Leveraging Merch Informer Analytics: A Year-End Guide to Improve Sales and Plan Ahead for 2025
As 2024 draws to a close, it’s the perfect time for Merch by Amazon sellers to reflect on their performance, identify trends, and strategize for the upcoming year. Merch Informer’s powerful analytics tools provide the insights needed to make data-driven decisions and take your print-on-demand business to the next level. This refreshed guide will walk you through how to use Merch Informer Analytics to analyze your year’s performance and prepare for a profitable 2025.
Why Year-End Analytics Matter
The end of the year is not just a time to look back—it’s an opportunity to set the stage for future growth. Reviewing your sales performance helps you:
- Identify High-Performing Products: Understand which designs, niches, and product categories brought in the most revenue.
- Spot Underperforming Areas: Pinpoint products or strategies that didn’t work, so you can adjust or eliminate them.
- Plan Ahead: Use data insights to align your product offerings with upcoming trends and seasonal opportunities.
- Maximize ROI: Focus your efforts on strategies that yield the highest return, saving time and resources.
Merch Informer’s analytics tools make this process seamless, offering clear and actionable insights.
Step 1: Gather and Upload Your Data
Begin by downloading your sales data from your Merch by Amazon account. Keep in mind that Amazon allows you to download data for only 90 days at a time. For a full year’s review, you’ll need to download multiple files and consolidate them.
Once you’ve gathered your CSV files:
- Navigate to Merch Informer > Tools > Merch Analytics.
- Upload your files and click “Analyze Data.”
- Select your preferred time frame, such as the entire year of 2024, to get a comprehensive overview.
Step 2: Analyze Key Metrics
Merch Informer Analytics allows you to dive into detailed performance metrics, helping you visualize trends and make informed decisions. Focus on the following areas:
1. Total Sales and Royalties
- What to Look For: Identify your total number of products sold, total royalties earned, and average royalties per item.
- Actionable Insights: If a large portion of your sales comes from low-margin products, consider adjusting pricing or focusing on higher-margin designs.
2. Product Categories and Genders
- What to Look For: Determine the percentage of sales by category (e.g., t-shirts, hoodies, phone cases) and by gender (men’s, women’s, unisex, youth).
- Actionable Insights: If t-shirts for men are outperforming other categories, allocate more resources to creating and promoting similar designs.
3. Returns and Cancellations
- What to Look For: Review your return and cancellation rates.
- Actionable Insights: High return rates might indicate quality issues, pricing concerns, or misaligned customer expectations.
Step 3: Identify Top-Performing Designs
Use Merch Informer to filter and rank your products based on sales volume, royalties, and customer reviews. This helps you:
- Spot Winning Designs: Double down on designs that consistently perform well.
- Optimize Keywords: Identify keywords and descriptions that drive traffic to your top sellers.
- Leverage Seasonal Success: If certain designs sold well during specific seasons or events, plan to create similar designs for 2025.
Step 4: Address Underperforming Products
Not every design will be a hit. Merch Informer’s analytics make it easy to identify underperforming products. Look for:
- Low Sales: Products with minimal or no sales over the year.
- High ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales): Products that consumed ad budgets without generating sufficient returns.
- Potential Causes: Consider whether poor performance is due to unappealing designs, weak keywords, or saturated niches.
Actionable Strategies:
- Retire non-performing designs to make room for new ones.
- Test alternative keywords, price points, or promotional strategies for underperforming products with potential.
Step 5: Plan for 2025
Armed with insights from your 2024 performance, it’s time to strategize for the year ahead.
1. Leverage Trend Data
Stay ahead of the curve by aligning your designs with upcoming trends. Merch Informer’s Trend Tracker tool can help you identify emerging niches and popular keywords.
- Examples: If eco-friendly designs or nostalgic themes performed well in 2024, consider expanding these categories for 2025.
2. Prepare for Seasonal Opportunities
Use historical data to plan for high-traffic seasons such as Valentine’s Day, summer holidays, and Q4. Create targeted designs and campaigns well in advance.
3. Optimize Advertising Strategies
Review your ad performance metrics and focus on campaigns with the best ACoS. For underperforming ads, test new keywords or bid strategies.
Advanced Analytics for Pro Users
For users looking to take their analytics to the next level, Merch Informer offers advanced features:
- Time-Based Insights: Analyze sales by week, month, or quarter to identify seasonal trends.
- Geographic Data: If you sell across multiple marketplaces, compare performance to tailor your strategy for each region.
- Niche Performance: Track how specific niches performed and identify opportunities for expansion.
Combining Analytics with Other Tools
Merch Informer doesn’t stop at analytics. Integrate these insights with other tools to streamline your workflow and boost efficiency:
- Keyword Finder: Optimize your product listings based on high-performing keywords from 2024.
- Product Designer: Create better designs using data-driven insights.
- Listing Optimizer: Revamp your listings to improve search visibility and conversion rates.
Key Takeaways
Year-end analytics are not just about reviewing the past—they’re a crucial step in planning for a successful future. Merch Informer’s tools empower you to:
- Understand Your Performance: Gain actionable insights into what worked and what didn’t in 2024.
- Focus on High ROI Strategies: Allocate resources to products and campaigns with the best returns.
- Stay Ahead of Trends: Leverage emerging trends and seasonal opportunities to dominate in 2025.
By using Merch Informer Analytics, you can turn data into decisions and decisions into profits. Let this year’s insights guide you toward a more profitable and efficient Merch by Amazon business in 2025.
Take action today. Upload your 2024 data into Merch Informer Analytics and start planning for your best year yet!