What’s New?

We’ve refreshed and improved the website so you can have a sparkling-clean base as a Shop Owner. We’ve given Spreadshop blog and forum topics their own homes on www.spreadshop.com. From now on, you can stay informed and inspired on our Spreadshop Blog. Ask questions and learn how to make your Shop more successful on the Spreadshop Forum. By the way, we’ve gone global. Spreadshop speaks English, German and French (#skillz).

Why should I care?

Because spreadshop.com is your platform and we are constantly working to make it a better place for you. We are making Spreadshop its own independent space where you can focus on matters that are important for your Shop.

What do I have to do?

Nothing, zip, nada. The blog and forum move to spreadshop.com won’t impact your account or Shop. It just makes it easier for you to stay in the loop. Be sure to connect with us on social media, too! We’re on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Have any questions about Spreadshop? Excited to get started? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

The post Have You Heard the News? appeared first on The Spreadshirt UK blog.

All your Spreadshop topics have been carefully packed up and moved over to the new pad.
Find them and all future Spreadshop-related articles at:

https://www.spreadshop.com/blog (for English)
https://www.spreadshop.com/de/blog (for German)
https://www.spreadshop.com/fr/blog (for French)

Enjoy the grown-up home and update your bookmarks to the new blog link.

In the meantime, Spreadshop will be learning how to do its own laundry.

The post Spreadshop Blog Has Finally Moved Out appeared first on The Spreadshirt UK blog.

You’re invited to come check out the new pad over at https://www.spreadshop.com/forum/c/english.

This is the new home for all Shop Owners, regardless whether you were located on the North American or European platform before. This way, everyone can share experience and advice more easily. The new forum supports English, German and French languages. Shop-related topics now have their own special spot in an exclusive “Shop Only” forum.

So, update your bookmarks and join us for the housewarming party over at: https://www.spreadshop.com/forum/c/english

The post A New Home for Spreadshop Forum appeared first on The Spreadshirt UK blog.

The product feed is designed to be your time saver. It effectively promotes your products on Google, Facebook and Instagram as it does all the work for you in the background. All you need to do is activate it once, then all changes and updates to your products are automatically transferred to Google, Facebook and Instagram. It reduces your manual efforts significantly and gives you more time for creative marketing endeavours!

Activate the product feed for advertising

Since we create the product feed for you, there’s no extra work for you. You can find the respective link in your Shop settings in Marketing > Product Feed. Copy the link to your Google Merchant Center or Facebook Business Manager. Boom-bang-wham and drumfire – that’s it! And remember that the Facebook Business Manager also lets you share the product feed with Instagram. We have described in detail how this works in our FAQs.

Activate product feed

The post Automated Advertising with Your Product Feed appeared first on The Spreadshirt UK blog.

Before you go on reading… We’re not going to show you how to place an ad here. We’re going to show you problems with placing an ad and offer solutions. Please refer to our Facebook Ads Guide and Guide to Facebook Ads for help with placements.

General Problems & Solutions

When creating a campaign, Facebook takes you by the hand and asks you specific questions. First about your campaign’s goal, and then about matters of target group, placement, budget, schedule and format of your ad. This makes it easy for you to run smooth and targeted campaigns.

These are the most common issues:

Campaign isn’t going well

You may have defined the wrong target or the campaign format/ advertisement type you chose don’t meet the needs of your target group. Try to define the right target first and follow the recommendations in the Ad Manager.

TIP Facebook also bases the performance of your ad on the performance of the website you link. If your website is e.g. not optimized for smartphones, your ad will perform much worse. Unable to change that? Then a Facebook Instant Experience might be the answer.

Campaign is stopped

You can set a spending cap for both an individual campaign and your account. Once your limit is reached, Facebook will automatically stop the campaign. Remember that you can always check your current spending to monitor it.

Campaign shows zero results

This problem cannot be traced back to a single cause. Facebook usually gives you an indication of where the problem lies. If not, it’s best to go through all the steps of the campaign set-up: from goal to the target group and strategy.

