For those who gave feedback about challenges designing hats, we heard you loud and clear.
Without further adieu, we’d like to officially introduce THE HAT STUDIO – Where creators can create and sell hats in minutes.
Just in time, too, because hats are the most in demand item on Spring, especially this time of year. Spring’s Hat Studio offers high-quality embroidered hats for creators, and each hat is made to order.
What led to this?
We realize that designing hats on Spring was a complicated journey, one that required considerable resources, making it difficult for most creators to successfully launch. So we took a slow and complicated tool and improved it. The previous hat-creation process is now gone! *applause*
Here’s how The Hat Studio works:
Find hats in the Launcher
Select the hat style you’d like to customize
Upload your design (simple works best) or choose from the free design library
Input other details (price, title, description)
Publish
Listing goes live
Voila! Hats are now in play and you are ready to promote.
What we improved
First off, there are no digitization fees, it’s mobile-friendly, and it’s available to all creators. There are new colorways and styles (with even more styles coming very soon). It’s an instant launch and it’s FREE!
Basically, the Hat Studio is the ultimate tool to make more money with higher quality hats.
Why hats make the perfect merch choice
As we said, hats are a top choice of shoppers on our platform. Besides being popular, there are a myriad of reasons to use hats to build your fan base. Here are a few fun ideas:
Use hats to foster team spirit (“team” logos are fun)
Autograph hats for personalization or exclusive giveaways
Design Holiday-themed PomPom beanies (perfect for gifting)
Test different concepts in front of your fans so they can vote for their favorite
Check out some of our Hat styles
Popular existing styles but with new color palettes:
Dad Hat
Snapback
Beanie
Trucker
Get excited for new styles Coming Soon:
PomPom Beanie
Otto 5 Panel
Bucket Hat
Tie Dye Dad Hat
We’re thrilled to offer this power tool for our creators. For some useful Hat Studio tips, check out our Embroidery Style Guide blog and happy hat selling!
Spring has always been committed to empowering creators with actionable data to make informed decisions about their brand. Today, we have taken another stride in that direction with SpringBoard.
What is SpringBoard?
SpringBoard is a new feature, available in each creator’s Dashboard, that helps the creator see how they rank among their peers on Spring based on their activity and performance on the platform.Â
How is it calculated?
Spring understands how complex it is to run a successful creator brand. Thus, a score is calculated for each creator based on a combination of multiple factors:
Activity: Does the creator stay current with the newest social media and eCommerce trends with regular product launches?
Quality: Has each new launch by the creator successfully found an engaged fan base?
Scale: With stories, posts, or tweets, how much store virality has the creator been able to drive to their store?
All the above factors are weighted and combined to create a score (between 0-100) for each creator. If a creator is in the “Top 10%” or 90th percentile, the creator has a higher cumulative score than 90% of creators on Spring.
How often is SpringBoard updated?
The score and percentile are computed daily based on the creator’s performance in the last 7 days on a rolling basis.
Eligibility, how do I participate i.e. see myself on the SpringBoard?
Creators who meet any of the criteria below are eligible to be a part of SpringBoard:
If you have signed up to the platform in the last 7 days
If you have launched a product in the last 7 days
If you have made a sale in a last 7 days
If you have purchased an Upgrade in the last 7 days
Note: If you satisfied any of the eligibility criteria today, you can expect to be present in the SpringBoard for a period of 7 days starting tomorrow.
Who can I contact if I have doubts or concerns about SpringBoard?
For any queries, please email us at creatorhelp@spri.ng.
Merchandise integration will provide OnlyFans Creators with an additional tool to build out their businesses and monetize to their fans.
London, UK (17 November 2022) – In keeping with its mission to empower creators from all genres to own their potential, OnlyFans has today announced that it has integrated Amaze Software, Inc’s Spring platform into its creator ecosystem, allowing creators to sell personalized merchandise to their fans on the platform for the first time.
