The idea of making sales on Merch by Amazon can be an exciting and intriguing prospect, but we’re the first to admit that the process can be a bit overwhelming to newcomers. To help, here's our guide to selling on Merch by Amazon.
What is Merch by Amazon?
For those who are unfamiliar, Merch By Amazon was launched in late-2015 and continues to serve as a leading print on demand service. This innovative platform was designed to encourage the easy sale of branded t-shirts designed by you and produced, sold, and shipped by Amazon. The first step in the process is to complete your application on Merch By Amazon. With so many designers and sellers interested in the platform, it has become an invite-only system where you’ll need to wait for Amazon to approve you as a new account.
Once you have received your invitation and created your account, simply upload your design, customize the description to best suit your audience, and wait a short turnaround period wherein Amazon will review and approve your design. Once your design is approved, your shirt will be on the market and you’ll receive a royalty for every t-shirt sold.
But is it too good to be true? Can the process really be that simple? Whether you’ve purchased the perfect t-shirt design here on MerchReadyDesigns or you’ve come up with your own, we’re here to give you a few tips to get you on the road to successful sales on Merch by Amazon.
Make Sure You Have a Great Design
A low-resolution, low-quality design is not likely to do well in a market where the buyer has the entirety of the internet at their fingertips. The chosen design on your t-shirt is going to be a key in determining whether you will make sales on Merch by Amazon. Here at MerchReadyDesigns, for example, we guarantee that all of our designs are copyright-free, high quality, and ready to sell on Merch by Amazon.
As we mentioned, each design submitted to Merch by Amazon goes through a review process. There are various reasons your design may not be approved in this review. For example, your design must be original. If your design is in violation copyright, it won’t be approved. Secondly, Merch by Amazon will not accept designs that are under 300 DPI and 15 x 18 inches in size. A high-quality image is important to ensure that the printing process goes swiftly and that the finished product looks great.
Capture Your Audience in the Title & Description
While your design may have the perfect look, there’s more to success than aesthetics. If you want people to purchase your tee, they have to be able to find it. Amazon has thousands of products and without specificity, your buyers will miss what you have to offer.
Remember that the words you choose will direct the traffic to your design. When you’re writing the title and the description to accompany your design, make sure you’re writing with the eye of the audience. Ask yourself what the ideal buyer would be searching, what keywords they would use, and what sort of description would appeal to them. A good way to start crafting your text is to check out other t-shirt designs in the same genre as yours and analyze what they’re writing in their titles and descriptions to ensure success.
Keywords are Key
It’s extremely important to make use of strong keywords in your title, bullet points, and descriptions. The title should include keywords that relate to the genre, style, and audience the t-shirt is intended for. The bullets should also include keywords—use as many as possible to describe who would wear the shirt, where it could be worn, and what occasion it is good for. The more keywords you use, the more likely you are to be found by the audience you wish to target.
Merch by Amazon puts a limit on the number of characters you can use in your title and bullets, so use the description field as the place to describe the tee in length. As with the title and bullet, your description should naturally include keywords. Don’t just jam keywords in without proper structure–make sure the description is well-written and that the keywords are incorporated naturally.
In order to find the best keywords, there are a variety of online tools that you can use, such as Merch Informer, Merchant Words, Keyword.io, and the Google Keyword Planner. These are valuable resources for anyone who wants to maximize their exposure and have their products found on Merch by Amazon.
If writing simply isn’t your thing or you don’t have the time to do keyword research on your own, MerchReadyDesigns has professional copywriters on staff to do it for you. You may have the greatest t-shirt in the world, but if you don’t have strong copy, your potential customers may never find your design.
Go Beyond Amazon
Once your designs are up for sale on Amazon, it’s time to go above and beyond with your marketing techniques. Anyone looking to bring success to their Merch By Amazon account should definitely be utilizing social media such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Crafting a good social media presence takes time, so don’t be discouraged by a slow start. While it takes patience, getting your brand out there on social media is as easy as knowing your audience, posting quality content, and using the right hashtags to draw attention.
When making posts on social media, be sure that you’re using images and content that will reach your target audience, are relevant to your brand, and are interesting enough to make people click through to your profile. Hashtags, for example, enable users to search specific content throughout the website and can be added to your post to draw people to your profile. Consider following users who posts in the hashtags related to your designs, as they’ll receive a notification that you’ve followed them and will often click through to your profile to get a look at your designs. For an extra push, consider spending a few extra dollars to use Facebook and Instagram’s advertising features.
Above all, make sure that your profile page description contains a link to your Merch by Amazon page. Additionally, your posts should include captions with convenient links to purchase your products. Try using a website like bit.ly to customize and shorten your links.
Merch by Amazon Takes Time & Effort
Merch by Amazon isn't going to work overnight; it can be a long and arduous process. If you consistently work at it, you can make selling on Merch by Amazon work for you.
Learn more about selling on Merch by Amazon from the MerchReadyDesigns blog.
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