153 - Selling Merchandise on Amazon — The Pros, Cons & Hidden Tradeoffs for Sports Teams
Sports Marketing Machine Podcast
Customer Data Ownership Tradeoffs
Jeremy warns Amazon owns first-party buyer data, limiting teams' ability to market, retarget, and grow lifetime value.
Should your team be selling merchandise on Amazon?
In this episode, Jeremy breaks down the real strategic implications of adding Amazon as a sales channel — from margin math and SEO strategy to customer data ownership and cannibalization risk. If you're responsible for revenue, merchandise, or digital marketing, this is your practical roadmap before you jump in.
Key Topics Covered
- Why Amazon is more search engine than storefront — and why that matters
- The real math behind Amazon’s 15% referral fee
- FBA vs. FBM: Fulfillment by Amazon vs. Merchant fulfillment
- The hidden cost of losing first-party customer data
- Why you should never push your fans from Shopify to Amazon
- How Amazon SEO works (and why semantic SEO matters)
- Why city/state-forward merchandise should launch before team-branded items
- How to prevent Shopify cannibalization
- Pricing strategy: Why you may want to charge more on Amazon
- Using Amazon strictly as an acquisition channel
- Connecting Shopify to Amazon with Marketplace Connect
- Modeling margin before listing a single product
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Selling Merchandise on Amazon
01:59 Why Amazon Is a Powerful Sales Channel
03:48 Revenue Potential During Peak Seasons
05:42 Fulfillment Options: FBA vs FBM
07:08 Understanding Amazon Fees and Margins
08:32 Customer Data Ownership and Marketing Challenges
10:54 The Importance of SEO and Search Demand
13:14 Keyword Strategies and Search Terms
14:58 Starting with City and State Apparel
18:23 Semantic SEO and Listing Optimization
20:12 Connecting Shopify and Amazon
21:32 Getting Started and Learning the Platform
22:29 Pricing, Margins, and Protecting Your Brand
23:25 Strategies to Increase Sales and Customer Lifetime Value
24:46 Balancing Amazon and Shopify for Growth
26:10 Next Steps and Deeper Conversations
Core Strategic Takeaways
1. Amazon is an acquisition engine — not a loyalty platform.
You will gain reach. You will gain visibility. But Amazon owns the customer relationship — not you.
2. Start broad before going branded.
City-forward, state-pride, and general baseball apparel can build search velocity and reviews before you launch deeper team SKUs.
3. SEO is the real game.
Amazon rankings are driven by relevance + performance + conversion velocity. Without visibility, there are no sales.
4. Model your numbers before you move inventory.
Understand your true profit after fees. Align pricing carefully. Consider charging slightly more on Amazon to protect margin.
Resources Mentioned
- Shopify Marketplace Connect
- Marketplace Connect Tips
- Fulfillment by Merchant Overview & Referral Fees
- Amazon Seller Central
- Amazon Seller University
- Semantic SEO research tools
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