From today, OnlyFans Creators will be able to connect their Spring stores directly to their profile pages. This integration allows OnlyFans Creators to create and sell physical and digital merchandise, such as T-shirts, calendars, and puzzles, directly to their fans on OnlyFans. Creators who open a Spring store can seamlessly integrate it within their OnlyFans profile, making it easier to connect fans to their products and further grow their business.
BKFC fighter and model Paige VanZant was one of the first OnlyFans creators to take advantage of the Spring store feature. Paige has designed a wide variety of custom merchandise–stickers, notebooks, backpacks, and apparel–which are now for sale direct to her fans through her OnlyFans profile.
This new e-commerce integration is part of OnlyFans’ commitment to adding features – like the recent Statistics page, which helps creators make informed business decisions and monetise their creative output.
OnlyFans CEO Ami Gan said, “Our creator community was looking for merchandise options to be able to share another side of their business with fans. As a creator-first organization, there are over 3 million creators on OnlyFans, meaning over 3 million small businesses now have access to a new monetisation tool.”
Aaron Day, CEO of Amaze, said: “Amaze cares about creator monetization, and by bringing new products and functionality, we put the power in the hands of the creator. This integration with OnlyFans enables a whole set of motivated creators with a new revenue stream and opportunity to connect with their fans in a new, innovative way.”
OnlyFans Chief Strategy & Operations Officer Keily Blair said, “Integrating a choice of e-commerce options for OnlyFans creators reflects the important role OnlyFans plays in the creator economy. By choosing to focus on integrations that support our creators’ businesses, we are ensuring a creator-first approach to strategic partnerships and platform growth.”
BKFC fighter and model Paige VanZant said, “I’m super excited to announce that I have a brand new Spring store merch collaboration coming out! I can’t wait to connect with you all through this amazing opportunity!”
It’s easy for OnlyFans creators to begin designing and selling their merchandise on their Spring store. To start, creators simply go to www.spri.ng to open an account, connect the OnlyFans integration, and upload their designs, which can be applied to over 120 available products–from apparel, to stickers and puzzles. Additionally, creators can use Spring to sell any other products they’ve produced outside of Spring’s print-to-order service.
Next, they can connect their Spring accounts to their OnlyFans profile using their unique Spring store URL. As a result, an embedded, scrollable storefront will automatically appear on their OnlyFans profiles. This way, fans won’t have to leave their favorite creator’s OnlyFans profile to peruse their merchandise. When they’re ready to make a purchase, fans will be directed to the creator’s storefront on Spring to complete the transaction.
About OnlyFans
OnlyFans is the subscription social platform revolutionising creator and fan connections. Inclusive of creators from all genres, OnlyFans provides creators the opportunity to control and monetise their content as they develop authentic connections with their fanbase. Since being founded in 2016, OnlyFans has paid out over $10 billion (USD) in creator earnings and established itself as the go-to platform for 220 million users and over three million creators worldwide.
About Amaze Software Inc.
Amaze Software, Inc. provides creator success solutions, including a merchandising platform, advanced commerce design application, and scalable managed services, to help anyone sell anything, anywhere.
We believe anyone can be a creator and everyone should be empowered to tell their unique story, cultivate deeper connections, and create authentic, shoppable experiences that allow them to monetize their passion.
Our mission is to unleash potential, making it easy to create, share, and sell products and services. Learn more and sign up for a free account at www.amaze.co and www.spri.ng.Press inquiries – info@amaze.co
SAN FRANCISCO, November 8, 2022 – Amaze Software Inc. is excited to announce the acquisition of Spring’s best-in-class merchandising platform.
We believe that anyone can be a creator and that creators play an important role in how we learn, connect, and find joy. We take our role to innovate on behalf of the creative economy seriously–enabling creators and creative entrepreneurs to unleash the potential of their content and connections with authentic, shoppable experiences that allow them to sell anything, anywhere.
Looking to the future, combined core capabilities will provide brands and creators with an expanded toolset that will help them drive success through unique opportunities to engage more authentically with customers, create products, and merchandise across social spheres.