Campaign keeps getting more expensive

It’s perfectly normal for a campaign to become more expensive over time. The same users will be exposed to your ad over and over again, meaning the performance is bound to deteriorate accordingly. You can influence this process by giving a wider definition of your target group from the outset. As a rule of thumb, your campaign should never run for several weeks or even months.

Campaign suddenly performs worse

Other than what has already been said in the previous points, it may be there’s a strong competitor who’s running a very similar campaign. If you’re 100% sure that you’ve set up everything correctly, don’t make changes to your target group unless you have a good plan B.

Campaign costs way too much

This can have very different reasons. Maybe you set your spending cap way to high. But it’s always a good idea to give your campaign a bit of time to come to life. The great thing about Facebook ads is that the platform optimizes your ad for you. And this optimization may take a few days until it kicks in successfully.

Problems with displaying ad text & ad images

Planning, aligning and adjusting your campaign is of course very important. But it should also look appealing. What exactly this means depends on you and your target group.

Try out different images and text to find out how to appeal to your target group. You can try different images, videos or text for the same ad. Facebook will then find out which material works best for you.

Other problems

Ad Format not approved

Your image or video violates Facebook’s policies. It’s often not worth filing an objection because of the lengthy process. And your image is unlikely to be approved anyway. Use a different image for your ad instead to get your campaign off the ground.

Too much text in Image Ad

Facebook doesn’t like an image full of text. What used to be decided on a 20% text-per-picture ratio in the past has turned into a more dynamic Facebook policy today. You can check your image text directly here.

Don’t despair – check our guide

Problems with ad placements can be related to your account settings, ad settings, or your website. Get savvy in Facebook advertising right from the start! Facebook has put together a nice and clear guide for this purpose.

See Facebook Ads Guide

You can always get help from the Spreadshop community. Just visit our forum or ask your question about Facebook ads in the comments here.

The post Problems with Facebook Ads? Here’s Your Easy Fix Guide appeared first on The Spreadshirt UK blog.

You create your designs with a lot of effort and love. And after putting all that time and energy into your creation, you surely don’t want to miss the target in the home stretch. Improving your searchability means optimizing your metadata so that your Spreadshop and designs can be found. The following tips will show you how to optimize your metadata to play up to Google & Co.

Customized and to the point

How can you come up with the right wording for your metadata to describe your design? Imagine somebody who doesn’t yet know your shop yet. This someone uses the Google search bar to find what he is looking for. What wording or keywords would convince him? It’s important to avoid a simple sequence of keywords or even repetitions as this may be classified as spam. Short sentences tend to work best. Describe what the design is about and to create context. If you e.g. have a baby birthday design, write “Baby’s first birthday” or “Celebrate with your child and his best friends. This baby design is the star of any birthday party. Happy Birthday, little one!”

Give your designs appropriate names

The name of your design should be as short, clear and accurate as possible. Ideally, it should describe the design precisely and be different from both the names of your other designs and your competitors. One to three words and no more than 35 characters should suffice. Your design name will be displayed in two important places:

1. in the title bar of the search results that link to your Spreadshop
2. on the detail page in your Spreadshop

If the design name fits both situations, you’re in the money.

Describe your designs precisely

A solid design description increases your chances to appear in the search results of your potential customers. An easy-to-read, coherent description of your design is what you should strive for. Describe the situation depicted, the type of design (illustration, typography, etc.) and address your target group directly.

Make good use of the space! A total of 200 characters are at your disposal to leave a mark with your wording. Be sure to at least come up with 130 to 160 to please Google & other engines. And use your description for the ad in your search results, too. Avoid general text platitudes such as “birthday, gift, funny, …”. The Internet is full of those and it won’t help your customers either.

Tip: Focus on the design description and not the product (e.g. T-shirt or hoodie). We’re taking care of that.  

And please remember: Since metadata descriptions are all so important for your sales success, keep checking the names and descriptions of your designs with a critical eye. Revise those you’ve already published and ask yourself “would the descriptions be convincing if I was my own customer?” You might as well get started right away

Check Metadata

What experiences have you made with metadata? Anything we forgot to mention? Do let us know in the comments!

