No doubt Amazon has been relentless in producing innovative and creative models to improve its user experience. Every day we see its attempt to make transactions seamless for both buyers and sellers. One of its newest innovations is Merch By Amazon (MBA). If you find yourself asking the question, ‘what is merch by Amazon?’ and how you can make money on it, you are in the right place. This article will explore the answer to online users’ query of what is merch by Amazon and the different marketing strategies you can use to generate substantial income.
What is Merch by Amazon?
Merch by Amazon is Amazon’s on-demand branded products services. The platform helps you increase your sales when you sell branded products shipped to your customers by Amazon. There is no initial investment or cost.
Merch by Amazon opens up fantastic business opportunities to new and old sellers. It is pretty different from the typical retail sales because you are not importing products or buying from wholesalers. It is a straightforward business strategy to get you to start selling branded products.
Besides the popular branded popular t-shirt, other merch products are long-sleeves, hoodies, zip-hoodies, tank-tops, and pop socks.
(Source: Amazon)
How does Merch by Amazon Works?
Merch by Amazon is not a ‘Get rich quick scheme set up for sellers to cash out. It is like any business model that demands a lot of work and commitment before you can make some money out of it.
First, you need to submit a design and put a price for the product you want to sell. The products can be t-shirts, hoodies, or sweatshirts. When a customer indicates an interest in the product with your design and buys it, you get a royalty fee.
Step-by-step Process of Merch by Amazon:
- Create and submit a design to Amazon.
- Choose any product type and color to feature your design.
- Add a product description.
- Set a price.
- When Amazon approves your design, you get a listing for your product.
- Customers buy the products featuring your design.
- Amazon prints your design a\on the product selected and ships it to customers.
- You get your royalty fee, and Amazon takes their share. Everybody wins.
Easy peasy, right!
Your job is to create and submit an attractive design to Amazon, then go about your activities. Amazon handles the rest.
Who will Sell Merch by Amazon products?
Luckily, Amazon sells your designs. Even though the bulk of the job still lies on Amazon, you still have to market your products aggressively and be in the face of consumers before any money can come out.
With an array of designs online, it may be hard for yours to come on top. You do not need to worry. It will help if you immerse yourself in specific strategies and processes before you venture into Merch by Amazon service. If not, you are going to be wasting money, time, and effort.
Who Should Use Merch by Amazon Products?
Anyone who wishes to make extra income online should know what is merch by Amazon. Mainly, any creative person with great ideas and breathtaking designs can raise substantial revenue from Merch by Amazon products.
Since Amazon does not sell designs for sellers, you need to intensify your marketing using digital tools at your disposal to attract many buyers. Hence, it is not surprising that bloggers and influencers with a large audience base make more money than others.
Regardless, anyone without an audience can still use MBA. The good thing about this business model is that you do not have to be a professional designer. You can outsource the designs to freelance designers on Fiverr and Upwork.
With the right skills and strategies, you can get all the answers to the question, what is merch by Amazon.
How to Sign Up for Merch by Amazon
Unlike other business models, Amazon is an invitation-only-platform which means Amazon needs to invite you before using MBA. We guess the process is to feature only the best designs. Nevertheless, there is a process to get you an invitation.
Here is how:
- Register on merch.amazon.com
- Click on theRequest Invitationbutton.
- Describe the reason you want to join the program with some details about your ideas and designs.
- Patiently wait for Amazon approval.
Generally, you should not wait long before approval if you have great awesome designs, but authorization can take up to five months before it gets approved.
How to Do Merch by Amazon Research
You can not go about producing random designs you think buyers will like. You have to be strategic and do some thorough research to know what buyers seek and the specific keywords they use.
You get insights into what people are searching for with digital tools like Google trends and Ubersuggest. However, these research tools may not provide accurate and detailed data as they do not use Amazon data.
Research with Amazon data will narrow down the information you need on users and buyers. With the strategies outlined below, you will find MBA designs that align with your target audience’s interests.
Besides, you can deploy these strategies for your advertisement. Below are the research tools that can guarantee you high-ranking keywords.
You can use Amazon to check your MBA competitors. Although it is hard for designs to be the same, there are still situations where designs have identical features. Ensure you a list of all these designs and take note of them.
Merchninja is another useful research tool for merch by Amazon. It focuses on the following aspects:
- Keyword tool with analytics
- Trademark tool
- Even calendar
- Design tracker
The website provides users with accurate projection and a good experience as it loads faster. They also offer real-time results through their Live Search feature. It shows brands and niches buyers are patronizing the most. At first, it appears in German, but it soon changes to English.
You can use Cerebro to find specific keywords your competitors use. With a reverse ASIN lookup, you can optimize your listings and increase your conversion rate. The process involves entering ASIN into the toolbox to discover both organic and paid search results.
The research tool will provide all the high-ranking keywords your competitors use. Afterward, use these keywords to create a perfect list for your designs. You can see it as ethical stealing.
SpyAMZ is another fantastic keyword research tool you can use for MBA. Like others, you can use it for your list tracking, keyword search, trademark checking, and daily rank tracking to help make informed decisions. You can easily navigate the tool to see bookmarked keywords, top seller data, identical designs, and the product’s trademark.
You can also use SpyAMZ to get advanced filters like product types, product status, rank and time range, and brand types.
Merch Titans is another research tool that helps users with product SEO analyzing, keyword search, product tracking, trademark check, and product and brand searching. Merch Titans has a more organized interface than others making it easy for users to use.
Merch Titans allows you to narrow down your results by the release date, giving you more autonomy to navigate your research seamlessly. You can also filter top products, navigate hidden niches, and track keyword authority in a product search.
Now that you have researched high-ranking keywords, the next step is to create a campaign based on the keywords to target all suitable customers, leading to increased sales.
How to Design
You do not have to be a professional designer before you use Merch by Amazon. You can outsource the project or do it yourself even if you don’t have the skills. You can use graphic
design software including Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Graphics Suite, and Photoscape.
What kind of Design is Better?
The kind of design you create depends on your personality. Regardless, you can get inspiration from Google Trends. Google Trends shows you the topics and inquiries. To use it, go to the site and type in the product, for instance, ‘hoodie.’ Google Trend will give you a list of designs and ideas.
How to Submit Your Design to Amazon
- Click on the ‘Add Products Button’on the dashboard.
- Choose the particular product you want.
- Upload your work.
Amazon Guidelines
If you want to make some money on Amazon, ensure you duly follow the guidelines. Some of them include:
- Your products must not indicate pornography, child abuse, hate, intolerance, tragedy, and violence.
- Your products must not violate trademark, international law, and copyrights.
- Your design must not be blank, and it must contain no spelling errors.
How to Promote Your Products
Amazon may sell your products, but it does not mean they will import customers for you. You need to promote your products if you want them to sell. Some of the digital channels you can use to reach customers include:
- Personal blog
- Amazon Marketing Services
Conclusion
In this article, we have looked into what is merch by Amazon. Merch by Amazon helps entrepreneurs upscale their sales. It involves designing fascinating pictures, researching and using ranking keywords, using MBA research tools, promoting products, and making sales.
The process may seem tedious and lengthy, but it is worth the effort and time commitment as you receive monthly royalty on each of your designs.