Recent creator solutions launched include expansions of YouTube, TikTok, and Meta social commerce integrations, the Sam’s Club Photo and Customization platform, and SpringMark, which offers the ability to protect and manage creator’s designs. Launching soon is a simplified Amaze user experience streamlining page creation, access to expanded design services and the Spring Hat Studio, where creators can instantly create and merchandise embroidery.
Spearheading the acquisition is Aaron Day, Chief Executive Officer of Amaze Software Inc. Aaron has extensive experience successfully leading large corporations, most recently as an executive at Canva. His in-depth knowledge of the creator economy has helped Amaze step out as an industry leader by building better and more comprehensive solutions for creator commerce.
“This acquisition will accelerate Amaze’s ability to enable creator success and monetize their passions. Pairing Spring’s 5.5M new creator stores with the leadership team’s vast social commerce, merchandising, and marketing experience–hailing from the likes of Adobe, Meta, Roblox, and Walmart–Amaze now has the ability to bring even more value to the creator economy,” said Aaron Day, CEO.
Joining Aaron on the leadership team is Spring’s former CEO, Chris Lamontagne, who will take on the role of President and lead the Creator Community and Commerce Group, and Annelies Jansen, who will become the Chief Business Officer.
Continuing their leadership roles at Amaze are Laura Haines, Chief Product Officer, and Amelia Shepard, who will step into the Chief Marketing Officer role, managing marketing, eCommerce, and customer service teams.
About Amaze Software Inc.
Amaze Software, Inc. provides creator success solutions, including a merchandising platform, advanced commerce design application, and scalable managed services, to help anyone sell anything, anywhere.
We believe anyone can be a creator and everyone should be empowered to tell their unique story, cultivate deeper connections, and create authentic, shoppable experiences that allow them to monetize their passion.
Our mission is to unleash potential, making it easy to create, share, and sell products and services. Learn more and sign up for a free account at www.amaze.co and www.spri.ng.
We are heads down here at Spring making improvements to the platform, and so we wanted to share some of the recent updates.
We aren’t stopping here though, and are always listening to your feedback, so keep an eye out for more exciting updates over the coming weeks as we head into the holiday season.
You can now simply create and activate a promo code right after you’ve launched a new listing. Promote your products and drive more sales in a couple of clicks!
We’ve made it even easier to start selling on social platforms using our powerful integrations. You will find these cards pointing you in the right direction, on the dashboard and straight after you launch a new product listing.
We’ve added a bunch of new products for you to customize and have made it easier to access the best sellers and latest additions. More products coming soon!
Ready to start sell products on YouTube? It’s your turn. Creators with 1,000 subscribers can unlock the merch shelf, live shopping features, channel stores and more.
As of last week, you only need 1,000 subscribers+ (previously 10,000) can unlock YouTube’s suite of powerful selling features. This is HUGE; more creators than ever will be able to seamlessly engage fans and sell their Spring products on Youtube.
Head to the monetization tab of your YouTube Studio now to see if you’re eligible below.
This is an opportunity not to be missed. If you meet the criteria, waste no time in checking out the video below for a reminder on how to set up the merch shelf. Here’s a short refresher:
YouTube Merch Shelf
Use the merch shelf to showcase your brand and enable fans to browse and purchase your products directly below your videos.
YouTube Store
Create a store on your channel page that features your products, making them easily accessible to your community.
YouTube Live
Drive awareness and excitement around your products during live streams through pinned product announcements on YouTube live.
Learn more about YouTube’s eligibility requirements here.
Creators and their communities care about their impact on the environment—fact. Leading the change for responsible, eco packaging is also Spring’s top priority. That’s why we’ve partnered with EcoEnclose to introduce eco-friendly mailers for you and your fans.
From June 6th onwards, 75% of sample orders and fan packages will be shipped in new and improved recycled poly mailers. New eco poly bags are 91% recycled, 60% of which comes from post-consumer materials. The post consumer waste that we’ll be using comes directly from the blue bins, specifically in the form of a milk jug.
