Shopify recently raised their prices.
Again.
As a result, I began looking at other options to sell my artist merch.
The first place I started is a platform called Spring.
And though I’m still early to the game with Spring, here are four things I’ve learned so far:
It’s easy to get started
It was so much easier to get a merch experience set up with Spring than it was with Shopify.
When I started my Shopify store, I had to connect a bunch of different elements before I could even publish the site, let alone actually sell anything.
Printful to print merch on-demand, digital downloads to sell my music, building the actual online store, etc.
It all took time.
With Spring, I was able to bypass all that. All told, I had a store built and merch available in under an hour—multiple merch items, at that.
It was such a breeze to get it all set up, which, of course, makes it an easy platform to test.
Ease of use made my initial experience with Spring very positive.
The products are expensive
Of course, this sort of low barrier to entry does come at a cost, and it looks like Spring tacks it on in the form of product pricing.
With Printful, for example, the cheapest, most basic men’s t-shirt starts at $9.95.
With Spring, the basic tee starts at $15.34.
When the profit margins on apparel are already incredibly tight, a difference of $5.39 isn’t peanuts.
Now, are these shirts of the same or similar quality? I don’t know, so I can’t say whether or not this is truly an “apples to apples” comparison.
I may need to order some samples and dig into the details a bit more.
But again, it’s so easy to make products with Spring, it almost makes up for the increase in cost.
Almost.
Their integrations are on point
The single biggest initial attraction to Spring, for me, was the integrations.
Specifically, the YouTube merch shelf.
When you pass 10,000 subscribers on YouTube, you unlock the ability to sell merch alongside your videos, and there are not many merch partners that allow you to push to that specific social integration.
Spring is one of the ones that does.
Of course, in addition to being able to sell on YouTube, Spring also connects with Instagram, TikTok, and more.
In a world that’s become increasingly social, this is a huge plus for Spring.
Customer data is a concern
Here’s the big red flag for me (well, maybe it’s an orange flag at this point): customer data.
I don’t know how much customer data I can access with Spring.
With Shopify, I own all of it. I can grab custom emails and retarget with specific offers based on a whole slew of information.
With Spring, those options are a bit more opaque on the front end.
The only way to figure it out, of course, is to sell a few items and see how it works on the other side of the sale.
But for now, at first look, this may be the big barrier to full-blown Spring adoption for me.
The good news is Shopify quietly rolled out a much cheaper starter plan that I can go back to if Spring doesn’t work out.
I’ll keep you posted.
If you want to learn more about my experience with Spring so far, watch this video.
Shopify recently raised their prices.
Again.
As a result, I began looking at other options to sell my artist merch.
The first place I started is a platform called Spring.
And though I’m still early to the game with Spring, here are four things I’ve learned so far:
It’s easy to get started
It was so much easier to get a merch experience set up with Spring than it was with Shopify.
When I started my Shopify store, I had to connect a bunch of different elements before I could even publish the site, let alone actually sell anything.
Printful to print merch on-demand, digital downloads to sell my music, building the actual online store, etc.
It all took time.
With Spring, I was able to bypass all that. All told, I had a store built and merch available in under an hour—multiple merch items, at that.
It was such a breeze to get it all set up, which, of course, makes it an easy platform to test.
Ease of use made my initial experience with Spring very positive.
The products are expensive
Of course, this sort of low barrier to entry does come at a cost, and it looks like Spring tacks it on in the form of product pricing.
With Printful, for example, the cheapest, most basic men’s t-shirt starts at $9.95.
With Spring, the basic tee starts at $15.34.
When the profit margins on apparel are already incredibly tight, a difference of $5.39 isn’t peanuts.
Now, are these shirts of the same or similar quality? I don’t know, so I can’t say whether or not this is truly an “apples to apples” comparison.
I may need to order some samples and dig into the details a bit more.
But again, it’s so easy to make products with Spring, it almost makes up for the increase in cost.
Almost.
Their integrations are on point
The single biggest initial attraction to Spring, for me, was the integrations.
Specifically, the YouTube merch shelf.
When you pass 10,000 subscribers on YouTube, you unlock the ability to sell merch alongside your videos, and there are not many merch partners that allow you to push to that specific social integration.
Spring is one of the ones that does.
Of course, in addition to being able to sell on YouTube, Spring also connects with Instagram, TikTok, and more.
In a world that’s become increasingly social, this is a huge plus for Spring.
Customer data is a concern
Here’s the big red flag for me (well, maybe it’s an orange flag at this point): customer data.
I don’t know how much customer data I can access with Spring.
With Shopify, I own all of it. I can grab custom emails and retarget with specific offers based on a whole slew of information.
