Merch By Amazon
In the Autumn I received an email from Amazon inviting me to join their Merch by Amazon account.
I signed up and then totally forgot about it until after Christmas when I received another email from them.
I looked into this and decided I would give it a go to try and create more marketing(when I mean more, I actually mean start!) for my apps.
No Upfront Costs
Merch by Amazon makes it easy for you to create, promote and sell your branded merchandise with no risk and no up-front costs. You simply supply the artwork, choose the t-shirt type and color(s), and then promote your shirts in your app, blog or on social media. Amazon takes care of the rest, including production, sales, shipping and creating a product page on Amazon.com – all at no cost to you.
Now this seems good however whilst the service is free the cut that Amazon takes is quite big, so you wont be retiring any time soon from the sell of merchandise.
However it is another form of (free) advertising and the feeling you get on seeing your artwork/ app on a front of a t-shirt is priceless.
Royalties
You earn a royalty on every t-shirt sold. Your royalty is based on the list price you set less Amazon’s costs and fees. Amazon costs include materials, production and fulfillment. Fulfillment costs include picking and packing your t-shirt when a customer orders it and shipping your t-shirt to the customer—including shipping for Amazon Prime and Free Shipping eligible orders.
Example
Selling a 1-sided Anvil brand t-shirt on Amazon.com for $19.99.
| As of 3/1/16 | ||
|---|---|---|
| List price | $19.99 | |
| – Amazon listing fee (sale price* 15%) | $3.00 | |
| – Amazon costs | $9.31 | |
| = Royalty | $7.68 | |
| Your share of sale price | 38.42% |
Amazon Listing Fee
Amazon charges a 15% listing fee for t-shirt sales.
Peg the Mystic Pug
I decided that my app Peg the Mystic Pug would be a good starting point.
The process is straightforward. I created the artwork and uploaded to the Amazon portal and then went through a selection of questions / choices to create the Amazon product page. The t-shirt are available in all sizes in Men, Women and Youth cuts. You can also choose upto five different colours.
Here are the two t-shirts I have created so far.
and the links to the Amazon page.
In my next post I shall let you know how my sales are going!