Each and every order will help to save resources, reduce water consumption, and release fewer greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. See the difference we’re making annually by switching our packaging below for all mailers.
EcoEnclose’s CEO explains:
“EcoEnclose is on a mission to make e-commerce a force for positive environmental change. Our partnership with Spring has been an incredible step forward towards that end vision. To us, Spring represents a really exciting new trend in the future of commerce – they have highly localized production, producing small and highly customized runs, all of which elevates the messages of some of the world’s most climate-conscious change makers. It has been amazing working with their team to transition them to more circular and sustainable packaging – packaging that reflects their ethos and the values of the influencers they work with”.
How can I use my sample to get more sales?
Creators who feature samples in promotional content on social media earn as much as 200% more profit from their products, plus, they’re 6x more likely to get a sale. This is your chance to show off your design and showcase the quality of your product.
Pair social content with a link straight to your listing. See if you’re eligible to start using Spring’s integrations, tag your products in your Instagram stories, or connect your store with Linktree here to present your products
Learn more about how to use samples in your content below.
We feel immensely proud to welcome Spring’s new President and COO—former Meta VP of Commerce Partnerships, Annelies Jansen.
With over 25 years of valuable experience in the industry, specifically at Meta (Facebook), Annelies has achieved some incredible things; like launching Instagram Checkout and building a global network of commerce partners across over 20 countries.
Annelies says: “I believe Spring is uniquely placed to be THE commerce platform for creators… Creators are the heart of Spring, and serving their business end to end is unique. My experience in creating, running and building international growth through smart scaling with an ecosystem of partners in a number of businesses, is a right fit for the Spring’s next phase of growth.”
In her new role, Annelies will focus on developing Spring’s partnerships strategy, to drive growth across the core areas of the platform; enhanced tools for creators, distribution and a leading network of global fulfillment partners.
CEO Chris Lamontagne adds; “We are thrilled to welcome Annelies to Spring and look forward to working collaboratively across all areas of the business’ commerce, partnerships and growth operations. Spring’s goal has always been to put the power in the hands of the creator, and with Annelies working by my side, we can continue to ensure this objective is being met.”
We can’t wait to see how Annelies leads and inspires the Spring team, catapulting us forward on our journey to becoming the #1 creator commerce platform.
The Boosted Network is a service that helps amplify creators’ sales by as much as 15% through enhanced promotional efforts. In 2022, we’re focused on harnessing the power of email marketing to help creators capture even more sales.
We originally launched the Boosted Network in 2017 with a heavy focus on advertising and marketplaces (like Amazon, Ebay, etc). However, in the last year, we removed the marketplace element to focus our efforts on unlocking more sales for creators through new advertising channels and effective email marketing tactics. The results? Creators are seeing their sales amplified by as much as 15% thanks to the Boosted Network.
How does it work?
Why is the Boosted Network so powerful? It requires no additional time, effort or upfront investment from you, and helps you generate extra sales. Spring’s marketing experts handle all retargeting efforts through advertisements and email, and you’ll earn a guaranteed profit amount for every sale made.
The Boosted Network works best when you drive fans to your listings and stores. If they don’t purchase your product, we’ll encourage them to come back to your store with curated retargeting efforts such as paid ads, cart abandonment emails, and more.
Email is front and center.
First, we’re expanding and optimizing cart abandonment emails. No carts will be left empty. Over the last weeks of testing, these emails saw an average open rate of 65%+ from fans, and creators are raking in an extra 7% in sales. The more you send fans to your listings, the more chances you’ll have to capitalize on cart abandonment sales.
Next, we’re expanding product recommendation emails for fans. We curate product suggestions based on your fans’ interests and past purchases to increase your repeat buyer rate. We’ll recommend your latest product launch, or other products you’ve created we think they’ll like, so it’s important to create fresh new products that can be featured.
Please note: For now, these new email marketing efforts will feature simple, Spring branded templates. The plan is to incorporate custom creator branding across all buyer marketing emails. We’ll also aim to begin testing buyer marketing SMS in summer 2022.
