Using Merch by Amazon, are there good ways to game the system, Chris Green? Is it worth it?
The best practice it to reverse engineer the system. 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.