, they’re also designed for comfort and durability.

  • Features quality poly/cotton blend material with a soft interior 
  • Available sizes range from S – 6XL 
  • Double stitched for durability 
  • Features an opening on the back so leashes can be clipped onto collars
  • The printable area dimensions are 7.5″ width x 9.5″ height (720 x 912px) For sizes S-M, art work will be scaled down to fit.
  • The recommended retail price is $25.99 for this product

We’ve also provided a sizing chart on listing pages so shoppers can see the correct size based on their pet’s measurements and weight. There are even size suggestions based on breed. 😏 

Design inspiration

We’ve collected popular pet apparel design trends to help inspire you! Check out our Pinterest design board below and think about your top-selling designs; would they look good on pet hoodies too? Pet hoodie inspiration

Try offering product combos to increase cart size (image source)

Increase shopper’s cart size by offering matching human + pet design combos (like in the image above). You can also add different designs to different products within your listings to create funny product combinations like “fur mom” and “fur baby” (learn how).

If you don’t have a design handy, you can use the text tool in the Teespring Launcher and add playful slogans or phrases like “sleep, eat, bark, repeat” to your pet hoodies too.

Feeling inspired? Head to the launcher now to create pet hoodies.

launcher
Categories
Creators

How Sanne Vander built a successful merch brand on YouTube from her bedroom

Lifestyle YouTuber Sanne Vander is passionate about creating health and fitness content for her community. Sanne’s wellness–focused channel educates and inspires viewers with beauty tips, healthy living and fitness plans.

Continue reading to discover how Sanne built her brand (VNDR), created a dedicated community of fans (a.k.a. her “Vander family”), finds design inspiration, promotes her products, and more.

Building a relatable brand

“I fell in love with the concept of being able to create video content, upload it from your bedroom and share it with the world. Whether you are making videos or merch, all creative processes start with a story. What message do you want to get out to the world? Don’t be afraid to change your direction along the way.“

Sanne’s brand VNDR official has rocketed since growing her following across YouTube and Instagram. The secret behind her success is being able to engage with fans on a personal level. On Sanne’s YouTube channel you’ll find the “girl chat” playlist, discussing her personal struggles—covering everything from mental health to periods and shaving. Opening up in such a genuine way helps her connect with viewers, building trust around her brand. Fans are able to join Sanne on her fitness journey too, following her work–out experiments and transformation challenges. Her engaging, relatable video content has enabled Sanne to establish a large, loyal following of people who are proud to wear the products she creates.  

Designing products fit for ‘Vanders’

“Creating merch with Spring is super easy and efficient. I use the launcher to create designs directly without using other software like Photoshop or Illustrator.”

By creating her own sleek storefront, VNDR official merch, Sanne joined a network of thousands of influential, young entrepreneurial women using Spring to grow their personal brand.

As well as making design concepts personal to her story and identity, a lot of Sanne’s merch inspiration comes from her fans directly. Sanne’s products include not only variations of her branding, but uplifting messages on her clothing and accessories. For example, her Let’s Glow hoodie features two dragons on the back, encouraging Vanders to “become the strongest, most powerful” versions of themselves. 

Selling a range of products from athletic wear to hoodies, Sanne motivates followers to get #vanderfit and wear them while following her workouts. Take note–she’s successfully integrated top trending loungewear and is seeing promising sales from new products like fanny packs, sports bras, socks, and beanies. 

‘Glowing up’ social media to promote merch

Sanne excels at promoting on social media. She’s got Instagram totally figured out, taking full advantage of the platform’s full range of useful tools and features. Sanne follows promotional techniques on Instagram like highlighting her store link within her account bio, using Instagram stories to feature fans wearing VNDR products, as well as posting photos and videos wearing her own products too.

“My Vanders share a lot of photos of themselves wearing VNDR official merch on social media. It makes me happy seeing how amazing the designs look on them.”

Sanne also effectively promotes her products on YouTube. She’s set up the Teespring x YouTube merch shelf integration to showcase products and increase sales. She’s also optimized her channel banner to feature merch images and most importantly, wears her products in her video content too. As viewers watch her content they’re able to preview and purchase the same product from her merch shelf below the video.    

Thank you to Sanne for sharing her story! You can check out Sanne’s merch on her VNDR storefront, join the #Vanderfit club by subscribing Sanne’s Youtube Channel or check out her VNDR official instagram.

Get started on building your brand and designing your merch below.

Launcher
Categories
Creators

How conservationists are combatting COVID-19 setbacks with merchandise

Deon Appelcryn, the director of Untamed Brewing Company, has one mission—to save Africa’s wildlife, one beer at a time. Centering their work around conservation and inspired by the African wild dog, they collaborate with non-profit organizations. Using income from sales, they support the ongoing struggle to preserve endangered animals and their habitats. Untamed Brewing embraces their passion for beer, Africa and wildlife to fuel their business, vision and product collection. 

