Henning from HASENFARM on his experiences with Spreadshirt’s Premium Account.
Who are you, and what do you do?
My name is Henning, and I am from Hamburg, In 2009 I started my shop HASENFARM together with my wife. To transfer the shop idea into an actual shop was easy and done in a heartbeat.
And when did you become a premium member?
If I remember correctly, we became premium members about half an hour after registering the shop with Spreadshirt.
What made you decide to upgrade your account to premium?
It was a practical decision more than anything. Being able to upload an unlimited number of designs is what makes a premium account quite exciting, but it was only later that we learned that a premium account also has quite a number of other advantages as well.
Did the upgrade have any positive consequences for you? And do you think that customers benefit from it as well?
Next to being able to upload an unlimited number of designs, we soon realised that a premium account brings about advantages in terms of realising the idea of your own brand. It starts with invoicing, which is done with your own logo (and not Spreadshirt’s), there is no third party advertising and you can use JavaScript. The latter was vital to us as the shop could run in its own domain (www.hasenfarm.com) within a content management system. Without JavaScript it would not be possible to realise our ideas the way we do. Tying in our designer shop (which we call HAS-O-MAT) conveys a very professional impression to our followers. So we are very happy to be able to offer our customers a very professional and sound shop appearance.
Seriously – what’s in there for you? Is having a premium shop worth the while for you?
Like I said, creating our own brand HASENFARM was made quite easy by having a premium account. Comprehensive branding and integrating our own domain makes it possible to approach customers directly. We can also promote campaigns individually and use social media and other ways of marketing to attract attention for our brand.
We consistently use free applications to do so (such as mail chimp for emails, websitbaker for CMS), but I do have to point out that it is still a lot of work, particularly creating the designs itself and doing the promotion for them.
How much time did it take until you could register some kind of success?
We had a premium account from the start, and we actually found it quite easy to promote the products in our shop. Since we could offer such a big amount of different products on our own domain, we have so much more to offer than a mere product and design choice. What we still do, though, is constantly adjust the different areas of our website. Running your own shop is an on-going learning experience, and you are permanently busy realising new ideas that are bound to excite your customers.
Which premium account features do you find most convenient and why?
Next to not having a design upload limit or Spreadshirt branding, being able to integrate your own designer shop is the biggest plus.
Do you have any suggestions for us to improve?
Yes.
1.) Spreadshirt has undertaken a step in the right direction by further developing the Marketplace, which has improved the way products are presented and the usability of the site as a whole. But in terms of presentation, Spreadshirt do still not quite have their fingers at the pulse of the time. Viewing designs is not really perfect either. And since premium members are asked to perform advance payment, conversion needs optimising. The HTML construction of standard shops is quite out-dated.
2.) Tying the shop in with iFrame is easily done, but not the best solution compared to what is actually possible. Although it offers an API option, it would still be nice to see CMS support on offer. We would like to further individualise our shop, but since we lack API know-how we are just not able to do so.
Thanks for your feedback. I’ve already forwarded it to our Product Management. Updating the HTML construction of standard shops is one of the key issues on our agenda. We are working on solutions to make using our API easier as well.
Whom would you recommend performing an upgrade to premium, and what do they need to keep in mind?
It is a worthy contemplation for anyone who is able and willing to promote his products, and who does not shy away from investing into their business. Substantial knowledge in HTML & CSS will not hurt, and creating designs will take up about 20-30% of your work.
HASENFARM online:
Shop: http://www.hasenfarm.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HASENFARM
How about getting a free premium membership upgrade or a free renewal of your premium account?
Apply here!