The post Meta Infos for Metadata appeared first on The Spreadshirt UK blog.

How do you manage the products in a company like Spreadshirt, anyway? Who takes care of agile software development and production processes? Of course, it takes a whole team of  people to do that together. Product Owners manage the products according to the needs of all the various players – developers, stakeholders and customers – without being involved in the development themselves. In this way, they are the bridge between everyone.

Together with four of the ten Product Owners at Spreadshirt and Bettina, Director Product Management, we will explore how to become a Product Owner, what soft and hard skills are needed, and why diversity is one of the most important factors in today’s digital world.

Hello dear colleagues! Thanks for taking the time for this interview. Today we’re going to be talking about your jobs at Spreadshirt: All of you have the same job description, while your backgrounds and individual tasks couldn’t be more diverse. Before we dive deep into your individual stories… Which 3 words describe best what skills are needed when working as a Product Owner?

Bettina: There are so many. I’d say communication and problem solving.

Anna: A mother’s skills. (Everyone laughs)

You choose communication, problem solving and… mom skills?

 Bettina: Prioritizing…

Eva: Logical thinking…

Bettina: Empathy… You need empathy for your customers, your stakeholders, everyone.

Violeta: And we’re back to being a mom.

Looks like all moms have the skills to be Product Owners, eh? And like being a mother, you can’t study to become a Product Owner. What are the general tasks of a Product Owner and how do you become one?

Violeta: For me personally it started with doing the ground work: understanding the projects. Specifically, I was a Quality Assurance Engineer and after I had gotten a better understanding of the projects, I became a Project Manager. When I had a wider view, I became a Product Owner. As a Product Owner you need to be able to see things as a whole. You can’t just focus on the small things and forget about the bigger picture. You have to have an overall view of the product at all times.

Anna: And you need to be an expert in your field. Without that, you can’t be a Product Owner.

What’s your individual role at Spreadshirt? What are the challenges you face?

Christoph: I’m mostly responsible for our internal customer service tools. My main focus is to provide an excellent service for our customers and partners. My major challenge is the number of requirements that come from our stakeholders. We have a lot of big plans and ideas and I have to make sure to funnel our resources to get the best possible results. Especially when it comes to our quarterly prioritization, I lead the negotiations and walk the tightrope between what’s necessary and what’s possible.

Anna: I’m responsible for the internal tools we use to check nearly a million designs per month. When a design is published for sale, we have to do some legal and quality checks. We have, for example, built an artificial intelligence to process some parts of the legal check automatically.

Violeta: I’m the Product Owner of Production. There are two kind of tools we use here. The tools we use to actually produce things and the tools the production directors use to control the flow of orders in their facilities. My biggest challenge is when the software meets the reality of the physical world. What works perfectly in the software world doesn’t always work in the actual process with human beings. It’s essential to focus on the bigger picture at Spreadshirt, especially because there are many different teams and components involved in each project.

Eva: I’m the Product Owner for the Partners. We take care of many things in regard to all partners, from Shop Owners to Marketplace Designers. I take care of their user interface, for example how they upload designs and use their accounts. The biggest challenge I see for Spreadshirt is that the company used to be a start-up and is now in a process of transition. The platform is so big now and we have to take care of what’s already there while also trying to develop further.

Bettina:  I lead the Product Owner team— and that’s my challenge of course. (Smiles) We have a lot of big goals and aspirations as a company, we have different Business Units and the challenge here is to figure out, how to create the most value for our customers, partners and the company.

Anna and Violeta, your work involves a lot of software. Which interesting technologies are you currently using?

Anna: We’ve built up an inhouse-trained and self-learning software to support our human image reviews. We tested many methods and ended up with a pretty well-functioning mix of approaches. The moment when you get some numbers on your performance after doing adaptions is always a really exciting one.

Violeta: We have a 3D-printer and have been using that to bring our ideas to life. Spreadshirt is not only about software, but also about hardware development. We 3D-print pieces for our production, we test those ideas and see if we can use any of them.

What’s the coolest feature that has improved the customer journey at Spreadshirt?

