The DARK SIDE of Merch by Amazon

[@PhilipAnders]

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[@elvis723]

It's almost impossible to keep up with new trademarks that come up. For those in a higher tier you'd probably have to hire someone to check daily. But, I found that there's a feature in Merchinformer where you type in your design title or a word or phrase that you have used and it checks automatically for you. It checks them periodically and all you have to do is go into merchinformer every few days or every week and see if it has been trademarked. You only have to enter it once and it saves it and keeps checking it for you.

[@MrInvestment]

Furthermore, I also think that there is currently no good way to check running designs for copyright. I now have 30,000 designs online and productor tells me I have 70,000 alerts, 90% of which are Father, Grandmother, Mother...... How should I check all of this please.

[@PhilipAnders]

Same, the productor feature is good for smaller accounts. But for Big accounts with lots of designs it would take an entire year to check all of the alerts and stay up to date with them. Hence why I suggested the 24 hour timer for removals. They want us to upload more shirts (upload limits keep getting higher) but they don't give anyone a chance to keep old listings safe from removals

[@alldog222]

So I got accepted, up;loaded some of best selling design from another pod. I tried to give great keywords, title, correct size and so forth. I am only allowed 10 as of nowBut I am wondering if any design that's accepted would appear at least once on the Merch market place. Other wise its a total waste of time. I cant sell it if no one eve sees it, and I cant make any sales unless at least one product shows uo in the market place. ty

[@newlayeryt]

Amazon don't care about the sellers that much I can't upload pictures at all and got banned even though I keep checking trademarks. I won't upload any more work here.😔

[@sfsgfsgsfg]

😂People don't get tiered/teared up... brilliant editing, made me chuckle.

[@brahim1616]

Today i got 25 rejections of a valentine t-shirt i uploaded on other products last year, and i got the response that this shirt contains teen products that contain adult content. It certainly doesn't say anything that means adults only.

[@PhilipAnders]

that's really frustrating. Usually that happens when some form of alcohol or drugs are in the listing. Or if it's adult humor jokes. But maybe it was just amazon's algorithm making an error

[@sidehustlessimplified]

100% spot on Philip, and you have some great suggestions I wish Amazon would implement! How do we get the MBA executives to watch this video...🤔

[@PhilipAnders]

That is the million dollar question😅 Imagine actually being able to have an open, normal conversation with even just MBA staff, that would be the dream

[@ryancasano1277]

@@PhilipAnders That is not the question. The question is... how many employees with insider knowledge and decision-making authority run the merch business directly or indirectly on the side. They are likely to make a lot more money doing this than they do in their normal job. So why should they saw on the branch they are sitting on (transparency). 😊

[@PhilipAnders]

@@ryancasano1277 interesting conspiracy theory there👍 Definitely makes a lot of sense

[@ffstyle]

Lack of transparency plus numerous known and unknown restrictions definitely were the main reasons turned me off when I first wanted to try Amazon Merch a few years back. When I decided to get on it once again a few months ago, it’s such a struggle to tier up tier 25 with almost ninety sales now… I will keep trying, but this is certainly not my favorite platform for POD even though the earning potential can be wonderful.

[@PhilipAnders]

That's frustrating. Hang in there, I hope you get tiered up soon!

[@khadidjaamr7814]

Exactly to the point .. I hope the platform do watch the video and make improvement

[@stephenmillar3426]

I had a black history month design rejected cause they said it was related to Malcom x… No we’re in the design or title, bullet points etc have I content related to Malcom x. In the design it say ‘Fight like Malcom’ not Malcom x. I checked trademark etc and none were found. Plus I have the documentation to use the design from the intellectual property owner and they still said no to my design. Frustrating!!

[@PhilipAnders]

Sorry to hear that! That's what I meant with logic doesn't apply. I had a design titled "fantasy football legend 2022" removed as it was apparently infringing on the "fifa football world cup" (no flags no logos nothing at all related to the world cup in the listing or design, just plain text. It can be very frustrating

[@stephenmillar3426]

@@PhilipAnders I’m currently waiting on a reply from them on this design. Best about it is originally they accepted it and when I submitted to multiple Amazon platforms then I was hit with this nonsense of intellectual property on the name Malcolm X🙄 Don’t want to poke the Amazon bear too much but I strongly believe I am right to Challenge their decision. Hope I don’t lose my account 😳

[@PhilipAnders]

@@stephenmillar3426 You can always contest and sometimes they overturn their decision. Good luck with that! I have stopped uploading to international markets due to unnecessary rejections

[@tariqreid1866]

When you used the design phrase "Fight like Malcom" on your black history design, which "Malcom" (correct spelling is actually Malcolm) did you have in mind? If it was Malcolm X, then yes, the design was infringing.