Diversifying income with their social store

Unfortunately, like many other small businesses worldwide, COVID-19 has severely impacted Untamed Brewing. Being locked down for several weeks has forced the company to close its doors, unable to sell alcohol or even distribute merchandise to their international customer base. Despite their recent hardships, the team is finding new ways to keep themselves afloat and stay active with conservation efforts through merchandise. 

“COVID-19 has already caused a huge impact on our business, so if it’s extended further, we don’t know how we will recover. However, we have plans in place and are positive we will see this through. In the meantime we can continue to sell our merchandise globally through Teespring to fund our business and raise awareness.”

Finding ‘wild’ inspiration 

Untamed Brewing’s products are created around the face of the business—the African wild dog, making their most popular design the ‘Logo Dog Range’. Deon’s volunteer work with the species is the inspiration and story behind Untamed Brewing’s merch designs. Apart from their popular t-shirts, they offer sweatshirts, hoodies, athletic wear, and kids clothing too. Based on recent sales trends they’ve also expanded their collection to include a range of homeware and accessories like mugs, pillows, wall art, phone cases, bags and socks.

Selling on social media  

As a passionate, global group of supporters on social media, Facebook is their primary platform for promoting merch. By following our Facebook promo guide, they are able to generate high engagement and click through rates on the content they share. Notably, the team also wears samples of their products regularly to raise awareness for their brand, conservation efforts, and drive sales.  

 

“We use Facebook adverts as well as selling merchandise at events. All staff are always wearing branded clothing. We get people stopping us on the street asking for shirts! Our adverts on Facebook cause spikes in sales on Teespring, so we’re pushing those more and more.”

Building a conservation community

From connecting with locals at events to spreading awareness of their work (and beer) on social media, Untamed Brewing’s story demonstrates how you can turn a passion (or two) into a successful business that makes a real, positive impact in real life. Their merch enhances brand building by creating opportunities for followers to support their business, contribute to a worthy cause, and raise international awareness. 

“Creating a custom store on Teespring provided the best option–from fast products to customer service. It enables us to build our brand and sell products at scale without having to worry about fulfillment logistics and customer support.”

Despite the challenges posed by the global pandemic the Untamed Brewing team maintains a positive mindset and looks to the future. We’d like to thank them for sharing their story and wish them the best of luck in the future!

Want to support Untamed Brewing Company and their ‘pack’?

Check out their store, follow @untamed_brewing_company and visit their facebook page Untamed Brewing.

Categories
News

Selling custom cloth face masks

You can instantly create and sell custom cloth face masks in the launcher. This product is fulfilled globally, meaning we’re able to optimize production and delivery timelines based on your fans’ location. Adding face masks to our product offering is the direct result of numerous requests from our user community. We hope this new product offers creators and their followers a sense of community and self-expression in the process.  

create face masks

Customizing your mask 

Product details: Cloth face masks provide full nose and mouth coverage when worn. Each mask’s exterior is made of 100% polyester and can be customized using sublimation print. The interior of the mask contains 100% cotton lining in white. Masks include two white, elastic ear loops on each side so people can comfortably wear them over their face. 

Please note cloth face masks are not medical grade products. You can reference the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) for recommendations on the best types of face coverings to use for self-protection

  • Single-sided print (exterior)
  • 7″ w by 3.5″h size
  • Two elastic, white ear loops  
  • Covers mouth and nose
  • 100% polyester exterior with 100% cotton lined interior
  • $7.50 base cost and $12 – $15 recommended retail price
  • Care instructions: machine wash cold, line dry, do not bleach

Design formatting tips: Face masks are fully integrated in the launcher so you can create them instantly. The exterior of each mask is decorated using sublimation print so you can create a variety of vibrant and eye-catching designs. If you plan to add a logo or text to your mask, consider using our design template to check the ‘safe’ area for placing these elements (see image below)—when worn, the sides of the mask may fold to fit the curve of the face, so design elements outside of the safe area may be hidden under the folds.

Keep in mind we recommend creating design files that are 8.3″w by 7.8″h (2490 px x 2340 px) @ 300 ppi. Check out our free pattern collections that can be uploaded to the launcher as well as our inspiration board for more design ideas. Quick tip, you can easily apply your existing t-shirt designs to this product and choose a colored background in the launcher too. 

How your design will look from template to preview

Head to the launcher now and select “Cloth Face Mask” to upload your design. If you’re new to Spring you can check out our full launch tutorial here. 

create face masks