How Does ‘Merch by Amazon’ work? (An Ultimate Guide)

We are living in the world of digitization, where rapid technological changes are leading to new ways of earning.

Are you looking for some easy ways to add an extra penny to your income? OR looking for some straightforward ways to make money?

If yes, let me throw some light on one such marketplace to hit up your revenue by sitting home. Merch by Amazon is the easiest way for selling branded merchandise designed by you on Amazon. Yes, today I’ll be talking about how you can earn money from one of the leading marketplaces.

To share my experience. I’ve been using Merch by Amazon for the last 6 months and as of now making $600+ of automated income every month

So, do you find it interesting?

This guide will let you have complete wisdom on how quick you can get an impressive income in your pocket. Let me start with basic information on Amazon merch.

What is Merch by Amazon?

Merch by Amazon will allow you to share your unique designs for the t-shirts and sell them on the world’s largest platform. It is the best on-demand t-shirt printing service. You don’t need to pay a single penny for creating and sharing t-shirt designs on Amazon.

Get the paid royalties when your designed t-shirt gets sold. All you need to do here upload designs, give color options and set prices. Amazon work will take care of the rest.

In another way, Merch by Amazon is known as the Print on Demand (POD) platform. By now, Amazon work has expanded from t-shirts to products such as long sleeve t-shirts, hoodies, premium tees, and much more

The Merch by Amazon was launched back at the end of 2015. Way the whole program works it’s straightforward.

• As a first step, you need an account to go ahead.
• Once you complete your account process, you can upload your art onto the site.
• Later, from the available list of products select the one you want to design for.
• When you upload your art on the product type, select the colors that suit best to your product.
• Another thing to make sure is giving a relevant tag, price, and description.
• And you’re ready to publish on Amazon.

Merch by Amazon login used to be open to everyone. But now as the program got popular, to have Amazon merch account you need to send a request.

Is Amazon Merch a viable business? Yes, if done with the right strategies. You can make it a main source of income once you are into it. Let’s deep dive into how does Merch by Amazon work, to get a better understanding.

SEE ALSO: eCommerce Development Solutions Provider

How Does Merch by Amazon work?

Once you have gone to the landing page, you need to fill out a short form and later wait for the approval. This form will ask you for pieces of information. The approval time may take from one month to three months.

However, to save your application from rejection, you need to enter accurate and honest information. For approving application you can link your experiences or designs with your application.

Merch on Amazon Process

There are five simple steps you need to follow while building your account.

Step 1: Have the following information with you,

• Any tax identification number OR social security number
• Routing and bank account numbers
• Business contact information

Step 2: Request an Invitation

You need to click on the “Request Invitation” button, as shown in the below reference image.

Step 3: Signing in your Amazon Account

It can be your own account, a business account or even a new account that you create especially for Merch by Amazon.

Step 4: Tax Questionnaire

Amazon will withhold 30% of profits for tax. It applies to every country except the United States.

Step 5: Request Invitation Form Filling

Here, if you don’t have any business set up, then just add your first and last name in the details. And make sure that all the information is accurate to get your account approved soon.

Merch By Amazon Products Tier Level

When your invitation gets approved, on the initial stage you will get access to publish the 10 designs. Once you sell these 10 designs and fulfill most of the slots, Amazon work will upgrade you to a higher level.

You can upload more designs per day, as a result have more designs live on the Amazon and ultimately have more sales. Not to worry, later in the article, we have listed the tips that can help you to increase your tier level.

Tier Levels on Merch by Amazon

• 1^st Tier = 10 Designs
• 2^nd Tier = 25 Designs
• 3^rd Tier = 100 Designs
• 4^th Tier = 500 Designs
• 5^th Tier = 1,000 Designs
• 6^th Tier = 2,000 Designs
• 7^th Tier = 4,000 Designs
• 8^th Tier = 8,000 Designs

Here it is like more designs more rewards. When you have more designs, you can earn more.

Creating Your First Masterpiece

For creating the design you can use any graphic software you’re comfortable with. Some of them are Photoshop, Pixlr, GIMP, etc. Likewise, download the Merch by Amazon t-shirt templates for the reference.

From the Amazon merch dashboard, you need to go on “Upload Finished Artwork”. Some of the design requirements by on-demand t-shirt printing are given below.