Anna: It’s definitely Create Your Own (CYO). That is one of our Business Units and it’s such a cool thing! Everyone visiting our website can create their own products and designs directly in their browser. It’s very DIY and people can realize their ideas in a simple way.

Bettina: I’m very proud of the new partner area. We’ve completely changed the process of setting up a shop as well as the publishing process.

Eva: It’s now super easy to set up a shop and create products! It’s not rocket science for the partners, they can create several products at once and they don’t have to be experts in e-commerce. This is one of Spreadshirt’s goals: to create products that enable partners and customers.

As Product Owner, you are reporting to and connecting with stakeholders, customers and your developers… How do you achieve the balance between the different wishes and perspectives?

Bettina: We use the OKR method to prioritize initiatives. That sets the frame for our work.

A little hint for our readers who don’t know what OKR (Objectives and Key Results) means: This method of planning and setting goals is based on setting regular objectives and their checking their outcomes regularly to improve processes and products. It allows the people to work together in a more agile, transparent, and timely manner, as well as in an environment with flat hierarchies.

Anna: And then there’s meetings of course. We bring all people together who have to make decisions and try to move things forward.

Eva: It’s important to make decisions that everybody understands. Sometimes people don’t really get what they want. So we try to help them understand what they’re not getting and why.

Violeta: We cannot always satisfy everybody’s requests. There usually needs to be some give and take and it is our job to manage this.  For that, we collaborate with them at all times.

Developing products using the OKR method usually involves a so-called SCRUM master. This is a person which is not directly responsible for the product but is there to make sure that agreed processes are seen through. Do you think this role is essential or can a Product Owner do this job by himself?

Anna: None of us has one.

Bettina: It depends on the maturity of the team. We’ve been working with agile methods for a long time now. A lot of our processes are well established and at this point a SCRUM Master isn’t needed as much as it maybe was a couple of years ago.

What’s the best thing about your product team? How do you work together?

Violeta: I like how open, understanding and collaborative we are. We’re willing to discuss stuff in a constructive way.

Anna: We are really honest with each other all the time. We don’t need to pretend to be someone else. It’s a nice atmosphere.

Christoph: I really like the high level of expertise. Everyone in our team is very professional.

Bettina: We all have the same mindset; we all want to build cool stuff. We want to work on things which in the end really make a difference to the customer.

Violeta: Yeah. We are pretty like-minded, when it comes to what we want to achieve.

Anna: And of course, we have some fun as well! We do karaoke (all laugh). We all try to do our best, be open and collaborative. That makes our culture. We work on the same level.

Bettina, you are the Product Owners’ team lead. How do you keep the team together?

Bettina: Our Product Owners are closely embedded into the respective product teams. But we all come together for daily stand-up meetings to keep everyone in the loop on what’s happening. Then of course we have team meetings and team events. There’s also a lot of collaboration between teams on bigger initiatives.

You’ve got a very interesting background and already worked for Skype and Microsoft. How was that? And how did you go from large tech companies to a business like Spreadshirt?

Bettina: A lot of things were quite similar. In each of my jobs my focus was the customer, trying to understand their needs, how they use the product and in which context, and then come up with solutions. What has changed is the way we work. When I started out, we were using the “waterfall approach”, now we’re working in a very agile way with short iterations and ongoing feedback. It’s a lot easier that way to validate your ideas and make sure you’re building the right thing. I spent 14 years abroad and decided to move back to my hometown for personal reasons. I was looking for a company with an inspiring vision and international working atmosphere as well as flat hierarchies. This is how I found Spreadshirt.

Since you started at Spreadshirt in October, the amount of women in leadership positions has reached 50% for the first time in the company’s history. Do you feel like working in a leading position as a woman is very different?

Bettina: It’s hard to say, because I am a woman. I don’t know what it’s like to work in a leading position as a man. At Spreadshirt it’s no different! We have a culture that supports everyone.

Christoph: External companies actually raise the question much more than we do. We don’t think about this so much. I guess that is actually a good sign. I wouldn’t even know there was a 50% share if you hadn’t mentioned it now.

