March 2nd is the day! The new commission model gives you even more control over your Shop and your earnings to help you make more sales.
Let’s be honest: Could you explain how our commission model works? What about the design price, affiliate commission and volume commission? No? Then we have good news for you. We’ve launched a much simpler and more user-friendly commission model for your Spreadshops that can help drive sales.
What’s so great about the new commission model? Here are some of its most important features:
- You control your prices
- Exciting new products
- Clear & simple commission model
Let’s have a look at what’s changed for your Shop.
You Control Your Prices
Time to kiss the design price goodbye.
In the past, you’ve always set a separate design price for each design. Your commission was defined by the design, not by the product. We’re turning this logic around. Now you set the retail prices for your products yourself. You decide how much to charge your customers. You control your cut. The design price is no longer available in your Spreadshop. Your commission is now simply the difference between the retail price and the base price: your margin.
Exciting new products
Our old design price system was too inflexible for us to carry inexpensive products in our assortment.
Once you set your design price, it applied to all products equally—whether they were buttons, basic T-shirts or high-quality premium hoodies. Under that model, we saw lower-priced products, such as buttons or mousepads, becoming too expensive to drive sales.
We want you to be able to offer more of these inexpensive products in your Shop. And that means it’s time to say goodbye to the fixed design price.
Nobody knows your customers better than you. The new commission model allows you to choose the best prices for your Shop and your customers: lucrative for you, attractive for your customers. At the same time, you get to offer your customers a more exciting product range, including new items such as (soon) stickers.
Clear & simple commission model
You’re now no longer defining your commission through the design price, but rather the retail price of your products. Your margin is the difference between the base price and the retail price. This makes pricing in your Shop much clearer and easier to understand, because you decide what your customers pay and what you earn off the sale of each product type.
This also opens up your Shop to inexpensive products whose low prices will help attract customers to your Shop – for example, a basic T-shirt for less than $20. At the same time, you can set a higher price for other products and increase your margin – regardless of the design.
In short: You now have full control over your profits and prices.
Flexible promos
Under the new commission model, you also have more control over the discount promotions and marketing in your Shop.
There are up to two promotions every month. You decide if and when the promo starts. You can now choose the promo start date within 60 days yourself.
For example: Let’s say your Shop is all about cat memes. World Cat Day on August 8, 2020 would be the perfect day to start an advertising campaign. With new, flexible promos, you can strategically plan your promos around World Cat Day, advertise on your social networks and increase your sales.
Spreadshop pays the “free shipping” promo completely out of its own pocket. It has no influence on your earnings.
For all other promotions, we share the costs. You pay your share out of your margin. Spreadshop pays its share out of the base price. So for example, a 15% discount would reduce your margin by 15% for every item sold during the promotion period. Spreadshop will waive 15% of the base price for all of those sales as well.
Simplified printing costs
With the introduction of the new commission model, it will be easier and cheaper to place additional designs and text on a print area.
The base price includes printing costs for one print area. If you or your customers add additional printing areas, the customer will pay an extra $/€4.50 (6 CAD/7.50 AUD) per print area. This does not change your margin or the cost of the promos. We only charge for the number of print areas used, not for the number of designs on a single print area.
The only exception: if your customers use community designs in your Shop’s Customize Tool, the costs for those designs will be added to the retail price. This won’t impact your margin.
Sell more to earn more
Get rewarded for your hard work!
The more you sell through your Shops in a given calendar month, the more we reduce the base price for that month retroactively. This rewards you for your sales volume by automatically increasing your margin. This Performance Bonus is calculated retroactively per account for each calendar month. Find out more about the sales volume tiers for base price reduction and how billing works in this article.
What happens next?
You can set the retail prices for all your products in your Partner Area. Go to Shop Settings > Prices & Promos > Retail Prices. You’ll find our suggested retail prices already listed, but you can adjust them as you see fit. You are completely free to set your own prices and define your margins. You can change the retail prices at any time and as often as you like.
For any further questions you may have about the new commission model, we’ve put together a detailed FAQ for you.
