Erin looks through Pantone color samples as she works on a design on her laptop.

You may have heard the buzz about Spoonflower PRO, but did you know that it can help you save money as a small business owner or prolific artist on Spoonflower? More money saved means more profits for you! Whether you’re an artist who frequently uploads designs or if you rely on quick turnaround times and love the idea of free shipping every day, then read more to find out how PRO benefits can serve your creative endeavors. 

Today, top-selling Spoonflower Marketplace artist Erin Kendal stops by the blog to share her insider advice on how artists can maximize their investment in this premium membership and take their design business to the next level.

Meet the Artist

Erin Kendall

Hey! I’m Erin Kendal and I’m a top seller here on Spoonflower. I love to paint, draw, and create earth-toned patterns in Adobe Illustrator®. I’m a serial entrepreneur and a big lover of soy lattes!

I launched my Surface Pattern Design (SPD) career on the Spoonflower Marketplace, where I’ve connected with talented boutique entrepreneurs, magazine editors, and cool brands looking to license. Two years ago I leveraged my Spoonflower PRO membership to launch my low-touch dropshipping ecommerce store, which helped me smash my goal of achieving a 6-figure income in a year from SPD! In 2021 I’m branching out into teaching, in the hopes of helping others on their SPD journey.

A sunflower design
An arrow designs
an abstract design

Erin’s Tips to Maximize Your Spoonflower PRO Membership 

Tip 1. Upload Your Designs onto the Spoonflower Marketplace ASAP

PRO members are treated to expedited order processing with guaranteed turnaround times. This means you can receive your proofs quickly, and your designs can be available to buyers, sooner. You’ll even know the exact date your order will be shipped, so you won’t need to eagerly check your order status daily to see if it’s updated to ‘Shipped’ status.

Tip 2: Proof Designs at a Discounted Price

Swatches are available to PRO members at 50% off, so you can proof your designs as you finish them (while saving money) without waiting until you have enough designs to proof via a Fill-A-Yard® project. 

Additionally, tips one and two combined allow you to jump on trends as soon as you see them emerging, and help you to serve customers who request changes to designs (that essentially result in a new design).

Pro Tip: Check out Spoonflower’s Trend Reports for an insider’s look at the trends on the horizon. 

Tip 3: Leverage Your PRO Membership to Make Money

Yes, you read that right. The Spoonflower PRO membership can be a real money maker! 

The combined perks enable you to launch a viable ecommerce store via your own website or other ecommerce platform, by selling Spoonflower fabrics, wallpapers and luxury home decor items (with your designs on them), directly to customers.

I’ve had several e-commerce stores over the past decade, and for the last couple of years I’ve been leveraging the Spoonflower PRO membership—with it’s free Standard shipping worldwide — to operate a dropshipping business model. 

My PRO membership enables me to foster a positive online shopping experience for my customers because the expedited order processing and known dispatch dates help me to manage their expectations. It’s also handy to have access to the dedicated PRO help team for timely advice when I need it.

With my own ecommerce store, I’m minimizing competition and allowing my potential customers to focus solely on my designs to help them find the product that is perfect for their needs.

A stack of colorful fabric

photo courtesy of @peapodandnate

Textured printed fabrics

photo courtesy of @miniandmaeofficial

How to Utilize a PRO Membership and Spoonflower’s Print-on-Demand Model to Launch an Ecommerce Store

Spoonflower’s print-on-demand process allows you to build a sales catalog for your online store, as big or as small as you like, without needing any physical inventory. A professional looking e-commerce store is easy to set up yourself, using the product mockups available through Spoonflower. 

Shoppers will be able to see what your designs will look like on the items you’ve chosen to sell (for example, wallpaper, sheet sets, curtains, fabric… or more) and they’ll be able to place their order directly through your e-commerce store.

The Wallpaper Studio by Erin Kendal on Etsy screenshot
The Wallpaper Studio by Erin Kendal ecommerce shop screenshot

Here’s an overview of how it’s done:

  • Put together a collection of your designs and use the Spoonflower mockups to list your chosen products for sale on your own ecommerce website, Etsy, or other online marketplaces.
  • Consider your price point and be sure you take into account your tax obligations, and fees payable to the platform you’re selling through.
  • When you receive your first order through your online store, you will need to manually place the customer’s order through the Spoonflower site. Tip: Be sure to check the box that says ‘Remove prices from packing slip’ in the Gift Options section of the Delivery Options screen; then add a personal message to your customer and include the name of your online store so they remember who they shopped with.
  • Spoonflower will take care of the rest! They’ll print, make, package (with Spoonflower branding), and ship directly to the customer whose address has been entered into the ‘Ship to’ field.

Throughout the process you’ll have the opportunity to provide your customer with personalised service and you’ll be able to set ship date expectations (because you’re a PRO Member).

It’s worth emphasizing that any artist can utilize this unofficial dropshipping method without signing up for PRO, however, the benefits of being a member will facilitate a more successful business plan for the reasons mentioned above!

Tip: While PRO members are guaranteed a 1-week turnaround for fabric and wallpaper orders, keep in mind that home decor orders require an additional 1-3 weeks production time to allow for custom sewing.

Grow Your Career with an E-Commerce Business:
An In-Depth Course with Erin Kendal

Click play to watch the intro for free

If you happen to be one of the many incredible artists on Spoonflower (yeah—you are!!), and you’re ready to expand your own creative business with the Spoonflower PRO membership, then I want you to know you don’t have to figure it all out for yourself. I’ve already been there and done that!

In this class, I’ll be teaching you a business model that contributed to me—and my partner—being able to leave our full-time corporate careers. Additionally, I’ve drawn on my decade’s worth of e-commerce and customer service experience, so that you’ll walk away with a blueprint on how to set up and operate your own e-commerce business to ‘dropship’ your choice of Spoonflower fabric, wallpaper, and home decor products.

Click the teal button below to access this course at a discount offered only to Spoonflower community members!

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