The only man in the game. How does it feel to be a “minority”?

Christoph: It doesn’t feel like that. I like to work with people, no matter the gender. Jokes are sometimes on me of course, but that’s something I can live with.

Eva, You’re responsible for Spreadshirt’s partner area. There have been many changes in the last year or so – and many more to come. What are the challenges at the moment? What are you working on?

Eva: The partner area is a super great tool. Right now, we’re focusing on bringing the old partner area to this awesome new partner area.

You studied physics, are Co-Founder of Leipzig-based house music label Rose Records and lived in the Netherlands. Can you name one skill from each of these interesting facts that helps you in your job at Spreadshirt?

Eva: Physics – Don’t ask me why I did that, but I did and somehow finished. It helps me understand things that are not easy to get, it helps me to pursue it and get it done. Label – We release records on vinyl, but even before I started working here, we printed T-Shirts at Spreadshirt for merchandise. Because of that, I know how a partner might feel. Netherlands – you appreciate the weather in Leipzig afterwards and that you don’t have to watch the rain radar all the time.

Violeta, You studied and worked as a Software Quality Assurance Engineer before becoming a Product Owner. How are these two job profiles connected?

Violeta: It gives me a good understanding how software works. Not only from the user’s point of view, but also from a developer’s. I don’t code, but I understand the logic behind it. Being a QA, I was training my eye to look for certain things. I still do that naturally.

You studied, lived and worked in Armenia before joining Spreadshirt in Leipzig. Was it the job that brought you here?

Violeta: Spreadshirt brought me here! In Armenia I was working for startups and was doing freelance work for American companies, but I was ready and wanted to step out of the startup world and step into the bigger chaotic world.

Anna, you’ve been at Spreadshirt for 9 years! What are the biggest differences between now and then? What has changed and how?

Anna: It’s true, I have a history at Spreadshirt. I started here at the age of 19 looking for a summer job. First I worked in production, later in Customer Service. I was always interested in designs and when Asset Management was looking for someone, I started in copyright/trademark check as well as creating designs for bigger partners. Then I figured out that people in Product Management were doing a really cool job. So I found a university course in Leipzig that focused on engineering, but many other things like economics, too. I started with an internship at Product Management and I was lucky to stay. It’s really hard to capture changes along the way, but altogether, Spreadshirt got more mature. It was more “startup-y” 10 years ago. Back then things moved faster, but we didn’t dig as deep as nowadays. And the decision making on what we do improved a lot.

What are the specific challenges for you? How do assets and designs go together?

Anna: My biggest challenge is that we have lots of internal tools that don’t bring revenue, but save time, cost and improvements for our employees. It’s not always easy to defend the need to maintain and develop older tools.

Christoph, you’re the Product Owner of Customer Services and Communication. What are the specific skills you need and what are the challenges?

Christoph: Spreadshirt’s level of customer focus is amazing. We have this policy that people can return whatever they want. This is made possible by our awesome customer service! People give really good reviews. That means from the product side there’s a huge variety. My biggest challenge is to ask regularly: Are certain products, tools and policies good for us and the customers?

What did you actually study and how does that help in your decision making?

Christoph: Before becoming an “office clerk” I was in sports. Parallel to my sports career, I studied Economics and Sports science. During my time as a professional sportsman I learned (among other things) how to lead and communicate with a group of people that have very different cultural and personal backgrounds.

Before closing this interview, we want you to close your eyes and imagine that the seat next to you is free – If you could be sitting anywhere, where would you be and who would be with you/next to you?

Violeta: My cats! One is handicapped and he inspires me to not give up. We would be sitting somewhere warm.

Christoph: I see myself sitting on a bench, with a view of the sea. And it would be fine to not have anyone next to me for a while, just a cup of coffee.

Eva: Of course, Ryan Gosling! I mean I only see Christoph all day. (Everyone’s laughing)

Bettina: I’d like to sit next to myself in ten years, to see what the future will bring!

Thanks so much everyone!

The post “Product Owners are the bridge between stakeholders, developers, and customers.” – Interview with the Product Owners at Spreadshirt. appeared first on The Spreadshirt UK blog.

