Amazon Merch Just Changed Your Royalties — Watch This Immediately

About this video

Martinez breaks down what he says is a new Merch by Amazon royalty system for the US store starting June 1, 2026, based on Amazon’s official royalty page and the tier email he received placing him in the creator group. Sellers are split into three tiers by how much non-organic traffic — traffic Amazon identifies as driven by the seller, including ads on or off Amazon and social media — they send to listings: the default creator tier, a 2x ‘plus’ tier requiring at least 15% of sales from driven traffic, and a 2.16x premium tier requiring 35%+, with a minimum of 10 US units a month to qualify and groups recalculated monthly on a two-month average. On a $19.99 standard t-shirt he cites royalties of $2.44 at creator, $4.88 at plus, and $5.27 at premium, versus roughly $5 a year ago; at 200 shirts a month that is $488 vs. $976 vs. $1,054 a month ($5,856 vs. $11,712 vs. $12,648 a year). His playbook: check the tier email, drive traffic via Amazon ads, TikTok/Instagram, niche Facebook fan pages, YouTube Shorts, and Pinterest; bump prices about $2 in Q4 (a $21.99 shirt pays $3.18 at creator, about $6 at plus, per his figures); note UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan rates are unchanged; and diversify onto Etsy, Redbubble, his own site, the Amazon Influencer Program, or TikTok Shop.

Key takeaways

• From June 1, 2026 (per the creator), US Merch royalties depend on driven traffic: creator is default, plus (2x) needs 15%+ of sales from your traffic, premium (2.16x) needs 35%+, with a 10-unit monthly US minimum.
• Non-organic traffic counts ads on or off Amazon plus TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and email — Amazon tracks it and recalculates your tier monthly.
• On a $19.99 shirt the cited royalty gap is $2.44 (creator) vs. $4.88 (plus) vs. $5.27 (premium) — nearly $7,000 a year at 200 sales a month.
• Use niche Facebook fan pages, short-form video, and Pinterest pins to drive traffic if you do not want to rely only on paid Amazon ads.
• Raise prices about $2 for Q4 gift buying, exploit unchanged international marketplaces, and diversify beyond Merch so one policy change cannot zero your income.

Episode details: published April 21, 2026 · 18:48 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are RJ Martinez’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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