There’s nothing quite like making money doing what you love and seeing other people use your artwork to make amazing things. Just one scroll through #spoonflower on Instagram and you’ll be hit with a wave of inspiration and joy. Selling your designs in the Spoonflower Marketplace is not only rewarding, but you join a diverse community of artists from all walks of life. From professional designers to hobbyists, the Spoonflower Marketplace is a place for everyone, including you! But how do you set up your Spoonflower shop for success? Keep reading for tips and tricks (and a few exciting updates!) from the Spoonflower distribution team.

A Seller's Guide to Making Money on Spoonflower | Spoonflower Blog
Spoonflower designer youdesignme in her Berlin, Germany studio

A Seller's Guide to Making Money on Spoonflower | Spoonflower Blog
Meet the Designer: Shopcabin

Once you’ve uploaded your design to Spoonflower, it’s important that you don’t neglect it! Don’t fall into the trap of a forgotten shop. Just like a garden, your shop will blossom over time as you tend to your designs following these helpful tips.

Title | Description | Tags | Scale | Thumbnail

A Seller's Guide to Making Money on Spoonflower | Spoonflower Blog
Take note from Spoonflower designer heleen_vd_thillart‘s design Greenhouse Colorful Garden

1. Title

Give your design a descriptive title that is ideally less than 80 characters with the most important information first. The title explains the scale, color, subject and medium of your design.

2. Description

To help find your design in searches, add a written description highlighting your design. Remember to keep it under 150 characters and leave the HTML at home. Use your description as an opportunity to elaborate on the colors and the techniques used to make the design.

A Seller's Guide to Making Money on Spoonflower | Spoonflower Blog

3. Tags

Previously, designers were able to add seven tags to a design but you can now add up to 13 tags to any design!
Tags are used to describe relevant aspects of the design including colors, design elements and techniques. If you’re not sure what types of tags to add, we’ve included six helpful questions to guide you along the way.

Why is it important to take the time to add tags to your design? We’re so glad you asked! When a potential customer searches the Marketplace, they’ll most likely use the search bar to find designs that fit their project needs. If you don’t add any tags to your design, the likelihood of your design being shown to them drops drastically. For the best results, we recommend using all 13 tags*, but remember to make them relevant to your design.

*Any tag with a black box does not count towards your 13 tag limit. These tags are automatically added when you enter a design challenge. 

A Seller's Guide to Making Money on Spoonflower | Spoonflower Blog

4. Scale

When you upload a design to Spoonflower, it’s automatically converted to 150 dpi which can cause some unexpected changes in scale if your design was created at something larger than 150. You can use the Smaller/Bigger buttons or enter in a specific dpi by clicking on the “Change DPI” link to adjust the scale. Once you make an adjustment, don’t forget to click on “Save this Layout” to make the change stick.

Did you know you can adjust the scale for fabric and wallpaper on the same design individually? Once you’ve uploaded your design, be sure to review all three product previews and default scales. If you make any changes to scales, remember to select “Save this Layout” before leaving the product page.

A Seller's Guide to Making Money on Spoonflower | Spoonflower Blog

5. Thumbnail

The thumbnail preview is how your design will be shown to the Spoonflower community when they’re exploring the Marketplace before they click into your design page. Showcase your work in the best way possible by choosing the preview option that shows the most important elements of your design.

PRO TIP:
Maximize your shop by uploading additional scales and color ways of an existing design, but please do not replace an existing design with a different design or change the color of scale after a design has been purchased by a customer. If you want additional colorways and/or scales of a design they will need to be uploaded separately.

A Seller's Guide to Making Money on Spoonflower | Spoonflower Blog

Saving Your Design Layout

Do: choose the view (Yard, Fat Quarter, Swatch) that shows your design the best and save the layout. This is what customers will see when they visit your fabric page.

Don’t: set a small scale pattern to a yard view. This makes it difficult to see what the elements of your design are and vice versa, setting a large scale design at a swatch view makes it difficult to see the entire design.

Setting a Thumbnail

Do: choose the view (Fat Quarter, Swatch, Crop) that shows your design the best. This is what customers browsing the Marketplace will see before clicking through to your design.

Tags

Do: use at least three relevant tags to describe your design. The more the better! 

Don’t: repeat tags. 

Verifying Your Account

Do: verify your account so you can sell your designs in the Marketplace

Don’t: assume your account will be verified automatically.

Meet the Designer: holli_zollinger

Did you know that as a designer on Spoonflower, you are also offered free design distribution services. If you opt-in to these services your designs may be featured for sale on Etsy as well, which means more opportunities to earn up to 15% in royalties! Listing your designs on these external marketplaces will make your work available to buyers who may not be searching on Spoonflower but are still looking for one-of-a-kind fabric, wallpaper and home decor. 

Spoonflower will pay all fees associated with external marketplaces, manage the listing process for you and pay you the same royalty you’d receive on Spoonflower. Good titles and tags also makes it easier for our team to list designs on external marketplaces. 


Following the steps and suggestions outlined above will make it easier for your work to be found both on Spoonflower’s Marketplace as well as Google. Google search pulls from designer descriptions and titles to give relevant results, and having good titles and descriptions for your designs will help them be found. For even more tips on setting up your Spoonflower shop, including how to become a verified seller, visit the Spoonflower Help Center and be sure to see how the community is celebrating 10 years of Spoonflower below!