Chances are if you are in the live streaming space either as a viewer or a content creator, you have heard of Streamlabs. Streamlabs is a third party site most streamers use for donations, alerts, and, as of the beginning of 2018, their open broadcasting software. 2018 seems to be the year of NEW for Streamlabs. In addition to Streamlabs OBS, they also launched an integrated Merch Store in June. This Merch Store, offers both DTG (Direct to Garment) or print on demand and screen printing. As of today, December 18, 2018, they have reach $1 million in sales.
Reaching $1 million in sales in six months is a huge win for Streamlabs. How have they managed to earn this level of market share in such a short amount of time? After making some comparisons to one of their DTG competitors Teespring, a few answers presented themselves.
The main reason is ease of use. As stated earlier, most users in the live-streaming space already utilize Streamlabs in some aspect. Adding Streamlabs for Merch, while already on the site, is just a few simple clicks. Furthermore, stream alerts are built into Merch Store, so just like when your followers sub or donate, an alert can pop up for every purchase made, incentivizing sales.
Some of the other reasons for Streamlabs’ Merch success, one would need to do a comparison between it and it’s biggest DTG competitor Teespring.
Teespring has been doing DTG since 2011, and gained popularity by partnering with big YouTube personalities like Philip Defranco. They grew in the live-streaming space, when they created a direct relationship with Twitch and their partners from 2014-2017 (prior to Twitch being bought out by Amazon). Teespring was more accessible to a larger variety of content creators, unlike some of their competitors, example, Represent and Design by Humans who normally approach creators for partnership. However, the fact Teespring has been in the space for so long may be why Streamlabs was able to carve out a piece so quickly.
There are many content creators and their communities that after having dealings with Teespring were left with a sour taste in their mouth, and were wanting a different option.
Teespring hoodie after one wash. No response from Customer Service.
Not to mention the host of controversies from Teespring allowing for stolen art to be printed and sold, to hate speech merch, and made national news with “error in code” that allowed for problematic pieces to go to print instead of being removed. With so many issues, many new creators, may want to go with a familiar brand that doesn’t have such a sordid history.
Streamlabs also offers additional printing areas, over their Teespring competitior. While both offer front and back printing, Streamlabs offers sleeve printing as well. This would appeal to both competitive creators, stream teams, and people just wanting more unique pieces other than your standard basic tee.
Streamlabs hitting $1 million in it’s first 6 months, is something they should celebrate. As the live streaming market continues to grow, one could expect to see them hit $5 million mark next year. Looking forward to seeing what else the company comes up with for their users.