Merch by Amazon is an incredible opportunity to sell your own branded designs on Amazon. As with any legitimate business venture or side hustle, it’s not a get rich quick scheme. However, you can make money selling on Merch by Amazon. All it takes is the right strategy to skyrocket you to success.
With a little patience and planning, the sky’s the limit. As the old saying goes, “go big or go home.” Here, you get to keep going bigger if you do it right.
Use High Quality, Unique Designs
The first step is to always use high quality, unique designs for your shirts. After all, why would someone choose to buy a shirt with a dingy graphic that looks incredibly similar to dozens of others? Of course, you should make sure that you meet all of Amazon’s T-Shirts Best Practices.
Yes, it’s easy to just copy the designs of others, but to make the big bucks, you’ve got to think outside the box (or t-shirt) in this case. Dig deep in the depths of your mind to come up with something highly creative. Or, purchase unique designs. That’s why at Merch Ready, we only sell each design one time to help on your path to success.
Capitalize On Trends
Trends are a goldmine. Why not capitalize on them? Has a new hashtag exploded on social media and TV? Can you make a play on words on a recent event? Make sure you stay current. Whilethis HubSpot post focuses on social media trends, much of the advice applies to uncovering money making trends to use on Merch by Amazon. A few great ways to stay trendy include:
- Use a feed reader to subscribe to blogs related to your favorite hobbies, shows, etc.
- Follow social media influencers related to your interests
- Stay current on popular TV shows and music
- Check out any conferences or events (such as Comic-Con and similar events)
- Consider holidays (relating trends to holidays works well)
Get As Descriptive As Possible
It’d be nice to just grab a megaphone and shout to the world that your shirts are now for sale and have thousands flock to snap up your latest designs. But, when you’re just starting out, your megaphone ends up being more like a silent plea. This doesn’t mean you can’t still make the big bucks. After all, everyone has to start somewhere.
Amazon wants you to succeed, so they make it easy for you to add descriptions and keywords. While SEO might not be your forte, now’s the time to learn. Use keywords that relate to your design, name your product with a descriptive keyword and use bullet points in your descriptions. It’s fine to get a little creative and even add some humor to descriptions as consumers love this and it sometimes leads to trending products.
For instance, the legendary Three Wolf Moon t-shirt became huge on Amazon after customers started leaving humorous reviews. Now imagine if you did the same with your product description.
Lower Prices Lead To More Profits
You want to make the big bucks using Merch By Amazon, but don’t get greedy. Take a look at the pricing for other shirts. If your shirt is $10 higher, you might hurt your chances. Competitive pricing is key. When you’re first starting, you might even consider dropping your price by a few dollars to stand out. Yes, it’s less profit per shirt, but you’ll start selling more, which leads to more profits faster.
Don’t Limit Yourself
Merch by Amazon works on a tier system. Each tier has it’s own restrictions. However, every tier has a maximum number of product uploads per day. Boost your chance for success by uploading your maximum each day. You only move up based on sales and quality of your products. So, high quality plus plenty of options for customers means more chances of sales for you.
Learn From Success Stories
Finally, why not take a few lessons from some epic success stories? For instance, one seller earned $247,592.87 in just 10 months. Another earned $128,295.78 in 10 months. This interview with two guys building a bill paying empire is also awe inspiring.
The lesson to take away here is to do your research so you’re prepared to crush it when you start uploading designs. The big bucks are possible if you’re ready to put in the work. Start with Merch Ready Designs and you’ll be well on your way to make money selling on Merch by Amazon.
Nice post, I'm a merch seller as well. My stuff is finally getting rolling. Within the past say 6 months I've had months with 1 shirt sale for $1.96. This month on track to break $400 and sell over 120 shirts.