Adjust Product Prices on the North American Platform
Adjust Product Prices on the European Platform
You sell in the Marketplace, too? Then we have further information for you here.
i still want to be more cheap.I hope yall fix (change) costs. (no offense)
Good ! great informative articles. Thank’s to share a major thing. I have a aowsome t-shirts, hoodis collection in ha store
I have been selling my tees on Amazon Merch for many years. I’m thinking I might try you out instead now. The only thing is the shipping is a bit long to Australia but hey I think my customers will be OK to wait. Thanks 🙂
Hey Martin, we would be delighted for you to come check out our services 🙂
Let me now if you have any additional questions!
Best,
Lena
Hi Lena, how can you integrate your shop with WIX?
You cannot integrate your shop with WIX but this unfortuantely hasn’t something to do with the shop but with WIX. It’s too bad. We’d love for you to integrate your shop but maybe you just look for another CMS?
Best,
Lena
It looks like we as business owners are best to use other providers who can offer much better base cost for products. How in the hell can anyone have a successful business when only generating $4.00 to $5.00 in profit. You can get premium shirts at Printify for around $10.00 and Printful at $13.00. Not $16.00, $18.00 or $20.00 Sorry but these individual base costs are a rip off.
Hi John,
You are aware of the fact that you are comparing us with a fullfilment business, where you’re responsible for running a website (for example shopify), returns, customer service, etc. etc. Of course those businesses can offer cheaper products.
Maybe you should get yourself more familiar with our business model before make wrong assumptions. Happy to clear up any other confusions.
Best,
Lena
Hi, I am looking through this new arrangement and it looks like it will make things significantly more expensive for my customers. My designs are all on the standard Men’s/Women’s T-Shirt, and have a print on the front and a small logo on the back. Prices are in Aussie dollars.
CURRENT: Men’s T-Shirt + 1 print on the front + 1 print on the back.
Base Price (including two print areas printing): AUD$23.99
Design Price: AUD$3
> Total Customer Retail Price: AUD$26.99
> Total Design Price + Affiliate Commission: AUD$3 + $4.80 = $7.80
NEW: Men’s T-Shirt + 1 print on the front + 1 print on the back.
Base Price (including one print area printing): AUD$20.49
Additional Print Area (back of shirt): AUD$7.50
Designer’s Margin: AUD$0, say
> Total Customer Retail Price: AUD$27.99 << the minimum cost is more pricey than before, and I wouldn't receive ANY commission at all.
If I did add a margin to match my commission under the current model, the retail price for the customer would be AUD$35.79! (That's an increase of over 30%)
Are my figures correct? Because if so, this new arrangement is worse for everyone.
You can use this file to receive a comparison: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BGx81xkpNG6E7RMREYdEgB-usYNI7v5R
It also depends on how many sales you expect per month. For some currencies the prices did increase a little.
this is the 2nd time u reduce the commission in a short period of time. this is abuse. gildan tshirt doubled in price. ridiculous
We didn’t double any prices. You can check and compare your prices here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-qS5HkdAFxi9-KN7IftnhaziAjv6Vhp_
I was excited about this until I went in to start adjusting prices and realized it was going to RAISE product prices and REDUCE my comission significantly. For example a premium shirt on my current shop is $16.49 with $1.00 on the design not including the % product commission I also get. The new pricing structure with only the $1.00 design is now $17.49… So Spreadshirt is making more and our prices are going up without us benefitting from it unless I missed something?
Hi Tut,
you can check out the new pricing comparison here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-qS5HkdAFxi9-KN7IftnhaziAjv6Vhp_
Best,
Lena
Ok… I reviewed. A basic t-shirt that costs around $2.50 for a blank should not be more than $14.99 recommended MSRP not $18.99. I don’t understand how a basic tee has to start so high. Even if Spreadshirt adds $9.00 on top of their cost for a basic tee that should be plenty. I used to be able to sell a basic t-shirt for $12.99 I made less per product but did more volume. I would be happy if I could sell them for $14.99… And now we have to ‘prove sales’ to get lower prices but my past sales history probably won’t count towards this. Been trying really hard to get my sales back up but this a complex structure that isn’t going to give new shop owners or recovering shops any sort of boost. I’d rather my prices start lower and I make less to attract customers rather than it being set up to lower base costs as I sell more to make more money. I get it, but I want to offer products at a lower price now! We can always raise our prices if our products have a higher demand and brand recognition. I don’t blame my friends who won’t buy from me either prices are too high. I think Spreadshirt should charge more for customers using the design tool because that is an added feature and allows for custom items rather than set products which are ready to buy. Just my thoughts. I’ll give it a chance but…
Thanks for your honest feedback! We hope that the new commission model will turn out to be a sales booster for you. Our data has shown that generally speaking our shop owners will profit from this change, otherwise we wouldn’t have implemented it.
