If you’re seeking to produce high-quality on-demand merchandise, you’ll find numerous available options. Unfortunately, many of these options are quite similar, making it challenging to determine which one best fits your specific requirements. You might be an artist looking to profit from a new design or planning to distribute shirts for an upcoming non-profit event.
Each service provides a diverse range of features, presenting unexpected options. Therefore, in this article, we’ll compare two of the most popular options: Threadless Artist Shops and Spreadshop.
Overview
Both Artist Shops and Spreadshop share a straightforward concept: sign up, design, upload, and print your creations on various merchandise. These platforms offer a wide array of items for printing, ranging from shirts to hoodies and even duvet covers. Typically, you cover the base cost of the merchandise along with a nominal printing fee for your design.
They serve as an excellent starting point for launching your business or setting up a merchandise store, whether for specific events or educational institutions. However, before diving into registration and investing your resources in either platform, it’s crucial to grasp the key differences they present.
Pricing
Both companies claim not to have any initial setup costs, which is accurate. Choosing either Artist Shops or Spreadshop incurs no service fees, and technically, you don’t have to provide credit card details or subscribe to a paid plan. Artist Shops proudly declares that they don’t request credit card information at all. Yet, while they may not charge a fee, they do adjust the base cost to cover additional services, such as seamless payment processing.
Artist Shops sets a fixed amount depending on the product you’re selling. For example, their base price for customized shirts is $15, and any amount you set above that is your profit. On the contrary, Spreadshop retains 40% of the base cost. Therefore, at lower merchandise costs, Artist Shops takes a larger cut. However, as the item’s price increases, the 40% deduction by Spreadshop may become substantial. Spreadshop advertises an additional 20% commission and potentially an extra 40% per sale.
Spreadshop wins in the case of lower-priced items due to the 40% rate. However, if your products carry a mid to high price tag, then Artist Shops might yield a slightly higher return.
Selection of Merchandise
Both services provide the usual offerings like customized merchandise and shirts, yet they also diverge in their unique product range, distinguishing one from the other. For instance, Artist Shops features device cases, various clothing items, throw pillows, art prints, and even rugs. Its site predominantly caters to artists, which might sometimes restrict the service’s practical utility. In contrast, Spreadshop presents a wider selection of custom merchandise, including more clothing choices, drawstring bags, phone-specific cases, camper mugs, and a variety of drinkware.
Regarding product availability, Spreadshop wins for its broader selection.
Conclusion
Artist Shops evidently targets art and artists but also promotes its services for nonprofits, schools, creators, and sports. However, in terms of merchandise variety, we believe that Spreadshop excels due to its extensive product range. Moreover, its scope isn’t as artist-centric; the diverse products they offer can enhance your merchandise store with more unique options, a feature that Artist Shop might lack.
In conclusion, if your aim is to establish a versatile merchandise store, Spreadshop stands out as the ideal choice. On the other hand, if your focus is centered on art, you intend to attach a mid-range price to your items, and you are not concerned about having a limited selection of merchandise, then Artist Shops could also be a suitable option.