[@stephenmillar3426]

@@tariqreid1866 They got back to me and have said due to the likeness of the name related to Malcolm x it is against there content policy and have the right to remove design or may terminate my account if I break their policies. So I am not going to poke the Amazon bear anymore on the matter as my account means more than a design. NOTE to anyone submitting black history month designs… be careful as even if you check trademark and copyright and it shows you are ok, Amazon may reject or worse!!

[@aandjmom1]

Hey Philip. I just noticed yesterday that PRODUCTOR WILL TELL YOU when you SHOULD get your next tier up. Maybe its for the higher tiers but I just saw that I should tier to 4k in April or another 85 plus sales. now at tier 2k. There's a little notice on the second dashboard on the screen.

[@PhilipAnders]

Thanks for the tip! I have seen this before, but it's just an indicator. Amazon is typically behind with tier ups. But it give you a good idea of what's missing ;)

[@aandjmom1]

@@PhilipAnders Good to know....

[@MrInvestment]

I've been living off Merch By Amazon for 2 years now. The first thing I do every day is check my email. You already know why

[@PhilipAnders]

Yep I know the feeling😐

[@marcsoltau1442]

how do you check old listings with productor?

[@PhilipAnders]

it's a feature in the settings called "Automated Trademark Check"

[@okechukwumark4312]

I don’t think amazon will terminate your account on a name you chose before it is trademarked. All amazon might do is to drop it down.

[@JohnVijlbrief]

Philips, if even you, with all your knowledge and experience, are so negative and critical about Amazon, what should newcomers in this market think or not think?! On one hand, there are videos that enthusiastically inform about all those amazing POD-stores, while those same people completely dismiss them a few months later. It's so confusing! What I especially don't want to do is waste my time with unnecessary activities.

[@pushismano77]

LOL , when you are the seller central account owner you are a co-worker of amazon , and when you have amazon merch account you are just a " gun meat" , because there a line for waiting to get new accounts and seller account costs 40$ a month minimum.

[@PhilipAnders]

"gun meat" is a very good term to describe it😂 The $40 payment is a good point as well

[@markymaarty]

Well said Philip, thank you for making this video it helps

[@PhilipAnders]

Thank you for watching!

[@hananeoulhadj3948]

Hello. U buy account merch by amazon Tier 10? I need account.

[@mouadel2943]

Good suggestions

[@PhilipAnders]

Glad you like them!

[@nitrapalmer]

You make some fantastic points!

[@PhilipAnders]

Glad you think so! Thanks!

[@aandjmom1]

I cant give this too many likes. Im so sick of these generic computer generated responses when i need clarification. Here's a tip. upload ONE Tshirt to USA, wait for the 2nd processing THEN upload to the rest. Also wait till it goes "processing" for the 2nd time then upload to foreign market places. otherwise Amazon will hold EVERTHING even the USA, while waiting for the "translation" which may get rejected. It takes longer but amazon will give you TEN rejections on ONE design for multiple products.

[@PhilipAnders]

Yes it's like giving you an F on a test but not telling you why. That makes improving quite difficult. And to your other point that's a great tip! I always start with just t-shirts and just english marketplaces. Once those have gone through I push to other products. I don't even use the translation anymore as it's too risky imo.

[@aandjmom1]

@@PhilipAnders I know, but GERMANY is #2 behind American for tshirt sales in the world. I dont sale a TON and their trademark website is SOOOO difficult to understand but I will go with Germany ONLY for my translated marketplace. Thanks for all you do....

[@christopherkirby8086]

I would probably say one of my biggest frustrations is being stuck in tier 10 but exceeding the 10 sales, and I still add my 3 products daily. After a few weeks of certain designs not selling, it’s tough to delete all of the effort I made adding it to all these products just to try something new. At least moving accounts from tier 10 to 25 would allow a little more wiggle room.

[@vopall]

This is more about personal gripes and Amazon lacking quality-of-life features, than a "dark side". Your suggestions were unrealistic and there wasn't much value otherwise.

[@MorenoChileOficial]

Awesome stuff! Perhaps they don't care about the sellers that much. 💩

[@PhilipAnders]

You're right they don't, and they don't have to. I just think sometimes that's not helping them either

[@abouziad917]

Yeh, that's right, Amazon is on a dominant position and unless all the sellers stop uploading to the platform or delete their old ones, which is impossible, they will still don't care about sellers.

[@benchekkourkhelifa2951]

Merch By Amazon really needs a lot of improvement specialty with topics related to sellers' customer service

[@PhilipAnders]

It would be great if they were to improve their seller support