Could “Enamel Pins” possibly be an inexpensive product? I like the way promotions and sales are going to work now!
We’re not currently planning on adding enamel pins but I’ve forwarded your product request. Thanks for your feedback 🙂
what a total RIP OFF !!! Overpriced products and u increase price again and again
im removing my designs off the marketplace, closing my shop and moving elsewhere
So running as a ‘Non-profit’ shop t-shirts, man & women, will increase from £11.99 to £14.99?! That’s £3 more. A 25% increase! Not a great improvement. 🙁
Hi Mike,
The Men’s Shirt (ID 6) will increase from £11.99 to £13.49 (the base price will of course decrease the more you sell): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GDD81f2tE31f6AKy9jSstE1qQ6XM6s96KLP3xfbQC7g/edit#gid=0
This is an increase of £1.50. Some prices were increaseed to reflect our costs more realistically. Many product prices decreased significantly.
Best,
Lena
Are you guys bringing back flex print? The vinyl looking print? The DTG print we received a while ago was awful. Miss the old printing methods for shirts.
Only for colors that can’t be printed digitally… such as neon and glitter foils 🙂
We are running 60+ shops – unfortunately on several accounts (due to the new limit of 10 shops per account) for bands and other artists of our record label and associated companies. The shoplimit had already increased our administrative workload a lot. The new pricing model and the gained flexibility is great, but also another step towards making the platform less attractive for professional shop owners.
Are there any plans to implement a feature for the bulk import of different pricing-shemes? Otherwise it means a massive effort to roll-out two or three pricing schemes for all our shops (containing 90+ products each). Same applies to changing or testing different prices. It would mean a remarkable 5400 manual price changes per adjustment process.
What we would need, is the option to import three or four different price-scheme-templates into different accounts. Same goes for the placement templates, that we have to build for every new account. Your help would be greatly appreciated!
BandBrandInc,
Thanks for your feedback. You’re not the only one asking for a bulk functionality when it comes to defining the retail prices in your shops. I hope to get back to you by next week with some more info on this feature and if/when this will be released.
Thanks,
Lena
For some reason it would not allow me to change Retail Prices. As soon as I change a Retail price, it changes the number back to the Base Price and my Margin to 0.
Hi there,
In order to have a look at the issue we need the following info from you:
shop id, displayed currency, entered value, used device, and browser version 🙂
Thanks,
Lena
Hi Lena,
Shop Id: 100756307, Displayed Currency: $, Entered Value: Many, but 19.99, Used Device: My Desktop running on Windows, Browser Version: Google Chrome Version 80.0.3987.87 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Thanks,
Have passed it along and will get back to you in the next hours!
Best,
Lena
It’s fixed!
Hi,
i think it’s unfathomable that i have to “pay” for your special offers/discount!
If you decide to offer a cheaper price, please do it on your own cost, not at my cost.
Doesn’t sound good for me at all whatever you try to sell here.
Hi Max,
You now have to pay your share of the promotion but of course you can also choose to switch off promotions if you don’t like it. The example shown here explains to you why we had to do this: https://www.spreadshop.com/blog/why-has-spreadshop-changed-its-commission-model
Also you now have so much more flexibility when it comes to the promotion timeframe within your shops!
I am a expert designer,I already uploaded meny quality design.All the people and customers will come on my shop, as soon as see and buy the product,,
Nice 🙂
You mention that new products will be introduced? what are the new products? When is the plan for all over print products like tees, hoodies and leggings? Everyone else has it already.
Hi Vininte,
We’re working on introducing cheaper products such as stickers before the summer. We’re also looking into all over printing methods, we might even soon have socks that allow for all over print. When it comes to all over t-shirts this isn’t anything that will be made available this year I’m afraid. Keep checking our product news for the latest and greatest: https://www.spreadshop.com/blog/category/product-news/
Best,
Lena
Also the prices showing in the partner area are very different to the prices here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GDD81f2tE31f6AKy9jSstE1qQ6XM6s96KLP3xfbQC7g/edit#gid=0 this is linked to from this page: https://www.spreadshop.com/blog/why-has-spreadshop-changed-its-commission-model
For example:
A standard t shirt is £14.49 in the partner area and £13.49 in that spreadsheet
A premium hoodie is £26.49 in the partner area and £23.99 in that spreadsheet
Hi Vlad,
We unfortunately experienced a bug in the partner area yesterday. The prices in the google sheet are the correct ones 🙂
Best,
Lena
This new system is offering MUCH worse returns. Half the profit in fact.
