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Applying to Merch by Amazon

1 How does the approval process work?

Before starting your application, it's important to understand how the reviewing process works.

They don't review them every single day. Based on the capacity to accept new users, they will do

batches of approvals. To put it simple, when they have more spots (after they get more printers

and employees to increase production capacity), they will take a bunch of applications and approve

them.

That's why no one can tell for sure when you'll get approved, because no one knows when they

will do the next batch of reviews.

Even is a batch of reviews happen, your application might not be reviewed, so just be patient. It's

worth it!

Now that you understand how it works, let's see how to make your application to stand out of the

crowd!
2 Writing your application

Because of huge demand to the service, Merch By Amazon is only available by invite/application.

Reading their official forum you can see people waiting more than 6 months and not getting

approved. But you don't want to wait that much only to find out you weren't approved, do you?

Fortunately there are steps you can take to differentiate yourself and grab reviewers attention.

Let's get down to business. First of all you'll have to go to: https://merch.amazon.com/ You'll see

a page like this one:

Click on the "Request Invitation" and you'll get to this page:

If you already have an account just sign in (or create a new one if you wish).

Note for people who already sell on Amazon: You can use that account (I recommend it). It won't

interfere with your regular business. Merch By Amazon is a totally different and standalone

platform.

After setting up the account and agreeing to their Terms & Conditions comes the tricky part:
Most of the people just send a request and that's all. Let's think about it a bit from Amazon's

perspective. They get thousands of requests. Do you really think they will randomly approve

people? If it was your business and you had limited spots, wouldn't you want to select the people

who are serious about it? It's such a great opportunity and they don't even bother to put a little

effort in their application? You don't want to be like that!

Personally I think they added the optional fields just to weed out the lazy people who won't take

any action.

So it makes sense to fill in all the things. But what to write? Here is what I've found...
1. Organization Name

If you already have a company, just use that. For the rest of you I suggest coming up with a business

name. For example: Digital Performance Designs LLC. Or use your name like: Mike Johnson

LLC. While I haven't noticed any difference in either options, the LLC at the end helped. It shows

you are serious about this. Don't worry about payments, you will complete the payments details

after approved and they don't have to be for this name.

PRO TIP: Use LLC at the end of the name to differentiate from other applications

2. Industry type

You can select any of the options. I've never tested Charity, but if you're a charity you can choose

that. This step is only important because the next one will depend on it.

3. Website

If you already have a website definitely write it here. A website shows that you are serious about

your business and your online presence. Every professional has at least a basic website. If you

don't have one I'll show you how to create one for free.

The magical Wordpress: https://wordpress.com/

You can create a website for free. It's very easy to use. The tip here is to use the name of the

organization name when setting up the website. As for the content of your site, a short presentation

of what you do is more than enough.

Example:

Your site url will be something like: digital-performance-designs.wordpress.com

A page with a similar text is enough:

Hello,

We are Digital Performance Designs and we love creating funny cool T-Shirts. We think making

people smile when wearing a shirt makes a better world.

Best Regards

4. Additional information

This is probably the most important part of the application. While the other sections already

grabbed the application reviewer's attention, this is where you have to convince him to approve

you before anyone else.

Based on the option selected in section 2 we will proceed writing why Amazon should let you in.

Think of what you have to offer to them and make them want you in!

PRO TIP: Don't write a super long one. No one has time to read it. Be concise.
Let's see an example for Industry Type: App Developer

I'm an app developer who is finalizing his game Monster Pets Journey. It will be available on

Google Play, iOS and Amazon Store. We discovered the program Merch By Amazon when

searching for new ways to monetize the game and we think it's a great way since the characters of

the game will be cute and players will create an emotional connection with them. We think they

will love buying a T-Shirt with the characters. We plan to release the game in 2 weeks and we'd

love to have the Merch By Amazon solution when we launch it.

Looking forward to this amazing opportunity.

Best regards, Sign

Ok now you're probably not a game developer, but they don't know that. They don't care or get in

touch with you for the application. So a little white lie is no big deal. After all it's just showing

them you put an effort and want to work with them and that's what they really want ... creative

people to make them money.

Notice how I've included the Amazon Store and a release date.

Let's see another example for Industry Type: Novelty T-shirt Business

I'm the owner of a T-Shirt design company. We've worked with other print on demand platforms

and generated more than 10,000 sells. We think we can bring value to the Merch By Amazon

platform with the experience we already have. We are confident that we will be able to generate

even more sells using Merch By Amazon.

Looking forward to this amazing opportunity.

Best Regards, Sign

You didn't sell a shirt in your life? Well, it's only you who knows that. Once again, they don't have

a conversation about what you write here, it's optional after all. But they will sure be interested to

approve someone with experience.

Last example Industry Type: Brands

I'm a graphical designer who designed T-Shirts for companies that sell online using print on

demand services. I have a great experience of what T-Shirts sell well and I already have my own

unique designs ready to use. I think I'll be a top seller because of my graphical design skills and

industry knowledge.

Looking forward to this amazing opportunity.

Best Regards, Sign

I hope you get the idea. It really doesn't matter what industry you select as long as you show you

have the skills or resources to design shirts and you mean business. If you're not comfortable with

exaggerations you can write a honest description, but the success rate might be lower. If you go

this route don't write what your weaknesses are, just say what you're good at.
I think this program is a really great opportunity for me to start a real business. I'm dedicated to

invest my time into this. I've already researched the store and came up with unique design idea

and I can hardly wait to see them live.

Send the request and you're done.

! Very Important ! While they usually send you an email when you are approved, sometimes they

don't. Make sure you sign in from time to time to see if you're approved. Some people got approved

but didn't know and wasted time waiting for the email while they were already accepted.

Note: A lot of people are confused by this thing, so I'm writing it for you. When you sign in and

you're not approved you see the application form EVEN IF YOU ALREADY SUBMITTED IT!

So don't worry, they received it. You'll know you are approved when you won't see it anymore.

Last Note: I know you want to start right away, but be patient. You might've just submitted the

application after they did a check or your application was not in the batch they reviewed. It's

important to understand that it's only up to Amazon when they review and approve your application

and the application methods presented are not claims of guarantee approval in a certain amount of

time.