Dinosaur-inspired t-shirts on Amazon Merch on Demand: how big is the market, who are the bestsellers?
It could be argued that donning a dinosaur t-shirt is a way of expressing curiosity about the world and its history. You certainly don’t need to be a paleontologist to enjoy one.
In fact, audiences for this type of merch on Amazon range from young children to adults.
So, if you want to find out if this is a niche worth exploring, we’ve laid down the groundwork for you.
Here’s our breakdown.
How big is the dinosaur-themed niche on Amazon Merch on Demand?
Determining the market size for this niche is the first starting point in our analysis. And we couldn’t do it without Merch Informer’s Products Search module.
We keyed in the keyword “dinosaur” in the search bar and simply hit the Search button to get the results.
Interesting to note is that the best-sellers rank (BSR) for this keyword is relatively high at 7,038,196. This is despite the fact that there are over 200,000 search queries for it and its variations on Amazon.
Perhaps what’s even more interesting is that a related search for the word “paleontologist” has a considerably lower BSR (at just over 10,000) but the BSR is a whole two million less at 5,120,113.
What also emerged from our research is that despite many sellers catering to the high search volume term “dinosaur”, more sales are made for search queries related to “paleontology”.
Our discussion below emphasizes these points in more detail.
Keywords, search volume, and BSR
Research about dinosaurs and paleontology, despite being highly related fields, must distinguish between these two keywords so that more effective targeting takes place when selling on Amazon Merch on Demand.
This is why we divided them up and looked at the associated search volume and BSR for both.
Here’s what we found:
Dinosaurs
- “Dinosaurs -”: search volume – 272,481; BSR – 2,560,528
- “Dinosaurs”: search volume – 243,775; BSR – 2,560,528
- “Dinosaur”: search volume – 232,365; BSR – 7,040,679
- “Compsognathus dinosaur”: search volume – 18,309; BSR – 24,902
- “Brachiosaurus dinosaur”: search volume – 9,926; BSR – 1,214,475
- “Mom dinosaur”: search volume – 7,234; BSR – 2,679,612
- “Cute dinosaur”: search volume – 4,739; BSR – 5,321,073
- “Chompers dinosaur”: search volume – 3,938; BSR – 7,040,679
- “Daddy dinosaur”: search volume – 3,461; BSR – 3,085,552
- “Crazy dinosaur”: search volume – 3,459; BSR – 129,021
- “Mommy dinosaur”: search volume – 3,408; BSR – 1,973,272
- “Book dinosaur”: search volume – 3,172; BSR – 878,072
- “Alphabet dinosaur”: search volume – 2,228; BSR – 822,934
Paleontology
- “Paleontology for kids”: search volume – 10,012; BSR – 22,966
- “Paleontology t”: search volume – 8,233; BSR – 2,638,211
- “Paleontology”: search volume – 7,353; BSR – 2,638,211
- “Vertebrate paleontology”: search volume – 3,148; BSR – 7,460,354
- “Dinosaur paleontology”: search volume – 1,741; BSR – 1,664,963
- “Paleontology shirt”: search volume – 1,611; BSR – 2,638,211
- “Paleontology for kids 9-12”: search volume – 1,451; BSR – 7,019,058
- “Paleontology the study of prehistoric life”: search volume – 1,450; BSR – 7,592,518
- “Paleontology shirt kids”: search volume – 1,397; BSR – 228,711
- “Paleontology tshirt”: search volume – 1,319; BSR – 2,638,211
When looking at these results, we quickly gain the impression that the best performing sellers are actively combining the words “dinosaur” and “paleontology”, as well as their variations to earn sales.
Listings saturation
Expanding on our search further, we also headed over to Amazon.com to look at the number of listings for some of the top performing keywords in this niche. This is what we found:
- “Dinosaur tshirts for men” (70,000 listings)
- “Dinosaur tshirts for girls” (60,000 listings)
- “Dinosaur tshirts for women” (10,000 listings)
- “Dinosaur tshirts for boys” (10,000)
- “Dinosaur tshirts for adults” (4,000 listings)
Based on the listings count, we can gather that the most competition in this niche can be found in t-shirts that directly cater to men and girls, whereas the lower competition lies in the same niche but targeted at women and boys.