• Your file size must be less than 25MB
• 300 PPI (example, 4500 x 5400 pixels)
• 15” W x 18” H with a transparent background
• Export artboard as an sRGB

By now, they have started having various customized products along with t-shirts. You can get every note of detail from here.

You can create a high-quality image in the space provided. Make sure that your design does not get stretched. To get the best idea, it would be easier if you check the Merch by Amazon best practices page.

Identify t-shirts size on Amazon Merch by the listing is given below.

The Merch on Amazon process starts once you upload designs as per the Merch Amazon requirements and set the price for the products. And you’re ready to sell your t-shirts as Amazon will create the listing for your products. Your design on the t-shirt will look similar to the image given below.

So, again the question rolling on your mind would be how to increase the sales, right? Let me make it clear now.

Few Tips: How to Upgrade Your Tier Levels?

As you can see that at tier 1 you cannot get more sales, hence upgrading tier level holds major importance. There are some tools and tricks which can help you to get through it. With the help of these tools and tips, you can get upgraded to higher-level tier and increase your earnings.

#1 Go through the well-performing t-shirts and their keywords

When you start creating a design on Amazon, you must have a look at what’s trending on Amazon. As when you have ideas on what’s trending and its keywords, you can work in your sector and can win the sales. You can easily learn about what’s selling on amazon by having a look at the products BSR (Best Seller Rank).

Best Seller Rank

To know how well a t-shirt or a product is selling, you can go through the product’s BSR number. Hence, the product with the lower BSR number will be selling high than a product with a higher BSR. When you go for research have a look at the products with BSR less than 300,000.

You can find a T-shirt’s BSR at the bottom of its product page. If you’re using the Google Chrome browser, you get an advantage to install a chrome extension named DS QuickView. The tool will let you know the BSR numbers of the products on the main search page. You can save your time with this tool.

#2 Improve & Edit On Their Designs

Once you’re done with your research on existing t-shirts and keywords, it’s time to design your own products around the concept you have identified. The thing you need to avoid here is lifting the already published design of a t-shirt and using it as yours. Merch by Amazon is really strict for the copyrights. They will directly ban your account any such duplication found.

Warning: Never go for copying trademarks or copyrighted designs & phrases.

Amazon merch will not go under any legal battle with anyone regarding trademarks and copyrights. Besides, they will always make sure that no seller will be uploading a design that constitutes copyright infringement.

To overlook both the above-mentioned points, a tool name Merch Informer is available.

Merch Informer

It is termed as the most recommended tool for finding the best selling products on Merch by Amazon. The tool even has a trademark alert that is embedded, which will let you know the trademark violation. In short, it is an “all-in-one” tool to quickly get your results.

Within Merch Informer you can type the idea you have in the search bar and you will get the best selling products with BSR number. It will let you know the sales happened for each product within a month.

If you’re starting from scratch and don’t have any idea for the designs, you can make a blank/random search and Merch Informer will show you the top-selling products by Merch Amazon.

But, Merch Informer is a paid tool, which has a monthly subscription from $9.99 to $59.99 per month. Go for the plan as per your niches. I recommend you to use it for speeding up your process.

#3 Starting with Limited Price

When you are on the initial stage, your primary goal shouldn’t be making a profit. Set the limited price in your early stage, as this will help you to get your t-shirts sold. And it will be gearing up your tier level. As on the initial stage, you only have 10 designs to share, therefore you will not be able to make a high profit.

But once you target for the higher-level tier, you can make a good profit. Therefore you need to set the limited price to get your t-shirts sold in tier 1 and go to the next level rapidly.

Amazon merch is more of a numbers game, the more designs you have, the more sales you make. For instance, if you have 10,000 t-shirt designs on Amazon, and each t-shirt design sells once in a month. Now, consider the average royalty of $4 per t-shirt, you can make around $40,000 per month. I guess this makes you clear why to start with the low price. I suggest you start at $12.87 per t-shirt.

#4 Publish At least 90% of Your Upload Limit

If you want to upgrade to the next level soon, you must endeavor 90% of the upload limit. If you are in tier 1, upload a maximum of 9 designs to upgrade to the next level. At tier 2, upload at least 23 or more designs to get upgraded. Continue the same till you reach your goal. This can help you to reach a higher level easily.

