#90 Merch by Amazon with Chris Green – Part 2

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Using Merch by Amazon, are there good ways to game the system, Chris Green? Is it worth it?

Chris Green says: Merch by Amazon, like all Amazon models, is not best done by trying to game the system. The best practice it to reverse engineer the system instead. Figure out what Amazon wants you to do, because that will be rewarded. You can try to game the system, but if Amazon doesn’t like it, you will face consequences.

There are time-tested methods for creating and launching new products with FBA. With Merch, how do you select new products, and how do you launch them?

A lot of the people, Chris Green has been working with are relying on organic traffic. One way you can find new products is to search on Amazon. Start typing in the search bar and see what’s populating and you will find the products people are looking for. So if you see that people are buying “I love Panda” shirts, then maybe you should make one. Make sure you don’t copy. However, there is nothing original in this world. Everything is built on something else. So make your “I love Panda” shirt or whatever is popular, but make it your own.

The people that are going to win at merch by Amazon, are the people driving traffic. If there is already a demand for something, find out where the demand is, and go give them a product. For example, there are a lot of Facebook groups for classic cars. Now, there are probably sayings and phrases that go along with classic cars that you can put on a shirt. Have someone create a mockup of a cool car and make a shirt. There are some shady ways of promoting it, but the best way would be to go to the admin, and offer to give him/her some shirts that they then and giveaway to those in the group.

This applies to anyone with an audience, not exclusively Facebook. You might consider making a mockup of a logo for a smaller YouTube channel. You could find someone with a podcast that is respected by their listeners. Approach them with the idea of the shirt, share the link to the listing, you can make it unlisted so you’re not selling anything, and offer to share the royalties. It’s about getting creative with the platform you have because most people want to keep doing what they’re doing.

Chris Green feels that advertising within Facebook groups is under-utilized. Some groups you can just post a link and that’s fine, but if you need to approach the admin, you can give them something to giveaway to make them look good, or cash may work. Just ask if you can advertise in the group for $100. If you have a good design then people will go buy the shirt and you’ll make your money back.

Or, you could get involved in the community. If you know about classic cars, join the group. Ask questions, answer questions, help other people and you will gain rapport and you’ll have more freedom to advertise the shirt.

Here is an actual secret from Chris Green: Send them to redirect them to Amazon. You can send them straight to Amazon to buy the shirt, but you won’t get any data or analytics. However, if you send them to your website first and redirect them to Amazon automatically. That way you can attach a Facebook pixel and get a lot more data. This way you know that everyone that clicks through that link is into classic cars and you can target them using Facebook ads with all of your classic car shirts. You now have a list of people that are into classic cars right now and are willing to click out and to look at a t-shirt.

If you’re selling your shirt for $7.68, then you can spend $7 per sale and you’re still making money. Better yet, you’re spending money on highly targeted people who are the most likely to buy your shirt. Since Amazon is doing all the work, every sale is like printing money. That is the huge potential with Merch by Amazon. Unlike with FBA and private label, you have no money tied up. Right now it’s only t-shirts, this is the ground floor. In time we will look back and reminisce about when Amazon merch was only t-shirts. Now is the time to carve out you space.

Amazon is where the customers are. Sure, there are other options like eBay or teespring where you can sell your shirts, but the people are on Amazon. They want Prime shipping. They will filter out products to make sure it is Prime eligible. People don’t search on Google, they go straight to Amazon and you need to be where the people are. Merch by Amazon is prime eligible, and no inventory and you can’t find that elsewhere.

Let’s say you have 10 designs. What is the simplest way to get going?

Leave Facebook until after you get some sales. Don’t get into that fancy targeting stuff right away. First thing would be to post it on Facebook and ask your friends for their opinion. Get some feedback for it and be prepared for them to be honest. Which is what you want. Bad looking shirts won’t sell so get feedback first so you don’t waste your time on a bad design.

Look at what is selling. Don’t reinvent the wheel. See what people are buying and make your own version of that. See what’s popular. It’s election season in the U.S. right now so Trump and Hillary shirts are popular. Go to your local school and sports teams and do a fundraiser. Put their logo on a shirt on Amazon and have all the kids push them on their social networks. Every shirt sold with mean $5 to the group. People are more likely to buy the shirt than donate the money.

Find local businesses that want to want people to wear their logo. Give them a shirt to display with a link to the Amazon page. They can offer promos and discount to customers wearing the shirts. The possibilities are endless. There are so many different things you can do. If you’re a marketer, you can team up with a designer and split it 50/50. You might be good at promotion, or networking, or relationship building; find what you’re good at and then fit in the missing pieces.

How does launching a new shirt work? Is it similar to launching with FBA private label? Do you do a lot of giveaways to get your ranking up? Does ranking work in a similar way?

There is definitely some overlap between merch and private label. If you want to be competitive, and get your shirt to the top you’ll need some recent sales and reviews. You can certainly do giveaways; buy the shirt and put someone else’s address on it. You can send Amazon gift cards instead of refunds. Have your shirt as a prize in some kind of drawing. You can bundle it with your private label items. Put an insert in the box that gives the buyer an opportunity to get a free shirt.

Is there any way to gauge competition or predict sales?

You can certainly see your ranking just like you can with private label, says Chris Green. So with retail arbitrage, everyone is fighting over the same pie. THere’s only so much to go around. With private label, you introducing a brand new pie into the market and you get all the pieces. With merch, you own the pie but the pie is getting bigger. There is no limit to the market because you’re not fighting over the same design, you’re introducing new designs and the best ones will win out.

The biggest mistake Chris Green thinks people will make is relying on organic sales. He thinks Amazon will reward people that drive traffic. When people search for something, Amazon will determine what the best products are for that customer. If your product has better page views and conversion rates, you will be one of them. And having a better ranking gives customers more confidence in your products.

GET AN ACCOUNT NOW! There is no reason not to. You have nothing to lose, even if you never doing anything. As of right now, there is a waiting period to get your invitation, so even if you’re not ready to do anything yet, apply now so that when you are ready, you don’t have to wait for the invitation.

Get in touch with Chris:
Merch Life Facebook Group
merch.life
chrisgreen.com
facebook.com/chris
Merch Life book

Watch Merch by Amazon with Chris Green -Part 2 of 2

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