With over 15 million daily active viewers Twitch is the perfect place to promote your merch! We’ve compiled the top tools and tactics streamers use to promote their merch on Twitch. Feel free to pick your favorite ones below, or use them all to supercharge your sales!
Don’t forget Teespring is one of the only platforms that enables you to create subscriber-exclusive merch for Twitch. Whether shoppers access your products through Teespring’s x Twitch panel extension (learn more below) or your merch store, they’ll have to verify their subscriber status to purchase these exclusive products. This can be a good tactic for increasing subscriber count while driving sales through limited edition products. Check out our Twitch playlist for more insight on how to set up and customize the merch store and custom merch alerts integrations.
Create brand consistency
It’s important to create brand consistency across platforms—use elements from your Twitch profile and branding across social platforms and within your merch store. Brand consistency makes it easy for your community to instantly recognize your brand and products. Plus, merch featured in storefronts get 58% more views and sell 20% more units on average. If you haven’t created a channel logo or products yet check out these design resources to help you get started.
Take a look at @FiredDragon’s channel and store; you’ll notice he’s featured his iconic character FiFi the dragon across both platforms to create brand consistently.
Set up merch store extension
The Teespring x Twitch merch store panel extension offers a fully integrated shopping experience (check out video). Viewers can use the extension to purchase your products without having to leave your Twitch stream. Whenever you create new products on Teespring they’ll appear in your panel within 15 minutes. You can customize the products displayed on your panel within your Teespring account in the “Integrations” tab. Your merch will be visible to international viewers and products can be shipped worldwide. Panel placement is important, so make sure to feature your merch panel in the top row (make it one of the first three panels) so it’s visible directly under your stream.
Activate custom merch alerts
You can set up custom Streamlabs OBS alerts within the ‘Integrations’ section of your Teespring account (learn how). Once you’ve activated custom alerts, buyers can create personalized messages post-purchase that are visible to you and all viewers on-stream. Merch alerts are a form of social proof (learn more below) that can lead to FOMO and encourage even more sales from other viewers on stream. In fact, streamers who activate merch alerts increase their sales by an average of 32%. Teespring’s live merch alerts are available on every streaming platform integrated with Streamlabs—including YouTube, Twitch, Mixer, Facebook Gaming, and more.
Create merch command
Using a !merch command is a “must” when promoting on Twitch. Creating a command will enable you to easily direct people to your store via chat. Use a chatbot like Nightbot, Mootbod, StreamElements, etc. to create the command. Once created, you can feature the command in overlays and stream titles too. Your merch command should always link to your merch store URL (you can use tracking links like bitly too). You’ll also want to include a call to action like CHECK OUT MY NEW STORE, NEW PRODUCTS JUST DROPPED HERE, CLICK FOR NEWEST MERCH, etc.
You can take your command one step further and add additional content like a link to a clip of you showing off and wearing your products too! If you’re releasing a limited-edition product you can create a custom command like !shirt to feature in the launch video. You may also want to automate your merch command to post within chat to remind viewers to check out your products.
In this example you can see entering @Pestily’s !merch command in chat produces a link to his merch store with additional text.
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Optimize stream title
Whenever you’re announcing new products we recommend mentioning ‘NEW MERCH’ at the beginning of your stream title. You should also regularly add your merch command towards the end of titles. Optimizing titles will make your products more discoverable to people browsing through streams. Plus adding the merch command at the end reminds viewers how they can learn more about your products.
Below you can see two examples of streamers using custom merch commands in their titles. The @FireDragon example calls out his limited edition product and features a custom !shirt command he created for it.
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We can see @iamtrevormay uses the !merch command to call out his merch store.
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Announce merch on stream
Try creating hype leading up to a new launch to drive more sales in the first 24 hours. Examples of creating hype include hinting at ‘something big’ coming up while streaming or that you’ve got limited-edition new products launching soon. Loyal viewers will be anxious to know what the big news is, and you can plan to make the announcement on stream the day of your launch. You can schedule an end date on any of your listings to make products available for a limited time. Also consider doing a giveaway of one of your new products or a limited-time discount to increase viewership. Check out our ultimate selling guide for a more in depth look at how to create hype leading up to a launch. Above all, the key takeaway is the fact that the most successful merch launches happen on stream.
@FireDragon is a great example of on-stream merch promotion. Check out the clip below where he announces his new store—not only does give a complete virtual tour of the store, but he also discusses specific items and designs. His viewers get more and more excited in chat as he talks about each one.
In this clip @Patterz announces his new merch collection and features it in his title. He also shows off his store and tells users about a special discount code he’s created for his Discord group. Notice how he effectively highlights the merch announcement in his stream title too.
Wear your merch
Wearing samples of your merch on stream and in promotional content can increase your sales by 50%. It’s a great way to show off your products without specifically calling them out to viewers too. You can order samples of your products at base cost and have them delivered directly to your home. For example, @Vinc3ntvega always wears his signature hat while streaming, viewers can get their own hat featuring the same design in his merch store. You can see he’s also included a !merch command in his stream title.
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Create a store panel
In addition to activating the merch store extension, consider creating a custom panel for your merch. Your panel should link directly to your store. If you want more insight on the traffic you’re driving create a tracking link using bitly or using our Google Analytics integration. If you need help creating channel panels here’s an example of a design tutorial plus our top recommended design resources.
Below are some examples of how Twitch streamers use panels to link to their Teespring merch stores. You can see they’ve used consistent branding across panels too.
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Feature merch in overlays
Adding a merch overlay is a good way to keep your merch top of mind in a discreet way. Optimize your overlay with product images and/or a merch command. Overlays are good for letting lurkers know about your products even if they’re not engaged with chat.
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Add merch to BRB screens
Get into the habit of featuring merch in your stream intro, outro and BRB screens. Viewers waiting for your stream to start or for you to return from a bathroom break is the perfect time for them to browse your products. 😏 We recommend including mockups of your products (or images of you wearing them), your store URL, merch command and/or a call to action like “Check out official merch!” too.
In this example we can see @Patterz has incorporated his !merch command as well as product mockups into his intro screen.
Create crowd-sourced designs
Creating crowd-sourced designs on stream is an effective way to engage viewers and drive sales…you can even create the product on stream! Because viewers are actively involved in the design and creation of the product they’re more likely to purchase it. Twitch streamer @Reckful got the idea for one of his most successful designs while streaming. The design became an inside joke with viewers and went on to sell thousands of units. You can also get viewers to submit design ideas on stream and choose a winner, or present several design ideas and get your audience to vote on the one they like most. Click here for design inspiration you can use to engage viewers on stream.
Collect social proof
Many successful Teespring users incorporate social proof into their promotional efforts by collecting and sharing customer photos. Photos of happy buyers wearing your products can generate excitement and interest (even FOMO), affirm the quality of the products you’re selling, and ultimately lead to more sales. You should encourage your community to share photos after purchasing your merch. You can ask customers to link to their photos in chat while you stream, or ask them to tag you on other social media accounts.
@SayNoToRage is a great example of a streamer engaging with Twitter followers who purchased his merch. After releasing his #TeamRed and #TeamTeal zip hoodies he retweeted buyer selfies, boosting follower engagement and the friendly competition between community members led to even more sales.
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