For the entrepreneurially minded, Amazon provides plenty of opportunities to make money online. At Viral Launch, we tend to focus on Fulfillment by Amazon due to its immense potential. Still, Amazon offers other amazing options for making money online, including Merch by Amazon, a way to sell an assortment of products without paying any upfront costs.
Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, Merch by Amazon offers a fantastic opportunity to monetize your creativity and reach a global customer base. In this blog post, we’ll introduce you to the exciting world of Merch by Amazon and explain how you can start your journey to becoming a successful seller.
What is Merch by Amazon?
Merch by Amazon is a print-on-demand service offered by Amazon that allows individuals and businesses to create and sell custom-designed merchandise on the Amazon platform. It enables content creators, such as artists, designers, and entrepreneurs, to upload their artwork or designs onto various products, such as t-shirts, hoodies, phone cases, and more.
Typically, this works in a two-part process:
- Design Creation: Users create their designs or artwork using graphic design software or other tools. These designs can be logos, illustrations, slogans, or any other creative work.
- Product Selection: Users select the types of products they want to offer their designs on. These range from clothing options such as t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, and more, to unique products like phone cases, throw pillows, and tote bags.
After this, simply create a product listing with a product title, bullet points, and description, then publish! Within a few days, your product will be sold on Amazon, assuming it passes the approval process!
Compared to Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) selling, there are a few differences. Through the Merch by Amazon process, Amazon technically sells the product, so there are a few constraints on how you position your design. For example, you cannot run a sale on your product and the main product image will be randomly selected by Amazon. As customers purchase items with your design, Amazon selects a high-performing image as the main product image.
How do Merch by Amazon sellers get paid?
Merch by Amazon sellers make money via royalties for products sold with their imagery. Due to variables such as materials, production, fulfillment, and other aspects to ensure proper business practices, these royalties change depending on the product and purchase price. For exact percentages, check out the Amazon Merch on Demand royalties page. The royalty rate and the number of items sold will determine how much money you ultimately make.
As for how Merch by Amazon sellers receive payment, the royalties are released into your account, and you can withdraw your earnings from your account to the bank account provided at signup.
How to create a Merch by Amazon seller account
Creating a Merch by Amazon seller account takes just a few minutes!
If you have an existing Amazon account (at this point, who doesn’t?), you can sign up with your existing account to use your information on file to save even more time and streamline your login situation. Before creating your first product, you must agree to the Services Agreement, and provide business contact information, bank account and routing numbers, and a Social Security number or other TIN.
How To Create An Amazon Storefront As An Influencer
Merch by Amazon creates a tremendous opportunity for influencers, offering a space for official merchandise created for followings without the risk of losing money with overstocked inventories. Currently, there’s no direct way to create a special Merch by Amazon shop specifically for influencers outside of the basic Merch by Amazon accounts. However, it can still be a promising opportunity to send traffic and earn commission on sales from your following.
Creating an Amazon storefront as an influencer can be an effective way to monetize your influence and connect with your audience. By setting up a dedicated storefront, you can curate and promote products that align with your brand, earning commissions on sales made through your affiliate links.
Influencers can also apply for the Amazon Influencer Program. The Amazon Influencer Program is designed specifically for influencers to capitalize on their following with options to curate pages that reflect your personal brand and taste. Including Merch by Amazon listings on your Influencer page can boost visibility and sales while serving as your own personal merch shop!
How Viral Launch Can Help merch by amazon sellers
With our industry-leading solutions, we can help your Merch by Amazon business thrive!
While our software is geared toward FBA sellers, many of the same research methods and data points will prove to be crucial to your performance. Our Product Discovery tool can help you streamline your product research to find hidden gems and fill a need on Amazon.
In the Keyword Search tab, you can select the categories for Merch by Amazon products (Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry and Cell Phones & Accessories) to find keywords customers already search for on Amazon. In short, this gives you invaluable access to finding the products people want to buy on Amazon. This eliminates the guesswork, like possessing the answers to the test before it’s ever handed out!
Even better, you can add filters to get as specific as you’d like. You can even search filter by search volume to find products with significant demand and filter out keywords that won’t be helpful for Merch by Amazon, such as trademarked terms like Nike, Taylor Swift, Los Angeles Lakers, etc. to cut out popular results to see more ideas that could be useful for you.
Once you’ve found a winner, follow it up by checking our Market Intelligence to see how the competition stacks up and how top sellers perform. We recommend checking the Amazon product detail pages for top sellers to see what opportunities you can capitalize on, whether that’s shortcomings to avoid or positive details you can borrow for your design.
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