When you get started in Merch By Amazon you are looking to get through the tiers as quickly as possible. In theory, you will make more money in the higher tiers because you will have more designs live. So today I want to take a look on tiering up. First, let’s just look at some FAQs on the tiers.

What are the tiers?

Currently these are the tiers:

• 10 Designs Max
• 25 Designs Max
• 100 Designs Max
• 500 Designs Max
• 1000 Designs Max
• 2000 Designs Max
• 4000 Designs Max
• 8000 Designs Max

All new accounts start at the 10 max design level. There is rumors there is one more tier after 8000 that is unlimited but I haven’t heard of anyone that are on that level.

How do you tier up?

First, you need to sell as many shirts as the level you are on. For example, if you are on the 10 design tier, then you need to sell 10 shirts. Once you have sold enough you are eligible to be tiered up whenever Amazon does their next tier up.

This is important because it’s not automatic. Amazon only does tier ups once or twice a week. Sometimes they go months without tiering up. It varies depending on how they are handling the volume of orders they already have. Be patient.

Also, there are people that get tiered up early that haven’t sold the required shirts for the next level. I see this more on the first 2 tiers where someone has sold 7 shirts and gets tiered up to the 25 design level. It happens.

I’ve sold 500 shirts, but they haven’t tiered me up yet. Why?

This could be for a number of reasons.

First, how many designs do you have live? If you only have 300 designs live, chances are that’s the problem. From what I’ve read, Amazon wants you to have at least 80% of your slots filled before they tier you up.

That makes sense because what’s the point of tiering you up if you can’t fill your current tier? The closer you are to maxing out your tier the better.

Second, it could just be a case that Amazon isn’t tiering anyone up at this time. Like I mention above they only do this at certain times during the week or month. Be patient.

Finally, it could just be a case they don’t think your quality is good enough. It’s not an automatic system and as you get higher and higher in the tiers, it’s my belief that Amazon is manually looking at these accounts to tier up.

If the first 2 reasons don’t apply to you then I’d work on improving my designs and see if that gets you tiered up.

Wouldn’t it be easy to max out each tier by uploading 10,20,40 designs a day?

At the lower tiers, yes. At the upper tiers, not so much. Amazon currently has a policy that if your shirt doesn’t sell within the first 90 days it’s live they remove them.

Not all of your shirts are going to sell regardless of how great of a designer you think you are. I can’t give you a set number but I’m shooting for 33% of my designs to sell.

That means once you are up to loading 20 designs a day only 6-7 of those are going to still be live in 90 days. 13-14 of your daily uploads in 90 days will be just to replace the ones that are getting taken down.

It’s one of the reasons that some designers have enough sales to tier up but aren’t getting approved. They simply don’t have enough designs live to get up close to maxing out.

Tips for Tiering Up

So what’s the fastest way to tier up?

Buy your own designs. I know this costs you money and some people will tell you to just sell you way out, I disagree. Buy your way out of the first 2 levels at least.

Amazon doesn’t have a problem with this. You can buy your own shirts and it will count towards your tiering up requirements.

Even with the best designs, it might take you weeks or months to get out of these first 2 tiers. Remember how I said all of your designs won’t sell? Let’s say half of your designs do sell. That doesn’t mean they are going to sell each week. I have several designs that sell once a month or even every other month.

If you can afford it buy your way out of these tiers and even buy your way out of the 3rd tier if you want. From what I’ve read you can also write this off as a business expense but I’m not a tax expert so you can look into that.

The only time I don’t recommend buying your way out of these tiers is if you aren’t ready to move up. Maybe you are struggling to come up with designs and won’t be able to upload the maximum amount per day. In that case, wait until you have enough designs in draft to handle the daily upload limits.

But don’t wait too long because the real money doesn’t start until you get past the 100 tier in most cases. Another way of thinking about this is would you rather have 1000 shirts live at Christmas time or 500. Sometimes that $100 - $200 investment could be the difference between making another $1000 or more during the holiday season.

What if I don’t want to buy my own designs?

I know not all of us want to invest in our business or don’t have the money to invest. So what are some other options?

Find local groups needing shirts - Ask around at local businesses, churches, sports teams, or youth groups and see if they need any cheap shirts. Many of these places and organizations would love to have a shirt made for them

We aren’t looking to make any profit off of these designs, we just want them so we can tier up. Price them as low as you can go. As of this writing that is $11.54. A lot of organizations will just at the opportunity for these.

Make some designs & advertise on Craigslist - Come up with some designs for you local town and throw them up on Craigslist. You might grab a few quick sales that way.

Go with trending topics - If you need to sell shirts quickly then go with trending over evergreen. This means pick any upcoming major holidays and make shirts. It also might be something that’s in the news currently like something some politician said.

These shirts don’t last and the competition can be fierce but if you hit the right design you will sell fast and blow through the tiers quickly. Just delete the design when the holiday is over or the fad passes and upload a new design if you need the slot.

Ask friends & family - I wouldn’t rule out your friends and family for selling these first few shirts. Maybe you have a family reunion coming up. How about coming up with a shirt for it? Likewise for a bachelorette party or baby shower?

Ask your friends and family if they have any shirt ideas that they would like to see on a shirt. You might be surprised how many will love the idea and help you get through those first few tiers.

Hopefully, you find this information helpful and it will help you as your start your shirt empire. If so please upvote or resteem it to your audience.

Other Merch By Amazon Articles I've Written:

A Beginner's 1st Three Months
A Beginner's Intro