What Is Merch By Amazon 2020?

You have come to the right place if you are looking to learn more about Amazons flagship print on demand service ‘Merch By Amazon’. I will cover all the most important details that you need to know before you start your own Merch T-Shirt business.

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Review Of Merch By Amazon Print On Demand Platform

So in a nutshell, Amazon offer a service where you can upload your own artwork/t-shirt designs to their platform. Once you have uploaded your design it is then available to buy on the worlds biggest online marketplace (amazon.com, amazon.co.uk or amazon.de).

If a customer buys your design on a t-shirt or hoodie, then Amazon will print it, ship it and take care of all the customer service. You are then paid a royalty/commission for every sale.

This means that ‘Merch By Amazon’ presents a great opportunity to start a side hustle and earn passive monthly income. Earning an extra $250/m is very realistic and achievable, however there are many Merch sellers bringing in thousands of Dollars a month.

Merch By Amazon FAQ

Is Merch By Amazon Free?

Yes you can start a Merch by Amazon account for free, there are no upfront costs and no monthly or listing fees. If you make your own designs as well, then you can get started with no investment other than time.

The only risk is that your design doesn’t sell, making it a very low risk way to start earning passive income.

How To Sell On Merch By Amazon?

The first thing you need to do is request an invitation, unfortunately it is not instant and you do have to wait. Be very careful filling in the information and make sure everything is correct and genuine as you can be rejected.

I have written a guide on getting approved for MBA.

Once you have been accepted then you need to either create or buy a design to upload. For each upload you need to fill in important information such as Title, Description and bullet points. All these have an impact on your designs chance of getting in front of the right customers and making a sale.

Merch By Amazon Approval

The Amazon Merch platform is by invitation only and there is no guarantee that you will be approved. However you can make sure you have the best chance possible when completing the application form. Below is a list of the information they will ask you about.

• Company profile
• Payment & banking
• Tax information
• Industry Type
• Organization Name
• Additional Information
• Website

Its very important that everything you put is real and accurate. Do not leave any boxes blank or incomplete as you will likely be rejected.

Click here for my full guide on “Merch By Amazon Approval”

Merch by Amazon Invitation

As stated above, with Amazon Merch you have to apply to be accepted as a seller. If your application is successful then Amazon will send you an invitation to start uploading designs.

Follow my guide HERE to improve your chances of acceptance.

Merch by Amazon Approval Time

It usually takes 1-2 weeks to find out if you have been accepted by Amazon merch.

What Countries Does Merch By Amazon Work In?

You can become a Merch by Amazon seller from anywhere in the world, provided Amazon accept you application.

However you can only list designs for sale on Amazon in America, United Kingdom and Germany (.com, .co.uk, .de).

Most sellers tend to focus on amazon.com as this is the biggest marketplace for printed merchandise and attracts the most sales.

Where Do I Get Merch By Amazon T-Shirt Designs?

To upload a design to Amazon the artwork file must be a very specific size and specification. All Artwork must be:

• 300 ppi/dpi
• sRGB
• Transparent PNG
• File size does not exceed 25MB
• T-Shirts & Sweatshirts – 4500 px by 5400 px
• Hoodies – 4500 px by 4050 px
• PopSockets – 485 px by 485 px

You can download the design templates HERE.

You can create the designs yourself using a graphic design program like Adobe Photoshop or GIMP II. Alternatively you could hire a graphic designer to do it for you using a site like Fiverr or Upwork.

You can also get access to ready made Merch designs and graphics.

If you want to learn how to create your own T Shirt designs for Merch by Amazon, check out out my guide.
Beginners T Shirt Design Guide For Merch By Amazon

What Designs Can I Upload To Amazon?

The quickest way to lose your Merch account is by uploading content that is against the content policy. That is because Amazon have a reputation for being very strict, especially with trademarks and copyrighted content.

What to Avoid:

• Copyright: Designs that incorporate copyrights which you don’t have the rights to use, or copied from someone else.
• Trademark: Designs that incorporate trademarks which you don’t have the rights to use.
• Pornographic Content/ Child Exploitation: Not allowed
• Profanity/Swearing: You are allowed profanity on adult sizes but not youth sizes.
• Promotion of Hate or Intolerance: Designs that explicitly promote, glorify, or incite hatred, intolerance, violence or exploitation of a group or individual
• Human Tragedy: No designs that depict a human tragedy, are directly connected with a tragedy, or treat human life satirically.
• Promotion Of Violence: Designs that promote violence, glorify violence, or attempt to incite violence through cruelty, death, or torture.
• Nazism Promotion: No designs that promote Nazism.
• UK Specific – Mental Illness: Designs that make light of mental illness/disabilities are prohibited in the UK.
• Youth Size Policy: Youth sizes cannot be sexually suggestive, promote violence, use vulgarity/profanity or reference drug or alcohol use.

The full and detailed content policy can be found HERE.

What Are Merch By Amazon Tiers?

When accepted by Amazon for a Merch account, you will initially only be allowed to upload 10 designs (1 per day). This is Tier One, to increase your tier you have to make 10 sales.

• T10 – 10 Uploads
• T25 – 25 Uploads
• T100 – 100 Uploads
• T500 – 500 Uploads
• Pro Tier – 1000+ Uploads

According to Amazon you must make sales equal to your tier, so at T25 you need to make 25 sales to tier up. However many sellers have reported being tiered up early but this is at the discretion of Amazon.

This means its very important that your first 10 designs are good enough to sell. Otherwise you will never increase your tier, merch is very much a numbers game. You will be unlikely to make much money with only 10 designs.

What Designs Sell Best On Amazon?

The easiest way to find out what all the top selling designs are on Amazon is using a tool like Merch Informer.

To read my full review of Merch Informer and all its feature check out the blog post here.

Summary – Should You Start Merch By Amazon?

So if you just want to upload designs and forget about them Merch By Amazon is great. You can get your designs onto one of the biggest marketplaces in the world.

There are no costs and you don’t have to do anything like customer service. On the flip side you have to start you have to wait to get accepted and then can only upload 10 designs.

Also any designs that don’t sell eventually get de-listed and its very saturated.

Alternatives to Merch By Amazon?

If you want to gain full control of your customers then I would suggest registering with Printful. You can then upload your designs to your own website like Shopify or popular market places like Etsy.

A popular but similar alternative to Merch By Amazon would be Redbubble. Same as Amazon, you can upload to their marketplace and earn passive income. Redbubble is also less strict and allows for unlimited uploads.

I have done a detailed write up covering all the best alternatives to Merch By Amazon here.