IT'S OFFICIAL!!!
The day has finally come - Amazon Merch is getting tank tops!
Not only that, but v-neck & raglan shirts are also going to be available soon. I can't wait!
Unfortunately, right now v-necks will only be offered in WOMEN'S fit (hopefully they add mens' fits in the near future...)
When I logged into my Amazon Merch account today I was surprised to see a popup, and upon reading the first sentence I wouldn't help but be excited.
Actually, the first thing I did was share it with the members of my private Facebook group, then I checked to see if it was available on my account (...not yet).
Here's the official announcement from the Merch dashboard:
New message from Merch by Amazon
DATE: 4/11
Get ready for Summer-tank tops, v-necks, and raglans are here! Read our FAQ for more information on styles, fits, and colors. We will enable publishing on a rolling basis starting today in our multi-product creation beta. When an account is enabled, options to select the new product will become available in the product creation process. Please note that we will not be able to provide updates on approvals for individual accounts.
A lot of people have been awaiting this update for some time now. Tank tops specifically make a great option for summer, so get your 4th of July designs ready.
Tank Tops, V-Necks, & Raglan Royalties
We're interested in Amazon Merch because we want to make money, so the first thing we need to investigate is how much money we can expect to make off the new gear.
They're already posted the royalty information on the existing page, and the margins look pretty slim (relative to standard t-shirts). Many people are expecting them to adjust the base cost pricing at some point.
I'm Thinking my baseline pricing will look something like this:
- Tank Top: $17.99 (+$2.07)
- V-Neck: $17.99 (+$2.10)
- Raglan: $21.99 (+$2.36)
And following a review (or multiple sales) I'll likely increase to:
- Tank Top: $21.99 (+$5.12)
- V-Neck: $21.99 (+$5.09)
- Raglan: $24.99 (+$4.57)
Remember that if a product doesn't sell on Amazon Merch within the first 180 days, it will be deleted.
Because of this I think it's a good idea to price products LOW initially to entice customers to buy, and then adjust pricing later AFTER getting that first sale.
Tank Tops, V-Necks, & Raglan Mockups
A student of mine hit me up a full day before the announcement even appeared on my Merch dashboard and let me know that some of the beta testers for the new gear were spotted in Amazon search results:
Tank Top
Leaked image of new Amazon Merch: Tank top
V-Neck Shirt (Women's only)
Leaked image of new Amazon Merch: V-neck shirt
Ragland Shirt
Leaked image of new Amazon Merch: Raglan shirt
They've also added a new "2019 New Products FAQ" page where you can read up on the colors, fits, & sizes that will be available.
They will also start automatically appending the product TYPE to the listing title, similar to how they do for PopSockets.
It's exciting to see Amazon expanding the POD products we can print to. Keeping in mind that these products are all Prime eligible, it's making it increasingly harder to compete if you're using platforms like Printful or Printify to sell competing FBM products.
That's why I think it's best to upload as many of your designs as possible to Merch products while also uploading them to products NOT offered by Merch via the Printful integration (Printful is my preference).
Also remember that if you have slots available, it's OK to upload the same design to the same product more than once!
Amazon Merch is very saturated as more people sell more products resulting in more upload slots! Don't assume that a single upload will result in more visibility - it doesn't work that way!
More products = more visibility.
Products with sales history (& additonal sales data like conversion %) will typically out rank new products, but that doesn't mean it won't help to upload designs to multiple products.
I think it's the way to go - I've personally been using this approach since back in June 2017 when I had my first big success on Merch & realized I could double, triple, even QUADUPLE down on it!
The result? I increased my royalties by 10x month-over-month :)