Optimizing paid promotional efforts
Along with adding email marketing to the mix, we’ve focused specifically on enhancing our paid ad performance. This is an ongoing effort, but recently we have focused on Google and Facebook:
Google: Firstly, we’ve added Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) which means all Spring creators opted into the Boosted Network will notice their products will appear in higher google search results. We’ve improved the feed for Google Shopping too, meaning your listings will appear above competing ads.
Facebook and Instagram: We’ll be paying close attention to the performance of paid ads on Facebook by optimizing the wording, while tweaking the target audience where necessary. Additional changes include updated tracking in light of new iOS14 updates, and we’ve implemented retargeting ads to make your products appear first before others.
Your guaranteed profit
Don’t forget, this service requires no upfront costs, and the fee is only applied if a sale is captured due to boosted marketing efforts. You can find the boosted payout structure below for each product category.
To ensure your products are eligible for the Boosted Network, they must have the minimum profit margin listed below. For example, a sticker with a profit of $1 would not be eligible to be sold on the Boosted Network; it needs to have a profit margin of at least $2 to be eligible.
Boosted profit payout structure for each product category
Now, watch the sales roll in
From May 2nd onwards, email marketing sales will be attributed to the Boosted Network within your account analytics—so expect to see a jump in boosted profit. Check out the screenshot below to see how boosted sales will appear.
Example of how boosted sales will appear in your Analytics
Don’t want to earn extra sales through this service or fancy opting back in? No problem. Just untick the “feature my listings in Spring’s Boosted Network” option within your Spring account settings here to opt-out.
High-quality, one-of-a-kind, custom products for all. Like the sound of that? Here’s what to look out for this spring and beyond.
Last year was one for the books; we rebranded to Spring, hit 8 million+ creators, launched new partnerships, and expanded our product offering. We also made a commitment to provide top quality products to our creators and their fans. One of the ways we plan to empower more creators is to tap into bespoke products like never before—with the help of our brand new Custom Products Team.
Expanding custom product access
In the past, creators have had profound success with bespoke products like board games, NFTs, toys, plushies, and puzzles. Moving forward, we want more creators to dream big; launching everything from their own makeup collections, to candles, coin trays, pin packs, perfumes, jewelry, and even food products like coffees and teas.
Our Custom Products Team is dedicated to building powerful partnerships and creating opportunities for creators to offer one-of-a-kind products to their fans. We’ve also ramped up our digital efforts, removing barriers to exciting new products like NFTs, Metaverse merch, and much more to come.
Base cost adjustments
In tandem with expanding our product line, we also need to make adjustments to our current product offering. Due to increased inflation rates and energy prices, the base cost of several products need to be updated accordingly. This increase enables us to continue offering key features and services like order processing, production, shipping and handling, not to mention our in-house support teams who love to assist you and your fans.
These changes will take effect on June 1st, 2022. You can see impacted product and categories in the table below. You can also reference all product pricing here.
Here’s what to expect:
If you’d like to make adjustments ahead of time, you can edit product prices for your listings within your dashboard. If you prefer to wait, no sweat, here’s how the pricing update will work:
As of June 1st, 2022, the specific cost changes listed in the section above will be applied to new product launches.
For existing products on the list, the base cost will update once the product’s print cycle restarts (following a sale).
After the base cost is updated, if any products have a negative profit margin, we’ll automatically round the selling price up to the nearest $0.99 amount that ensures profitability.
You’ll receive an email notification indicating the products that have been updated so you can make further changes if you like.
For example, if your product has a selling price of $15.00 but has a negative profit margin because of the update to the base cost, we’ll round up the selling price to the nearest profitable amount, for example $15.99, to ensure there is a positive profit margin.
Don’t forget, if you’re running any promotions make sure you’ve got enough profit margin to support the discount you’re offering. As always, if you have any questions our Creator Experience Team is standing by to help at creatorhelp@spri.ng.