It is quite easy to upgrade from one tier to another on Merch Amazon. All you need to do here keeping going as per the steps mentioned above.

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Recommend Tools for Merch By Amazon Products

As told earlier that, Amazon is strict regarding its policies, therefore, using different tools will help you to get through it. Below given are some of the tools that can help you. Only a disadvantage here is, this tool is available only for Google Chrome.

DS Amazon Quick View – It is a free tool that displays Amazon Best Seller Rank numbers on the search page, and saves your time from going to the individual page.

Pretty Merch – It is a free tool, where a new tab is created when you log in to Merch by Amazon. It will display all your sales information in a more accurate, visual, and easy to digest way.

MerchTool – Again it is a free tool, use the quick editor to sort and update your existing designs. You need such tools once you reach Tier 3.

Merch Buddy– You need to pay $30 to access this tool. It will make the bulk uploading of designs easier. It becomes a necessary tool when you upgrade to Tier 4 or above.

Merch Informer- As discussed above it has a subscription plan starting from $9.99 per month. It is a highly recommended tool to go for. Every sort of detail for this tool is mentioned above.

Amazon Merch Tips:: Help You to Sale More

• Take a reference from the Dribbble, Behance, and UpLabs to get the innovative ideas for your designs.
• Never upload TV series or any character images directly (high chance of rejection). Enhance your idea by editing or creating new designs.
• Start using social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter as a new source of income. Since social media sites are on full boom.
• Use Pinterest, if you’re targeting women’s clothing. You can get more sales from it.
• Integrating appropriate headlines and descriptions with targeted keywords can increase your sales by 50% in Merch by Amazon. You can get the keyword ideas from Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends or Ubersuggest
• Have an A/B testing for the designs. In brief, upload two different designs and see which is working best.
• Go for the tools mentioned above. It will help you to get upgraded to higher-level tier easily.
• Another best thing you can do is make a group of designers and use a single account to upload designs. Consequently, it will lead to more design and more sales. You even have an option to partner with the local business owner.
• As already discussed, never copy any description, image, a quote from the internet to avoid being part of the rejection.
• Highlight your main USP (Unique Sell Proposition) in bullet points. Because it will be eye-catching for customers and will help you to sell more. As per the reports, highlighting USPs in bullet point increase sales more by 39%.
• After getting success, don’t stop. Have a look at your past reports and strategies of sales you worked on. Go ahead and put more effort into the things that worked in the past.

Want to Build Your Own Startup? Here is an Amazing Idea. Read More

Amazon Merch Advantages

This on-demand t-shirt printing company comes with numerous advantages. They allow the new and budding designers like you to build their portfolio over here. You can create new and unique designs rather than just selling existing products.

Merch by Amazon is free to use, you just need to create a unique design without the cost of material, shipping and storage. So, you can quickly create innovative designs that will be ready for sale on Amazon.

The tier level by Amazon increases the number of designs you can upload. This can be a benefit because as you get to the higher tier you can upload more designs and can increase the sales. It can be a good way to make your career or increase your income.

As you know there is good as well as a bad side for everything. Yes, with Merch by Amazon, you can increase your revenue. On the other hand, their cons to note.

• Issue #1

With Amazon Merch, you can just have the side income. There is no guarantee to have a brand name with the same.

• Issue #2

Amazon can ban your account any time, as you don’t have any control for your account. In fact, it doesn’t matter if you are new or old if they wish they can ban your account anytime. Here is proof you can go through.

• Issue #3

In addition, Merch Amazon takes approximately 1-3 months to get your account approved. If you want to start your business urgently, you cannot do it. And there is even a chance that your account gets rejected and you need to start again after waiting for this for a long time.

Henceforth, we have a different way for you, where everything will be under your control. Rather than being part of any such programs, why not to go for your own website or application.

Many sites like Teespring, Custom Ink, etc that came up with their own application rather than joining Merch by Amazon. You can create your own brand and get things to work as per your niches.

We have a team of experts, who can help you with getting your business done in the right way. So, what you think, how much does it cost to make an app? If you are looking forward to having the details for the cost that your application will take to build, we will help you with the same.

So, are you in thought to have a startup with your own on-demand t-shirt printing company and need any information regarding that, contact us!

The Common FAQ of Amazon Merch

Note: We have taken reference images from Amazon.