Previously on a T Shirt, there was £2.33 affiliate commission and the design price. We are charging £16.99 for a T Shirt, this made us £4.82, now it will make us £2.50.
You will force many customers into higher retail prices and YOU will lose business as anything more than £18 for a T Shirt is unrealistic unless its a famous brand.
I urge you to reconsider, in my partner area its showing me a wholesale price for a basic T Shirt of £14.49! That is ridiculous, many of your competitors in this on demand sector are charging £11-12.
The principle of setting the selling price and that determining margin is correct, but the base price of the shirt is now almost out of economical sense.
This explanation is as complicated as before. Can you please just simply state how much is your commission please without a long complicated article. Your commission shouldnt be more than 50%
Your commission is as much as you want it to be. There’s a base price. You set the retail price. The difference between retail price and base price is your margin that you get to keep. Hope this is short enough for you to understand and sorry for the lengthy blogpost but we want to make sure that everyone understands everything and that all potential questions are answered 🙂
Let me know if you have any further questions! Happy to help.
Hi Lena, I didn’t ask what my commission is, my very simple question is how much your commission fee is? It really shouldn’t be more than 50%. Your company policies and business model is seriously lacking credibility in my view
We don’t have any fee. We’re a service where you don’t have to pay anything. When looking at a retail price (that you can set) it’s not possible to say how much the base price is in % of the entire retail price since you set the retail price. Why is it lacking credibility? Just have a look at the base prices for each producttype, decide how much your want your customers to pay for each product and you earn the difference. You can have a look at all the base prices here (that’s the part we keep if this is what you’re looking for): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ju4DxbI6cNJYt5seSkWo2rK_XuGmgNbvdeDD3FAUrZk/edit?usp=sharing
Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you!
Again I’m not asking what I have to pay you, I’m asking how much of a fee you take – you can call that base price or commission or whatever else you want. The link you sent is just a jumble of information that doesn’t mean anything to me. I will rephrase the question and try again. Perhaps you could give an example of a t shirt or similar that I want to sell for £20 – how much of that would go to you if I sold it at that price please?
Hi Morgan,
Of course I can also do an example calculation for you 🙂
Say you’d take the Women’s Shirt wiht a base price of £13.49. You said you’d want to set the retail price at £20. Your margin would be £6.51.
We’d take the base price (the £13.49), you’d take the £6.51 and your customer would pay £20.
The more you sell the lower the base price becomes (depending on the tier your reached) and the higher your margin becomes 🙂 For more info on the base prices and the tier have a look here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GDD81f2tE31f6AKy9jSstE1qQ6XM6s96KLP3xfbQC7g/edit#gid=0
Hope this clarifies it.
Hi Lena, yes so that is essentially your commission. I appreciate your dealing with the questions but alas, your commission is extortianate in my view – there is no excuse for you to take more than 50% at any stage. It would seem this is one reason why your business model doesn’t give you credibiity as a company in my view
Hi Morgan,
Thanks for getting back to me. You do realize that we’re a free service offering you a free front and back-end for your e-commerce shop? In the current commission model you’re not making more than 50%. In the new commission model you may very well make more than 50% if your customers are willing to pay this price.
Best,
Lena
This is how it was before. The commission system was an unmitigated disaster. I had to upload the same design 4-5 times per product. I wish the base pricing went back to what it was too. $10 for a basic tee + markup allowed me to sell shirts for around $17 and everyone was happy…
You now just have a Base Price. You set the retails price. The difference is your margin that you get to keep. As simple as that. We’ve reduced a lot of our base prices. Plus the base prices now also already include one print area. Even simpler 🙂
Appreciate it. Also I can’t wait till there’s a a way for Spreadshirt to advertise certain brands on the front page and we can pay for the advertisement to sell more of our products.
Thanks Davion! You can already do this in your own shop when you switch on your start page and start using the product feed to advertise your products 🙂