Product Deactivations

These products are being discontinued by the supplier and will be deactivated once they are sold out.

Women’s Organic Hoodie by Stanley & Stella

Men’s Organic Hoodie by Stanley & Stella

Our bandanas will be replaced by products which can be printed with Digital Direct. This means more complex and colorful designs will be possible on bandanas in the future.

ID 610 Bandana

ID 611 Dog Bandana

The post Product News August 2019 appeared first on The Spreadshirt UK blog.

What’s so smart about Google Smart Campaigns?

It’s fast. You can build your campaign in just minutes and define your goal (more visitors to your Spreadshop, of course!)

It self-optimizes. Google’s advanced machine learning algorithms take over all kinds of tricky details such as homing in on your target group. It suggests the keywords that are most likely to land you hits on your Shop. It can even test various combinations of the headlines, images and logos to find what performs best! That way, your campaign keeps improving itself over time.

It’s simple. No need to be an advertising pro to run a campaign that stays within your modest budget. And you won’t have much management to do after your campaign launches, either.

Another bonus for your wallet? You only pay for the clicks you actually receive!

Curious? Learn more about how Google Smart Campaigns could help you promote your Shop and reach new customers!

Get Smart

The post Get More Customers with Google Smart Campaigns appeared first on The Spreadshirt UK blog.

Why Use Facebook Ads for my Spreadshop?

Question: how many people you know AREN’T on Facebook or Instagram? Not so many, right? Even grandmas have Facebook nowadays.

The numbers speak for themselves: 1.6 billion people worldwide are connected to a small business on Facebook. That’s more than the population of China (Fun fact: it’s 1.42 billion) That’s a whole lot of people, and if you’re not advertising on Facebook or Instagram, you’re missing your piece of the pie.

It’s worth a bit of investment. The more intelligently you target your audience, the more your advertising investment will pay off. For a more in-depth look at targeting your ads to the right people, check out this blog post.

The requirements for Facebook advertisements are different in each format and placement. It’s important to know which dimensions, file sizes and character limits to respect to get the most out of your ads.

Which Ad Format is Right for Me?

The beauty of Facebook advertisements is in their variety. Choose the format that fits your campaign best. Ads can appear in the Facebook News Feed, Stories, or Messenger.

Here’s a breakdown of the formats that make sense for your Spreadshop and the requirements of each.

Photo

Why use a photo ad?

• Get people to visit your website
• Make it quickly and easily
• Raise awareness of your Shop and products

For more details on the Photo Ad Format and some useful tips, click here.

Find out about the requirements for photo ads here.

Video

Why go for video? It’s the most modern and attention-grabbing way to advertise. Facebook predicts that by 2021, 78% of online advertisement will be video. Be on the right side of the trend and keep your campaigns ahead of the curve.

Find out about the requirements for video ads here.

Stories

Stories appear on Instagram and Facebook. Between seeing snippets of their friends’ night out or their roommate’s new kitten, your customers will get a quick, flashy look at your brand.

For tips on creating effective Instagram and Facebook Stories, check out Facebook’s helpful guide.

Messenger

20 billion messages are exchanged on Facebook Messenger every month. Read that sentence again and the benefits of advertising in such a high-traffic area are obvious.

Carousel

Not quite as fun as a fairground ride for kids, but still a great way to show off multiple images or videos in one content-packed ad.

When you want engagement, a carousel ad that customers can click through creates curiosity and inspires more clicks.

Find out about the requirements for carousel ads here.

Collection

This format takes your photo ads up a notch and shows off the variety on offer in your Shop. Customers will see a fast-loading gallery view with one featured image and four smaller images. Each image will lead them seamlessly to your Shop or to purchase.

Learn about the requirements for collection ads here.

Ready to learn more about Facebook Ads and get your Shop Ads up to snuff?

Read Facebook Ads Guide

Are you using Facebook Ads to promote your Shop? How’s it going? Have any tips to share? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Toolbox: Your Guide to Facebook Ads appeared first on The Spreadshirt UK blog.