Whether Merch by Amazon is still worth it depends heavily on what a seller is optimizing for. For a design that ranks for a narrow, specific search term inside Amazon, the built-in traffic and Prime shipping can still convert well with zero marketing spend. For a seller trying to build a brand, an audience, or pricing they control, the marketplace-listing model has real limits that a branded shop does not share. Here is where each answer holds up.
Search-driven, keyword-specific designs (a niche hobby phrase, a very specific occupation joke, a narrow interest combination) can still perform on Merch by Amazon because Amazon's own search traffic does the discovery work. A seller with no existing audience and no interest in marketing a shop directly can still see sales this way, provided the design fills a real search gap rather than competing head-on with thousands of similar generic designs.
| Category | Merch by Amazon | Branded shop (Bear Grips Pro Shops) |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic source | Amazon's internal search, no seller marketing required | Seller's own audience, social links, or affiliate referrals |
| Price control | Amazon sets the allowed band | Vendor sets the full retail price |
| Design capacity | Limited by account tier, grows with sales history | 3 to 250 live products depending on plan |
| Brand ownership | Listing lives inside Amazon's marketplace, not a seller brand | Branded shop under the vendor's own name |
Three limits show up repeatedly for sellers who stick with Merch by Amazon long term: design saturation in popular niches makes new listings harder to surface, the design-slot tier system caps growth until sales history justifies an upgrade, and there is no path to owning a customer list or a brand identity beyond the individual product listing. See how the tier system works for the specifics on that cap.
A seller who already has an audience to reach directly (social following, gym members, an email list, a YouTube channel) gets more value from a branded shop, since that audience can be sent straight to a shop the seller controls instead of hoping Amazon's search surfaces the design to a stranger. Setting the full retail price and keeping the margin also compounds differently over time than a royalty capped by a price band.
Nothing about the two models is mutually exclusive. A seller can keep existing Merch by Amazon listings live for the search-driven traffic they already generate while also running a branded shop at shops.beargrips.com for an owned audience, comparing which channel actually converts better over a few months.
Free to start, no application, no design-slot ceiling. Set your own price and keep the margin.
Start FreeNo. It is a legitimate Amazon seller program with a documented royalty structure. The debate among sellers is usually about saturation and profitability, not legitimacy.
The most common complaints are design saturation in popular niches, the design-slot tier system limiting growth, and royalty payouts that are smaller than a seller-controlled retail margin.
It is possible with a specific, search-friendly niche design, but competition for generic designs is much higher than it was in the program's early years.
It requires sending traffic (an audience, social links, or referrals) since there is no built-in marketplace search behind it. The tradeoff is a seller-controlled price and no approval process.
Bear Grips Pro Shops