With Spring, those options are a bit more opaque on the front end.
The only way to figure it out, of course, is to sell a few items and see how it works on the other side of the sale.
But for now, at first look, this may be the big barrier to full-blown Spring adoption for me.
The good news is Shopify quietly rolled out a much cheaper starter plan that I can go back to if Spring doesn’t work out.
I’ll keep you posted.
If you want to learn more about my experience with Spring so far, watch this video.
Shopify recently raised their prices.
Again.
As a result, I began looking at other options to sell my artist merch.
The first place I started is a platform called Spring.
And though I’m still early to the game with Spring, here are four things I’ve learned so far:
It’s easy to get started
It was so much easier to get a merch experience set up with Spring than it was with Shopify.
When I started my Shopify store, I had to connect a bunch of different elements before I could even publish the site, let alone actually sell anything.
Printful to print merch on-demand, digital downloads to sell my music, building the actual online store, etc.
It all took time.
With Spring, I was able to bypass all that. All told, I had a store built and merch available in under an hour—multiple merch items, at that.
It was such a breeze to get it all set up, which, of course, makes it an easy platform to test.
Ease of use made my initial experience with Spring very positive.
The products are expensive
Of course, this sort of low barrier to entry does come at a cost, and it looks like Spring tacks it on in the form of product pricing.
With Printful, for example, the cheapest, most basic men’s t-shirt starts at $9.95.
With Spring, the basic tee starts at $15.34.
When the profit margins on apparel are already incredibly tight, a difference of $5.39 isn’t peanuts.
Now, are these shirts of the same or similar quality? I don’t know, so I can’t say whether or not this is truly an “apples to apples” comparison.
I may need to order some samples and dig into the details a bit more.
But again, it’s so easy to make products with Spring, it almost makes up for the increase in cost.
Almost.
Their integrations are on point
The single biggest initial attraction to Spring, for me, was the integrations.
Specifically, the YouTube merch shelf.
When you pass 10,000 subscribers on YouTube, you unlock the ability to sell merch alongside your videos, and there are not many merch partners that allow you to push to that specific social integration.
Spring is one of the ones that does.
Of course, in addition to being able to sell on YouTube, Spring also connects with Instagram, TikTok, and more.
In a world that’s become increasingly social, this is a huge plus for Spring.
Customer data is a concern
Here’s the big red flag for me (well, maybe it’s an orange flag at this point): customer data.
I don’t know how much customer data I can access with Spring.
With Shopify, I own all of it. I can grab custom emails and retarget with specific offers based on a whole slew of information.
With Spring, those options are a bit more opaque on the front end.
The only way to figure it out, of course, is to sell a few items and see how it works on the other side of the sale.
But for now, at first look, this may be the big barrier to full-blown Spring adoption for me.
The good news is Shopify quietly rolled out a much cheaper starter plan that I can go back to if Spring doesn’t work out.
I’ll keep you posted.
If you want to learn more about my experience with Spring so far, watch this video.
Whenever you're ready, there are four ways I can help you:
Subscribe to the Newsletter: Join our growing network of artists, creators, and entrepreneurs by receiving The One Thing directly to your inbox every week.
Book a Consultation: Schedule a one-on-one call with me to improve your marketing across paid advertising, social media, and more.
The Spotify Traffic Accelerator: Join the hundreds of artists who have successfully learned to automate their growth on Spotify using paid ads on Instagram.
Become a DuPree X Artist: Hire our team to manage your marketing across streaming platforms and social media so you can focus on what matters most—making music.
Whenever you're ready, there are four ways I can help you:
Subscribe to the Newsletter: Join our growing network of artists, creators, and entrepreneurs by receiving The One Thing directly to your inbox every week.
Book a Consultation: Schedule a one-on-one call with me to improve your marketing across paid advertising, social media, and more.
The Spotify Traffic Accelerator: Join the hundreds of artists who have successfully learned to automate their growth on Spotify using paid ads on Instagram.
Become a DuPree X Artist: Hire our team to manage your marketing across streaming platforms and social media so you can focus on what matters most—making music.
Whenever you're ready, there are four ways I can help you:
Subscribe to the Newsletter: Join our growing network of artists, creators, and entrepreneurs by receiving The One Thing directly to your inbox every week.
Book a Consultation: Schedule a one-on-one call with me to improve your marketing across paid advertising, social media, and more.
The Spotify Traffic Accelerator: Join the hundreds of artists who have successfully learned to automate their growth on Spotify using paid ads on Instagram.
Become a DuPree X Artist: Hire our team to manage your marketing across streaming platforms and social media so you can focus on what matters most—making music.