Pricing
We also looked at one of the top performing sellers who has ranked really high with their “alphabet dinosaur” t-shirt to explore their pricing in this category.
We established that the lowest price for these shirts is $6.49, the highest price is $35.99, and the average price is $17.84.
What are some of the bestselling merchants doing right?
There’s a major difference between the two bestselling listings that we discovered in this niche. While one seller has made around 21 sales, the other one has reached around 95 sales. Since these are possibly the most well-performing sellers, we identified them and explored their tactics to get ahead.
The bestseller that we put in second place is Rawrsome Dinosaur Clothing. Their product is titled “Daddy Saurus T rex Dinosaur Men Father’s Day Family Matching T-Shirt”. With a low BSR of 124,412, this seller sells their item at $18.98 and has made 21 sales in 30 days.
The bestseller that we ranked as the highest performer is Types Of Dinosaurs Dino Identification Design Shop. Their product is titled “Types Of Dinosaurs Alphabet A-Z ABC Dino Identification T-Shirt”. This seller also has a significantly low BSR of only 27,508 with 95 sales at a price of $16.98.
Although neither of these merch designers has written ultra-long titles, they have capitalized on different search queries and have made the most of them through their use of highly specific keywords.
They’ve also accurately identified the audience that their t-shirts are for by specifying this in both their titles and descriptions.
Furthermore, they’ve both priced around the average and have not gone beyond the $20.00 mark.
Finally, their designs are well-tailored to their specific audiences. Whereas the first seller has targeted adult males, the second has targeted children and their interests. As such, each seller’s accurate pinpointing of a specific audience type has helped to shape their design, and this in turn, has resulted in considerable sales.
What is the profitability in the dinosaur-themed niche?
Exploring this niche would not be complete without looking at the estimated turnover of each of the bestsellers mentioned above.
Regarding Rawrsome Dinosaur Clothing, we multiplied their price ($18.98) by the number of sales (21) to give us turnover in the region of $398.58.
As for Types Of Dinosaurs Dino Identification Design Shop, we did the same thing with their 95 sales at a price of $16.98. This gives us an estimated turnover of around $1,613.10.
As such, it’s clear that you can make good monthly sales in this niche, ranging from several hundred dollars and going into the thousands.
Our recommendations
Based on our observations, there are only a handful of sellers that are performing really well on Amazon Merch on Demand in this niche. Although there are literally thousands of dino-themed products on the marketplace, only a few are selling. Why is this? We’ve extracted some of the bestselling practices to give you a brief breakdown.
Combine dinosaur- and paleontology-related keywords
Despite the intuitive feeling to opt for only dinosaur-related keywords, which have an exceptionally high search volume, you need to temper your titles and descriptions with words that feature “paleontology” and variations thereof. The more precise you are, the better rankings you’ll gain and the higher the chances of making a sale.
Price around the average
It’s also crucial to price around the average so that you do not alienate large swathes of customers nor portray your product as being too cheap and hence of a lower quality.
Segment the target audience and target accurately
As for the designs, be sure that each of your designs accurately targets the audience you have in mind. Designs of dinosaur t-shirts for women will significantly differ to those for men.
The same is true for younger children as there are major design differences and text that come into play when doing your targeting.
Studying your competition should therefore be an essential part of your preparation process if you want to get ahead.
Closing remarks
Despite the massive competition on Amazon related to dino-themed t-shirts, some sellers are outperforming the rest and earning over $1,000 for their efforts.
If you want to be such a seller too, then we highly recommend that you supplement your research with the rich tools and functionalities that Merch Informer offers.
For only $9.99 per month, this is your ultimate gateway to success on Amazon Merch on Demand.
